History
How the Spartans got fighting fit
Donald Trump has brought back the Presidential Fitness Test for American children, once used in state schools to gauge young…
How ‘cosmopolitan’ is Lord Hermer?
The Telegraph reports that Attorney General Lord Hermer has ‘been accused of asserting the primacy of human rights law over…
The race against Hitler to build the first nuclear bomb
The bomb was necessary to the Allies, but still horrified those responsible for its development – many of them refugees from Nazism
What Seneca would have made of the assisted dying bill
Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying bill has generated much talk about the ethics of suicide. As far as the ancients were…
Elon Musk and the art of flattery
Flattery will get you everywhere, as the sycophants that surround Donald Trump, Kim Jong-un, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping know.…
What history doesn’t tell us
The trouble with history is that it is topiary. History is what’s left after the unwanted foliage has been clipped…
Letters: Britain sold its fishing industry down the river
Hard reset Sir: Once again we must debate Brexit (‘Starmer vs the workers’, 24 May). The ‘reset’ agreement does give…
The short history of short histories
My friend Ruby recently started a TikTok channel called ‘Too Long Didn’t Read’. With boundless enthusiasm and a colourful wardrobe,…
Why won’t Hitler conspiracies die?
Eighty years ago, as Red Army shells rained down over Adolf Hitler’s Reich Chancellery garden, a group of his remaining…
Lily Parr and the creepiness of AI resurrection
I’m not sure it’s possible to make a horror movie more sinister than the chirpy four-minute film on YouTube purporting…
How Roman emperors handled hair loss
Donald Trump’s obsessive ‘awhairness’ makes one wonder: why is it so important to him? The topic was of some interest…
Cicero’s case against astrology
The young in Canada are said to be taking up astrology. But why? Do they think Mark Carney is a…
Is Britain ready for a patriotic theme park?
It is the early 9th century. Peace reigns in a small French village as they prepare for a wedding. Garlands…
Trick or treat
A Today programme presenter used the term imperium (cf. ‘emperor’) with reference to Donald Trump’s desire to annex Greenland. To…
Does might make right?
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin both believe that might is right. The whole question fascinated the ancient Greeks. In his…
Liberty is a loaded word
Just about everyone is for it, but we mean different things by it – whether it be the freedom of independence or the absence of coercive constraint
Aristotle and the leisurely pursuit of education
Nearly six million people are on out-of-work benefits. It is claimed that, for most of those, going back to work…
Pride in Britain? It’s history
A poll out this week found that only 41 per cent of those aged 18 to 27 are proud to…
The ancient art of making friends in high places
‘I get along with him well. I like him a lot,’ Donald Trump has said of Sir Keir Starmer. ‘He’s…
Do Gen Z really want to be ruled by a dictator?
Generation Z(oomer), aged roughly between 13 and 28, have expressed a desire to be ruled by a dictator. That term…
The hard truth about Britain’s soft power
How hard is your soft power? According to David Lammy, Britain’s soft power is so strong and underrated that he…
I’m a fighter, not a quitter
‘Ring out the old, ring in the new…’ This was the year I discovered that one of my ancestors had…
Stuff of legends: the surprising truth about old myths
I visited Mycenae for the first time this autumn. While the ruins of classical Athens can seem almost familiar, the…
How pagan is Christmas?
Many people today feel an ambivalence towards the history of the Christmas festival. They sense that it has deep pre-Christian…
