Political

On 27 September 1130 a Norman usurper gained a crown from a desperate pope and the Kingdom of Sicily was born.

American democracy has been haunted by the spectre of a Caesar-type figure since the birth of the republic. Have such fears ever been justified?

Uzbekistan was a product of Islamic modernism and Soviet might. Free from the latter, the nation now seeks to foreground the Young Bukharans.

Who should claim Scotland’s royal jewels? After the forced abdication of Mary, Queen of Scots, the answer was not clear cut.

The French Resistance sought liberation above all else. But what should the postwar nation look like? The question was as old as the Fall of France itself.

Tyrant and usurper: the last wills of Richard II and Henry IV give rare insight into the medieval monarchs who wore the crown.

In Catherine de’ Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen, Mary Hollingsworth helps the pragmatic queen escape her ‘black legend’.

Outposts of Diplomacy: A History of the Embassy by G.R. Berridge shows us that debates about the role of the ambassador are as old as the institution itself.

‘What is the most common misconception about my field? That the republic was an absolute failure and the Restoration inevitable.’

America’s southern states were once strongholds for the Democratic Party. In 1952, Eisenhower decided to win them over.