BBC History Magazine

BBC History Magazine aims to shed new light on the past to help you make more sense of the world today. Fascinating stories from contributors are the leading experts in their fields, so whether they're exploring Ancient Egypt, Tudor England or the Second World War, you'll be reading the latest, most thought-provoking historical research. BBC History Magazine brings history to life with informative, lively and entertaining features written by the world's leading historians and journalists and is a captivating read for anyone who's interested in the past.

WELCOME

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

MORE FROM US

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY

TALKING POINTS Class dismissed • News that some UK universities are to cut their history degrees in favour of more “vocational” courses sparked a strong online reaction. ANNA WHITELOCK charted Twitter’s response

Dead Sea Scroll authorship probed

HISTORY IN THE NEWS • A selection of the stories hitting the history headlines

MICHAEL WOOD ON… • LIVING HISTORY IN THE AMERICAS

ANNIVERSARIES • DOMINIC SANDBROOK highlights events that took place in July in history

WHY WE SHOULD REMEMBER... • The launch of the swimsuit that scandalised the world

HIDDEN HISTORIES • EMMA DABIRI explores lesser-known stories from our past

LETTERS

BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE

MERCHANTS OF DOOM • When the Black Death tore through Europe, it wreaked havoc on England’s trade networks with the continent. Yet not all merchants were pitched into penury. Robert Blackmore introduces the traders who made a mint in the wake of a human catastrophe

A DEADLY CARGO • The Black Death may have first reached England’s shores aboard a merchant ship

INTERVIEW / NIALL FERGUSON • In his new book, Niall Ferguson explores the history of disasters from Vesuvius to Covid-19 – and the lessons we can learn from these events. He spoke to Matt Elton

The first (and last) king of Fiji • Cakobau was crowned the first king of Fiji 150 years ago, but within three years his kingdom had crumbled, replaced by British rule. Toby Wilkinson chronicles the imposing warlord’s remarkable reign

Mary Wortley Montagu The scourge of smallpox • That humanity won its battle with smallpox is in no small part down to the resilience of a woman who pioneered inoculation in 18th-century Britain, in the teeth of tremendous resistance. JO WILLETT reveals how Mary Wortley Montagu changed the course of medical history

BATTING FOR THE BRITISH EMPIRE • For Victorian imperialists, cricket was more than just a game, it was a means of exporting English virtues across the globe. But how, asks Souvik Naha, did this great “civilising mission” go down with the colonised peoples?

A GAME WITHOUT BOUNDARIES • How the British carried cricket around the world

Q&A • A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

The Cuban missile crisis • Serhii Plokhy reveals how the Cuban missile crisis escalated from an attempted blackmail into a nerve-shredding showdown that ended in humiliation for the Soviet Union

NUCLEAR CUBA • THE WEAPON SYSTEMS THAT LURKED IN AMERICA’S BACKYARD

Faith, gin and charity • Behind William Hogarth’s biting satirical snapshots of 18th-century society was an artist in tune with the teachings of the Bible. By examining five of Hogarth’s greatest paintings and engravings, Jacqueline Riding reveals how religion and faith shaped his life and art

The language that would save England • Dispossession and grinding poverty blighted 19th-century rural England. The solution, according to one eccentric clergyman, lay in a form of English taken back to its Anglo-Saxon roots. Siân Rees investigates

In plain language • Below are five of the most...