BBC History Magazine

The online archive of articles from BBC History Magazine

An illustration of a monk writing on a large piece of parchment, with colourful and dramatic scenes spilling out of the pen

The Book of Kells: "a masterpiece of medieval calligraphy and painting".

AI: good or bad for history? Our experts weigh in.

A painting of a man with a snake like body, all piled on top of each other, with a sad face and long black hair, plus red wings

The US 'voodoo' scare: why 19th-century racists spread fake news about Haiti.

A British government poster highlighting the dangers of Aids, 1987

Aids: the epidemic that changed Britain.

A poster showing a black and white photo of Hitler with a young blond boy in the foreground

Hitler's war on words: how the Nazis used art to bolster their murderous regime.

A marble bust of a man

Julius Caesar's hellraising youth: did he really defy tyrants and crucify pirates?.

Fake news and the Dreyfus affair: the media-fuelled scandal that divided France.

Books of the Year 2025

BBC History Magazine's 2025 Books of the Year37 best books for history lovers

After Franco: Spain's miraculous transition to democracy.

A painting of a ship with several white sails and flags on it. In front of the ship, there are large crowds of people in small boats

Not 1066 again! Should we ditch our obsession with dates?.

A red and black illustration showing a large wolf jumping up, above a man laying on the floor. Around the central wolf, there are several others

Spectral beasts and hounds of hell: a spooky history of Britain's ghost dogs.

An illustration showing a large white building with a triangular roof and columns. In front of it, there is an open gate with chains and several padlocks hanging from the left hand side

Who should decide the stories museums tell?.

A black and white photograph of a large, smoky explosion on the sea

Terror in the deep: how Hitler's U-boats pushed Britain to the brink.

a pastel coloured illustration shows two hands reaching towards two steaming cups of tea. In the background there is a cherry blossom tree and two landscapes, one of China and the other of England

Michael Wood on China's immense suffering in the Second World War.

A person's hand is holding a brush, brushing dust off various objects buried in the mud

“A tidal wave of digital material will overwhelm recordkeeping institutions”: the future of history.

A landscape image shows a grey and orange stone wall in a semi-circle shape, overlooking a large hill range and a blue sky. On either side of it there are trees

Kavita Puri's hidden histories: the enduring appeal of archaeological sites.

A pair of swords in a cross shape, on top of an orange background that features warriors fighting on horses

The assassins' reign of terror: how these 12th-century killers spread fear in the Middle East.

A painting showing a man dressed in armour, with a blue and red flag over him, riding a white horse amongst a busy battlefield

5 things you (probably) didn't know about the Tudors.

A collaged picture shows a marble statue of Elizabeth I wearing a large crown on the left, and a portrait of King James I, dressed in a red and white robe and crown on the right

The lie of succession: did James I steal Elizabeth I's crown?.

Four small terracotta masks in a line. The two in the middle have black hair and beards, one with a white face and the other with an orange face. The ones on either end are plain beige faces.

The making of Rome's monster.

Two men stand next to each other holding large guns. They are dressed in black suits and ties with sunglasses and are standing against a blue and black background. Above them, the words "MIB: MEN IN BLACK" are written

Gray Barker: UFO conspiracy theorist.

A black and white photograph of three men in military uniform. The man in the middle, is holding his arm out pointing to something in the distance and to his left, is a man using binoculars

The Stalingrad of Africa: the story of the battle for Tunis.

New issue November BBC History Magazine

November 2025 issue of BBC History Magazine out now!

Coming up in the next issue of BBC History Magazine…

Coming up in the December 2025 issue of BBC History Magazine

LEFT TO RIGHT: US president William McKinley is shot in 1901; John F Kennedy in Dallas, moments before his murder in 1963; the aftermath of the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981.

"Violence and American politics have gone hand in hand right from the beginning": a history of political violence

A woman with blonde hair and wearing a navy T shirt stands looking up towards the top left of the image. She has a large white earring and stands in front of some Roman ruins

Alice Roberts: “Christianity didn’t invent itself as an empire from nothing: it adapted existing Roman structures”.

An edited image of a man with long curly hair and a lacy ruff. The right hand side of his face is colour inverted so it appears black with a red eye

The sinister secrets of Samuel Pepys.

A painting showing a black beast biting the leg of an orange man dressed in a loincloth

What have the Etruscans ever done for us?.

After Hiroshima: the atomic plague.

A montage of images showing a man standing in the ruins of Hiroshima; a man dressed smartly wearing circular glasses; and a Japanese family with two parents sitting down with five children around them

Senkichi Awaya: the lost mayor of Hiroshima.