China’s crossroads

The troubled history of US-China relations

Capturing the immediacy of fighting and the writhing bodies of soldiers, as well as keeping narrative clarity, proved enormously difficult for painters depicting battles before the advent of photography. Michael Hall reveals how they rose to the challenge

Over a long career, John Hardman has specialised to great effect in teasing out, from speeches, decrees, minutes, memoranda, letters, diaries and unsent drafts, the varied moods of French political de

Works by certain artists often become symbolic of a particular era. This is an angle which has proved very popular with visitors to London’s National Gallery in recent years and, this month, welcomes

A History of England in 25 Poems: Treasures ...

“History is just one f**king thing after another,” declares a vulgar schoolboy in Alan Bennett’s play The History Boys. Surveying the past 25 years can feel the same way. From Iraq to the euro crisis