How killing powered the industrial age

In his new book, Edmond Smith addresses a question that has occupied generations of historians: why was Britain the first country to industrialise, thus securing its global dominance in the 19th centu

The railway revolution opened up new destinations, expanded our culinary horizons and dramatically improved trade. Jonathan Self takes us on a whistle-stop tour of ‘railway mania’

In 1494, the high castle walls that had dominated the Middle Ages came tumbling down in clouds of gunpowder smoke. It was the start of a new age

The development and future of capitalism

Why this great empire believed bloody rites and cannibalism brought order to the cosmos

The normal diet of gladiators was vegetarian, but not through choice or principle. The rations in their barracks consisted of sagina, which literally translates as ‘stuffing’. It was a barley and bean