When General Francisco Franco died on 20 November 1975 – 39 years after the start of the brutal civil war that brought him to power – the prospect of a bloodless transition to democracy in Spain appea

A tolerant Shia rival to the Sunni caliphs

Our pick of the latest military history books

A prolonged conflict, a modified Treaty of Versailles and no League of Nations may have transpired without direct American involvement

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

The recent celebrations of VE Day may have been a time of memories of the end of World War Two for many but there was one large group of people who may have had their hopes of what VE Day meant dashed