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

Former jockey William Morgan on his curiosity to document the histories of Britain’s bygone racecourses

Whingeing about the appalling state of things has become the national pastime. And for good reason. A lot has gone wrong in living memory. Nothing works well – if it works at all. You pull a lever and

“America is lost! Must we fall beneath the blow? Or have we resources that may repair the mischiefs?” These are the opening words of a memo in the hand of George III in the wake of the 1783 Peace of P

Our gardens have difficult histories. As a historian of empire, writing a book re-telling the stories of America’s plants, I spend swathes of my day reckoning with them. Most of the plants we grow wer

The article on the battle against U-boats in the Second World War in the November issue omitted perhaps the most important episode. That was the part played by the late Joe Baker-Cresswell of Bamburgh