HistoryExtra Long Reads

From Romulus’s open-city policy to Claudius’s reforms, citizenship was used by Rome as both a reward and a weapon. As this Long Read written by Shushma Malik explains, it enabled the burgeoning empire to build power and define identity. Today's feature originally appeared in the ...  Show more

It’s 80 years since the war victor and ex-prime minister Winston Churchill delivered his ‘Iron Curtain’ speech, sounding the alarm for a perilous new age. The speech, given as tensions with Stalin soared, is among the most famous in modern history. Yet, asks this Long Read writte ...  Show more

In the latest episode of our monthly series charting the past behind the present, Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter chronicle the history of student protests, explore the story of a remarkable medieval astrolabe and discuss some new discoveries about Jane Austen. The HistoryExtra po ...  Show more

How much did Britain and its allies know about the Holocaust? Could the Bengal Famine of 1943 have been helped? And was Elizabeth I really the Virgin Queen? 

Lynsey Calver is a history teacher, and in this episode, she helps us to fill in some of the ga ...

Historians Sam Willis and James Daybell explore some of the fascinating stories that appear in their Histories of the Unexpected book and podcast, from signatures to lions Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast ...  Show more

The latest instalment of our monthly series sees Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter explore the long history behind the Post Office Scandal, the historical precedents behind recent developments in US politics and more Our new monthly series explores the history hitting the headlines – ...  Show more