Cultural

In recent years British models have reappeared on the catwalk wearing real fur, though it is unlikely to ever regain the mass appeal it once had. Carol Dyhouse looks back to a time when female glamour was defined by a mink coat.

Chris Corin ressurects the life of a Soviet survivor whose remarkable and significant career deserves to be better known.

Richard Wilkinson finds much to enjoy in the opening volumes of a comprehensive new series on British social history.

Robert Pearce has been pleasantly surprised at the quality of a new textbook.

Russel Tarr compares and contrasts the rise to power of two Communist leaders.

Viv Saunders reveals how sport and society are intertwined.

R. E. Foster sifts myth from reality in the life of the 'Lady with the Lamp', who died 100 years ago.

History tells us that the West’s embrace of liberal values was not inevitable and is unlikely to last, says Tim Stanley.

There is lots of fun in this latest round up of recent historical novels, with derring-do, cross-dressing, biblical plagues and Renaissance geniuses in the mix. Plus award-winning novelists, UK independent publishers and one of the finest living American writers.

Courtly love, celebrated in numerous songs and poems, was the romantic ideal of western Europe in the Middle Ages. Yet, human nature being what it is, the realities of sexual desire and the complications it brings were never far away, says Julie Peakman.

The fools of the early Tudor court were likely to have been people with learning disabilities as a new project demonstrates, says Suzannah Lipscomb.

Despite numerous attempts by radicals to reform the calendar, it is usually commerce that decides the way we measure time, as Matthew Shaw explains.

History Today was launched in 1951, the year of the Festival of Britain. Barry Turner challenges Arthur Marwick’s impressions, first published in 1991, of the year that austerity Britain glimpsed a brighter future.