Population

The 2009 Nobel Prize winner for literature is well placed to describe the trials of Eastern European minorities through the maelstrom of the 20th century, writes Markus Bauer.

At a time of widespread concern about the patriotism of 'economic migrants' and political refugees, Peter Barber tells the story of one 19th-century immigrant whose affection for Britain grew as political crisis severed his attachment to home.

Andrew Boxer traces the origins of a historical issue still as controversial and relevant today as in past centuries.

Martin Pugh argues that life during the interwar years was brighter than has often been suggested, in spite of its association with economic depression and the rise of Fascism.

 In 1909 Beatrice Webb produced a controversial report which proposed abolishing the stigma and penury of the Poor Law and its workhouses. James Gregory argues that this plea for a less judgemental approach to poverty created the foundations of the modern Welfare State.

David Abulafia, author of the newly published The Discovery of Mankind, considers Columbus’ first encounters with the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, and shows how, in the flesh, newly discovered peoples challenged European preconceptions about what it meant to be human.

As Britain gets used to the ban on smoking in public spaces, Virginia Berridge looks at the way attitudes to public health have changed in the last fifty years, particularly among the medical profession.

Elizabeth A. Fenn examines a little known catastrophe that reshaped the history of a continent.

Philip Mansel explores the City of the Sultans from 1453 onwards, and finds it characterised by a vibrant multi-culturalism until the Ottoman demise of 1922.

Kenneth J. Baird examines change and continuity in 19th-century British social history.

Alistair Bonnett identifies the ingredients that produced an 'identity crisis' for white people in the early 20th century. 

Why did infant mortality rates remain so high in the last quarter of the 19th century, when general death rates experienced a steady decline? Phil Chapple investigates.

Robert Irwin on how Islam saw the Christian invaders.