Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i History Extra

“Welcome to your January 2026 edition. The new year brings some new developments here on the magazine, notably the fact that we have ended our official relationship with the BBC. We've had a long and fruitful partnership with the corporation, but as our digital presence continues to evolve we feel that the time is right to unify all of our output under a single brand. So from now on, the magazine will be HistoryExtra, but other than that you'll find that very little has changed. We're committed to retaining the same editorial ethos: producing authoritative but accessible articles, written by experts and rigorously fact-checked. We will remain impartial when our output strays into political or controversial topics and spend just as much time as before ensuring that all editorial and…

The Romans are famed for feats of engineering and architecture: towering aqueducts, huge amphitheatres, paved roads that stitched the empire together. The hypocaust underfloor heating system may be less staggering in scale, but it remains one of the most recognisable features of Roman domestic life. Archaeologists point to distinctive stacks of bricks beneath villa floors as a mark of Roman sophistication - and, as Hannah Platts, author of Multisensory Living in Ancient Rome (Bloomsbury), explains, a powerful status symbol. A hypocaust worked by circulating hot air from a praefurnium, or furnace, through a hollow space beneath a raised floor supported by pilae, small brick pillars. “In a number of houses we've got evidence of box flue tiles in the walls,” says Platts. “So we know that hypocausts could heat the…

Listen to the award-winning HistoryExtra podcast – wherever you get your podcasts Thanks to their seafaring prowess, the Vikings spread fear across swathes of western Europe. Longships carved with dragon-headed prows delivered warriors to burn monasteries and terrorise prosperous lands. These vessels were key to their hit-and-run strategy and, later, their transformation as they forged enduring strongholds. But for the Scandinavians who ventured east into the Slavic and Baltic regions, the story was defined not by maritime raids but by a remarkable capacity for adaptation. In territories spanning what's now Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, Norse sailors used inland waterways as thoroughfares of commerce, conquest and state-building. “Rivers are absolutely critical,” explains Martyn Whittock, author of Vikings in the East (Biteback, 2025). “We need to envisage them as the motorways of…

Light-hearted banditry”, “ruthless pirating”, a “phantom army” – it's fair to say that the Special Air Service (SAS) didn't always attract the most complimentary headlines. In the white heat of the Second World War, when this and other British special forces achieved unlikely successes through a series of daring raids, disparaging press reports could be discarded as merely tomorrow's chip paper. Nonetheless, they fuelled the impression that the SAS operated outside the rules of the regular British army, and were used as ammunition by some who aimed to whip special forces into line – or even shut them down altogether. That threat became a reality after the conflict ended. David Stirling, the founder of the SAS, coined a description – “freemasons of mediocrity” – for a certain kind of staff…

ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIA Eternal non-sleeping Fears of the dead plagued inhabitants of the neo-Assyrian empire in the near east between c911 and c605 BC. An inscription (left) in the tomb of eighth-century BC queen Yabâ of Nineveh curses any robber by imposing “eternal non-sleeping on his corpse and ghost”. And an omen text of the mid-seventh century BC describes what will happen if one sees “a dead person restrained with cloths, uprising, complaining”. The silence of earlier and later sources suggests that this may have been an epidemic generated by the violence and trauma of imperial expansion in the provinces. EARLY 18TH-CENTURY SERBIA Dawn of Dracula In the western Balkans after 1700, the central European tradition of dangerous-dead beliefs converged with a Caucasian one. This highly coloured mixture of fantasies reached…

The success of any short history lies in the art of omission. When dealing with a country as historically rich and varied as Japan, the challenge lies in deciding what to summarise broadly, what to condense, and what to leave out. Achieving this balance requires both a sharp eye for the larger sweep of history and a keen ear for the telling detail. Christopher Harding possesses both, showing the breadth of knowledge to select wisely, and the sensitivity to deploy an evocative image or literary fragment to represent a widespread mood. In 10 concise chapters, A Short History of Japan traces the country's development from prehistory and on to the emergence of the imperial court in Heian-kyo (now Kyoto) in AD 794. It continues through the spread of Buddhism, the…

When you hear the words ‘Tudor art’, chances are that an image of a Holbein portrait springs to mind. However, as this illuminating new book shows, the Germanborn painter was only one of a dazzling cast of characters involved in creating the art of the Tudor period. As well as offering a fresh perspective on celebrated portraits of monarchs and their courtiers, Christina J Faraday's compelling and beautifully constructed narrative pulls out of the shadows an eclectic array of art and artefacts: charters, clocks, cushions, clothes, coins, statues, furniture, jewels, manuscripts, miniatures, scrolls and tapestries. The book itself is a work of art. Exquisitely designed and richly illustrated, it offers an engaging and scholarly appraisal of Tudor art in all its forms. The author's deft turn of phrase, keen eye…

Re/Assemble People's History Museum, Manchester / 17 January 2026–3 January 2027 / phm.org.uk Discover the legacy of Section 28, a 1988 legal clause that prohibited the promotion of homosexuality by British schools and authorities, in this new exhibition. Through artefacts relating to the fiery protest provoked by Section 28, and the work of artists who identify as queer, Re/Assemble explores themes of protest and resilience to examine the law's legacy. Hawai'i: A Kingdom Crossing Oceans The British Museum, London / 15 January 2026–25 May 2026 / britishmuseum.org Explore the complex historical relationship between Hawai‘i and Britain through this new exhibition. Using as a springboard King Liholiho and Queen Kamāmalu's ill-fated attempt to seek an alliance with the British crown in 1824, displays guide us through the compelling story of cultural…

1. Anyone for innard pudding? It's the time of year when many of us are tucking into Christmas pudding, but did you know that, in the medieval era, ‘puddings’ referred to a kind of sausage with “animal innards encased in guts”? (Page 99). 2. Explosive revelation I was somewhat taken aback to read in this month's radio highlights that a young Stephen Hawking used to set off ‘bangers’ to scare I, Claudius author Robert Graves (page 97). 3. Fighting unfit My preconceptions of gladiators were somewhat shaken by Harry Sidebottom's contribution to this month's Q&A where he describes them as “bordering on obese, with bad teeth, and thus bad breath” (page 62).…

MICHAEL WOOD ON… THE FIRST WORK OF EUROPEAN LITERATURE PROUST'S FAMOUS NOVEL IS CALLED IN SEARCH of Lost Time, and isn't that the key to why we love history? It's the urge to recover the lost past. Can we get beyond the mysterious veil to real events and people? Can we even feel how they felt? And as historians, we always hope to find new sources and new ways of seeing. In our time, many new paths have been opened up by science. For example, scientists have adopted techniques used for decoding the genetic history of humans, not only through their genes, but by tracking transformations in language. This form of historical linguistics, known as time depth linguistics, has helped establish the family tree of languages. One branch, the Indo-European…

“Every one of us has an archive of our life, which is part of a bigger history” HAVING SPENT SO MUCH TIME IN NEWSROOMS and edit suites making television and radio documentaries, I have come to archives late on in my life. These are the precious places that hold records, whether that's a digital file, an audio recording, or perhaps a paper diary, all of which can take you instantly back in time and place. I can lose myself for hours in some hypnotic trance as I stumble across a sentiment, a betrayal, a confession. All the while, I'm piecing together from these different voices a part of history. There are the official records and the private. And in both it can feel as if you are trespassing, as you…

Still in her 20s, Gracia Mendes Nasi (Nacy), better known as Doña Gracia, was recently widowed and fabulously rich. She should have been able to live in comfort for the rest of her life. Her husband, Francisco Mendes, a spice dealer and banker, had divided his wealth in his will between Gracia and his brother, Diogo. Yet without her husband's protection, even her money could not shield her from a looming crisis. Indeed, being in possession of such a fortune in patriarchal and Catholic Lisbon in the middle of the 1530s was inherently dangerous for someone of Doña Gracia's background. She was a converso, a term for a person forced to convert from Judaism. When the papal nuncio, an ecclesiastical diplomat, paid a visit to her palatial home in the…

ASIA “Japan's history is conveyed as a chorus of sometimes competing perspectives” Fabio Gygi is impressed by a concise but wide-ranging history of Japan page 91 20TH CENTURY “Seen from this side of Brexit, the events of last century seem to have an entirely different emphasis” Alwyn Turner applauds a comprehensive look at Britain's fractious relationship with Europe page 90 AMERICAN “The US clung to Britain's coat-tails, culturally as well as economically, well into the 19th century” David Armitage enjoys an exploration of the British empire and America page 88 EARLY MODERN “Each of the Tudor monarchs used art to shape their image and exert their power” Tracy Borman is dazzled by a beautifully illustrated look at Tudor art page 93 INTERVIEW Tharik Hussain on the long but too often…

Revolutionary ideas Did taxation spark the American Revolution? Could it have been avoided? In answering listeners’ questions, Benjamin Carp puts to rest a host of myths about the Revolutionary War. From early co-ordination of the colonies to the war's lasting impact on British imperial policy, he tells us everything we wanted to know on the topic. historyextra.com/rev-war-pod Negotiating the new order The Treaty of Paris marked the end of the American Revolution. Tom Cutterham explains how negotiations between the representatives of Great Britain and the nascent US led to the treaty, and its terms. In doing so, he offers comparisons between the nuanced negotiations of 1783 and the tumultuous Brexit talks of 2018. historyextra.com/brexit-america-pod Fighting for space For North America's native population, the revolution augured a period of tumultuous change.…

Alice Loxton's new book begins with a compelling premise. The death of Elizabeth II and the national phenomenon of joining ‘the queue’ prompts her to examine another queen's death – one little known beyond academic circles: Eleanor of Castile. The first wife of Edward I died in Harby on 28 November 1290 and was buried in Westminster Abbey on 17 December. Loxton undertakes a modern-day pilgrimage on foot, following the route taken by the cortège transporting Eleanor's body to her final resting site, and stopping in the same places on the same days of the year. In doing so, she provides a highly original account that is part historical essay, part biography of the queen and part travel journal. The book follows a chronological structure, marked by the author's progress…

I was recently chatting with a handful of early modernists about the history book we'd take to a desert island. Three of us named Keith Thomas's tome. Unimaginative, perhaps, but it's a sign of the immense and enduring influence of this behemoth of a book. As a postgraduate student I carted it around everywhere, because you could always dip into it and find a new snippet worth thinking about. Across more than 700 pages, Thomas explores prayer, prophecy, magical healing, astrology, witchcraft, fairies, ghosts and a range of other popular beliefs and practices from 16th and 17th-century England. His research process involved handwriting and gathering in envelopes thousands of relevant snippets, and the book bristles with colourful examples. We encounter cunning folk including Joan Mores of Kent, who told the…

Born in the Russian empire, Lew Grade (1906–98) was an impresario who founded the Incorporated Television Company. A larger-than-life figure who loved showbiz, it was Grade (pictured, right) who took a gamble on Jim Henson's Muppets. So it was that – as Archive on 4: How the Muppet Show Began in Britain (BBC Radio 4, Saturday 27 December) outlines – Kermit, Miss Piggy and the gang began their journey to international stardom in 1976 via an ITV franchise, ATV. Discover the story of how one of the world's most enduring shows nearly didn't make it to broadcast at all. Another television tie-in to listen out for is Archive on 4: Robert Graves and I, Claudius, L Years On (BBC Radio 4, Saturday 10 January). The acclaimed television drama of the early…

February issue on sale 22 January 2026 An artful life Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth tells the story of a pioneering Victorian art collector, Lady Charlotte Schreiber The greatest year in history? Our expert panel nominate the best years in the past to have lived through Between the wars Alwyn Turner considers why Britain was able to resist the politics of extremism in the 1920s and 30s TELL US WHAT YOU THINK We'd love to hear your opinions about HistoryExtra magazine Scan the QR code to provide your feedback – it only takes a minute. Your views will help shape the future of our brand. Thank you! Rewriting Rome's story Guy de la Bédoyère on how Edward Gibbon transformed our view of the empire The first Winter Olympics Martin Polley finds that the…

10 JANUARY 1776 Thomas Paine prints his revolutionary manifesto A clarion call for American independence sets the scene for a fateful year ahead Revolution was beginning to smoulder in Philadelphia as 1776 dawned – and a single pamphlet was about to ignite a blaze. Thomas Paine, recently arrived from England, printed his text, published anonymously as Common Sense – and within days it widened existing cracks in colonial loyalty into yawning rifts. “I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain arguments and common sense,” Paine wrote. Yet every line carried a challenge to kings, traditions and centuries of deference. He called out the colonies’ predicament: “There is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island,” and framed the struggle as universal: “The cause of America…

Listen ad-free at historyextra.com/podcast or with ads wherever you get your podcasts 18TH CENTURY Family dynamics If you've been enjoying the new Sky Atlantic series Amadeus, don't miss this Life of the Week episode on Mozart. Historian Hannah Templeton charts the composer's life and times, and the ways in which family tensions shaped his work. MEDIEVAL All cisterns go Far from being seen as a noxious waste product, manure was a valued resource in the medieval era – as this new instalment of our Toilets Through Time series reveals. Don't miss fresh episodes on prehistoric, Anglo-Saxon and early modern toilets, too. SCIENCE DNA of a dictator The findings of new genetic analysis carried out on a sample of Adolf Hitler's blood made headlines last month. Two of the project's experts,…

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, Northumberland, captain of escort destroyer HMS Bulldog, whose depth charges forced the U-110 to surface on 9 May 1941. Normally, the Bulldog would have sunk the submarine, but Captain Joe recalled hearing about the importance of taking radio equipment from a captured vessel. So, breaking with standard operational practice, he sent some of his men to board the U-110 and see what they could find. Among the items they retrieved was an intact Enigma cipher machine (one example is shown, left) – the first to come into British hands – complete with coding wheels and submarine code…

Homer Composite figment of imaginations The writer credited with composing the Iliad and the Odyssey, and often regarded as one of the most important authors of all time, is to my mind the most overrated historical figure. That's mostly because it's likely that there was no one person called Homer. Careful study of those works, as well as other surviving epic fragments, has shown that they weren't written at a single time by one person (see Michael Wood's column on page 16 for a different view). Instead, it is likely that the Iliad and Odyssey were composed over generations by poetry performers known as rhapsodes. Each of these improved on the work of their predecessors, curating these epics and honing them to a point of perfection. From that time, probably…

Danny Bird You open your book by recounting a chance visit to an old mosque in Cyprus. What was so significant about that moment? Tharik Hussain Nothing changed for me on the day itself, because I knew very little about Islam's history in Europe at that time. On a long, cheap layover in Larnaca – a place I'd never heard of – I was simply looking for a way to pass the time with a toddler in tow. I'd found a brief reference to a nearby mosque, and decided to visit. At the time (2003), I was preparing to make hijrah – to leave Britain, because I felt that I no longer belonged. My education had led me to believe that there was no meaningful Muslim history in Europe. So…

For many years, Hugo Young's This Blessed Plot (1998) was seen as the authoritative account of Britain's semi-detached relationship with the European Union, as it had then recently become. This was a story of “high political misjudgement”, wrote Young, as “proved by the outcome, Britain's presence inside the European apparatus”. Things look very different in Tom McTague's compelling new book, which takes us from the last days of the Second World War through to the 2016 referendum. There is, of course, an updating of the saga, and the introduction of a host of new post-Young actors, most of them on the right of politics. William Hague's ‘save the pound’ campaign fails to save his leadership, and is followed by the advent of the modernisers, who then split over Europe –…

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 century? Was coal the catalyst, or was it the new machinery that transformed cotton production? Were the colonies, which produced the raw materials that Britain lacked, the pivotal piece in the puzzle? His answer is that, though all three mattered, it was actually the country's capitalists – determined to find profit wherever opportunity lay – who provided the crucial impetus. Whether engaged in agricultural innovation, technological developments, new trade routes, financial possibilities or combining multiple interests, these enterprising men – and they were almost all men – were prepared to take great risks for profit. Women could invest, but…

Across and London: The Biography (2000) (7) name of Greenland's capital (7) (7) (7) Down (5) Book worth £25 for 4 winners Mortimer's A to Zs of English History By Ian Mortimer The Sunday Times-bestselling author revisits his four Time Traveller's Guides (Medieval and Elizabethan England, and Restoration and Regency Britain) to curate a list of must-know facts from these four fascinating eras, resulting in a lively journey through time. HOW TO ENTER ● Open to residents of the UK (& Channel Islands). Post entries to HistoryExtra, January 2026 Crossword, PO Box 501, Leicester, LE94 0AA or email them to January2026@ historycomps.co.uk by 5pm on 21 January 2026. ● Entrants must supply full name, address and phone number. The winners will be the first correct entries drawn at random after…

IN PROFILE Sophie Scholl was a German student and political activist in the White Rose, a non-violent resistance group opposed to Hitler. After being observed distributing anti-Nazi flyers at her university, Sophie, her brother Hans and their friend Christoph Probst were found guilty of treason and executed by guillotine; she was just 21. “Sophie realised that she and her fellow White Rose activists were involved in a life-and-death struggle for the soul of Germany” When did you first hear about Sophie Scholl? While I was doing research for my Nazi-era novels about a fictional German police detective. I came across the White Rose resistance movement, and that led me to Sophie. What kind of woman was she? First and foremost, she was an incredibly brave person – as was her…