History

The hotel that tells the story of Kabul

Lyse Doucet's finely observed portrait of the Inter-Continental hotel opens a window on to years of upheaval in Afghanistan, from civil war to the return of the Taliban

The new US ‘Department of War’ has a long history

Concerns about the fitness, battle-readiness, ethos and composition of America’s fighting forces date back to George Washington

The pages of our lives

Diaries can be the most revealing records of who we are. One compulsive diarist introduces the intimate reflections of Audre Lorde, Salvador Dalí, Elton John and others

Historians dismayed by ‘scandal’ of BBC cutting access to archives

Critics say new limit to trove of information sounds knell for independent research

My book relied on archives. Keep them open

The BBC is to restrict archive access – which is hopeless for researchers

The friendly rivalry between Churchill and De Gaulle

The Last Titans reveals the wartime leaders to be men at distinct odds but with a common cause

Battle for the soul of Taiwan

The island’s democracy poses a powerful challenge to China. But its increasingly polarised politics spell danger

History’s women have more to tell us than their fashion choices

A manifesto for British folk culture

Lally MacBeth’s The Lost Folk urges us to take care of our most precious traditions before they disappear

Ancient wines in Armenia

A dramatically beautiful country where history runs deep – and so do its grapevines

I knew the axe we’d found was old ... but that old?

When her husband picked up a stone axe in a flint-strewn field near their home in Dorset, Emily H Wilson experienced a rare ‘woo-woo’ moment. Could the hand that made it really have belonged to a Neanderthal?