History Today

History Today
Title	History Today
Editor	Paul Lay (current)
Frequency	Monthly
Category	History
Firstdate	1951
Country	United Kingdom
Based	London
Language	English

History Today

History Today is a British monthly magazine covering a wide range of historical periods, figures, events and themes. It aims to bridge academic scholarship and a general readership by publishing essays, debates and reviews on subjects from antiquity to contemporary history. The magazine has engaged writers and readers connected with institutions such as British Museum, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Imperial War Museum and BBC.

Overview

History Today publishes long-form articles, features, visual spreads and book reviews that address topics including Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece, Napoleonic Wars, World War I, World War II, Cold War, Russian Revolution, American Revolution, French Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Renaissance, Reformation, Byzantine Empire, Ottoman Empire, Mughal Empire, Qing dynasty, Meiji Restoration, Age of Discovery, Atlantic Slave Trade, Victorian era, Elizabethan era, Han dynasty, Tang dynasty, Mayan civilization, Aztec Empire, Inca Empire, Aztec codices, Magna Carta, Treaty of Versailles, Treaty of Tordesillas, Treaty of Westphalia, Battle of Waterloo, Battle of Trafalgar, D-Day, Battle of Stalingrad, Siege of Leningrad, Battle of the Somme, Battle of Midway, Norman Conquest, Battle of Hastings, Spanish Civil War, Italian Renaissance, Council of Trent, American Civil War, Gettysburg, Louis XIV, Napoleon Bonaparte, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Florence Nightingale, Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Marie Curie, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Galileo Galilei.

Founding and Early Years

Founded in 1951 by Brendan Bracken and Christopher Hollis during the post-World War II period, the magazine was intended to address a public appetite for accessible scholarship in the aftermath of the Second World War and the emerging Cold War. Early contributors included academics and public intellectuals associated with University College London, London School of Economics, King's College London, Cambridge University Press authors, and museum curators from Victoria and Albert Museum and Natural History Museum. The magazine’s infancy overlapped with debates sparked by works such as E. H. Carr's histories and the writing of A.J.P. Taylor.

Editorial Direction and Content

Editorially, History Today blends narrative history, historiographical essays, polemics and archival research. It commissions pieces on personalities such as Queen Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, Elizabeth II, Mary, Queen of Scots, Catherine the Great, Frederick the Great, Otto von Bismarck, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Mikhail Gorbachev, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Josephine Baker, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Simón Bolívar, Suleiman the Magnificent, and topics like Magellan, Columbus, Captain Cook, Stanley and Livingstone, Florence Nightingale Hospital reforms, Chartist movement, Suffragette movement, Women’s suffrage in the United Kingdom, Civil Rights Movement, Black Power movement, Decolonisation of Africa, Partition of India, Sykes–Picot Agreement, Balfour Declaration.

Visual coverage often draws on holdings of National Archives (United Kingdom), British Library, Library of Congress, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Vatican Library, and archival sources from Smithsonian Institution. The magazine also reviews recent scholarship from publishers including Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Penguin Books, HarperCollins, Yale University Press, Routledge.

Contributors and Notable Articles

Contributors have included prominent historians, journalists and practitioners such as Eric Hobsbawm, A.J.P. Taylor, Simon Schama, Antony Beevor, Niall Ferguson, Mary Beard, David Starkey, Gillian Beer, Tony Judt, Orlando Figes, E.P. Thompson, E. H. Carr (as subject), Michael Howard, Peter Frankopan, Tom Holland (historian), Ian Kershaw, John Keegan, Caroline Alexander, Andrew Roberts, C. V. Wedgwood, Diarmaid MacCulloch, Evelyn Waugh (as early cultural commentator), R. J. Unstead (children’s historical writing). Notable articles have explored Holocaust, Nuremberg Trials, Cuban Missile Crisis, Suez Crisis, Irish War of Independence, Irish Civil War, Battle of Britain, Operation Barbarossa, Gallipoli Campaign, Crimean War, Zulu War, Anglo-Zulu War, Boer War, Opium Wars, Boxer Rebellion.

Reception and Influence

The magazine has been praised in outlets such as The Times (London), The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Independent, New Statesman, Spectator, Financial Times and referenced by academics at University of Edinburgh, University of Manchester, University of Glasgow, King's College London. It influenced public history practice in institutions including Imperial War Museum, Museum of London, National Maritime Museum, Royal Historical Society, Historical Association (UK), and inspired radio and television programs on BBC Radio 4, BBC Two, Channel 4 history series.

Business Model and Distribution

Originally published in print and sold by subscription and newsagents across the United Kingdom, the magazine expanded distribution to international markets including United States, Canada, Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan. It operates via a paid-subscription model, single-issue sales, institutional subscriptions to libraries such as British Library, Library of Congress, and digital access partnerships with academic databases at JSTOR and library consortia. Advertising historically came from academic presses, heritage organisations like English Heritage and commercial partners including HarperCollins and Oxford University Press.

Awards and Recognition

History Today and its writers have received recognition from bodies such as the Royal Historical Society, British Academy, Wolfson History Prize, PEN International (for public intellectuals published), Hay Festival readings, British Book Awards, and occasional mentions by European Historical Research Council panels for outreach and public engagement. The magazine itself has been cited in prize citations and used as a platform in award-winning projects connected to National Trust conservation and museum exhibitions at Tate Modern and National Gallery.

Category:History magazines