James Osborne

Glitz, glamour and Gatsby? Not quite. Here’s why the Art Deco movement is darker than you think

This list of the best history podcasts will pluck you from the present and send you on an auditory voyage through the past

They performed before thousands and could become celebrities, yet actors in ancient Rome were stripped of their civic rights. What was life really like for the men who took to the Roman stage?

Long before Blair Waldorf ruled Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Alva Vanderbilt was orchestrating social coups, courting scandals and forging feminist crusades that made her the undisputed queen of New York society

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s narrative of a shared Russian–Ukrainian origin in the Viking-founded Kievan Rus is having dramatic implications in eastern Europe today. Here’s why the real history might be more complicated than the Russian president says

A landmark US law passed more than 50 years ago helped build the world’s most successful national women’s football team. Historian Jean Williams explains how Title IX changed the game, and why the rest of the world is still playing catch-up

Historian Tom Holland uncovers how politics, myth and maternal ambition collided in the scandalous reign of the Roman emperor Nero

Journalist Caroline Alexander uncovers the stories of those who flew ‘the Hump’ – a little-known Allied supply mission that sent young pilots into uncharted skies – and toward a jungle so terrifying, any other fate seemed preferable

A stunning treasure trove of Anglo-Saxon coins reveals how rebellion, loyalty and fear shaped England in the wake of 1066. The story of who, precisely, owned it could be even more interesting

From tail-wagging agents of battle to divine deities, ancient Mesopotamia’s civilisations saw dogs as more than just pets. Discussing the civilisations’ attitude to their canines, Dr Moudhy Al-Rashid reveals the many roles played by dogs over 4,000 years ago