History

The curious history of language purists hating ‘mongrel’ words

Visit the place where Joan Baez and Jane Fonda heard the Vietnam war bombs fall

Why were the heads of the FBI and CIA calling a Manhattan wine salesman on the morning of 9/11?

French Protestants came in search of religious freedom. Then the Glorious Revolution changed everything

A capital built and rebuilt by dreamers, schemers and evildoers has gone from squalor to a hollowed-out paradise

Howl dials down the tirades for sorrowful soul-searching and reasoned debate

Once the world’s tallest mountain had been scaled, they all wanted to know: Who stepped on the summit first?

Donald Trump wants to build a 250-foot monstrosity in Washington DC. Where could he have got that idea?

A cataract operation left me with pseudophakia – the happy condition of having an artificial lens

The new £1bn landmark is a startling attraction. But it’s the old place – shorn of its most famous treasure – that now really glitters

Conspiracy theorists say a man in a black cap must be part of the plot to kill a president. But the truth is likely to be very different

The Estonian artist thought the French masters were ‘hideous’ and ‘boring’. How does his own work measure up?

A new crop of video games is educating players about cultural looting and the pain inflicted by western colonialism

In countries like Britain with no strong baby naming traditions, Lily, Ivy and Elsie can disappear for decades before returning to popularity

The Israeli government is justifying its territorial expansion using ancient historical finds. Around East Jerusalem, whole Palestinian neighbourhoods are vanishing

A new exhibition celebrates the absurd brilliance of designer Elsa Schiaparelli, creator of the shoe hat and the skeleton dress

Before Google Maps, travellers had to rely on guides and phrasebooks that mixed useful advice with imperial arrogance and surreal oddities

The Fab Four’s leading historian Mark Lewisohn is trying to finish his definitive trilogy – just as AI and algorithms start to rewrite their story

A new history finds divisions that predate colonialism - and suggests that the future might be federal

The origin of the hat’s name comes from the location of berries used to dye its felt

Digging into the detail and data to separate the noise from the news

A new exhibition explores the terrifying beauty of work inspired by the epic poem Metamorphoses

From Ashkenazi roots to German titles, the surname of Israel’s president carries centuries of meaning

Feuds over Gdańsk’s museums are the latest skirmish in a battle between progressives and the populist right

Franz Xaver Mozart is known as ‘FX’ – because English speakers are baffled by his middle name

With her distinctive bold colours, grey curls and bright scarves, Saadawi became a feminist icon. Margaret Atwood called her ‘one of the great radical voices of our time’

Digging into the detail and data to separate the noise from the news

Authoritarian governments have pushed Farsi’s dominance – but 59 other languages still thrive

Her remarkable wartime exploits – including a dramatic prison break – made her a legend of the French Resistance

New research suggests that mysterious symbols carved by early humans may have functioned like a primitive writing system

A 1967 treaty says it belongs to no one – but Putin and Musk have other ideas...

Digging into the detail and data to separate the noise from the news