History Today - February 2022

[English page]

This Month’s Magazine

In the February issue:

The Second Mexican Empire, Roma Holocaust, ‘Spirit Photography’, Pith Paper, Learning Japanese in the Second World War, Victorian cocaine, medieval cloves, Native Americans on the frontier, Barbados and the end of monarchy.

Plus: reviews, opinion, crossword and much more!

You can buy this issue from our website, from newsstands across the UK, or read it as a digital edition via the History Today App.

February 2022

SELECTED ARTICLES FROM THIS ISSUE

FEATURE

Fake Views

The 19th-century craze for spiritualism ‘resurrected’ the dead through manipulated photography, a practice that boomed with the trauma caused by war – though it was not without its sceptics.

FEATURE

Learning Japanese

Official secrecy and institutional rivalry obscured the achievements of two crash programmes hastily launched to teach Japanese during the Second World War. 

FEATURE

The Death of an Emperor

With the US riven by civil war, Napoleon III seized the opportunity to install an emperor in Mexico. The new regime soon fell apart in a catastrophic manner.

BEHIND THE TIMES

Barbados and the End of Monarchy

Barbados’ decision to remove Queen Elizabeth II as head of state was inevitable. Why did it take so long?

REVIEW

London Burning

A fresh account of how Londoners responded to the impact of the Second World War. 

FEATURE

In Pursuit of Pith

Flowers formed from pith paper captured the imagination of British society in the 19th century, sparking a search for the elusive ‘rice paper’ plant.

MAKING HISTORY

The Continuity of Community

The support and camaraderie of close-knit communities were a double-edged sword. Nothing was private and reputations could be ruined at the twitch of the curtain.

FEATURE

The Roma Holocaust

Europe’s Roma were the victims of Nazi genocide during the Second World War, but their persecution did not end in 1945. 

HISTORY MATTERS

Crossing Oceans

Cloves, grown in Indonesia, crossed the globe in the Middle Ages, showing how interconnected the medieval world was.