BBC History Magazine

BBC History Magazine aims to shed new light on the past to help you make more sense of the world today. Fascinating stories from contributors are the leading experts in their fields, so whether they're exploring Ancient Egypt, Tudor England or the Second World War, you'll be reading the latest, most thought-provoking historical research. BBC History Magazine brings history to life with informative, lively and entertaining features written by the world's leading historians and journalists and is a captivating read for anyone who's interested in the past.

WELCOME JUNE 2025

THREE THINGS I’VE LEARNED THIS MONTH

THIS ISSUE’S CONTRIBUTORS

ANNIVERSARIES • DANNY BIRD highlights events that took place in June in history

"Which historical figures will capture the imagination of a class on a rainy Thursday afternoon?" • History teacher and writer SHALINA PATEL discusses how to make the subject appealing and relevant to a diverse range of students today - and envisages what lessons might look like in 25 years’ time

"A reader wrote in and said ’That’s my mum!’" • BBC History Magazine is 25 years old. To mark that milestone, 13 members of the team, past and present, selected the front cover from the past quarter of a century that resonates with them most

MICHAEL WOOD ON… • PAUL KLEE’S ANGEL OF HISTORY

HIDDEN HISTORIES • KAVITA PURI on long-neglected stories revealed in Rio de Janeiro

The car park… duke?

BBC History Magazine

Rome’s worst nightmare • When the Spartacus revolt erupted in 73 BC, it exposed a terrifying truth: that the cocksure Roman Republic was nowhere near as invincible as it liked to believe. Guy de la Bédoyère takes up the story

A slave to the truth? • How accurate is Kubrick’s 1960 blockbuster, Spartacus?

"These women transformed his understanding of the world" • Malcolm X became one of the most influential leaders in the US civil rights movement - thanks largely, explains Ashley D Farmer, to the women who shaped his life and ideas

TIMELINE BECOMING X • 10 key milestones in the life of the influential US black nationalist

Q&A • A selection of historical conundrums answered by experts

DID YOU KNOW…?

Spiked drinks, counterfeit coins and the lodgers from hell • Drugging, fraud, even murder-women couldn’t really commit such heinous crimes, could they? Rosalind Crone explores five audacious female-led felonies from the 18th and 19th centuries

Painting on the precipice • Hans Holbein’s masterwork The Ambassadors is an exquisite portrait of two 16th-century diplomats. But it is also crammed with symbols and hidden messages. Tracy Borman deciphers the clues that betray the turbulence of a fateful year

The Ambassadors deciphered

25 things we’ve learned over the past 25 years • To celebrate a quarter-century of BBC History Magazine, we asked 25 expert contributors to nominate the most important historical discoveries and revelations since the publication launched in 2000

Flower power • Few 17th-century women could travel the world. But the world could visit them in their gardens. Susannah Lyon-Whaley reveals how exotic plants - from Chinese rhubarb to South American passionfruit - opened new horizons in fashion, food and science

”Africans have been starved of historical figures from their own lands that they can look up to” • PAULA AKPAN speaks to Danny Bird about powerful African woman leaders and the complexities of interrogating historical narratives, colonial biases and these women’s own flaws

Who says what and why they say it • DAVID RUNCIMAN is impressed by an exploration of how arguments over free speech are often rooted in a desire to close down dialogue

She’s the boss •...