CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2024
FEATURES
EVERY MONTH
70
20 Seven Wonders From the Great Pyramid to the Hanging Gardens, Bettany Hughes reveals what drove the ancients to construct the Seven Wonders of the World
30 Victorian canal crimewave Susan Law reveals why Britain’s waterways were once the settings for alcohol-fuelled acts of violence
35 Medieval breastfeeding Hannah Skoda reveals what social attitudes to the nursing of newborns tell us about life in the Middle Ages
40 Five things you (probably) didn’t know about… the Regency Lizzie Rogers serves up five fascinating facts about Britain in the age of Walter Scott and Jane Austen
42 The bumper history quiz Test your historical knowledge in our epic quiz, marking BBC History Magazine’s 300th issue
64 Squirrel wars Peter Coates reveals why the grey squirrel became the small, furry animal that Britons loved to hate
6 Anniversaries
The Conversation
11 How will history remember
Henry Kissinger? 15 Michael Wood on the rise
of Britain’s universities 16 Hidden Histories
18 Letters
Books
70 Interview: Christopher Harding
on the west’s enduring fascination with eastern philosophies 74 New history books reviewed
Encounters
7 8 Diary: Things to se e and do
this month 86 Historic Cities: Yo r k
88 Prize crossword
90 My h i s t o r y he r o George C Wolfe on civil rights
activist Bayard Rustin
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