In the first months of the Great War, London moved from Edwardian confidence to wartime anxiety. Crowds gathered silently, recruitment posters appeared, Belgian refugees arrived, and the capital became the administrative heart of Britain’s war effort.
Jerusalem in 1948 examines the battle for the city, the siege and displacement, the end of the British Mandate, Israeli statehood, and the city’s division between Israel and Jordan, drawing on newspapers, letters, diaries, and photographs.
In September 1900, a hurricane of unprecedented fury struck Galveston, Texas, killing at least 6,000 people and destroying the thriving port city. Through eyewitness accounts, newspaper reports, and photographs, this article reconstructs the horror and resilience of America’s deadliest natural disaster.
In September 1939 Warsaw became the centre of Poland’s resistance to the German invasion. This article reconstructs the siege through the city’s daily press, the recollections gathered in the 1948 ‘Diary of a Varsovian’ competition, and the photographs that survive. It follows the shift from ordinary city life to bombardment, shelter, and surrender, and explains why these primary sources remain essential to understanding the invasion.
In 1991 Moscow became the stage for the final act of the Soviet Union. Through newspapers, underground broadsheets, diaries, and letters to the editor, this article reconstructs how Muscovites experienced censorship, queues, the August coup, and the sudden unmaking of a superpower.
Paris in 1919 was the stage for the Paris Peace Conference, the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, and a victory parade that masked deep anxiety. This article explores the city’s politics, economy, daily life, and primary sources during a year that reshaped the world.
Sarajevo in 1914 was a city of Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian contrasts, where the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June triggered the July Crisis and the First World War. This article examines the city, its people, the conspiracy, the primary sources, and the immediate aftermath.
Tokyo in 1945 was a capital under fire. The March firebombing destroyed much of the city, killed tens of thousands, and left over a million homeless. By August, Japan’s surrender had ended the war, and Tokyo stood at the center of occupation and reconstruction.
Ship logs, muster books and crew lists were made for the state, the owner and the insurers—never for historians. This guide explains how British maritime records were created between 1747 and 1960, what they record and omit, how to read their peculiar vocabulary, and where the errors and silences in them lie.
In 1965 Jakarta was Indonesia’s political nerve center, where the September 30 coup attempt triggered an army takeover, anti-communist mobilization, and a climate of fear. This article reconstructs the capital’s crisis through newspapers, diplomatic dispatches, photographs, and trial records.
