The genius of Eugène François Vidocq lay in one simple principle. In order to catch a criminal, you had to be able think like a criminal. And in his case that was easy, because he was one. He’s sometimes referred to as “the French Jonathan…

“Who was the worst Roman emperor?” is a commonly asked question, and one which is difficult to answer for many reasons. Not least of those is “worst for whom?” Rome was a slave economy after all, so an emperor good for the city of Rome was…

They say history belongs to the winners, but that’s only half the story. History also belongs to glory hounds. Those who trumpet their triumphs, those who seek to make sure that they are remembered. As for those who would as soon be…

In 1703, at the dawn of the eighteenth century, a traveler came to London Town. A native of a far-off land, kidnapped by Catholic missionaries but rescued by a Protestant minister, he was practically tailor-made for the fervently Protestant…

Content warning: this column discusses suicide and episodes of suicidal ideation in the life of Hans Fallada. Societies don’t go wrong all at once. Things get worse by degrees, and it can slowly creep up on you. You convince yourself that…

One of the big problems with using paintings and other art pieces as a historical source is that most artists don’t depict reality as it is but rather reality as they wished it would be. Idealised and more attractive versions of historical…

Hetty Green, America’s richest woman, was born as Henrietta Robinson in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1834. Her father Edward owned the biggest whaling company in the city, and New Bedford was at the time the biggest whaling city in…

There are always those who see opportunity in chaos. The destruction of the old order leaves gaps that need filling, and “men of vision” see nobody better than themselves to fill those gaps. This does require a certain moral flexibility, of…

The idea that someone you know is capable of murder is a shocking thought. And in the London literary scene of the 1820s everyone knew Thomas Griffiths Wainewright. He threw the best parties, he wore the best clothes, and his distinctive…

Nowadays William Blake is celebrated as one of the greatest English artists and poets, but in his time he was ignored and dismissed by the artistic establishment. For all of his life he was tormented by visions; visions of the marvelous and…