The nature of history
There's a subtle difference between "the past" and "history". Our expert views explain more:
More than facts
Voltaire suggested that history is little more than accepted fictions, and certainly, it lays as much in interpretation as fact. What is history?
Chasing the story
A historian's fascination with the past is accompanied by the need to make sense of it. Explore the joys and pleasures of being a historian.
Opposing points
Without understanding what has gone before, how can we make sense of now? Gargi Bhattacharyya takes a look at the view from the other side.
Crossing the divide
Things We Forgot To Remember explores the gap between what we think we know about history, and what actually happened. How can we start bridging the memory gap?
The tales we tell ourselves
The Western historical tradition began with tales of heroes and villains, victors and vanquished. Their characteristics get re-invented by each age in heroes and narratives.
Our lives on screen
Increasingly, historians are coming to recognise that our past can be explored as much through entertainment culture as through official documents. What can we learn from popular history?
One event, many perspectives
Why can't we arrive at an agreed version of the past - or even of what history is? Why do historians disagree?
![First world war soldiers [Posed by actors]](images/000716492_nat1_sm_737.jpg)
Reinventing history
Discover how the past has come right up-to-date, changing the nature of history.
Content last updated: 22/02/2006
