February
What Trump has in common with the Caesars
Roman emperor Augustus understood, just as Donald Trump does, that to stand at the head of a superpower is to stand as an actor upon the great stage of the world.
January
How this new boss went from zero to hero with a global blockbuster
From being told to wear a skirt in a neutral colour at an earlier job, Katherine McMahon is now running the show at the National Museum of Australia.
‘Jack The Ripper was fake news’: meet the woman challenging the past
Ahead of a new series of her ABC hit Lucy Worsley Investigates, the historian warns that “story telling is a dangerous thing” – especially for those not telling them.
November 2024
‘India, not China, is the historic centre of the Asian world’
Scottish author William Dalrymple argues in his new book that Indian thinkers like Aryabhata and Brahmagupta should be as familiar to the West as Archimedes and Galileo.
June 2024
Why the favourite demographer of market gurus predicts catastrophe
History says something really ugly is coming, according to Neil Howe. Investors need to be ready.
April 2024
Captain Cook’s first Australian souvenir returned to Indigenous owners
Cambridge University has surrendered a set of spears taken the momentous day when Sydney’s Indigenous people first set eyes on their eventual colonisers.
January 2024
Porsche reckons with history of forgotten Jewish co-founder
Adolf Rosenberger, who gave up his role and stake before fleeing Nazi Germany, remains largely absent from the brand’s corporate record.
December 2023
See inside Michelangelo’s ‘secret’ Florence room
In 1530, when the Medici family returned to power in the city, the artist went into hiding. He spent his days drawing on the walls of his tiny refuge, and you can now view the artworks for yourself.
October 2023
Inside an expedition to locate the Beagle’s lost anchors
John Canaris, director for Tracker Geoservices, describes the search for the lost anchors of the historic ship HMS Beagle in a wild NT river mouth.
These scrolls were illegible for 2000 years. A uni student read one with AI
The ancient scrolls were buried in the ash at Herculaneum, near Pompeii. Luke Farritor became the first person to read from them in thousands of years.
This new book reveals what Roman leaders were really like
In her latest tome, historian Mary Beard takes readers on a colourful tour of 30 emperors spanning 250 years.
September 2023
How ANU came to own three stolen ancient treasures
An Attic black-figure amphora dating back to 530BCE and two other treasures will be returned to Italy after ANU’s Classics Museum found they had been plundered.
August 2023
This French château restoration has reached its final stupendous stage
Ten years ago, a Perth couple bought a château in the Pyrenees. Now their castle is finally a home.
March 2023
Australia’s museums contribute to 1.1 billion-object global database
The Australian Museum is part of study to combine more than a billion scientific objects in collections across 73 museums in 28 countries.
How Australia helped save Solomon Islands from itself
An important new book explains how Australian soldiers, police officers and diplomats staunched a cycle of bloodshed and rebuilt a shattered state.
Inside the library where Marx and Engels wrote ‘The Communist Manifesto’
In continuous use for more than 350 years, Chetham’s is the oldest public library in the English-speaking world and includes books pre-dating the use of paper.
Why we need to protect this national treasure
Tony Davis became a fan of Trove while completing his PhD, and still uses it extensively. So do millions of others. But this unique Australian archive is under imminent threat.
November 2022
FTX shows ‘fake it ’til you make it’ is really so 18th century
Before Sam Bankman-Fried, a Scotsman in France tried to take advantage of financial stress for his own benefit. But why must we relearn a difficult lesson over and over?
September 2022
Letters: A big win for Indigenous rights
Tiwi Islanders win against Santos, Moorebank traffic problems, Queensland land tax, history of British India, bank complaints, addiction to pokies.
April 2022
The forgotten diggers of Anzac Cove
Chinese Australians fought and died alongside their white countrymen then faced discrimination and marginalisation when they returned home.