The ‘turnpike’ toll road system deserves far more credit for improving roads in 18th-century England and Wales, a new study argues. Analysis of nearly 100 travellers’ diaries reveals that turnpiking improved comfort and reduced danger on the roads, as well as speeding up wheeled vehicle journeys.
Fear of corruption allegations drove Samuel Pepys to censor official correspondence connecting the Royal Navy, slave trading companies and his own slaves, new research shows.
Medieval manuscripts, paintings and chess sets reveal that the so-called ‘game of kings’ defied social structures and racial attitudes by celebrating the intellectual prowess of winners irrespective of their skin colour.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Deborah Prentice, welcomed the Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Micheál Martin, to Cambridge to celebrate the appointment of the University’s first Childers Professor of Irish History.
Pope Leo XIV's Augustinian order once made swamps fertile, brought trees back to life and multiplied cabbages. A new book by Dr Krisztina Ilko examines forgotten miracles and the Catholic Church's wild power base.
Researchers have launched a public survey to help them unlock the secrets of vivid memory, and find ways to help us better recall past experiences
New research shows that many middle-class Mancunians lived in the same buildings and streets as working-class residents including weavers and spinners, undermining key assumptions about the Industrial Revolution.
A new biography of Æthelstan marks 1,100 years since his coronation in 925AD, reasserts his right to be called the first king of England and highlights his many overlooked achievements. The book’s author, Professor David Woodman, is campaigning for greater recognition of Æthelstan’s creation of England in 927AD.
Records unearthed by a Cambridge PhD student expose the kinship and brutality behind one of Britain’s most powerful slave-trading dynasties, as revealed in a new book and digital collection.
Twelve academics from the University of Cambridge have been made Fellows of the prestigious British Academy for the humanities and social science
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