BBC History Magazine

BBC History Magazine aims to shed new light on the past to help you make more sense of the world today. Fascinating stories from contributors are the leading experts in their fields, so whether they're exploring Ancient Egypt, Tudor England or the Second World War, you'll be reading the latest, most thought-provoking historical research. BBC History Magazine brings history to life with informative, lively and entertaining features written by the world's leading historians and journalists and is a captivating read for anyone who's interested in the past.

BBC History Magazine

WELCOME

History of medicine • Caroline Rance traces 12 millennia of developments in diagnosis, healthcare and surgery

DEATH & DISEASE

HEALTH AND HEALING IN ANCIENT EGYPT • The fertile plain alongside the river Nile was indeed a land of milk and honey - but also of parasites, workplace injuries and dental abscesses. Carole Reeves explores the diseases, diagnoses and treatments of ancient Egypt

Gynaecology in antiquity

LEPROSY THROUGH THE AGES • Disfigured outcasts, announcing their uncleanliness with a clanging bell, dominate historical images of leprosy - but as Elma Brenner explains, such depictions are both reductive and misleading

SNAKES & LADDERS WONDER CURES OF THE ANCIENT WORLD • Ancient Greece and Rome boasted many physicians and drug sellers who offered a wide range of solutions for healing people’s ills. Laurence Totelin explores seven memorable remedies

MARKED BY PLAGUE • Charlotte Hodgman talks to Professor Mark Ormrod about nine places connected with the Black Death, one of the most devastating scourges ever to afflict Britain

THE BLACK THE HISTORIANS’ VIEW DEATH • Was it inevitable that plague would sweep Europe in the Middle Ages? How long did it take sufferers to die? And what was life like in its aftermath? Here, a panel of experts reflect on some of the big questions of a disease that repeatedly ravaged Europe over hundreds of years

The panel

John Snow • Studying a cholera outbreak in London revolutionised our understanding of the transmission of disease

CALL THE (ROMAN) MIDWIFE • Even today, childbirth can be arduous, even dangerous - so how did mothers deal with the challenges in antiquity? Laurence Totelin introduces the midwives of the Roman empire and explores their techniques

Whose breast is best? • The question of whether mothers should breastfeed their own babies was a thorny one in ancient Rome

PORTRAITS OF THE PLAGUE • Between 1855 and 1959 - more than 500 years after the medieval Black Death - a new plague pandemic ravaged the globe, killing some 12 million people Images collected in an innovative project vividly depict the outbreaks

The Third Plague Pandemic

THE FATAL FLU THAT GRIPPED THE GLOBE • In the final few months of the First World War, a new horror swept around the globe - a disease that eventually afflicted up to one-third of humanity. Laura Spinney traces the course and consequences of the great Spanish flu pandemic

The epidemic that changed Britain • Forty years ago, the UK found itself in the grip of a virus that killed thousands of people and sparked fear, confusion and prejudice - HIV. Janet Weston explores the Aids crisis as it unfolded throughout the 1980s, and how it transformed attitudes about everything from sexuality to healthcare

A GLOBAL CONCERN • Key moments in the world’s battle with HIV/Aids in the 1980s

DIAGNOSIS & TREAT MENT

7 SURPRISING FACTS ABOUT THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE • Throughout history humans have sought to combat disease, relieve pain and postpone death. Caroline Rance shares seven fascinating revelations from medicine’s long and often shocking past

TAKING THE SEX CURE • Dr...