18th C Archives - Aspects of History

Introducing the New Aspects of History Substack – We’re Revamping!

Pairing a free midweek editorial newsletter with exclusive subscriber-only magazine features, author interviews and other benefits on a Saturday, we are offering history lovers a richer and more rewarding reading experience while supporting independent historical writing.

Aspects of History

Over the last six years, Aspects of History has brought you the best historical writing from established and new authors alike, whether non-fiction or fiction. So we are now excited to outline a new chapter for the Aspects of History Substack. Our website has grown...

Jim Loughran on Syracuse Will Burn

The author discusses his journey from human rights advocacy to historical fiction, the inspiration behind his new novel and the challenges of recreating ancient Greece with Peter Tonkin..

Jim Loughran

Welcome back to Aspects of History, Jim. You wrote your first novel, The Bratinsky Affair, late in life after a long and successful career. What prompted you to do so? I am originally from Northern Ireland and studied French and Spanish at Queen’s University Belfast....

2026 Summer Reads from Aspects of History

Our authors and contributors recommend books to take on your summer holidays.

Aspects of History

Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryZeb Baker-Smith Editor at Aspects of HistoryPaul Knox’s Lost London offers a captivating itinerary of 25 buildings which are no longer, but whose lifespan shaped the capital’s architectural story, revealing how the perennial cycle...

Episode 274

The Coming of the Railway: A New Global History, 1750-1850, by David Gwyn

A wide-ranging account of how innovation, economic conditions and ambition transformed early railways into a global revolution that reshaped the modern world.

Michael Mccomb

When Britain’s history is told, the railway is usually suddenly introduced in the early to mid-19th century. Yet long before this, it was quietly developing, shaping the future of transport. This early period of rail development is the subject of David Gwyn’s latest...

The Coming of the Railway – A Conversation with David Gwyn

The historian explains to Michael Mccomb how railways evolved from wooden structures into modern transport systems, altering industry, commerce and society across Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries.

David Gwyn

Welcome to Aspects of History, David. Could you provide our readers with an outline of your latest book, The Coming of the Railway: A New Global History 1750-1850? The book sets out to trace the transformation of a mechanical handling system into the main overland...

Fiction Book of the Month: Jim Loughran on The Bratinsky Affair

A discussion of the people, places and history that inspired the author's debut, a thriller exploring exile, identity and the ties between Ireland and Russia.

Jim Loughran

Welcome back to Aspects of History, Jim. The Bratinsky Affair, our Fiction Book of the Month, combines murder mystery, espionage thriller, and historical fiction. What first inspired the book, and how did the story evolve from that earliest conception? Serendipity...

Stockton and Darlington’s Bicentenary

Though the railway had a pivotal role in the development of modern rail transport, the historian challenges persistent myths that it was the world’s first.

David Gwyn

In 2025, the Stockton and Darlington Railway celebrated its 200th anniversary. The bicentenary celebrations were promoted by a multi-disciplinary team from the local authorities, museum partners and other experts, and were a welcome reminder how this innovative system...

The Road Back to Boston

On April 19 1775, colonial troops battled redcoats at Concord's North Bridge, which resulted in nearly three-hundred British casualties and paved the way for American independence.

Thor Hogan

I have read Esther Forbes’ Newbery Medal-winning Johnny Tremain perhaps thirty times. It is the reason I fell in love with historical fiction as a child. But the book, for all its brilliance, left me wanting to know more. The novel is set primarily in the period...

Writing Displacement: Imperial Russia to 1970s Ireland

Exile, war and social exclusion shape the lives of the author’s protagonists in The Bratinsky Affair, our Fiction Book of the Month, which takes the enduring experience of displacement as one of its major themes.

Jim Loughran

A recent article in The Guardian featured a new book of short stories by Colm Tóibín: “Tóibín’s short stories, particularly in his 2026 collection The News from Dublin, are fundamentally concerned with exploring the internal and external lives of characters living at...