BBC History Magazine: May 2020

Life has a habit of getting in the way. The pandemic means events to commemorate the end of the Second World War in Europe on 8 May 1945 will be muted.

BBC History magazine has a 24-page supplement, available through your library PressReader subscription.  Contents are:

The bitter taste of victory
Keith Lowe tells the story of 1945 — which saw inhuman violence and misery.

Memories of VE Day
Peter Hart surveys the nation's mood, recollections from five people who witnessed it.

The war without an end
Daniel Todman on the uncertainty that dogged the conflict's final years

Why did the Allies Win?
Eight deciding factors in the war against the Axis powers - one was the code breakers of Bletchley Park.

Other feature articles in the May issue are:

Reassessing the Anarchy
Matthew Lewis on whether Stephen and Matilda's 12th-century fight for the crown deserves its bloody reputation
The Corn Law crisis
Stephen Bates charts the political battle over bread prices that threatened thousands with starvation
Sorrow and spiritualism
Why did Britons reject rationality in the years following the First World War? David Nash investigates. Will the transformation from pandemic to post-pandemic see the same rise in spiritualism and occultism as occurred in England a century ago?
The war against magic
Catherine Rider explores the medieval church's bid to stop its parishioners dabbling in spells and charms