In an enduring fable from the Kathasaritsagara, an Indian merchant explains how he acquired his nickname.

As Viceroy of India, Lord Ripon was rather more popular with the people of India than he was with some of his own civil servants.

Four years before the bloody American civil war, Dr David Livingstone proposed a peaceful way to rid the world of slavery.

Sir Joshua Fitch urges Victorian society to let women make their own career choices – whatever they may be.

Adam Smith could not imagine it would ever happen, but he nevertheless recommended that Britain grant independence to her colonies.

Richard Cobden despaired at British statesmen using the peerless Royal Navy merely to strangle trade in other countries.