HistoryExtra

1. The scandalous real history behind The Gilded Age

   How much of The Gilded Age period drama is real? HistoryExtra's Elinor Evans reveals an ambitious millionaire whose real life story mirrors Bertha Russell's ruthless social climbing

2. Would Franz Ferdinand really have prevented the First World War?

   Was Archduke Franz Ferdinand truly a tragic ‘prince of peace’? Should Gavrilo Princip be remembered as a reckless killer? More than a century after these two men were united by one Earth-shattering event on the streets of Sarajevo, Annika Mombauer asks if it’s time we reassess their reputations

3. The 'real' Bertha and George Russell: inside the high-society divorce that shocked the Gilded Age

   Julian Fellowes, the creator behind HBO’s The Gilded Age, has taken plenty of cues from real history for the characters of Bertha and George Russell, seemingly turning to the lives of Alva and William K Vanderbilt in plotting much of their story. Discover the real history, and what this could mean for everyone’s favourite power couple in series four

4. How Nero made Sporus his ‘wife’: what does this tragic story reveal about ancient Rome?

   Eunuch, ‘empress’ and ultimately victim of abuse: Sporus is a lesser-known character in the story of the brutal Roman emperor Nero. But his life, and the messages it reveals, are the things of outlandish drama. Hilary Mitchell takes up Sporus’s story

5. The WW2 nurses who saved lives in the skies

   Leah Garrett discusses the unseen work of so-called 'flight nurses' at Iwo Jima and Okinawa during the Second World War