CONTENTS

SEPTEMBER 2020

FEATURES

20 The race for the bomb Diana Preston chronicles the scientific and political developments that led to the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima

28 The war in the east Jonathan Fennell explores how the British Army turned the tide against Japan in the Second World War

39 African renaissance Afua Hirsch on the ways that Africa’s artists are moving beyond the continent’s colonial past

46 Edward the Confessor Tom Licence profiles the Anglo-Saxon king, and discovers a determined, dynamic man far from his feeble image

52 Trump: like no other? Mark White on whether Donald Trump really is a president without precedent

59 Medieval marginalia Johanna Green shines a spotlight on life in the margins of historical texts

66 The all-conquering potato Rebecca Earle charts how colonialism and industrialism helped propel the humble spud to worldwide domination

39 Why Africa is no longer a prisoner of its colonial past

Discover how British and Commonwealth forces turned disaster into triumph against Japan on page 28

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I M A G E S

/ G E T T Y

/ M A R Y E VA N S

/ A L A M Y

I D G E M A N

/ B R

B B C

46 “Strong, glorious, feared by his enemies, Edward the Confessor kept England safe for 24 years”