Michael Burton

Perhaps the most extraordinary period in modern British history, the years between the Great Recession and Brexit have often been dubbed 'the lost decade' because of the economic and political turmoil caused by those two great events. Michael Burton outlines how the first led to the second, assisted by a rare confluence of other, often unrelated, social and political factors that delivered the shock Leave verdict in the EU referendum of 2016. These...

"In 2008, Barack Obama's election team sent perhaps a billion emails to some 13 million addresses; the social networking site Facebook was deployed to get out the vote; and campaign operatives across the political spectrum were trying to figure out how they could "micro-target" persuadable voters in pursuit of victory. Political campaigning continues to reinvent itself at a furious pace and in fascinating ways, becoming more professional and more...

Daniel and Mary Bell sued for freedom and won. But the widow of their former slaveholder challenged the Bells' freedom in court. Threatened with re-enslavement, and the sale of their children, they led the largest escape attempt in US history.