window.history

The Window.history read-only property returns a reference to the History object, which provides an interface for manipulating the browser session history (pages visited in the tab or frame that the current page is loaded in).

See Manipulating the browser history for examples and details. In particular, that article explains security features of the pushState() and replaceState() methods that you should be aware of before using them.

Syntax

var historyObj = window.history;

Example

history.back();     // equivalent to clicking back button
history.go(-1);     // equivalent to history.back();

Notes

For top-level pages you can see the list of pages in the session history, accessible via the History object, in the browser's dropdowns next to the back and forward buttons.

For security reasons the History object doesn't allow the non-privileged code to access the URLs of other pages in the session history, but it does allow it to navigate the session history.

There is no way to clear the session history or to disable the back/forward navigation from unprivileged code. The closest available solution is the location.replace() method, which replaces the current item of the session history with the provided URL.

Specifications

Specification	Status	Comment
WHATWG HTML Living Standard The definition of 'The History interface' in that specification.	Living Standard
HTML5 The definition of 'The History interface' in that specification.	Recommendation