Category Archives: History

Book Reviews: Sellar and Yeatman 1066 and All That (1930); O’Farrell An utterly impartial history of Britain

Posted on October 22, 2018 by

Sellar and Yeatman invented satire on school-boy history. They mocked history books which were current at the time which mostly created the myth that the British were naturally superior to all other countries. They developed the phrase ‘a good thing’ … Continue reading →

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Film Review: Hostiles (Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike)

Posted on October 15, 2018 by

Captain Blocker (Bale) is a hugely conflicted soldier in the Old West. His colonel orders him to return a native Indian chief to Montana. He’s taunted by a journalist about his reputation for brutal treatment. Blocker then uses the Nazi … Continue reading →

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Margaret Thatcher on Ronald Reagan

Posted on October 1, 2018 by

Shortly after he was inaugurated, Thatcher and Carrington [Foreign Secretary] were talking over a drink one evening in Downing Street when the conversation turned to the new president, at which Thatcher tapped the side of her skull and said: “Peter … Continue reading →

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Two Peace Treaties: Brest-Litovsk, March 1918 and Versailles, June 1919

Posted on September 20, 2018 by

The Brest-Litovsk and Versailles peace treaties were two sides of the same coin for Germany. Germany imposed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty on the Soviets and then had onerous conditions imposed on them at Versailles. There are remarkable similarities in the two … Continue reading →

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The Times obituary of Lord Carrington says:

Posted on August 31, 2018 by

More commonly, he found himself sleeping in a hole beneath his tank with his four crew who came from poor backgrounds and had suffered hardship during the pre-war years. The experience shaped his politics, he said later. “You could not … Continue reading →

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State Sponsored Kidnapping: Britain, Israel and the USA

Posted on August 2, 2018 by

1 Britain: Conscientious Objectors1 The British army was a volunteer force in 1914 until the war lost its popularity. The actuality of slaughter reduced the numbers of men volunteering. The government passed the Military Service Act in January 1916 to … Continue reading →

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Bertrand Russell in Brixton prison, 1918

Posted on July 20, 2018 by

For the first two months of his sentence, life at Brixton prison suited Russell perfectly. Freed from the demands of both political campaigning and romantic attachments,* he was able to live precisely the kind of cloistered, contemplative life he craved. … Continue reading →

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