Category Archives: History

The pacifist and the soldier: Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein

Posted on September 20, 2021 by odeboyz

Bertrand Russell had been jailed for his anti-war activities but his close intellectual friend Ludwig Wittgenstein was in the Austrian army as a private soldier. By March 1919 Russell had been released but Wittgenstein was still in a prisoner of … Continue reading →

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The Political Education of Cassius Clay

Posted on September 1, 2021 by odeboyz

Cassius Clay lived in segregated Kentucky during his boyhood. Segregation is, quite simply, institutional racism. He became Olympic champion in 1960 in Rome aged 18, where he defeated white men. On his return, the grim reality of segregated Kentucky became … Continue reading →

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Married Women’s Property Act, 1870: Britain’s first ‘Feminist’ legislation

Posted on August 19, 2021 by odeboyz

“…a woman, on marrying, relinquished her personal property—moveable property such as money, stocks, furniture, and livestock— to her husband’s ownership; by law he was permitted to dispose of it at will at any time in the marriage and could even … Continue reading →

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The Unflappable Harold MacMillan: Athens 1944

Posted on August 5, 2021 by odeboyz

“MacMillan seems to have taken the daily risks with a mixture of unflappability and almost enjoyment. He and the Ambassador insisted, as a matter of principle, on using the official study, remarking in his memoirs only that ‘bullets came through … Continue reading →

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Victor Hugo on Sewage

Posted on August 2, 2021 by odeboyz

Violating every rule of narrative, Hugo interrupts the climax of his great novel Les Misérables (1862) to hector the reader for fifteen pages about the Parisian sewer system. The city’s sewers discharged vast quantities of excrement into rivers, which carried … Continue reading →

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Immigration: Conservative Hypocrisy 1903, 1938, 2021

Posted on July 29, 2021 by odeboyz

1903 IMMIGRATION OF DESTITUTE ALIENS. HC Deb 26 February 1903 vol 118 cc938-77 Sir Howard Vincent (Conservative)1 In the first place, I should like to say most emphatically that this motion has nothing whatever to do with any religious question. … Continue reading →

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Coco Chanel: Nazi Collaborator

Posted on July 26, 2021 by odeboyz

Chanel1 had always had a series of influential lovers of various nationalities, so it was natural that during the German occupation the lover should be German: Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage, a diplomat with intelligence connections. After the war, Chanel, … Continue reading →

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Assassination as policy: a few examples

Posted on July 19, 2021 by odeboyz

“In the thousand years the Roman empire survived in Constantinople, 65 out of its 107 emperors were assassinated. In Venice in the 15th and 16th centuries 200 assassinations were plotted for foreign policy reasons…Other than probably the CIA, Israel’s intelligence … Continue reading →

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Two Barbaric Sentencing Regimes: England, 1723 and California, 1994

Posted on July 15, 2021 by odeboyz

Background Barbaric sentencing and moral panics are linked. “A moral panic is a widespread feeling of fear, often an irrational one, that some evil person or thing threatens the values, interests, or well-being of a community or society.”1 The events … Continue reading →

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An Italian economic boycott, 1848

Posted on July 12, 2021 by odeboyz

….the inhabitants of Milan, under Austrian rule, followed the principle of the Boston Tea Party by giving up smoking in order to stop the Austrians obtaining revenue from a tax on tobacco. Richard Evans The pursuit of power p189

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