Category Archives: History

Book Review: Short Notices

Posted on June 15, 2020 by odeboyz

Robert Dallek ~ Franklin D Roosevelt: a political life (2016) The title says everything you need to know about Roosevelt. Everything that he did was filtered through a meticulous political calculation. Sometimes the outcome was gruesome and unconscionable such as … Continue reading →

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The Treacherous King Edward VIII

Posted on June 8, 2020 by odeboyz

  Source https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/books/563824/New-book-reveals-fascinating-relationship-Edward-VIII-Adolf-Hitler  

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Brexit, Northern Ireland and Unification

Posted on June 4, 2020 by odeboyz

The 2016 Brexit referendum aggregated all UK votes into a single total. England’s majority swamped the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish vote, which immediately cast a doubt on the idea of a shared political identity. Brexit’s authority however depended on … Continue reading →

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Karl Marx as a journalist

Posted on June 1, 2020 by odeboyz

The ethos of the [Russian Crimean] army was dominated by the eighteenth-century parade-ground culture of the tsarist court, in which promotion, to quote Karl Marx, was limited to ‘martinets, whose principal merit consists of stolid obedience and ready servility added … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Hilary Mantel ~ The Mirror and the Light (2020)

Posted on June 1, 2020 by odeboyz

The scale of the success of the Thomas Cromwell trilogy is that it’s a 2112 page story about a Tudor civil servant. Cromwell’s speciality was as a courtier and sycophant endlessly grovelling to Henry VIII. He was also a ruthless … Continue reading →

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A J P Taylor on the Nuremberg Trials

Posted on May 25, 2020 by odeboyz

Twenty years ago [1963] I published a book about the origins of the Second World War. At the time it was dismissed as wrong-headed and controversial. Now it has become the accepted version for most people. But there still lurks … Continue reading →

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Book Review: P J O’Rourke ~ Holidays in Hell (1988)

Posted on May 25, 2020 by odeboyz

Satire notoriously ages badly. So much of it depends on the readers knowledge of the setting and personality of what is being satirised. Once the moment is gone so has the point of the humour. Consider the cartoon below. It … Continue reading →

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Soldier Soldier

Posted on May 25, 2020 by odeboyz

Great Granddad, soldier of the Dragoon Guards Impeccably immaculate, imperial in his uniform Young resolute, his features sit square He looks every bit, the soldier there. What was he thinking, as the photograph was snapped His portrait for posterity, generations … Continue reading →

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The Birth of Northern Ireland, 1921

Posted on May 21, 2020 by odeboyz

Ireland’s unique colony-plus status was established in 1801 as a response to the 1798 rebellion. Conflicts during the 19th and early 20th century led to the successful Irish War of Independence, which culminated in the 1921 peace treaty. Northern Ireland … Continue reading →

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Hitler’s nightmare: Henry Morganthau’s plan

Posted on May 7, 2020 by odeboyz

Henry Morgenthau was Roosevelt’s Secretary of the Treasury from 1934. To Hitler he epitomised ‘World Jewry’. He was Jewish Wall Street royalty, a close friend and colleague of Roosevelt. He rescued the US economy by ‘Keynesian’ financing of the New … Continue reading →

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