Category Archives: History

Using Torture properly (?) a lesson for the USA

Posted on July 2, 2020 by odeboyz

Empirical evidence on contemporary torture is sparse. The archives of the Spanish Inquisition* provide a detailed historical source of quantitative and qualitative information about interrogational torture. The inquisition tortured brutally and systematically, willing to torment all who it deemed as … Continue reading →

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A very brisk Mother Superior in a French convent

Posted on June 25, 2020 by odeboyz

[Her] account includes being told by the [Mother] Superior that if a doctor advised a surgical operation, “your Superiors will decide whether your life is of sufficient value to the community to justify the expense. If it is not, you … Continue reading →

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Putin’s favourite Stalin joke

Posted on June 22, 2020 by odeboyz

As Stalin walked down the ranks of the troops he heard a thunderous sneeze. Fearing an assassination attempt he roared, “Who sneezed?” There was no answer and the troops froze in terror. He turned to the KGB colonel and said, … Continue reading →

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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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