Category Archives: History

The bin Laden family and the Twin Towers

“A perfect example of this new and often strange world comes with the sale of the largest stake in the firm that quarries the Carrara marble in Italy that was used for the Pantheon in Rome, the Duomo in Siena, … Continue reading

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Jersey’s ultra flexible government, 1935-45

The resilience of Jersey’s elite is not new (Jersey is perhaps the only place in Europe that had the same government before, during and after Nazi occupation)….. Oliver Bullough Moneyland: Why thieves & crooks now rule the world & how … Continue reading

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Book Review: C Northcote Parkinson ~ Parkinson’s Law or the pursuit of progress (1957)

This book is one of the most influential books that has been written. Like Catch-22 it has entered the language and the psyche of even those who haven’t read it. Parkinson’s Law is brutally simple. “Work expands so as to … Continue reading

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The limits of personal responsibility: Auschwitz and Hiroshima

Although subordinates in the military are expected to obey orders, they remain beneath the law. Obeying orders is a personal responsibility, which entails deciding whether they’re lawful or not. Unlawful orders should be challenged or disobeyed. Many Nazis were executed … Continue reading

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Abraham Lincoln’s attitude towards Black-Americans in 1858

While I was at the hotel to-day an elderly gentleman called upon me to know whether I was really in favor of producing a perfect equality between the negroes and white people. [Great laughter.] While I had not proposed to … Continue reading

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The Martyrdom of Thomas Cranmer, 1556

Thomas Cranmer was Archbishop of Canterbury and the guiding hand behind Henry VIII’s religious Reformation. The Reformation was a process which continued throughout the 1530s and 40s. Edward VI died six years after succeeding Henry. His half sister, Mary, became … Continue reading

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Britain Ceases to be a World Power, December 1943

The USA entered the European theatre following Hitler’s unbelievable declaration of war in December, 1941. Over the next two years, huge numbers of American troops entered Britain. Dwight D Eisenhower became Supreme Commander in Chief of Allied Forces, December 1943, … Continue reading

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Books! Do you remember them?

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Dutch Teenage Resistance Fighters

She [Freddie Oversteegen] was 14 when she joined the Dutch resistance, though with her long, dark hair in braids she looked at least two years younger. When she rode her bicycle down the streets of Haarlem in North Holland, firearms … Continue reading

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W. T. Stead: Investigative Journalist

Stead’s Victorian London was squalid and amoral. He used his editorship of the Pall Mall Gazette to attack moral evil. Prostitution was rampant in London. It was so blatant that there were guides to ‘specialised’ brothels, which were entirely legal.1 … Continue reading

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