Category Archives: History

The anti-Semitic Martin Luther

Posted on March 8, 2017 by odeboyz

Luther calls for the secular authorities to burn down all the synagogues and schools, and ‘what won’t burn should be covered over with earth, so that not a stone or piece of slag of it should be seen for all … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Religion | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Applauding Stalin: Living in a Totalitarian State

Posted on February 24, 2017 by odeboyz

This extended quotation from Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s book Gulag Archipelago illustrates the sheer unrelenting terror that citizens in the Soviet Union lived in during the 1930s. …………………………………….. At the conclusion of the conference, a tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Literature, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Could an objective observer have identified Nazi Germany as the ‘worst of the worst’ in the 1930s?

Posted on February 9, 2017 by odeboyz

The horrors of the Holocaust were a pivotal turning point in international relations. Interventionists believe the Holocaust was preventable. They further believe that diplomats prevented intervention because nation-states were deemed to be sovereign in their domestic policies. Implicit in interventionist … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Ricardian Curse, Margaret Thatcher and North Sea Oil

Posted on January 27, 2017 by odeboyz

Introduction Liz Truss hero worships Margaret Thatcher and emulated her when she too became prime minister in September 2022. Truss wrecked the UK economy in 48 hours of economic insanity. Margaret Thatcher wrecked the UK economy over a much longer … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, History, Politics, War | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Some things never change: Ancient Rome

Posted on January 17, 2017 by odeboyz

Promises will cost you nothing. Everyone’s a millionaire where promises are concerned. Hope, if only she is duly fostered, holds out a long time. She’s a deceitful goddess, but a very useful one…. The really great problem, the problem that … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Literature | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Flogging and Courage: the British Army 1800-81

Posted on January 12, 2017 by odeboyz

Discipline in the British Army was sadistic. There was institutional savagery with floggings and public execution occurring so frequently they were normalised. The army had a subliminal desire to ‘toughen’ up soldiers for the ordeals that lay ahead of them. … Continue reading →

Posted in History, War | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

The Political Ambition of Boris Johnson- British Foreign Secretary

Posted on December 20, 2016 by odeboyz

“Why should we not form a secret society with but one object, the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole world under British rule, for the recovery of the United States, for making the Anglo Saxon … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Workhouses: did Charles Dickens get it wrong?

Posted on December 16, 2016 by odeboyz

Britain was a swaggeringly confident country in 1834 with a firm belief in laissez-faire economics. Yet they created a tightly regulated centralised welfare system which deleted localised authority by imposing national standards. Every aspect of the new system was laid … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Adolf Hitler: Man of the Year, 1938: Time Magazine

Posted on December 14, 2016 by odeboyz

Time (1939): Adolf Hitler: Man of the Year, 1938: “What Adolf Hitler & Co. did to Germany in less than six years was applauded wildly and ecstatically by most Germans… …He lifted the nation from post-War defeatism. Under the swastika … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Politics | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A pen portrait of Lenin

Posted on December 13, 2016 by odeboyz

As an orator, Lenin did not carry the crowd with him; he did not set a crowd on fire, or whip it up into a frenzy. He was not like Kerensky*, who could make a crowd fall in love with … Continue reading →

Posted in History | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment