-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Archives
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
Categories
- Autobiography
- Disablity
- Economics
- education
- Entomology
- Film
- Finance
- Health
- History
- housing
- Humour
- Literature
- local politics
- Mathematics
- Paris
- Philosophy
- photography
- Poetry
- Politics
- Prison
- Prison reform
- quips
- Religion
- Review
- School
- Sport
- statistics
- Technology
- tenants rights
- Travel
- TV sitcom
- TV sitcoms
- Uncategorized
- War
- wildlife
Meta
Blog Stats
- 86,968 hits
Category Archives: War
Book Review: Short Notices
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
Posted in History, Poetry, Politics, War, wildlife
Tagged FDR biography, Heydrich's biography, Risk in a global setting
Leave a comment
Book Review: Norman Mailer ~ The Naked and the Dead (1949)
How do you review a masterpiece? This is a work of staggering genius and, if possible, was better for a 50 year gap between readings. Obviously I bookmarked sections in preparation for this review, which is very easy in Kindle … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Review, War
Tagged attack on an island, grim reality, US Pacific War
Leave a comment
Karl Marx as a journalist
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
A J P Taylor on the Nuremberg Trials
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
Posted in History, Literature, Politics, Prison, War
Tagged causes of WW2, counter-intuitive history, Hossbach Protocol, LRB
Leave a comment
Book Review: P J O’Rourke ~ Holidays in Hell (1988)
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
Posted in History, Humour, Politics, Travel, War
Tagged historical satire, political satire, satire
Leave a comment
The Birth of Northern Ireland, 1921
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
Posted in History, Politics, War
Tagged 6 counties, Act of Union, Irish politics, sectarian frontiers, Woodrow Wilson
3 Comments
Hitler’s nightmare: Henry Morganthau’s plan
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
Book Review: John Lanchester ~ The Wall (2019)
Lanchester builds on the absurdity of Trump’s impenetrable wall to prevent immigration. He conceives of a wall around the British Isles. Naturally a wall isn’t enough. It must be defended, as all walls must be, which consumes enormous manpower. That … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Politics, Review, War
Tagged Dystopia, Illegal immigration, xenophobia
Leave a comment
Why Stalin thought El Alamein was a Sideshow
“Churchill sent a telegram to Stalin on 7th July [1941] promising every possible help…”* Churchill wrote the script of British understanding of the Second World War. One result of this is that the Soviet Union’s gigantic battles are virtually unknown. … Continue reading
Posted in History, Politics, War
Tagged Churchill, north Africa, Roosevelt, Soviet paranoia, Stalin, The Big Three, The eastern front, The second front
Leave a comment
