The Sources of Soviet Conduct
Today's Russia is pursuing the same aims as in 1946: autarchy for Russia and Russian-dominated adjacent areas by a leader, under pressure from nationalistic backers, who has miscalculated the situation.
Read MoreCategory History
With a Quiet Heart
The Queen was an ever constant in a changeable and unpredictable world. Over seven decades, she was always there for us.
Read MoreThey Are Teachable
One of History's lessons is that once a group is deemed unteachable they will be placed in the category of an ever present threat to the preferred social order.
Read MoreSanta Fe Emergent Engineering 2021: Niall Ferguson
Freeman Dyson famously wrote that “A good scientist is a person with original ideas. A good engineer is a person who makes a design that works with as few ideas as possible. There are no prima donnas in engineering.”
Read MoreIntellectual Warehouse
While access to information is now relatively more widespread than in the past, the modern paywall can often prove to be as much of a hurdle to access as the price of manuscripts was in yesteryear.
Read MoreScribble, Scribble, Scribble
I think it was the George III who is reputed to have said to the great historian Edward Gibbon: “Another…
I Saw The World End
I went up to the hillside and took a panorama view of the city and found the whole city on fire. - Kiyoshi Tanimoto,
Read MoreLate Abroad Again
As the contagion bit hard, Pepys chronicled the flight from the city, mostly of doctors, lawyers and merchants. Then as now, only those with the financial means to do so can seek refuge in seclusion.
Read MoreFête Nationale
I could not let July 14 pass without a nod to that most French of occasions: Bastille Day. A celebration…
The Struggle is Topic
There is no dearth of ideas, but each was pondered and rejected in turn as the research involved exceeds the allotted time for this daily challenge.
Read MorePeasants’ Revolt
Much the same could be said for the current protests. Eventually the people will leave the streets and things will largely go back to how they were.
Read MoreDamnatio Memoriae
Memory is more than the activity of an individual. It is an object, in so much as a statue or inscription reminds passers by of a person or event.
Read MoreMedia Archipelago
Pushing back on unorthodox views has given rise to 'wrongspeak,' 'the things we believe to be true but cannot say,' creating a Media Archipelago.
Read MoreThe Better Part of Valour
Obama made sure to bring together the past with the present. Memory stalking the impatiently advancing future. Into the party…
Modern Pocket Boroughs
Yet for all the antics, there was a certain honesty about such naked corruption. Votes were sold and it was clear who was buying them.
Read MoreInto the Jaws of Death
One of the most memorable photographs of D-Day was taken by Chief Photographer's Mate Robert F. Sargent and aptly titled 'Into the Jaws of Death.'
Read MoreAirbrushing Memory
With digital services often serving as our memory, to remove content from personal drives is to airbrush our memory.
Read MoreA Marvellous Idea for a Blog
I didn't have the time to write you a short blog about historical analogies, so I wrote about something else.
Read MoreDead Certainties
The key is to avoid reading events falsely, which inevitably leads to politics shaping what we think is true.
Read MoreConstantine: Divine Emperor or Christian Saint?
Chrysostom argued against the notion of men being elevated to the level of gods as such men had not been able to restore their kingdom after death.
Read MoreAlexander’s Invasion of Persia
“It is one of the paradoxes of history (and of historiography) that this king… should have been handed down finally…
Age, Evil And A Better World
Age hit me the other day. To be precise it hit my right hamstring. It was cold and I got…
Company Men
In Calcutta a statue was erected to Lord Bentinck, Governor-General of India. Its inscription bears citing at length as it…
Madmen Raging Against the Sacred
The Fourth Crusade veered from its original aim, the reconquest Jerusalem, and ended in the sack of Constantinople; earning for itself the ignominious title of the crusade against fellow-Christians.
Read More