25 Best Books I’ve Read in 2020
As always with these annual roundups, please note that these are the best books I’ve read last year, not the best book published last year, as I never buy new …
Read MoreTag: history
On discovering a scandal in family history
One of my great regrets in life is not having interrogated my loved ones about their past and their family histories while they were still alive. Now the generation of …
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When Poland saved Europe
A hundred years ago this week, a series of biggest battles that Europe were to witness between the end of the First World War in 1918 and the beginning of …
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Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be oppressed in this racist hell
As many have remarked over the years, it is somewhat of a mystery why millions of people from the developing world continue to migrate to Western countries, which we are …
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We shall fight in the streets
Make no mistake: the attacks, both physical and rhetorical, against the memory of Winston Churchill show that the mask of the agitators in the streets and across the social media …
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Who Won World War Two?
The commemorations and celebrations of the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War were mooted this year. No obligatory parades or gathering took place at the time of …
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20 Best Books and 19 Notable Mentions I’ve Read in 2019
You know the gig by the now: not the new books that came out last year but the books I got to read throughout 2019. There have been far too …
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That time Poland was wearing a short skirt
The year wouldn’t go past without Vladimir Putin managing to again eschew any role in starting the Second World War and instead blaming Poland for getting invaded: Speaking at a …
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The Man in the High Kolkhoz
If you have Netflix (no chill necessary), there is a Polish series available, in fact the first Polish Netflix production ever, called “1983”. Yes, there is an element of play …
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Where were you when the walls came crashing down
It was a Thursday. I couldn’t remember but just checked it, thanks to the magic of the Internet – something that certainly did not exist in its current omnipresent form …
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Which witch is which?
An interesting Halloween-inspired graphic from “The Economist”* that sheds a lot of light on the history of European witch hunts: The key take-aways in my book: 1) Contrary to the …
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The Decline and Fall of Robert Fisk
If you have been wondering whatever happened to Robert Fisk (I know you haven’t; this is just a rhetorical set-up), he is still alive and writing. His most recent effort …
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Denying the sky is blue because Orange Man Bad
Blind hatred makes people irrational. When you suffer from the Trump Derangement Syndrome, you are likely to take the opposite view to the President on pretty much every issue, because …
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China – not quite 70 for 70
People’s Republic of China is today celebrating 70 years of existence. On this day in 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the new state at the Tiananmen Square in …
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Before there was Trump, there was Joe McCarthy
I’ve been reading M Stanton Evans’s excellent and scholarly “Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies” (published some 12 years ago) …
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The Fourth Partition
It’s 2019, so over the next few years we will commemorate a number of 80th anniversaries connected with the Second World War. British people will be reminded of their darkest …
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Unapologetic
How long must societies face penance for past sins? Individuals have it easy – there are either statutes of limitation or you die; either way, it’s over. Human societies, on …
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The two “what if”s of September 1939
Eighty years ago, Germany invaded Poland from the west, the north and the south, starting World War Two. Seventeen days later. the Soviet Union invaded from the east, completing the …
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Russia tries to normalise Ribbentrop-Molotov
The other day the world (mostly Eastern Europe and a few history buffs) remembered to 80th anniversary of the signing in Moscow of the infamous Ribbentrop-Molotov non-aggression pact between the …
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One such day
Seventy-five years ago, late afternoon on 1 August 1944, the biggest single act of resistance in the Nazi occupied Europe commenced in Warsaw. The Uprising was to last two month, …
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