
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 MoreAs 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 MoreOne 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 …
Read MoreA 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 …
Read MoreAs 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 …
Read MoreMake 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 …
Read MoreThe 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 …
Read MoreYou 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 …
Read MoreThe 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 …
Read MoreIf 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 …
Read MoreIt 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 …
Read MoreAn 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 …
Read MoreIf 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 …
Read MoreBlind 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 …
Read MorePeople’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 …
Read MoreI’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) …
Read MoreIt’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 …
Read MoreHow 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 …
Read MoreEighty 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 …
Read MoreThe 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 …
Read MoreSeventy-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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