Archive for the ‘History’ Category
A review of “The August Uprising, 1924” by Eric Lee
November 29th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
An earlier book by Lee, “The Experiment” (2017), described, comprehensively and fairly, something unique in Eastern European history: the successful establishment of an independent Georgia, governed on the basis of democratic socialism, from 1918-1921 when it was brutally subjugated by the Bolshevik forces of revolutionary Russia. Now he revisits this place and period to examine […]
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A review of the important new film “Nuremberg”
November 26th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
Nuremberg: the German city where Hitler held his infamous rallies from 1923 to 1938 and where 22 Nazi leaders were put on trial in 1946-1947. This film centres on the interactions between two men at that trial: Hermann Göring, effectively Hitler’s deputy, and Dr Douglas Kelley, a US army psychiatrist assigned to determine the mental […]
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Visit to Tunisia (5): Carthage
October 8th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
What remained of Wednesday afternoon was devoted to Carthage. Located in the north-east suburbs of Tunis, this was the capital of the ancient Carthaginian civilisation that was a major trading empire from the 6th century BC. It was home to Hannibal and his elephants. However, it was destroyed by the Romans in 146 BC. About […]
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Ever heard of Gobekli Tepe?
September 24th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
I’d always thought that Stonehenge in the United Kingdom was about the oldest surviving structure on the earth made by humankind. But, when I watched the BBC series “Human”, I learned about a site that I’d never heard of before and it is around 6,000 years older than Stonehenge. It’s located in Turkey and is […]
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I’ve never been to Beringia – and I never will
September 23rd, 2025 by Roger Darlington
So far, I’ve visited 90 countries and I’d like to visit a few more if I can. But I’ve never been to Beringia and, to be honest, I’d never heard of it until I watched the BBC series “Human”. I won’t be visiting it because it doesn’t exist any more. This edited extract from Wikipedia […]
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A review of the 1928 classic film “The Passion Of Joan Of Arc”
July 13th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
This story of the most French of characters, the defender and patron saint of the nation – Joan had been canonised just eight years earlier – was in fact directed by a Dane, Carl Theodor Dreyer, as a black & white production with no sound. Indeed the French had problems with it: the Archbishop of […]
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A reminder on VE Day:
May 8th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
About 2.5 million personnel from the Indian subcontinent, more than 1 million African-Americans, 1 million people from Africa and tens of thousands of people from the Caribbean fought for the allies during World War Two.
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A review of “Japan: A Short History” by Mikiso Hane
April 21st, 2025 by Roger Darlington
For the last two millennia, Japanese history has been divided into eras named after the capital or after the shogun or emperor of the time: the Yamato period (c.300-710) with the political centre located in the area around Kyoto, then known as Yamato; the Nara period (710-784) named after the capital city; the Heian period […]
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Ever heard of Father Gapon?
April 4th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
I didn’t know the name at all when it was mentioned in conversation with an American friend who is more familiar than me on Russian history. Wikipedia states: “Georgy Apollonovich Gapon[a] (17 February [O.S. 5 February] 1870 –10 April [O.S.28 March] 1906) was a Russian Orthodox priest of Ukrainian descent and a popular working-class leader before the 1905 Russian Revolution. Father Gapon is mainly […]
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Are we really living in the worst of times?
February 18th, 2025 by Roger Darlington
So many conversations that I have about the current state of the world involve people suggesting that we are living in the worst of times. But is this really the case? It is true that we recently had a global pandemic that killed millions, that there are wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, the Congo and […]
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