Archive for the ‘History’ Category
A review of “The Longest Afternoon” by Brendan Simms, a particular account of the Battle of Waterloo
March 27th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
On 18 June 1815, an allied force commanded by the British Duke of Wellington beat a French army led by the Emperor Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo, one of the most consequential conflicts in European history. This short work, first published in 2014, concentrates on one particular geographical section of this epic event, the […]
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A review of the impressive and important 1961 film “Judgement At Nuremberg”
March 12th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
It was only after I had seen the 2025 “Nuremberg” that I finally viewed the 1961 “Judgement At Nuremberg”. While the first of these deals with the trial of the most senior of the Nazi war leaders by a four-power International Military Tribunal, the second film is a fictionalised depiction of one of the 12 […]
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A review of the 2021 film “Operation Mincemeat”
January 8th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
This is the unlikely – and, for a long time, totally secret – story of a World War Two subterfuge that persuaded Hitler to believe that, in 1943, the Allies were going to make the first invasion of Europe in Greece instead of Sicily. The film stays close to the true details of the operation, […]
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Timeline of major US interventions in Latin America: 1846–2026
January 8th, 2026 by Roger Darlington
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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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