Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Was the Munich Agreement of 1938 inevitable or avoidable?
January 23rd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
Before I read the historical novel “Munich” by Robert Harris, I decided to reread the 1988 book “Munich: The Eleventh Hour” by Robert Kee. Was the betrayal of Czechoslovakia by Britain and France in September 1938 inevitable? Or should we have gone to war against Nazi Germany then rather than in September 1939? You can […]
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What really happened in the American War of Independence?
January 22nd, 2019 by Roger Darlington
I enjoy reading history books and watching television programmes on history and I recently caught the first segment of BBC Four’s series “American History’s Biggest Fibs With Lucy Worsley” which dealt with the American War of Independence. I don’t like the way Worsley feels compelled to dress up in period costume, but she has an […]
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How did most of the Jews of Denmark manage to escape the Holocaust?
January 21st, 2019 by Roger Darlington
In October 1943, Adolf Hitler ordered that all the Jews in Nazi-occupied Denmark be arrested and deported. Yet the Danes managed to evacuate 7,220 of the country’s 7,800 Jews plus 686 non-Jewish spouses, by sea to nearby neutral Sweden. How was this possible? In the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to go to […]
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What does federalism mean in the context of the American political system?
January 6th, 2019 by Roger Darlington
In the Autumn of 2018, I attended a series of six lectures at London’s City Literary Institute which examined the history of the American federal system. I have used some of this information to update the section of my guide to the American political system that explains the nature of federalism which is so important […]
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Why it’s fun to be in one’s 60s or 70s in today’s Britain
December 29th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Since I was 70 this year, I’ve had to change the title of my light-hearted look at some of the advantages of being a pensioner in Britain. Check it out here.
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Have you heard of the Holocaust?
December 5th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Of course, you have. I believe (and I hope) that people who read this blog are at least averagely well-informed. But a new survey has revealed an astonishing (and very worrying) lack of knowledge of the Holocaust and widespread prejudice against Jews. A recent survey by CNN found that about one European in 20 in […]
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Discovery of an intact Spitfire after 76 years
November 28th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
A long-lost Second World War Spitfire flown by a pilot who was part of the “Great Escape” has been found almost entirely intact on a Norwegian mountain – 76 years after it was shot down by the Germans. The discovery is the first time for more than 20 years that a substantially complete and previously […]
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Who signed the 1918 Armistice Agreement for Germany and what happened to him?
November 16th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
We have just commemorated the centenary of the ending of the First World War. We all know that, following an Armistice Agreement signed in a railway carriage in rural France, hostilities ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. But, until watching a BBC2 documentary entitled “WW1: The Final Hours”, […]
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A revolution that succeeded – until it was crushed by other revolutionaries
November 2nd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This week, I attended a lecture on the Georgian revolution of 1918-1921. It was delivered by my friend Eric Lee and the venue was the Centre of Contemporary Central Asia & the Caucasus in London. Eric quoted an assessment of the Georgian revolution at the time by the noted German Marxist Karl Kautsky: “In comparison […]
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Why Peterloo was so important and why you’re going to hear so much more about it
October 29th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
On 16 August 1819 in St Peter’s Field in central Manchester, around 60,000 pro-democracy reformers gathered in a peaceful protest that turned savage when it was attacked by armed cavalry, resulting in 18 deaths and over 600 injured. Until recently, the only public commemoration of this historic event was a plaque on the wall of […]
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