Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Things I learned on my latest visit to the British Museum (2): the origin of the term Phoenicia
March 3rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
This week, I visited the British Museum with a family of Czech friends. Of course, I’ve been to the museum on many occasions but, on each such visit, I always learn something new. By the beginning of the first millennium BC, the territory on the north coast of modern Lebanon and Syria was known as […]
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Things I learned on my latest visit to the British Museum (1): the origin of the word mausoleum
March 2nd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
This week, I visited the British Museum with a family of Czech friends. Of course, I’ve been to the museum on many occasions but, on each such visit, I always learn something new. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World was a huge tomb built for Maussollos, a satrap in the Persian Empire, […]
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How the Internet is changing lives one person at a time
February 1st, 2016 by Roger Darlington
For four years now, I have been a Non-Executive Director on the Board of the Tinder Foundation (previously the Online Centres Foundation), which co-ordinates the work of 3,800 online training centres in England. I think it is useful for me, from time to time, to visit an actual centre and see the work at the […]
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Holocaust Memorial Day: we must never forget
January 27th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
Here in the UK, it is Holocaust Memorial Day as we remember the six million Jews and other persecuted groups who died in the Nazi concentration camps and killing fields in Europe during the Second World War. It is an event in human history without direct precedent and almost impossible to comprehend – but we […]
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Who were the world’s first terrorists?
January 23rd, 2016 by Roger Darlington
The Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIS … sadly the murderous activities of these groups follow in a long and bloody history of the use of terrorism to advance political and religious aims. You could make a case that the first modern terrorists were a Russian group called People’s Will. They were formed in 1879 and they assassinated […]
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“Keep calm and carry on” – the true story of this wartime campaign
January 14th, 2016 by Roger Darlington
For years now that very British exhortation “Keep calm and carry on”, in its original wartime text or in multifarious variations, has been ubiquitous – on posters, mugs, tea towels and so on. But just how commonplace was the advice in the Second World War when it originated? A letter in today’s “Guardian” newspaper has […]
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Ever heard of Louie Zamperini?
December 14th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Like most non-Americans I guess, I’d never heard of Louis “Louie” Zamperini before Angelina Jolie made a film about him. It is a truly remarkable story: someone who represented the United States in the 5,000 metres at the 1936 Berlin Olympics and then, during his war service as a bombardier with the USAAF, somehow survived […]
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The moment John McDonnell pulled out Mao’s “Little Red Book”
November 26th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Can the performance of John McDonnell as Shadow Chancellor become any more embarrassing? View this clip and, like most of the Labour MPs in the Commons chamber, just cringe. Before anyone takes any advice from Chairman Mao, it would be a good idea to read this biography of the ‘Great Helmsman”.
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20th anniversary of the Dayton Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia
November 21st, 2015 by Roger Darlington
Twenty years ago today, an agreement was reached to end the three and a half year bloody ethnic war in Bosnia. The Dayton Agreement froze the conflict but did not resolve fundamental political issues. I saw the post-Dayton situation in Bosnia at first hand when, eight years ago, I visited Sarajevo. You can read the account […]
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What hope is there for Kenya?
November 20th, 2015 by Roger Darlington
I recently visited Nairobi for a week and wrote about my experience here. More recently, I have read a book on the post-colonial history of the country which I have reviewed here. Somewhere between hope and despair, author Daniel Branch concludes: “Kenya may never be prosperous or be a nation; but armed with a government […]
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