Archive for the ‘History’ Category
Have you ever heard of a place called Arthurdale?
July 21st, 2021 by Roger Darlington
I hadn’t – but I’ve been watching the excellent 2014 PBS America television series “The Roosevelts” and I was fascinated by the reference to the experiment in community living called Arthurdale. The Wikipedia page on the subject states: Arthurdale is an unincorporated community in Preston County, West Virginia, United States. It was built in 1933, at the height of the Depression as […]
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A review of “V2”, the latest novel by Robert Harris
July 20th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
This is my seventh novel by Harris (he has written 14). He is never going to win the Booker or the Pulitzer, but he is a consummate storyteller whose forte is to set a fictional personal tale against a backdrop of actual historical events. In this case, the story takes place over five days at the end […]
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Now I have written two books: a biography and a collection of short stories
June 26th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In 1985, I wrote the biography of the Czech Flight Lieutenant Karel Kuttelwascher who was the RAF’s greatest night intruder ace of the Second World War. It was republished in 2017. It is titled “Night Hawk”. I never thought that I would write another book. But now I have collated 31 short stories that I […]
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Which was the largest empire in world history?
June 21st, 2021 by Roger Darlington
For many years, I’ve enjoyed doing regular courses at London’s City Literary Institute. For a year and a half now, all those courses have had to be online because of the covid crisis. Currently I’m doing a nine-week course in world history delivered by the Danish historian Martin Jorgensen. This week’s session included discussion of […]
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A review of “The History Of The World In Bite-Sized Chunks” by Emma Marriott
June 5th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
In terms of ‘punch per page’, this is a winner: nearly 5,000 years of world history in less than 200 pages with every sentence offering information. Yet, for all its conciseness, it covers a great deal in an accessible manner, so that it can be read from beginning to end and/or used as a reference […]
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Was Napoleon a hero or a villain?
May 5th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
If you’ve ever visited Paris, you might have been to Les Invalides and see the tomb of Napoleon. I have never seen a more majestic resting place. But, if you’ve ever visited London, you might have used Waterloo Station or crossed Waterloo Bridge. Both commemorate the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815. Today is the […]
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A review of the new biography “Walter Citrine” by Dr Jim Moher
April 14th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
The subtitle of this book is “Forgotten Statesman of the Trades Union Congress”. Now most books and programmes that use the words ‘forgotten’ or ‘unknown’ in their title are usually something of an exaggeration, but not this one. In spite of over 50 years of Labour movement activism (including half of that time as a […]
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How does the current global pandemic compare with the influenza pandemic of 1918?
March 30th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
The influenza pandemic is usually called the Spanish flu. However, it was only called that because it came to the attention of the media more in Spain since this country was neutral and had a freer media than the Great War combatant nations of Britain, France and Germany where the flu was initially prevalent. We […]
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Did you know that, in the Second World War, the British interned Jews on the Isle of Man?
February 20th, 2021 by Roger Darlington
No, neither did I, until I read “Jews Don’t Count” by David Baddiel [my review here]. You can learn more about this internment here.
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A review of the new film “The Trial Of The Chicago 7”
November 11th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
The late 1960s was a terrible time in the United States with race riots and anti-war demonstrations. The film “Detroit” powerfully depicted the outcome of a riot in that city in 1967 and this movie looks at the aftermath of a demonstration in Chicago in 1968. Eight activists – one was severed from the case […]
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