Archive for the ‘History’ Category
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 […]
Posted in History, Science & technology | Comments (0)
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 […]
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
A review of “China’s War With Japan 1937-1945” by Rana Mitter
November 5th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
The Second World War is generally thought to be clearly delineated as taking place from 1939-1945, although the two major allied nations – the Soviet Union and the United States – did not enter the conflict until 1941. For China, though, the Second World War can be seen as a major period in a wider […]
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Ever heard of the rape of Nanjing?
October 20th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
In 1931, Japan occupied a whole swath of north-east China called Manchuria. Then, in 1937, the Japanese moved to occupy as much as possible of the more-populated parts of China. At this time, the capital of China was Nanjing and, over six weeks from mid December 1937 to mid January 1938, Japanese troops occupied the […]
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Which countries suffered the greatest death tolls in the Second World War?
October 8th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
World War Two was the deadliest conflict in history. An estimated 70-85 million people perished. But some countries suffered very much more than others. Precise figures are impossible to determine and new research has revised some previous estimates. For the purpose of this blog posting, I am going to use figures from the Wikipedia page […]
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A review of “The Eight Hundred”, a controversial film on the battle for Shanghai in 1937
October 6th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
For more than seven decades, the American, British and Russian film industries have given us one war movie after another representing the successes of their nations in the Second World War. Now that the Chinese film sector is such a powerhouse, it is understandable that it would want to get in on the act. The […]
Posted in Cultural issues, History | Comments (0)
“Presidents & Prime Ministers: What Makes Great Leaders In Times Of Crisis?”
September 16th, 2020 by Roger Darlington
This was the title of a talk given this week by Mark Malcolmson, Principal of the City Literary Institute in London, which I was able to attend online. Mark structured his address around three principles of leadership. Having a clear sense of what is right He cited as examples of this Gerald Ford’s pardoning of […]
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What did you do in the coronavirus lockdown, granddad? Well, one of the things I did was deliver over 30 online history lessons.
July 22nd, 2020 by Roger Darlington
When the country was suddenly plunged into lockdown and schools had to close their doors to most of their students, I was asked if I would help out with my nine year old granddaughter by doing an online history lesson with her once a week. When a young friend heard about this, she asked if […]
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