20th C Archives - Aspects of History

I’m done with po-faced politicians

Why can’t we go back to 1983?

By 10pm on the night of 9th June 1983 BBC Television centre was humming. In Studio Two, amid a beige version of the set from Alien, David Dimbleby and Robin Day were about to start the election results show, though everybody already knew Thatcher was going to walk it....

The King’s touch

Princess Diana’s powers are underappreciated.

Phil Craig

The King’s touch “Of course you’ve read Marc Bloch on this?” I was tempted to say “Yes” but it was never a good idea to bullshit Christopher Hitchens, who’d read everything. We were well into a languid, discursive Dupont Circle lunch. The kind that left me muddled and...

Phil Craig

Phil Craig is a best selling author and multiple-award-winning film-maker, producer and TV network executive.A former RAF cadet pilot, Phil studied history at Cambridge University, was a BBC graduate trainee and built his career working for iconic British current affairs series World in Action and Panorama, where he became senior producer. Later he became joint head of programmes at the prestigious Brook Lapping production company, where he made a range of contemporary and historical films for the BBC, Channel Four, PBS in America, Discovery, Nat Geo and numerous other international clients. He went on to run departments at the Discovery Channel and at ABC Television in Australia, where he supervised the entire factual output of the national broadcaster including its high profile ANZAC centenary project in 2015.

Phil Craig

Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on Amazon Articles Click on the links below to read the full article [dpdfg_filtergrid custom_query="advanced" multiple_cpt="post,short_stories" use_taxonomy_terms="on"...

Phil Craig

The bestselling historian discusses his history, influences and his latest book.

Phil Craig

What first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? I was a 60s child and brought up on Airfix models, the Air Training Corps and Victor comics, so the Second World War obsessed me, especially the Battle of Britain. When I was about 40 the BBC asked me to...

Hitler’s People, Richard Evans Interview

Richard Evans is a prominent historian of the Second World War and famously appeared as a key witness at the 2000 libel trial brought by David Irving against Penguin Books and Deborah Lipstadt.

Richard Evans

Hitler’s People, Richard Evans Interview In his new book, historian Richard Evans has selected twenty-four Nazis, examined the historiography, and written biographies on each in an attempt to understand why they did what they did. The traditional view post-War is that...

The Battle for Aachen

The battle of Aachen was one of the hardest fought of the war, and destroyed much of the city, though thankfully not the cathedral.

Philip W. Blood

Writing the history of one’s hometown is no small feat, even after living and studying its history for 25 years. Aachen became my home in October 1999, when I was invited to teach at RWTH-Aachen University during my PhD studies. The university was already an esteemed...

History at a Precipice: 1923

Did the Weimar Republic fall in isolation, or could the imperial powers of France and Britain have been a little more helpful to a struggling democracy?

Mark Jones

History at a Precipice: 1923 Few topics are as important as ‘rise of the Nazis’. How did a man like Hitler, a loner with few friends and followers, end up becoming German Chancellor and Führer of the twentieth century’s most brutal dictatorship? The Weimar Republic is...

Arnhem

The heroic stand at Arnhem bridge became legendary, despite Operation Market Garden’s failure due to logistical flaws and missed opportunities.

Saul David

The 1st British Airborne Division was very disappointed to miss out on D-Day and the Normandy invasion. A few months later they fought with distinction at a battle that would later lead the participants to say proudly, ‘I fought at Arnhem.’ At 11.30 a.m. on Sunday l7...

Who Dares Wins: Ben Macintyre on the Iranian Embassy Siege

Ben Macintyre, the bestselling author, sat down with our editor to discuss one of the most stunning events broadcast live on TV.

Ben Macintyre

Who Dares Wins: Ben Macintyre on the Iranian Embassy Siege When members of the Democratic Revolutionary Front for the Liberation of Arabistan (DRFLA) bundled PC Keith Lock into the doorway of 16 Prince’s Gate and captured the Iranian Embassy, taking 26 people hostage,...

Churchill’s Citadel, by Katherine Carter

This is a book about much more than a house. It’s a book about the headquarters of a resistance movement.

Alec Marsh

Churchill’s Citadel, by Katherine Carter You may have read all 911 pages, excluding notes or index, of Roy Jenkin’s magisterial biography of Winston Churchill, which after 20 years remains incredibly sound. There is also a good chance that you’ve read Andrew Robert’s...