Cold War Archives - Aspects of History

An Axe and Four Balloons, by Tim Spicer

A new biography of a forgotten special forces hero, Brian Franks, who played a role both during and after the war and is credited as having saved the SAS. .

Greg Lewis

In August 1944, a special forces unit, including five men from the SAS, dropped into the Vosges mountains to harass German forces as they retreated through eastern France. They found themselves fighting alongside a shambolic network of Resistance groups in valleys and...

The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the Forbidden City, by Paul French

A vivid portrait of Puyi and Wanrong’s years within the Forbidden City, drawing on newly uncovered sources to illuminate the intrigues, relationships and upheaval that characterise the twilight of imperial China.

Trevor James

One of the delights of book reviewing is to encounter a work that is so compelling that the reviewer reads it continuously rather than in stages; and another is that it often introduces one to entirely new perspectives. In The Last Emperor of China: Twilight of the...

Oneworld Books

Oneworld is an award-winning independent publisher of ambitious non-fiction. Our history list includes acclaimed and bestselling titles such as Black Tudors and A History of Britain in 21 Women.

Casemate Publishers

Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on Amazon From the Publisher Oneworld was founded in 1986 by husband and wife team Juliet Mabey and Novin Doostdar as an independent publishing house focusing on stimulating...

Episode 283

Episode 282

Reds: A Global History of Communism, by Paul Mason

Α compelling account of an idea that has survived its political failures tracing communism from Plato and Thomas More through revolution, authoritarianism and the rise of contemporary China while asking what lessons its past holds for the present.

Daria Santini

In the epigraph to his previous book, How to Stop Fascism (2021), Paul Mason recalls the anti-fascist lawyer and political scientist Karl Loewenstein's observation that "history teaches us the deathlessness of ideas". The quotation encapsulates a view of history...

Lieutenant Colonel Brian Franks: Remarkable, Heroic but Largely Unknown

In his new biography, An Axe and Four Balloons, the author introduces the man who saved the SAS

Tim Spicer

Unbelievably, most people have probably never heard of Brian Franks until now. Loved by officers and soldiers alike, he was tough, capable, charismatic and charming, and David Stirling credited him as being one of the five founding fathers of the SAS. Yet...

Reds: A Global History of Communism – A Conversation with Paul Mason

The historian examines with Daria Santini the deep historical roots of communism, the push and pull between Utopian ideals and authoritarianism, and the continued relevance of past communist movements in an era of Chinese ascendancy and debate over alternatives to capitalism.

Paul Mason

Welcome, Paul, to Aspects of History. Why did you choose to begin Reds: A Global History of Communism in antiquity rather than with Marx, Engels, or the Russian revolution? What do we miss when we treat communism as a purely modern phenomenon? Because before it was a...

Leadership, Vision and the Making of the Post-War Order – In Conversation with James Holland

A timely reflection on his latest book, the Chalke Festival supremo, historian and broadcaster explores how the moral clarity and internationalism of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman shaped the post-war order – and why their example may offer urgent lessons for today.

James Holland

It is little over a year since Donald Trump stood in the White House Rose Garden and announced a raise in tariffs on foreign imports into the US for nearly every country in the world. ‘Liberation Day’ as he branded 2nd April 2025, and the fall-out from it, was the...

The Voice from the Well

Sixty years on from Indonesia’s anti-Communist purge, a British propaganda campaign demonstrates how fabricated voices, forged documents and psychological warfare helped grease the wheels of regime change against Sukarno.

Rory Cormac

“Subandrio! Subandrio! Subandrio! Can you hear us Subandrio? Of course you can! For you can never close your ears to our voices. The voices you tried to smother in the Well. The voices of us the dead. Those voices will always ring in your ears, calling you a traitor...