The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The numbers are grim. Worldwide, nearly five million have contracted Covid-19; nearly 320,000 have died from it. Public health experts caution that those numbers are certainly undercounts. Some deaths are mistakenly attributed to underlying conditions, not...
She looked like royalty, or so thought many guests at the sight of Dolley Madison in her velvet inaugural gown and velvet and white satin turban with towering bird-of-paradise feathers. In full naval regalia, the head of the Navy Yard led her into the hall at Long’s...
Robert Child, how did you come to write the book? After all, it is an important story that needs to be told. I had written and produced a film for National Geographic called, The Wereth Eleven, about black soldiers in World War II which subsequently became a...
The immediate hook is the film of the Robert Harris novel, Munich: The Edge of War – and its obvious agenda to rescue Chamberlain for history. You will remember, especially if you have seen the film - which has been available on Netflix from last weekend - that...
British Heroes of the Holocaust What would I have done? What could I have done? The approach of Holocaust Memorial Day prompts us to remember the millions of victims, their suffering and the brutality and squalor amid which they were murdered. But it should also...
Peter Hughes, your specialisation in the madness of crowds seems to be the motivating factor in your writing this book – is that right? While the specific issues that stir the madness of crowds, from statues and gender identity to ‘stolen’ elections, may vary, there...
I must own up to a long preoccupation with Berlin. This began with my first foray to the then beleaguered city. It was in 1961 and I was a young platoon commander in the Rhine Army, given responsibility with my soldiers for the safe passage of a resupply train for the...
The Story of Berlin One of the great European cities, even before the fall of the wall Berlin has been unique in Germany. The author of a new history of the city describes its exceptional nature within the wider German state. ‘Berlin is home to such an audacious set...
The Oak Door of Aberffraw In spring 1283 the armies of Edward I stormed into Gwynedd. This was the final drama in a very long war: for 200 years, the princes of Gwynedd had attempted to forge a united Wales in the teeth of resistance from the English crown. They...
Edward I & Wales After two centuries of conflict between the Welsh princes and the English crown, Edward I finally conquered Wales in the latter half of the 13th century. Edward – better known to many by the epithet ‘Longshanks’ – had accomplished something which...
