The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
It seems apt that the paperback edition of Andrew Lambert’s gripping analysis in No More Napoleons should be published as Britain’s contribution to the preservation of the security of the continent of Europe, and indeed the wider world, is under debate and our very...
Andrew Lambert, in No More Napoleons, you describe Britain’s strategy between 1815 and 1914 as “book-ended by existential total wars”. What prompted you to reconsider the 19th century not as an age of complacency, but instead a hundred years of vigilance? The tendency...
While it is often thought that British military engagement in northwestern Europe ended with Waterloo in 1815 and resumed, a century later, with the First World War in 1914 – with a few periods of invasion anxiety surfacing around the middle of the 19th century –the...
Geoffrey – welcome to Aspects of History. Talk us through the story that led to you compiling and editing this collection of Kathleen Harriman’s letters together. As the tragedy of the 9/11 terror attacks unfolded, I was in the Library of Congress, combing through the...
"It is with heavy heart that I tell you we have to cease fighting. Last night, I asked our adversary whether he was prepared, between soldiers, after the struggle and in honour, to seek a way to end hostilities." These were the words of France’s new prime minister,...
The subtitle of this book is ‘Anglo American Rivalry and the hidden story of the Normandy Campaign’ and the theme is American political and military machinations to ensure that Allied strategy in the Second World War was diverted to the support of American interests...
My recent book Who Will Rescue Us? represents over ten years of historical research on a group of primarily Jewish children who fled Nazi Germany and Austria. The goals of my study were multiple: I wanted to grasp- to the extent possible- what it felt like to be a...
Imagine driving along a quiet countryside road in England or Germany. It is a sunny day, and the surroundings are calm, with only the sound of the car’s engine, birdsong, and the occasional gust of wind. Then you see a detour near a town or in a remote area pointing...
This book is a marvellous read, emotional and yet educative, clearly the result of extensive research, and you have a particular interest in British and German history. But one wonders, what sparked the idea for such work? Thank you, that’s very kind of you to say!...
