NB: A timely reminder of the vulnerability of historiography to ideology. There are some among us who wish to ‘rectify’ history; whose resentment at the past can never be satiated, neither by revising textbooks nor by bulldozing the homes of the poor. Their emotional affliction is best described by Friedrich Nietzsche: The will cannot will… Read More Narayani Gupta: The problem with cherry-picking facts from history
A brilliant study of corruption by power, more specifically of the willingness of the German elites to chummy up to the psychotic vileness of the Third Reich. This is an account of clubs, diplomatic receptions and parties, but one shot through with a scholarly analysis of the nature of sociability, elitism and luxury in a… Read More Vases, Tea Sets, Cigars, His Own Watercolours: High Society in the Third Reich
The years leading up to the declaration of war between the Axis and Allied powers in 1939 were tumultuous times for people across the globe. The Great Depression had started a decade before, leaving much of the world unemployed and desperate. Nationalism was sweeping through Germany, and it chafed against the punitive measures of the… Read More ALAN TAYLOR – Historic photos of World War II: Before the War
Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, April 23, 2022 Climate Change 2022 Report: Act Now to Avert Catastrophic Events | K N Ninan Earth Day re-emphasizes need for resolving the survival crisis | Bharat Dogra Making Sense of IMF’s Institutional View on Capital Flows | Kavaljit Singh Jammu and Kashmir: Tenth Report Of The Concerned Citizens’ Group Alas, Hindi… Read More Mainstream, April 23, 2022 / Ramjas History students bid farewell to retiring teacher
A historical study of the opium and heroin trade and its political context, based on primary and secondary sources, including interviews with some of the key players of the developments in Indochina in the 1950s through 1970s. Alfred W. McCoy; The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Central… Read More Book review: Alfred McCoy on the Politics of Heroin & CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade
My beloved friend Ajay Singh’s book will be released today, April 20, 2022; at 6.30 pm at the Indian International Centre. Hon’ble Kunwar Natwar Singh will launch the book. Three other speakers will be Mr. K C Tyagi, Mr. Bhai Chand Patel and me. All are cordially invited. Ajay Singh (1950-2020). RIP Beloved comrade and… Read More Ajay Singh: Fiji – A Love Story
To the motives for war in human history, capitalism added another: profit. That motive drove technological advancement and created a genuine world economy. It also built new capitalist empires such as the Spanish, Dutch, British, French, Belgian, Russian, German, Japanese, and American empires. Each of these countries built its empire by various means including wars… Read More Richard Wolffe: The Role of Capitalism in the War in Ukraine
Margaret Thatcher hated the ‘British Bastard Corporation’, as her husband liked to call it. Coverage of the Falklands War was an inevitable flashpoint, with Thatcher raging against reporters’ references to ‘British’ forces rather than ‘our’ troops. The tabloid press sensed an opportunity to put the boot in, with the Sun wheeling out the tiredest of tropes by… Read More Books reviewed: Beebology, or the history of the ‘British Bastard Corporation’
The same cabal of warmongering pundits, foreign policy specialists and government officials, year after year, debacle after debacle, smugly dodge responsibility for the military fiascos they orchestrate. They are protean, shifting adroitly with the political winds, moving from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party and then back again, mutating from cold warriors to neocons… Read More Chris Hedges: The Pimps of War
Whatever else the Second World War was about, it was, on both sides, a war for empire. Taking a global view leads to a different picture of the war. For example, when did it begin? Most English speakers would say 1939, with Germany’s invasion of Poland. But by then Japan had already been at continuous war… Read More A New History of the Second World War
After the truth-shower 