Tag: History

Thom Hartmann: Myths and lies about Afghanistan's role in 9/11 live on, Bush and Cheney escape justice / Karen Greenberg: The Endless Shadow of the War on Terror

NB: For many decades now, the world has been held hostage by the American election cycle, and the criminal tendencies of American Presidents. Our short memories, our weakness in resisting propaganda; and the degeneration of journalism into op-ed commentary by spin-doctors have contributed to this. The rise of violent Islamist movements has a great deal to… Read More Thom Hartmann: Myths and lies about Afghanistan's role in 9/11 live on, Bush and Cheney escape justice / Karen Greenberg: The Endless Shadow of the War on Terror

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Book review: Approach to Battle: Training the Indian Army during the Second World War

Approach to Battle is an excellent and meticulously researched narrative of pure vanilla military history. It explores the transformation of the Indian Army from a bloated, undertrained, and poorly led force during World War I and the early years of World War II into a fighting machine that gave the British Empire one of its most… Read More Book review: Approach to Battle: Training the Indian Army during the Second World War

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Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann – Repetition and rupture: Reinhart Koselleck, theorist of history

In the summer of 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War, the British historian Eric Hobsbawm travelled to the British occupation zone of Germany to re-educate young Germans. A recent graduate of King’s College, Cambridge, where he had also joined the Communist Party, Hobsbawm was working on his PhD dissertation and… Read More Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann – Repetition and rupture: Reinhart Koselleck, theorist of history

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Partha Chatterjee: No one, not even Indians, can claim to be part of an ancient nation

There are no ancient nations anywhere in the world. All nations (rāstra) are modern. Ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, ancient China, ancient India – all of them may have had great civilisations whose architecture, art, and literature are objects of admiration. But they were not nations. To realise this truth, you will have to forget for the… Read More Partha Chatterjee: No one, not even Indians, can claim to be part of an ancient nation

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Jonathan Steele: I came to Russia a political correspondent and left a crime reporter // Rafael Behr: 30 years after the Moscow coup, democracy is in a crisis of self-esteem

When Jonathan Steele moved to Moscow for the Guardian in 1988, the story of Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms was getting “hotter and hotter”. But with all the restrictions on foreign journalists in the Soviet Union, the question was how to report it. The sources were mainly local journalists authorised to speak to foreigners or dissidents. The… Read More Jonathan Steele: I came to Russia a political correspondent and left a crime reporter // Rafael Behr: 30 years after the Moscow coup, democracy is in a crisis of self-esteem

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Major Danny Sjursen, US Army (retd) – A Life and Nation Transformed: 20 Years from the War on Terror

Being a member of the US Army wasn’t all that dangerous before America set off on its quixotic post-9/11 adventures. This was no longer the case when I was serving at the height of both “surges” to nowhere-but-failure in 2007 (Iraq) and 2011 (Afghanistan). During a 2007 spent driving down Baghdad’s bomb-laden streets and dallying around… Read More Major Danny Sjursen, US Army (retd) – A Life and Nation Transformed: 20 Years from the War on Terror

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Ramachandra Guha: महान गांधीवादी की स्मृति, गांधी जी के सचिव महादेव देसाई की कहानी / Remembering the Greatest Gandhian

महात्मा गांधी के सचिव महादेव देसाई का 15 अगस्त, 1942 को निधन हो गया। अपने अंतिम दिनों में जब गांधी को एक ओर हिंदू-मुसलमान तनाव को दूर करने और दूसरी ओर नेहरू और पटेल की बढ़ती दूरियों को कम करने के प्रयास करने पड़ रहे थे, तब उन्होंने कहा था कि महादेव होते तो यह… Read More Ramachandra Guha: महान गांधीवादी की स्मृति, गांधी जी के सचिव महादेव देसाई की कहानी / Remembering the Greatest Gandhian

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August 6 & 9, Hiroshima & Nagasaki: Mythmaking and Atomic Destruction / Blinded by the Light: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Jacques Pauwels: Mythmaking and the Atomic Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki    Truman and his advisors thus fell under the spell of what the renowned American historian William Appleman Williams has called a “vision of omnipotence”. They convinced themselves that the new weapon would enable them to force their will on the Soviet Union. The… Read More August 6 & 9, Hiroshima & Nagasaki: Mythmaking and Atomic Destruction / Blinded by the Light: Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki

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