Tag: History

The Revolutionary Temper by Robert Darnton review – a nation at breaking point

The ancien regime”, as applied to 18th-century France, always sounds like such a solid proposition. It speaks of arbitrary power, stiffened with protocol, girded by gold, topped by a dusting of icing sugar (you could always spot a noble by their terrible teeth) and utterly stuck in its ways. Until, that is, revolution arrived in 1789… Read More The Revolutionary Temper by Robert Darnton review – a nation at breaking point

Dilip

Israel has long wanted Palestinians out of Gaza: my father saw it first-hand

Events point to Israel’s strategy of emptying the north of Gaza of its Palestinian population, with both the massive bombardment that has damaged at least 222,000 residential units, and the refusal to accept a ceasefire so essential life-saving provisions cannot enter. All this shows the massive pressure on the Palestinian population to move south, thus ethnically… Read More Israel has long wanted Palestinians out of Gaza: my father saw it first-hand

Dilip

Unit 731 Museum Harbin, China: the Japanese Army site for ‘medical experimentation’ on prisoners of war

First posted May 04, 2020 Unit 731 Museum: UNIT 731 was a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development wing of the Imperial Japanese Army that undertook lethal human experimentation during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and World War II. Commanded by General Shiro Ishii, an officer in the Kwantung Army, the exact number… Read More Unit 731 Museum Harbin, China: the Japanese Army site for ‘medical experimentation’ on prisoners of war

Dilip

Debora MacKenzie: End of nations – is there an alternative to countries?

First posted October 01, 2016 Try, for a moment, to envisage a world without countries. Imagine a map not divided into neat, coloured patches, each with clear borders, governments, laws. Try to describe anything our society does – trade, travel, science, sport, maintaining peace and security – without mentioning countries. Try to describe yourself: you have… Read More Debora MacKenzie: End of nations – is there an alternative to countries?

Dilip

Diana Muir Appelbaum: Rootless Roma: The benefits of nationalism, as illustrated by its absence

First posted July 04, 2017 At the core of the Roma’s troubles is the fact that they are a people without a land – but with a twist. To say that a people is without a land can mean at least three things. It can mean that, for one reason or another, a people does… Read More Diana Muir Appelbaum: Rootless Roma: The benefits of nationalism, as illustrated by its absence

Dilip

The Roots of Antigypsyism. To the Holocaust and After

NB: The victims of the death camps whom most of us don’t know or talk about. DS Ian Hancock Di zelbike zun vos farvayst di layvnt,farshvartst oykh’m Tsigayner. – “The same sun that whitens the linen also turns the Gypsy black.” – Yiddish proverb “One exhibit [at the Holocaust Museum at Buchenwald] quotes SS chief Heinrich Himmler… Read More The Roots of Antigypsyism. To the Holocaust and After

Dilip

Israel’s Million-dollar Question: What to Do With the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Carolina Landsmann This column isn’t about Hamas. It doesn’t address the question of what Hamas wants and doesn’t try to put the events of October 7 into their historical context, much less into their moral context. What’s theirs is theirs. This column also isn’t about the more general question of what the Palestinians want and… Read More Israel’s Million-dollar Question: What to Do With the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Dilip

Decades of U.S. war crimes led to what Israel is doing in Gaza

We have both been reporting on and protesting against U.S. war crimes for many years, and against identical crimes committed by U.S. allies and proxies like Israel and Saudi Arabia: illegal uses of military force to try to remove enemy governments or “regimes”; hostile military occupations; disproportionate military violence justified by claims of “terrorism”; the… Read More Decades of U.S. war crimes led to what Israel is doing in Gaza

Dilip