The FBI and the Nazi Spies
In 1938 a sensational spy trial exposed a Nazi plot to seduce and blackmail US officers. Despite America’s technological might, counterintelligence had been slow on the uptake.
USA
‘The Rise and Fall of American Europe’ by Glyn Morgan review
The Rise and Fall of American Europe by Glyn Morgan finds a continent powerless before a capricious United States. Is it too late to teach an old world new tricks?
Crimped by the Prince of Shanghai
Sailors looking for work in the 19th century risked getting crimped – or shanghaied – and caught in a whirlpool of exploitation and corruption.
1936’s Promise of Peace: Roosevelt on Campaign
In August 1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a boldly pacifist campaign speech, promising no American would have to go to war. It had seemed a realistic promise.
Party in the USA: The 1976 Bicentennial in Boston
In 1976 Boston saw the bicentennial celebrations of the United States as an opportunity to revitalise the city.
‘Liberal Worlds’ by H.S. Jones review
Liberal Worlds: James Bryce and the Democratic Intellect by H.S. Jones explores the lost world and writing of a formerly eminent Victorian.
Disputing the Declaration of Independence
That the United States declared its independence in July 1776 is well known; that the British state commissioned, but never published, a counter-declaration is not.
H.P. Lovecraft: Haunted by History
H.P. Lovecraft asked us to imagine a much deeper past than modern comforts and science allow us to perceive — and the monsters that might dwell there.
The Rise and Fall of Snake Oil
Over the course of the 19th century snake oil transformed from folk remedy, to industrial medicine, to notorious fake.
The End of USAID
In the postwar era bounteous US foreign aid reshaped the world, for better or worse. With the culling of USAID those days are over.