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.
Interwar period
The Hatry Group Collapse
Charles Hatry’s fraudulent business empire collapsed on 20 September 1929. It was the biggest crash the London stock market had ever seen.
Europe’s Strangest Special Relationship
The historical partnership between Germany and Turkey is arguably the most paradoxical, if unavoidable, in modern Europe.
Golden Horses, Red Square
In 1935 Turkmen farmers rode their horses 4,300 kilometres across the Soviet Union to impress Moscow.
‘Margaret Bondfield’ by Nan Sloane review
Margaret Bondfield: The Life and Times of Britain’s First Female Cabinet Minister by Nan Sloane illuminates an overlooked trailblazer of the Labour movement.
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.
‘Blood Dawn’ by Hans van de Ven review
Blood Dawn: World War II and the Making of Modern Asia by Hans van de Ven finds Japanese grievance and ambition in the eye of the storm.
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.
Britain’s Titled Fascists
The British countryside of the 1930s was a happy hunting ground for the British Union of Fascists, where recruits sometimes came with titles and estates.
‘The Edge of Revolution’, ‘Britain’s Revolutionary Summer’, and ‘Nine Days in May’ review
What can three recent books – The Edge of Revolution by David Torrance, Britain’s Revolutionary Summer by Edd Mustill, and Nine Days in May by Jonathan Schneer – tell us about the General Strike of 1926?