Lise Meitner’s Nuclear Vision
During the Second World War, Berlin scientists discovered nuclear fission. Only one of them got the credit. Why was Lise Meitner written out of history?
Second World War
The US Occupation of Greenland
Strategically important during the Second World War, US soldiers could not wait to leave Greenland.
The British Empire’s Brothels
British servicemen overseas bought sex, sometimes in brothels run by the British army. In the 1970s they began to talk about it.
William Golding’s Island of Savagery
The Second World War disrupted narratives of mankind’s ‘progress’, but – as William Golding captured so vividly in Lord of the Flies – human history has always been a balancing act between enlightenment and calamity.
‘The Maginot Line’ by Kevin Passmore review
The Maginot Line: A New History by Kevin Passmore confronts the myths surrounding the fall of France in 1940.
‘El Generalísimo’ by Giles Tremlett book review
El Generalísimo: Franco: Power, Violence and the Quest for Greatness by Giles Tremlett considers the making of the mediocrity at the heart of modern Spain.
The Smog of War: The Battle for Britain’s Clean Air
The wartime government’s programme of deliberate smoke production was an attempt to protect Britain from the Luftwaffe; for the National Smoke Abatement Society, the decision was a disaster.
The Master and Mikhail Bulgakov
In the chaos unleashed by the October Revolution, Mikhail Bulgakov found a past become fragmented and confused, and history the domain of madmen and devils.
After Hiroshima: The US Occupation of Japan
Following Japan’s unconditional surrender in September 1945, the US aimed to rebuild the nation in its own image – with mixed results.
Charles de Gaulle is Sentenced to Death
Court-martialled in absentia on 2 August 1940, the Vichy regime confiscated de Gaulle’s property and condemned him to death.