Only a staff composed of men of military genius, and backed by a decisive and imaginative government at Westminster, could have secured a victory in the American War of Independence. Eric Robson reflects on how men of considerable talent, and of much good-will, failed in an impossible task.
Tim Pat Coogan points the finger of blame for the Great Famine at ministers in Lord Russell’s government, which came to power in 1846, and sees echoes of the disaster in the Republic’s current economic plight.
The ill-fated fortress was opened on February 14th 1938.
The diffusion of wild flowers, thousands of miles from their native places, is a “vegetable record” Geoffrey Grigson suggests, of human migration and colonization.
James Kinross tells the story of the French Foreign Legion, a force famous for fighting in Africa, Russia, Mexico, Indo-China and France itself, as well as across the world.
J.H. Plumb documents the repeated attempts by British explorers and abolitionists to open West Africa for the Empire.
Eric Robson looks at the constitutional background - and legacies - of the American Revolution.
Emile de Groot on the often fractious but ever-intimate relationship between European powers and Egypt.
Arthur Waley on the pioneering French explorer and early scholar of Indian culture.
T.H. McGuffe analyses the failure of Admiral Byng to relieve the besieged British forces against French onslaught.
