Lincoln
Steven Spielberg’s film Lincoln has been praised by the critics and nominated for 12 Oscars. Daniel Day-Lewis won the Best Actor BAFTA for his portrayal of President Abraham Lincoln. Fans of war films...
View ArticleArgo: The Truth
Argo, directed by and starring Ben Affleck, was voted best picture at this year’s Oscars. It tells the story of how Tony Mendez (Affleck), a CIA agent succeeded in helping six US diplomats to escape...
View ArticleMI6 and the Media: Document, BBC Radio 4
The latest programme in the BBC radio series Document dealt with alleged links between MI6, as the organisation officially called the Secret Intelligence Service is popularly known, and the British...
View ArticleThe Spies Who Fooled the World – BBC
On 18 March 2013, the BBC broadcast a documentary called The Spies Who Fooled the World as part of its Panorama current affairs series. The spies in question were those whose claims that Saddam...
View ArticleThe Gatekeepers
The Gatekeepers is a documentary film about Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service, made by Dror Moreh. It consisted of interviews with the six living former heads of Shin Bet, interspersed...
View ArticleFascist Scotland – Gavin Bowd – Aye Write
On Saturday 20 April I attended a talk by Gavin Bowd on his book Fascist Scotland, given at Aye Write! Glasgow’s Book Festival. Gavin Bowd is a St Andrews University lecturer, albeit in French rather...
View ArticleChristopher Clark and Charles Emerson – Aye Write
On April 20 2013 I attended an event titled The Road to War, held as part of Aye Write! Glasgow’s Book Festival. Two authors, Christopher Clark and Charles Emerson, talked about their latest books,...
View ArticleThe Iraq War Part 2 – BBC2
Last night the BBC broadcast the second episode in its three part series on the Iraq War. The first episode, shown last week, dealt with the decisions that led to war. The BBC website describes this...
View ArticleThe Iraq War Part 3 – BBC2
The BBC broadcast the final episode of its three part series on The Iraq War on 12 June. I was away at the time, so have only just watched it. I previously blogged about the first episode, dealing with...
View ArticleChurchill’s First World War – BBC4
On 30 July 2013 BBC4 broadcast a documentary called Churchill’s First World War. The BBC website describes it as follows: Drama-documentary about Winston Churchill’s extraordinary experiences during...
View ArticleThe Silent War Part 1 – BBC
On 5 December 2013 the BBC broadcast the first episode of a two-part series called The Silent War, which dealt with a secret underwater espionage war that the UK and USA fought against the USSR during...
View ArticleThe Silent War Part 2 BBC
On 12 December 2013 the BBC broadcast the second episode of a two-part series called The Silent War, which dealt with a secret underwater espionage war that the UK and USA fought against the USSR...
View Article1914: Day by Day: BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 today started broadcasting a series of daily programmes in which the Canadian historian Prof. Margaret MacMillan gives a five minute summary of the news from each day from 27 June 1914 up...
View ArticleMonth of Madness – BBC Radio 4
BBC radio has just broadcast a series of five 15 minute episodes about the Month of Madness that led to the First World War. It was presented and written by Professor Christopher Clark, author of The...
View ArticleThe Naval Arms Race Before 1914
In 1914, the British Royal Navy (RN) had dominated the world’s oceans for over a century. There were, according to Paul Halpern, periods in the nineteenth century when the ‘innovative’ French navy was...
View ArticleThe Assassination of the Archduke – Sue Woolmans
I recently attended an Edinburgh Book Festival presentation by Sue Woolmans about a book that she has written along with Greg King, The Assassination of the Archduke: Sarajevo 1914 and the Murder that...
View ArticleNapoleon Returns from Elba
The first of three posts describing Napoleon’s 100 Days, completing series on posts on the 200th anniversary of major events of the Napoleonic Wars. Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba after...
View ArticleA Very British Deterrent – BBC
The BBC recently broadcast a programme called A Very British Deterrent. UK viewers can watch it until 4 October from the BBC website, which describes it as follows: ‘With Trident renewed for another...
View ArticleBritain, Mosul and Oil
My book on Britain’s Quest for Oil: World War I during the WWI and at the subsequent peace conferences will soon be published by Helion. The link below is to a post I wrote for Helion’s blog about...
View ArticleU-boats, the Zimmermann Telegram and the US Entry into the War
On 22 December 1916 Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff, the Chief of the Admiralty Staff of the Imperial German Navy, sent Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg, the Chief of the General Staff, the last of a...
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