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Cowboys: the reality

Some cowboys working / teaxasbeyondhistory.net

Some cowboys working / teaxasbeyondhistory.net

These hard workers guarded cattle and sheep, sometimes horses on the Great Plains of the United States. The work was arduous and the pay little. Cowboys originated in the Spanish ranches on territory originally conquered by the Spanish, especially Mexico. Working on horseback with unpredictable cattle taught them extraordinary skills with horse, lariat (or lassoo) and the branding iron. (more…)

By | 2012-08-21T09:10:32+00:00 August 21st, 2012|History of the Cinema, Spanish History, US History|0 Comments

The Krupp family: influences

A scene from the film The Damned (1969) a story about the Krupp family / todossobre2webcindario.com

A scene from the film The Damned (1969) a story about the Krupp family / todossobre2webcindario.com

The family was based in the industrial Ruhr, in Essen. Their business was founded in a small way, in 1811, and was unable to expand in any significant way until the railway boom of the 1850s. In 1859 Krupps received a big order for cast steel cannon barrels from Prussia. The starter’s gun had gone off.

In a remarkably short time the family firm was the largest supplier of arms in the world. Krupps extended its operations to include mining in the Ruhr and shipbuilding. Socialists will admire the family’s paternalistic philosophy: they introduced a welfare scheme for the workers which included a sickness and burial fund, a pension scheme (in 1855) and a housing fund in 1861. (more…)

By | 2012-08-10T10:07:19+00:00 August 10th, 2012|German History, History of the Cinema, World History|0 Comments

Laurence of Arabia (article revised 2012)

The real Laurence, later he wrote Seven Pillars of Wisdom' / luisantoniodevillena.es

The real Laurence, later he wrote Seven Pillars of Wisdom’ / luisantoniodevillena.es

Thomas Edward Laurence was born in 1888, the son of Thomas Chapman, a member of a distinguished Anglo-Irish family. Thomas had eloped with his daughter’s governess, and settled in Oxford after adopting the name of Laurence. His son gained a First Class Degree in History at the University, and became an enthusiastic archaeologist wen he undertook to make excavations in Syria and Mesopotamia between 1910 and 1914. He learned desert lore from the many Arab friends he made on these scientific expeditions. (more…)

The Fall of France: “for you, the war (of 42 days) is over!”

France´s surrender / learning.blogs.nytimes.com

France´s surrender / learning.blogs.nytimes.com

For many, if not all, of our seasoned history-lovers, the fact that the Second World War might have been over by the middle of 1940 is unknown. But for the dogged determination of certain European nations, Hitler’s Germany could have been the military victor of the War, not just, as has indeed happened, the political and economic leader it has become. The United States need never have entered the War at the end of 1941. Russia could have stayed Russia instead of being under the Soviet yoke until the fall of the Berlin Wall. German could have been the obligatory second language in all European schools. Berlin might have been the capital of a different kind of European Union. To find the reasons why this did not happen we must look at France. (more…)

Virginia & the Virginia Campaigns

At one time a British colony, Virginia is a state in North America that consists of ‘tide-water’ land in the central-Atlantic coastal plain of the United States of America. The waters drain into Chesapeake Bay and Piedmont on the eastern side of the Allegheny Mountains.

    Jamestown was the first permanent British colony, settled in 1607 by the Virginia Company of London, a company given that name by Sir Walter Ralegh in honour of Elizabeth the Virgin Queen. The colonists survived and became prosperous through the growing, sale and shipment of tobacco. ‘White’ tobacco all round the world is still called ‘Virginia’, as opposed to the blackish product originating from Turkey and the Middle East. The name ‘White’ probably comes from the fact that the plant was originally grown and tended by white servants on the farms, but this did not last long. After 1690 tobacco was cultivated (but not owned) by black slaves. (more…)

Bond films that weren’t, thanks to Harry

Caine in The Ipcress File produced by Harry Saltzman / esbilla.wordpress.com

Caine in The Ipcress File produced by Harry Saltzman / esbilla.wordpress.com

We’ve been having a bit of a Michael Caine season recently. We’ve seen the masterpiece Sleuth, the original of course, with old Sir Laurence pitted against young Mr. Caine (a simply dreadful remake was thrust upon us recently). Then there was the even younger Caine in Zulu, in which acted the father of Mr Blair’s terrible wife, name of Anthony Booth, whom I remember as a bit of a drunk, but then who wasn’t in the Sixties? In Zulu Michael Caine produced an false Etonian accent that jarred a bit, but does the stiff-upper-lip well. And then we watched the movies produced by Harry Saltzman that struck a certain note; a certain frisson. What was it about The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain that strikes you and won’t let you go? (more…)

By | 2012-06-27T09:40:24+00:00 June 27th, 2012|History of the Cinema, Philosophy, Today, US History|0 Comments

How much truth is there in fiction?

The shortest, and probably the most effective piece of drama Shakespeare wrote was Macbeth. Even the least educated among us will quote from this play, perhaps without knowing we are doing so. ‘Is this a dagger I see before me?’ ‘And good men’s lives expire before the feathers in their cap,’ ‘Double, double, toil and trouble . . .’ ‘Ring the alarum bell! – Blow wind, come wrack/ At least we’ll die with harness on our back.’ ‘I bear a charméd life, which must not yield/ to one of woman born.’ ‘Despair thy charm/and let the angel whom thou still hast served/tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb/untimely ripped.’ Etcetera. (more…)

The origin of legends

‘Legend has it . . .’ and most of Man’s legends are thousands of years old. The Dragon, for instance, has been around for centuries, in art and tales told by men. Dragons do not exist, that we know for certain, and yet the fable of St. George and his Dragon gave us a patron saint of England who was not actually English, and the dragons appearing in heraldry for more than a thousand years. Did the idea of dragons, as huge lizards with wings and breathing fire come from Neanderthal (and imaginative) man finding fossils of the pterodactyl – which certainly existed – but hundred of millions of years ago. Perhaps the legendary Monster of Loch Ness is a subaqueous dragon. (more…)

History of the Cinema: the first ‘Casino Royale’

David Niven and a catapult / flixist.com

David Niven and a catapult / flixist.com

During the 1960s, determined producers Charlie Feldman and Jerry Bresler set out on a saga that left even Hollywood astonished. They wanted to film the first of the Ian Fleming Bond books, Casino Royale, but they were contractually unable to use the actual story. Therefore they decided to make a spoof Bond film years before Roger Moore actually starred in a whole series of them. (more…)

By | 2012-05-28T07:15:27+00:00 May 28th, 2012|History of the Cinema, Today, US History|0 Comments

Julius Caesar & the Caesars

Julius / ancienthistory.about.com

Julius / ancienthistory.about.com

Gaius Julius Caesar was a successful general and apparently reluctant dictator. He was born into a patrician family around 100 BC and became Pontifex Maximus (a species of high priest) as part of a deal he had fixed up with Pompey (q.v.) and Crassus (the multi-millionaire general). It might have been the Mafia and ‘Chicago BC.

They called this the ‘First Triumvirate’. As consul Gaius Julius obtained the provinces of Illyricum, Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul. Never anything else but a fine general, he conquered Gaul (modern Germany and France), crossed the Rhine, inspired constant loyalty in his troops, and even made to expeditions to heathen, dangerous, unpredictable Britain. (more…)

By | 2012-05-25T13:34:36+00:00 May 25th, 2012|History of Rome, History of the Cinema|0 Comments
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