US History – Page 15 – General History

Bond films that weren’t, thanks to Harry

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

Puritans

Pioneering pilgrim Puritans / endtimepilgrim.org

These Godless days, the word ‘Puritan’ has come to be more of an adjective than a collective term. ‘Mr Brown had rather a Puritan nature’ said the newspapers of the dignified but unelected English Prime Minister. Given his childhood in a Scottish manse, his nature should come as no surprise.

Puritans, however, were English Protestants of an extreme nature, by no means satisfied with settlements made by the recently established Anglican Church. Deep hatred of anything smelling of incense, incensed your typical Puritan. He or she desired absolute ‘purity’ within the Church of England – no Popery, no Jargon. Catholic elements needed expulsion. There is some irony to be found here, because as we know the Anglican Church was founded for political reasons encouraged by an impure, lusty and cruel monarch. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-06-25T08:16:19+00:00 June 25th, 2012|English History, English Language, French History, Scottish history, US History, World History|0 Comments

The Thirteen Colonies (or should it be fourteen?)

If you are a crow, living in the United States of America, and on a whim you decided to fly directly north to the northernmost part, from the southernmost part of the most southerly of the original Thirteen Colonies on the eastern seaboard, you would cover 750 kilometres or 500 miles. Though I am not a crow, I have done the journey in a Chevolet Impala (not mine) at a time when the President of the USA found it convenient, safer and cheaper for Americans to drive no faster than 55 m.p.h., even on the finest roads in the world. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-06-13T10:45:14+00:00 June 13th, 2012|English History, English Language, Today, US History, World History|2 Comments

History of the Commonwealth of Nations

Mistakes made by leaders of powerful countries have been legion throughout history. Enormous losses in the human and animal races have been the result. It is arguable that had George V of England and Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany not disliked each other, and had had more control over the ambitions of their respective political leaders, there would not have been a First World War. Again, if Blair, Aznar and Barroso had exhibited more guts on that island in the Azores, they might have persuaded George Bush Jun. to stop telling himself and them what he (and they) knew to be a lie – that Saddam was storing massively dangerous secret weapons in Iraq – and better methods than medieval ones could have been used to depose a dictator. And 100,000 Iraquies would not have died, nor nearly 4000 young servicemen and women from the USA. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-06-09T10:31:18+00:00 June 9th, 2012|African History, Asian History, English History, German History, History of New Zealand, History of the Low Countries, Russian history, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

The EU? Nothing but a big bully

In Greece the 1967 coup d’état drove King Constantine of the Hellenes and his family first to Rome, and then the comparatively Arcadian peace of London, where his British royal cousins took him in. He was all right, but Greece was not. A regiment of crypto-socialist colonels threw out the Greek monarchy. It became known as ‘The Regime of the Colonels’. The fragile monarchy itself was abolished in 1973.

A civilian republic was set up in 1974. In the 1981 general election Andreas Papandreu was the first real socialist to become Prime Minister, and he was in office until 1989, which gave plenty of time and licence to politicians, bankers and other members of the ruling classes to establish themselves in the seats of power and privilege they craved. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-05-30T10:02:29+00:00 May 30th, 2012|Greek History, Today, US History|0 Comments

Three Roman Emperors: Hadrian, Tiberius & Julian

A rather imaginative impression of Tiberius / biography.com

Publius Aelius Hadrianus was born just seventy-six years after the birth of Christ, his birthplace Spain, or what was then the Iberian Peninsula. Member of a patrician family, he was actually the ward of the Emperor Trajan. As Emperor he was a cultivated admirer of Greek civilization and tradition, which helped him unify and consolidate Rome’s enormous Empire. As a poet and writer he was prolific and talented, and his study of the science of architecture produced theories and practices which have endured. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-05-28T13:26:29+00:00 May 28th, 2012|Greek History, History of Rome, Italian History, US History|0 Comments

History of the Cinema: the first ‘Casino Royale’

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

History of the Cinema: ‘The Wild Geese’

A scene with a crossbow from The Wild Geese / gamand fishmag.gov.uk

In 1978 ‘the last gentleman producer’ Euan Lloyd made one of the funniest films on record. It was not meant to be funny. The theme was well-tried; a group of retired ex-mercenaries (convicts, special servicemen, cops, gangsters etc.) are rounded up by the star and persuaded to stage one more robbery (war, racetrack heist, bank hold-up etc.). The Dirty Dozen, The Sting, The Wild Bunch are good examples of this style of film.

The Wild Geese was special because Mr Lloyd had gathered to his bosom a group of popular ancients of British Cinema. They were supposed to be old buddies from some kind of SAS-type special force. The problem is that the word ‘old’ is too appropriate. The audience in the cinema in which I had chosen to watch this masterpiece howled with laughter as the methusalehs donned military uniform plus ill-fitting berets and started with a training session in the countryside that would have killed the lot of them in one morning. Starting with the stars, here is the casting list: (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-05-22T10:17:18+00:00 May 22nd, 2012|History of the Cinema, Humour, Today, US History, World History|1 Comment

Sicily & the ‘Sicilian Vespers’

Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean Sea, in the southernmost part of Italy, opposite ‘the toe of the boot’. The island is separated from the Calabrian mainland by the Strait of Messina, which is only two miles wide. Most of the island is mountainous, with permanently snow-capped volcanic Etna dominating everything.

Wide plains are found in the south, though the region is still hilly in parts. Here vineyards, olive and almond trees are in abundance, though agriculture is difficult due to extremes of heat, damp and cold. To the north are the volcanic islands of Ustica and the Liparis, as well as Stromboli, the most continuously active volcano in Europe. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-05-19T10:45:36+00:00 May 19th, 2012|Italian History, Spanish History, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

The Cabinet System

Many students are accustomed to using the terms Prime Minister and The Cabinet and even The Cabinet Rooms in their studies and essays, but do not know much more about what these words represent. The term prime minister was first used when it was invented for the first of them, Sir Robert Walpole. He became PM in 1762.

The phrase did not start as much more than a term of abuse. Cartoonists in the eighteenth century loved it, and got a lot of cynical humour out of it. The position was officially called First Lord of the Treasury, and the British had to wait until 1905 for the term ‘prime minister’ to be used on a Royal Warrant. Funnily enough, it was first employed in the Chequers Estate Act, by which a rich man donated his mansion and its park to the nation, with the nice idea that prime ministers could relax in the country during weekends, not at all a bad idea when you realise that Number 10, Downing Street is little more than a small town house with just enough room to swing a cat. It is quite likely that Chequers has seen more important politicking than Downing Street, as many PMs have preferred to do their world-shaking manoevering in the comfortable and more private atmosphere of an English country house. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-05-10T17:10:39+00:00 May 10th, 2012|Dutch History, English History, English Language, Humour, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments