What were ‘The Roaring Twenties’?
The evocative phrase comes from America, of course, and refers to a period of unparalleled prosperity (for some). Industrial production doubled. American politicians had almost finished their self-imposed task of bankrupting Britain and dismantling its [...]
Marx, Lenin and the ‘lumpenproletariat’
‘Lumpenproletariat’ to use Karl Marx’s term / de.wikipedia.org These days they are the underclass, that vast army of uneducated, unemployable, often criminally inclined, very often obese, more than often drugged people of any [...]
Great War Commanders: Chester W. Nimitz
Chester Nimitz / history.com Chester William Nimitz was born in the United Statesin 1885. He chose the US Navy as a career and rose rapidly. He was chosen personally by President F.D. Roosevelt [...]
Tory, Conservative; Whig, Liberal
The term ‘party’ for a political group has been around in Britain for centuries. The Tory Party was a political group that was spoken of in the 1680s. The term ‘Tory’ is itself pejorative, derived [...]
Would you believe it? The ‘Know-Nothings’
We already know the origins of the rising US political party calling themselves ‘The Tea Party’. Tea-loaded ships sailing from Britain in 1773 threatened other tea importers with their monopolies. The American Sons of Liberty, [...]
Ghostly armies in the nave?
St. Albans Abbey was built about a thousand years ago by the people of the town, which was already ancient. In fact it was a Roman foundation called Verulanium, and ‘Alban’ was a Roman centurion [...]
Great War Commanders: Horatio Nelson
Horation Lord Nelson Like so many other men of small stature throughout history, Nelson was not only a successful seaman and admiral, he was popular with his officers and men. Given that naval [...]
Great War Generals: Erich Ludendorff
This dynamic and very physical soldier was born in 1865. Obviously destined for the Army, he did singularly well as a cadet, passed through the junior ranks at panther’s speed, and by the timeEuropewas (not) [...]
A message from Dean Swift
General-History.com has recently suffered an assault from a mentally-challenged spamist. You all you know what that means. We can only apologise for the illegal and immoral entry into our serious history website, and I personally [...]
Great War Leaders: Erich von Manstein
Erich von Manstein / amantesdelahistoriabelica.blogspot.com The future field marshal was born in 1887, destined for the Army because of his Junker background. When World War II started Manstein was Chief of Staff to [...]
These sports: where do they come from?
Spectator sports they are called, presumably because they are designed for watching by spectators. Soccer, cricket, boxing, tennis, rugby and athletics were nursed, improved and nurtured in hundreds of independent (public) schools in Victorian Britain. [...]
Great War Commanders: Joffre, a Victorian Frenchman
Marshal Joffre / reformation.org Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre was born in 1852, at the beginning of the Victorian epoch in Britain. He eventually became a Marshal of France, but first came to France’s [...]
Great War Leaders: Kitchener needs YOU!
Horatio Herbert Kitchener was born in 1850. At school in Switzerland he learned perfect French, and later went to Palestine where he picked up near-perfect Arabic. After military college and commissioning he got to Egypt [...]
Great War Commanders: Falkenhayn the honest Junker
Erich von Falkenhayn / wereldoorlog.be Eric von Falkenhayn was born in 1861, scion of a typical ‘Junker’ family, which means ‘powerful, noble, landowning, and, not infrequently, bullying and proud as well’. At school [...]
Let us above be politically correct . . .
Some years ago one of those correct persons who infest modern life pointed out to a bottling company that the label on one of their jams was politically incorrect. The label included an illustration of [...]
Seven (magnificent) Westerns
The Magnificent Seven: all these actors are dead except Horst Buckholtz / blogofmanly.com The genre started right at the beginning of movie making with The Great Train Robbery, a silent Western. These mostly [...]
Great War Commanders: the despised Haig
Douglas Haig / therooms.ca Despised he was by most historians, many journalists, more idealists, and especially pacifists, Douglas Haig was born in 1861. He served under Kitchener at the Battle of Omdurman in [...]
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