Should we really compare Sochi 2014 to the ‘Hitler Olympics’?
This is the second in History Matters’ series of blogs for LGBT History Month. All of the blogs will appear here as they are posted. As a historian of early 20th-century lesbian identity in Germany, I...
View ArticleUkraine’s future and the Soviet past
Events in Ukraine over recent months have transfixed the world. Protests which at first seemed confined to a few streets in the capital Kiev, with echoes in the western regions, have now escalated...
View ArticleThe Devil’s Alliance: Hitler’s Pact with Stalin, by Roger Moorhouse – Review
So surprising was the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in August 1939 that it even came as a shock the Soviet and German governments themselves. When the German delegation arrived at Moscow’s...
View ArticleHow the Tsars Started a Mexican Wave
The Mexican wave: seemingly bound up with the world of modern sports and television, my work as a travel historian has recently brought me face to face with a much older instance of this clever bit of...
View ArticleUnderstanding the Cold War as an Imaginary War
The Cold War began as a metaphor. It was an analogy that used temperature to indicate a state of conflict just short of an actual ‘hot’ war. When George Orwell coined the term ‘Cold War’ in his article...
View ArticleWhat history can’t tell us about the future: Non-predictions for a Trumpy world
Europe faces a clear and present danger. NATO and the Russian Federation are facing off in the eastern Baltic. Rival forces are being mustered across increasingly militarised borders, and eyes are...
View ArticleWhen did the Russian Revolution end?
With the exception of war, anniversaries are often about beginnings. Last week, it was 500 years since Martin Luther posted (or perhaps didn’t) his 95 theses to the door of Wittenberg’s Castle Church....
View ArticleRemembering the Russian Revolution: “Fellow Travellers” in Modern Britain
This week marks the centenary of the Russian Revolution and the Bolsheviks’ seizure of power under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin. As the date approached, contemporary commentators have offered...
View ArticleThe World Cup, Colombia and Communism
The World Cup matters to Colombia more than most countries. As a country with a reputation for violence and drugs, football is a chance for Colombia to present a favourable face to the world based on a...
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