PAST PRESENT – What’s new in History

In this wonderful book William Dalrymple (Biography – William Dalrymple (en-GB)) describes the influence of the Indian subcontinent on global technology, astronomy, art, religion, music, mathematics, literature and mythology. Before The Silk Road, argues Dalrymple, came India’s ‘Golden Road’, which stretched from the Roman empire in the west all the way to Korea and Japan […]

Joya Chatterji FBA is Professor of South Asian History and a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. She specialises in modern South Asian history and was the editor of the journal Modern Asian Studies for ten years. Shadows at Noon is about India in the 20th century, which means taking it from the late Victorian period, when it had become an

In a statement made in 1939 about what role the Soviet Union might play in The Second World War Winston Churchill said : “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, but perhaps there is a key”. Eighty five years later the Western world

Tom Holland (Tom Holland – About | Hachette UK (tom-holland.org)) is an award-winning historian, biographer and broadcaster. He is the author of Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic (2003), which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire (2005), his history of the Graeco-Persian wars,

Fintan O’Toole (born 16 February 1958) is an Irish journalist and drama critic for The Irish Times for which he has written since 1988. O’Toole was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001 and is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. He has also written history, literary criticism and political

Since the attack of 07 October 2023 on Israel (2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel – Wikipedia) the conflict in Gaza has dominated the news. As of 03 January 2024 at least 22,185 Palestinians have been killed and at least 57,000 injured by the Israel Defence Force since October 7. The death toll from the October 7

Germany lies at the centre of The European Union both geographically and economically. Despite its recent slow growth it remains the third largest economy in the world by GDP. (List of countries by GDP (nominal) – Wikipedia) How did it get to this position after being shattered and defeated in 1945 at the end of

There can hardly have been more saturation coverage in the British media than that over Brexit. Every minute aspect of this awful car crash is analysed to death on a daily basis. It now seems unstoppable that on 29 March 2019 The United Kingdom will divorce itself from The European Union. We still don’t know

The latest outpouring of resentment and anger happens to be in Chemnitz in eastern Germany (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fear-and-loathing-in-neo-nazi-chemnitz-cvzmw52fx), but it’s only an example of what’s cropping up all over the world. In this case, something truly horrible – the resurrection of the fascist far right in Germany – should set all sorts of alarm bells ringing. What