20th Century
The History of Pop Music – 1982
Featured song: Madness – Madness – House of Fun This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 when they stopped [more…]
History
19th Century
Troublesome Afghanistan
My great-grandfather on my father’s mother’s side served in Afghanistan. Being hill, mountain and lake types, our local regiment, The Border Regiment, deployed to the disputed territory between that country and British India in the [more…]
20th Century
Kill not cure: the economic prescriptions that failed
Introduction In my essay ‘From Socialism to Welfarism: the Betrayal of the Working Class’, I observed that the early socialist thinkers developed their ideas at the peak of the industrial revolution. Socialist theory was therefore [more…]
20th Century
Always Worth Saying’s Railway Review
One tires of the streetcars of Paramaribo, the mineral railways of the Amazon, and even of rural Albania in the 1980s. Railway Review’s roving reportage shall change continents and seek excitement (but not too much) [more…]
20th Century
The History of Pop Music – 1981
Featured song: Squeeze – Labelled With Love This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 when they stopped making it. [more…]
19th Century
Sir Joseph Whitworth and the Confederate Sniper
Introduction In March 2024 I purchased a first generation, Birmingham-made Parker-Hale replica of a Whitworth military pattern muzzle-loading rifle of the late 1850s. These iconic rifles gained legendary status following their use in the American [more…]
19th Century
The Iron Duke’s patience
Napoleon was very dismissive of Arthur Wellesley referring to him as the sepoy General from his time spent in India. In contrast Wellesley said that Napoleon’s presence on the battlefield was worth 40,000 men. In [more…]
20th Century
Changed Times?
John Smyth was a Canadian-born British barrister and Christian evangelist born in 1941. Son of Colonel Edward Smyth, after prep school in Canada and public school in England, he completed his education at Trinity Hall, [more…]
20th Century
The History of Pop Music – 1980
Featured song: Blondie – Call me This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 when they stopped making it. One [more…]