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Telegraph - Nicolas Sarkozy blames the generation of 1968, by Henry Samuel

These same students erected barricades on the Left Bank to break free of buttoned-up patriarchal French post-war society. They were followed by up to 10 million striking workers in the biggest such mass movement the country has ever known. [...]

Categories: History

Macleans - Please send more complaints Otherwise how will our taxpayer-funded hate police manage to keep their cozy sinecure? By MARK STEYN

Indeed, the principal ingredient unique to the pre-Hitler era was the introduction of Jennifer Lynch-type hate-speech laws that supposedly protect vulnerable minorities from “unspeakable acts.” You might as well argue that Weimar’s “reasonable [...]

Categories: History

I just dropped Peter off at the airport. Well, I got up at 6.30, pulled staples out of the old chair upholstery till 7.30, got coffee at 7.45, tried to get in the hot tub at 8 but they were draining it, painted till 10, made some phone calls till 11, got in the hot [...]

Categories: History

The Times - Was God in the White House? Past Notes: we think of presidents as churchgoers, but 11 out of 43 were not members of a church, by Graham Stewart

“The White House is the pulpit of the nation,” the American journalist James Reston once claimed, “and the president is its chaplain.” No wonder, [...]

Categories: History

The Times - National Day: perfectly British Past Notes: the sneerers at proposals for a day of swearing allegiance have short memories, by Graham Stewart

Sad.

Categories: History

The Times - Guillotine Grandeur Frenchmen have found a new way to show they are a cut above the rest

Are you French? Did your ancestors get their heads chopped off around the end of the 18th century? They did? What a stroke of luck! Well, of sorts. For to have a relative whose twig [...]

Categories: History

The Joy of Curmudgeonry - The Officially Forgotten Boche

“On 1st January, the last German veteran of the First World War passed away . . . and to official Germany this is worth not one syllable.”

That’s so sad.

Categories: History

The Times (yesterday) - Leading article: A Catholic Outlook The Vatican outlines three overdue and welcome initiatives

The initiatives could set a new framework for Catholic debate in three areas of political and spiritual importance, and where the Pope’s own position in the recent past has been much misunderstood: relations with Islam, ecumenism and the [...]

Categories: History

RC2’s been watching The Lives of Others, and quotes a bit of a review from William F. Buckley as well. Which reminds me of story in last month’s Wired I forgot to link to: Piecing Together the Dark Legacy of East Germany’s Secret Police.

The whole thing’s worth reading, about the efforts to piece back together [...]

Categories: History

The Times (Saturday) - Beware the mighty Liechtenstein Past Notes: German anger towards the tiny principality goes back to the 19th century, by Graham Stewart

Although the allegation was false, Liechtenstein’s vote had been what tipped the curia’s casting vote for war [in June, 1966]. Playing up the absurdity of it, Bismarck was incandescent, accusing [...]

Categories: History

The Times - Murderous dictators: cool, huh? Why does the Left still worship Fidel Castro and all his appalling fellow communists? by Daniel Finkelstein

I had a strange idea yesterday. I had the idea of inviting Harriet Harman home for dinner. This isn’t a thought that occurs to me often, but I suddenly felt it [...]

Categories: History

Slate - The Serbs’ Self-Inflicted Wounds WITH KOSOVO INDEPENDENT, YUGOSLAVIA IS FINALLY DEAD. by Christopher Hitchens

But how did it begin? In fact, Kosovo has never been recognized internationally as part of Serbia. It was only ever recognized as part of Yugoslavia, and with the liquidation of that state Serbian claims upon its territory became [...]

Categories: History

The Times - The 1872 version of Mrs Clinton Past Notes: the colourful Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to stand at a US presidential election, History Notebook by Graham Stewart

Despite being 33, the candidate had already led a colourful life. Born in a small Ohio cottage to impecunious parents, her spiritualist mother was [...]

Categories: History

Telegraph - Archbishop says nativity ‘a legend’

The Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday that the Christmas story of the Three Wise Men was nothing but a ‘legend’. Dr Rowan Williams has claimed there was little evidence that the Magi even existed and there was certainly nothing to prove there were three [...]

Categories: History

Times Online - Queen becomes longest living British monarch

Queen Elizabeth II became the longest living monarch in British history today. AT 1700 GMT today, the Queen, 81, surpassed the 81 years and 243 days of Queen Victoria, her great-great-grandmother, but there was no special event to commemorate the historic landmark. [...]

Categories: History