The Irish question was a constant source of concern and debate in the nineteenth-century British press, but perhaps never more so than in the mid-1880s and early 1890s, when almost every newspaper and journal offered extensive commentary on the first two Irish Home Rule bills. Comic weeklies such as Punch, Fun and Judy were no … Read more
In March 1919 Benito Mussolini, a socialist turned nationalist, founded a new movement in Milan that became known as ‘fascism’. The fasces—a bound bundle of sticks—had been a symbol of republican unity in ancient Rome. For Mussolini they signified the unity of the nation, and in particular the incorporation into Italy of all Italian-speaking territories … Read more
The term ‘appeasement’ remains as much a slur today as it was in the 1940s. Yet appeasement is far from unusual in politics, although owing to the negativity surrounding ‘appeasement’ we now prefer to use words like ‘compromise’ and ‘accommodation’. Our detailed knowledge of Nazi Germany (1933–45), in particular its project to exterminate European Jews, … Read more
On 22 June 1922 Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson fulfilled a long-standing invitation to unveil a memorial in the booking-hall at Liverpool Street Station, dedicated to employees of the Great Eastern Railway Company who had died in action during the First World War. The field-marshal had recently retired from the army as chief of the imperial … Read more
‘When Mrs Yelverton emerged from the Four Courts, a great demonstration of popular enthusiasm took place. She was cheered by fifty thousand people frantic with joy, who had waited outside the gates to hear the result . . . at the Gresham Hotel . . . in response to a universal call she came to … Read more