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Continue reading →: Introductions
The one thing we learn from history, is that we don’t learn from history As I’m sure you’ve guessed, this a blog about modern history (from the French Revolution until the modern day) and its intersection with pop culture. This is the first post of many, so watch this space…
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Continue reading →: Alexandra Kollontai: The Forgotten RevolutionaryAlexandra Kollontai (31 March 1872-9 March 1952) was a Russian politician, diplomat and Marxist theorist. Kollontai was born an upper class child in Ukraine, before the family moved to St. Petersburg. As a child, Kollontai watched her sister marry a man forty years her senior because he was wealthy…and for…
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Continue reading →: Once a dictator, always a dictator‘Lagos has finally gone to shit. Soldiers are shooting at protestors.’ I received this message shortly before sitting down to write. Since 2015, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s military dictator of the 1980s, has tried to style himself a democratic leader for a modern nation…until now. As pressure rises from the wave…
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Continue reading →: The Emperor of the United States (Yes, there was one)17th September 1858 – The San Francisco Chronicle published a grand proclamation “At the peremptory request and desire of a large majority of the citizens of the United States, I, Joshua Norton, declare and proclaim myself Emperor of these United States.”[1] The man in question, Joseph Abraham Norton, was an…
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Continue reading →: Trust me, I’m a detective: The Pinkerton Detective AgencyA group that appear often period dramas and other similar media, Pinkerton detectives are often portrayed as evil or merely ineffectual, regardless of organisation’s real-life track record. But who were the Pinkertons and what did they actually do? The Pinkerton detective agency was started in Chicago, Illinois in 1850 by…
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Continue reading →: Jimmy ‘Beau James’ Walker (1881-1946): Rebel Mayor of the Jazz Age (part 2)
Continued from part 1 The pressure was mounting on F.D.R., should he let the corrupt mayor off, or remove him? (Read: whether he would rather be right or be president)? F.D.R. found himself dithering on what to do. Luckily for him, Walker made the decision for him: on 1st September…
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Continue reading →: Jimmy ‘Beau James’ Walker (1881-1946): Rebel Mayor of the Jazz Age (Part 1)
Few politicians exemplify the Jazz Age so well as James John Walker, informally known as ‘Beau James’. He was a flamboyant character, member of the infamous Tammany Hall political machine, notoriously corrupt and as famous for his private life as his public one, and a man whose downfall was as…
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Continue reading →: America’s First Red Scare: The 1920s – A society in fear (Part 2)
Palmer on the other hand, created a special division of the Bureau of Investigation (precursor to the FBI) in 1919, specifically to gather information on alleged radicals and Leftists; placing J. Edgar Hoover in charge of the division. The information Hoover collated lead to the continuation of the Palmer Raids…
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Continue reading →: America’s First Red Scare: The 1920s – A society in fear (Part 1)
When the topic of the ‘Red Scare’ is brought up, often the first images that come to mind are of McCarthyism and panic of the 1950s. However, this panic has a predecessor, a panic that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917, and intensified in the initial post-war years. The…
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Continue reading →: Sniper Elite: A retrospective (V2-4)
Sniper Elite, the WW2-based game seeking to accurately replicate real life sniping and arguably best known for its Mortal Kombat style x-ray kill cams to show you the damage you would be doing against medical dummies in Nazi outfits. Now, with a remake of the second instalment available now, let’s…
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I'm Emily
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Modern History: New & Old 