Over the past few months, counter-factual history – examining past events and asking the questions: “What if there had been a different outcome? What would history have looked like as a consequence?” – has been the subject of a number of television programmes. Such debates in the media during 2014 have centered around the question […]

Previously on this site there was an article on America’s Great Depression and how it affected the world. The Depression did, however, have an end, though it was long coming. It was called The New Deal – but how exactly did it work? By 1933 the American economy was on its knees. The first thing […]

Currently the world is experiencing the worst economic crisis since what is referred to historically as The Great Depression – a fact many a newspaper or television report will have mentioned over the last couple of years. So, how did it compare? Hopefully this article will be able to give you some idea. The beginnings […]

The end of hostilities in Europe was celebrated all around the world. In Britain, over one million people took to the streets for parties, and crowds gathered in Trafalgar Square to sing, dance and booze. The young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret mingled with the cheering public. In the USA, President Truman dedicated the victory to […]

The drought which devastated the Great Plains in the 1930’s was the worst climatic event in modern American history, deepening and prolonging the economic destruction wrought by the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Its engineer was called El Nino, and given the manhandled state of our economic and environmental world today, it should be recalled. […]

As students, we strive to learn and gain the benefits of academic knowledge. On a purely pragmatic level, one such benefit is the ability to possess a degree of material wealth with which to make our lives that much more comfortable, and hopefully more interesting. Or at least, that’s the theory. Today we may have […]

In a time of Economic struggle, even traditional brands and retailers have to adapt or die. Can you imagine, for instance, a world without Marks and Sparks? Well, yes and no… Marks and Spencer’s, founded in 1884, has enjoyed 120 years of steady, managed growth, surviving two world wars, depression, post-1945 austerity and, it seems, […]

Clerical reaction to the declaration of war in 1914 differed from one country to another according to the national attitude to religion. The hierarchy of the Church of England initially showed no enthusiasm for war, with the Archbishop of Canterbury regarding the outbreak of hostilities as “a return to barbarism.” French Catholics called for national […]

The UK is currently doing well. Inflation is at a record low and unemployment is also downj. However, the long-term prospects remain worrying. Much of the recovery is fuelled by rising debt and an expanding housing market (mainly in London and the South East) rather than rising productivity and export growth. Between 2008 – 2014, […]

British clergymen were not required to bear arms, but many volunteered to serve with the BEF in Flanders and although they did not fight, their sons volunteered in droves to serve at the front. Some 30% of young officers who were killed in the first years of the war were sons of clergymen. Church of […]