I'm currently reading a quite worthwhile book about the popular culture and Zeitgeist of the interwar years in Europe and the US. Philipp Blom, Die zerissenen Jahre: 1918-1938, which, of course, can offer little more than just a general overview, but as such is engaging and rather well-researched.

The chapter dealing with Fritz Lang's Metropolis, ( Read more... )

Leith Passmore, Ulrike Meinhof and the Red Army Faction: Performing Terrorism, Palgrave MacMillan, New York 2011.

Pretty fascinating and at times downright chilling analysis of Ulrike Meinhof's writings, retracing her transition from left-wing journalist into one of Germany's most high-profile terrorists of the early 1970s. As the Amazon.com book ( Read more... )

Reposting an entry by
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If the city of London were an artwork, I bet it would be a true Jackson Pollock. A huge, breathtaking canvass, filling space, filling time. Bustling with the energy captured, of one million paint sprays. Throwing the full force of motion, of colour, right into your face ( Read more... )

This will only be of interest if you are able to understand German, but nevertheless I thought I should share it.

Over at the web pages of radio station WDR5, there is an extensive and perfectly downloadable interview with International Court of Justice member and human rights expert Thomas BuergenthalAlready the basics of this man's biography are ( Read more... )

Currently reading History and the Media, a compilation of essays dealing with the rendering of historical subjects for both TV and silver screen. Editor David Cannadine picked some illustrious contributors I must say, as the table of contents looks quite a bit like the 'Who is Who' of BBC historians, telly-friendly academics and history-friendly ( Read more... )

I originally discovered these articles in a strictly academic context, but figured there could be at least three or four people on my f-list who perhaps might enjoy them for a somewhat more personal reason ;-)

European Discovery and the Colonisation of Australia
Convicts and the British Colonies in Australia
Convict Women in Port JacksonAll taken ( Read more... )

This recommendation is basically intended for Cavendish , but  could also be of use for anyone harbouring an interest in American social history and cultural studies.

When I was channel-hopping last night, my attention was caught be a short Arte report about 90-year old author and journalist Studs Terkel, who has been interviewing hundreds of people across ( Read more... )

During the last couple of weeks I found myself either drowning in the works of James Joyce or making long excursions into the history of London sewers. (The godfather of interior monologue being the most natural choice for my impending English literature exam , I have been a major Joyce fan even years before I saw him in his his Ewan McGregor ( Read more... )