1) I saw the movie Denial the other night. It's about the trial of Deborah Lipstadt, a history professor who was sued for libel by Holocaust denier David Irving after she called him a Holocaust denier. The script created a surprising amount of suspense and tension from a story to which most people know the ending (Lipstadt was acquitted on the ( Read more... )

1) Since the centenary of the First World War is underway, I'm reading To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918, by Adam Hochschild. It's a history of the anti-war movements in Britain, which along the way provides a fascinating general social history of the war from a British perspective. Hochschild focuses on some individuals ( Read more... )

There are still quite a few open days if you want to ask me something.

Today's prompt, from sallymn, asked for a historical figure I find especially interesting. It was hard to choose just one. On the whole I'm less interested in the personalities of history than in social, cultural, and economic history, but I'm nevertheless intrigued by Alexander the ( Read more... )

I had a free movie ticket that I needed to use before it expired, so today I saw Side Effects, directed by Steven Soderbergh. It's the story of a psychiatrist and his patient, and the disastrous consequences that follow his attempts to medicate her depression. I've got very mixed feelings about this one. I liked the movie I thought it was going to ( Read more... )

(Yes, it's another post about my POW obsession. I don't know if this will be of interest to anyone but me and
( Read more... )

Does this supposedly vintage photo of two men holding hands on a beach look photoshopped to anyone else ( Read more... )