Category: History
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Religion has always played a significant role in politics, and the institutions of religion have been instrumental in oppressing ordinary people for all of human history – perhaps none more so than the Catholic church, and more recently the Evangelical Protestant movement. However the New Testament and the teachings of Jesus are generally quite progressive,…
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The Spanish Civil War was fought from 1936 to 1939 between the left-wing Republicans and the right-wing Nationalists. The Republicans, loyal to the left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic, included socialists, anarchists, communists, and separatists, supported by the Soviet Union. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of fascists, monarchists, conservatives, and traditionalists,…
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As most people know, a major global financial crisis took place in 2008. The context for the crisis was the neoliberal boom of the late 90s and early 2000s, during which western governments claimed to have ended boom-and-bust. However a surface-level analysis is enough to make clear that ending boom-and-bust completely is not possible under…
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In the mid-1800s Paris was industrializing at a fantastic rate. However, over half the population of the city lived in poverty bordering on destitution. Meanwhile, French bosses had never had it so good. Profits at the Anzin collieries to the north of Paris had increased by 300% between 1852 and 1870, whilst the miners’ wages…
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Ireland was England’s first colony (Wales was the second but took a bit longer to conquer). The colonization began in 1169 when Anglo-Norman mercenaries were invited in by the deposed King of Leinster, the region covering most of eastern Ireland, to help regain his kingship. Dublin was originally a Viking city, having been founded by…
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I am a bit late with this as International Women’s Day was actually last Sunday. Regardless, I felt it important to post something on the historical significance of International Women’s Day and why we should celebrate it. The origins of International Women’s Day (IWD) can be traced back to the late 19th century. At that…
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If 2026 has had a theme so far, it has been US imperialism. The year has already seen US interventions in Venezuela and Iran, and threats of future interventions elsewhere, such as in Colombia and Greenland. Many seem to be surprised by these events, but they really shouldn’t be. The US has a long history…
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I recently attended a lively group discussion on the English revolution. I have to confess that prior to attending this discussion I wasn’t aware that England had even had a revolution. That’s because the English revolution is usually referred to by another name: the ‘English Civil War’. Of course I was aware that England had…
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The American Civil War is usually portrayed as a battle of freedom vs. slavery, of good vs. evil. The truth, however, is rather different. The war began in 1861 and lasted four years, ending in 1865. At the time the war broke out, pretty much the entire world had already given up on slavery, or…
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The Luddites were a group of workers in the cotton industry who lived in northern England (Nottinghamshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire) in the early 19th century. They take their name from Ned Ludd, an apocryphal figure said to have smashed machines back in 1799, although he did not share the later Luddites’ motivations. In modern parlance,…
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Today marks the 52nd anniversary of the overthrow of Chile’s left-wing Popular Unity government led by Salvador Allende, who had been elected President of Chile just three years earlier. Popular Unity had defeated the conservative Christian Democrat government which had been discredited in the eyes of workers by its failure to implement social reforms. These…
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The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, recently created a diplomatic incident by questioning Russia and China’s contribution to winning WWII. This did not go down well with the Russians and Chinese, as you might imagine. But her claim is in accordance with the standard account of WWII we are taught in UK, which is basically…
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We are currently seeing a rise of right-wing population across the Western world. In the UK, Reform, an openly racist party, is leading in the opinion polls; and in the US, populist president Donald Trump seems to be attempting to act like a medieval king. It’s not all bad news though. In the UK, the…
Groucho Marxism 