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SubscriptionsCategory: History
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Mongrel Tongue – Is English Really So Special?
John Mitchinson on why we should celebrate the success of the flexibility of the English language which enables its richness.
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Eugenics and the Intellectuals
Stephen Unwin explores how some of the most civilised and intelligent thinkers have supported one of the most dark and barbaric philosophies in modern history.
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From Sajid Javid to Rishi Sunak: Boris Johnson’s New Version of the Old Colonial ‘Divide and Rule’ Game
Hardeep Matharu explores what the rise of Conservative ethnic minority politicians reveals about the party’s approach to race and diversity.
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The Day I Discovered My Ancestor was a Slave Owner
Stephen Colegrave uncovers a family secret and realises how easy it is to whitewash our slavery roots.
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Fear – the Most Infectious Contagion
With the Coronavirus the subject of headlines the world over, fears of a pandemic have again arisen. Along with media speculation, however, there is a far more insidious contagion.
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THE GREAT BRITISH BREAK-UP: Lessons and Warnings from Dublin and Belfast
Byline Times travelled to Northern Ireland and the Republic to uncover what Britain can learn about the dangers of a repressed English nationalism
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Brexit: the Real Battle Begins – for Workers’ Rights
Mike Buckley argues that the new Labour leadership must stand up to the economic destruction proposed by the Conservative Brexiters.
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The Long Goodbye: Britain and Europe –1975-2020
In Part Two of his look back at Britain’s journey with the EU, Otto English charts how Eurosceptic forces were unleashed after the 1975 Referendum and channelled in the 2010s by those looking to capitalise on the increasingly hard lives of many in the UK.
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The Slow Hello: Britain and Europe – 1946 -1975
In Part One of his look back at Britain’s journey with the EU, Otto English charts the UK’s pivotal role in its formation, initial British reluctance at the project and the 1975 referendum which seemed to provide hope for a happy future in the bloc.
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GOLD DUST WOMAN: The Story of Sybilla von Anhalt
Mike Stuchbery on the story of a pioneering woman chemist in 16th Century Germany. Every weekend in Stuttgart, I wake early on a Sunday morning to head into the city centre and lead a walking tour. It’s something that I started doing after realising that so many parts of the Swabian capital have stories that…
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‘1917’ Review: Tales my Grandfather Never Told Me
Chris Sullivan rates Sam Mendes’ new war film up with the classics and remembers his grandfather’s survival through the worst of World War One.
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History Isn’t ‘Woke’ – It’s the Best Defence we have Against Tyranny and Hate
Hardeep Matharu explains how Laurence Fox’s myopia about the role of Sikh soldiers in World War One is a wider British problem of imperial amnesia.
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The Fires of Bamberg are Still Burning
Mike Stuchbery returns with his telling short histories – this time of how climate change and panic led to an explosion of persecution, mainly of women.
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The Odyssean Project: In Search of Dominic Cummings – Part One
Otto English considers whether the early years of the Prime Minister’s top advisor explain his disruptive career and ultimate motives.
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The Harder the Brexit, the More Likely a United Ireland
MEP and leader of Northern Ireland’s Alliance Party says the DUP were fools for trusting Boris Johnson who was always going to betray Unionism.
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‘Omnicide: Who is Responsible for the Gravest of All Crimes?’
Danielle Celermajer calls for accountability for the destruction unfolding in Australia – a crime against humanity she believes is akin to genocide.
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Death and Loss: Hope and Renewal – A Message from Stuttgart
After a tumultuous year politically and personally for Mike Stuchbery, he reminds how humans have survived the darkest hours.
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‘English Nationalism is the Real Threat’ says former Ulster Unionist Leader
Brexit is a fault line which has triggered a realignment of loyalties in the island of Ireland – will Northern Ireland be left behind by English nationalism?
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Brexit and the Fracturing of British Identity: A Warning From Ireland
Hardeep Matharu speaks to acclaimed playwright Frank McGuinness about where the nationalist Brexit project being trumpeted by Boris Johnson could end up
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This is My England, and Yours: Reclaiming Englishness
Now that English Nationalism has been unleashed, Peter Jukes argues that we must all try to restore England’s buried civic tolerance and historic diversity.
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China Must Not Be Allowed to Host the 2022 Olympic Games while it Persecutes its Uyghur Muslims
The International Olympic Committee must learn from its mistake in proceeding with the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany, says CJ Werleman.
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Thatcher’s Household Fallacy Led to Austerity and Killed Thousands – What was the Point of it?
Stephen Colegrave delves into the real reasons behind austerity and considers whether it was just a political fallacy.
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The Ghost of Augusto Pinochet Haunts the Chilean People’s Fight for Freedom
The violence which erupted in Chile last month has its roots in damaging economic policies introduced by a dictator installed by the US 46 years ago and who was liked by Margaret Thatcher.
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Where has the BBC’s Quest to Inform through Uncovering Truth Gone?
In the weeks before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, the BBC’s news team went out of its way to show the world the factual reality of East Germans protesting for a better life. Does it have the same desire now?
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When will we Return to the Hope we had when the Berlin Wall Fell 30 Years Ago?
Otto English recalls what it was like growing up in a world where the threat of the Cold War loomed large – and the surprise and optimism when, one day, this came to an end.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Making Better People – Why Eugenics Refuses to Die
Even if we could make fitter, cleverer humans, would that make them more valuable people?
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The 2008 Financial Crisis Paved the Way for Brexit – Why Don’t We Talk About it Anymore?
A decade ago, the financial crisis presented the most pivotal economic, political and social moment since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We need to examine its effects if we are to learn lessons in Brexit Britain.
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Trump is Encouraging a New Civil War – How Many Americans Will End Up Paying the Price?
CJ Werleman on more worrying developments in the US, where President Donald Trump is spinning his potential impeachment into a ‘coup’ which will require retaliation.
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Second Time Lucky? Can Corbyn Defy History in his Second General Election as Labour Leader?
Insurgency general election campaigns almost invariably succeed on their first attempt, observes Jake Lynch. But there is one example the Labour leader could hope to emulate.
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War and Amnesia: Tales My Grandfather Never Told Me
A personal story from Otto English about how the past is far too often sanitised to make people who were never there feel better about their family, our collective past and our country.
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The March of the Oligarchs: 1979 to 2019
Peter Jukes with the historical background to a new Byline Times series on a global phenomenon that best explains Boris Johnson and Donald Trump.
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How the Brexiteers Warped Margaret Thatcher’s Idea of Europe
Paddy Briggs looks at the career and restoration of Thatcher’s legacy by Tory Brexiteers and asks whether she would agree with them if she was alive today.
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Big Boris and Brexit Doublespeak Surround Us – Where Does the Truth Lie?
Otto English considers how we have entered into an Orwellian world in which Brexit governs all and its supporters attempt to convince us daily that night is day and day is night.
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‘A Sikh Man Standing Up for Muslim Women Mattered in Exposing Boris Johnson’s Divide and Rule Dog Whistle Politics’
Hardeep Matharu sat down with MP Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi to discuss his passionate taking down of the Prime Minister and his derogatory comparisons labelling Muslim women as letter boxes and bank robbers.
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How We Came to Forget: Imperial Amnesia Helped Propel Brexit – It’s Time to Set the Historical Record Straight
Hardeep Matharu explores a new National Trust project designed to shed light on the colonial roots of country houses and the need for a more honest, less mythical discussion of Britain’s past.
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Boris Johnson: The Mask Slips and the True Face of Populism Reveals Itself
Otto English calls time on the eccentric Etonian image of ‘Boris’ and sees Johnson’s antagonism and disdain for Parliament as a dangerous parallel with 1930’s Germany.
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History’s Rhyme: Henry VIII, Thomas Cromwell, Johnson and Cummings
As cliff-edge Britain searches around for historical analogies to a ‘No Deal’ Brexit, Arthur Snell discovers an infamous King and his ill-fated adviser are the most telling of all.
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‘Brexiters Used Empire in the Mind to Weaponise People’s Prejudices and Fantasies’
A sense of British exceptionalism based on our colonial past is “alive and kicking” in hearts and minds – and we must make ourselves aware of it, warns Lord Victor Adebowale
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Lives Left in Stone: Cologne’s Eternal Cathedral
Will Cologne’s cathedral, which was centuries in the making, ever be considered to be truly ‘finished’? Maybe nothing we build ever is.
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Art and Disaster: ‘The Delft Thunderclap’
Mike Stuchbery on how terrible moments of devastation can be overcome with creativity and vision.
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The Art of Dying – A Medieval Blockbuster for Terrible Times
Mike Stuchbery on reading one of the first printed bestsellers – a book on how to die properly – from his hospital bed.
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THE UPSIDE DOWN: Not The Normal Norfolk – The Original Opioid Crisis
John Mitchinson on the warm haze of opioid bliss – for good and for ill – experienced by the Victorians. If there ever was a golden age for hard drug use, it was the Victorian era. The widespread use of laudanum (opium dissolved in alcohol) had first been encouraged by the greatest English doctor of…
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Jacob Rees-Mogg and the Brexiters’ Persistent Myths of Empire
Britain has not really faced up to losing an empire and the unresolved cost is playing out through the traumas of Brexit.
