Whiskey tango foxtrot
Sometimes I worry about the British.
After 1950, Cold War, Nuclear, biological, chemical
After 1950
After 1950, Blogging, tweeting and podcasting, Cold War, Nuclear, biological, chemical
So close and yet (thankfully) so far (so far)
Gary Smailes has put together Military History Carnival 8, and it’s a good one. The item which, inevitably, appealed to me most was Damned Interesting’s account of incidents where the world nearly stumbled into an accidental nuclear holocaust. (But wait, there were more!) Obviously, a scenario where the survival of a significant proportion of humanity,
1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, After 1950, Before 1900, Books, Contemporary, Film, Maps, Pictures
Destroying London
I recently had the somewhat guilty pleasure of watching Flood, a film (from a novel) about the sudden devastation of London by a massive storm surge — predicted by a scientist who had long been dismissed as a crank — which swamps the Thames Barrier, submerges most of the city’s landmarks, kills a couple of
1930s, 1940s, After 1950, Books, Cold War, Collective security, International air force, Nuclear, biological, chemical, Periodicals, Space, Videos
Companions
[Cross-posted at Revise and Dissent.] It’s 50 years since Sputnik I lifted off. Although I was airminded as a kid, I was much more spaceminded. So 1957 was always a crucial year in my understanding of history back then: it was where the modern age began. (In fact the very first historical work I ever
1910s, 1920s, 1930s, After 1950, Australia, Cold War, Ephemera, Games and simulations, Maps, Periodicals, Pictures, Travel 2007
War games
[Cross-posted at Revise and Dissent.] One interesting minor theme of my recent museum visits here in London has been, I suppose, the popular origins of wargames (as opposed to the intellectual origins): I’ve been coming across a number of games, produced in the first half of the twentieth century and aimed presumably at children, which
After 1950, Art, Australia, Books, Pictures, Television, Videos
Getting here from there
The big trip to the UK looms. It’s my first and I’m greatly looking forward to it — all the more so because I have long been fascinated by the place and its history. Although I can’t say it was always my plan to do a PhD in British military aviation history, looking back, there
1930s, After 1950, Australia, Books, Cold War, Nuclear, biological, chemical, Periodicals
What happened to Nevil Shute
It’s not often that I happen across a discussion of knock-out blow novels outside specialist literature, so I was interested to see that Gideon Haigh (probably best known as a cricket writer, but also a fine essayist) talks about Nevil Shute’s What Happened to the Corbetts (1939) in the current issue of The Monthly. The
After 1950, Film, Pictures
The movie that time forgot
The latest Fortean Times (June 2007) has a great article by Kim Newman on Hammer Films, the much-loved British horror film production company. While discussing the early 1970s, when Hammer’s fortunes were declining, he refers in passing to ‘the tragically unmade Zeppelin vs Pterodactyls‘. That’s all he said, but it was enough … could it
1930s, After 1950, Periodicals
Guernica — III
[Cross-posted at Revise and Dissent.] The Nationalist version of Guernica — that it wasn’t bombed by fascist aircraft, but instead set alight by the Basque defenders themselves — was not widely accepted at the time, but for decades afterwards it was still plausible enough for some people to believe. As late as 1969, letters like
After 1950, Aircraft, Cold War, Nuclear, biological, chemical, Pictures
Airship vs. A-bomb
The A-bomb won: I wouldn’t have thought it was necessary to detonate a 19 kiloton nuclear weapon to see what it would do to an airship, but that’s just what the US Department of Energy did on 7 August 1957. Well, to be fair, the primary purpose was probably to test a prototype of the