Periodicals

1940s, Blogging, tweeting and podcasting, Books, Contemporary, Periodicals

Don’t let’s be beastly to the RAF — I

Kim Wagner pointed out an article in Providence (‘A journal of Christianity & American foreign policy’) by Nigel Biggar, entitled ‘Thank God for the Royal Air Force!’. Biggar, Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Oxford University, has attained some notoriety for his ‘Ethics and Empire’ research project, which seeks to trawl the history

1910s, Australia, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics

A conspiracy of boodlers

The default explanation for the Australian mystery aeroplane panic of 1918 was a conspiracy theory: they were enemy aircraft, deployed by German merchant raiders operating off the Australian coast, or perhaps flying from secret aerodromes deep in the bush. Either way they were thought to be collaborating with German spies on shore, as evidenced by

Ratio of articles in the British Newspaper Archive containing the phrase ‘Le Queux’ to total number of issues, 1890–1932
1900s, 1910s, 1920s, 1930s, Before 1900, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Plots and tables, Publications

Publication: ‘William Le Queux, the Zeppelin menace and the Invisible Hand’

Critical Survey has just published an early access version of my peer-reviewed article ‘William Le Queux, the Zeppelin menace and the Invisible Hand’ — that’s right, no subtitle! — here. Here’s the abstract: In contrast to William Le Queux’s pre-1914 novels about German spies and invasion, his wartime writing is much less well known. Analysis

Sea, Land and Air, February 1920, 765
1910s, 1920s, Archives, Australia, Civil aviation, Periodicals, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures

Alien airmen and will-o’-the-wisp bridges

Although the war had been over for more than a year by this point, in 1920 the editor of Sea, Land and Air issued a rather hysterical warning of the danger of foreign pilots being allowed to fly in Australia.1 The passenger-‘plane of to-day may be the bomber of to-morrow. It depends on the man

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