Military
Wars Ancient and Modern
The English Civil Wars 1640-1660 by Blair Worden
Park City, Utah: Movie that Pulls Aside the Veil
A new documentary made in Afghanistan has won two awards at the the Sundance Film Festival. Afghan Star could help the cause of feminism there and encourage a desperately-needed sense of national community
Blown Up in Bin Laden Country
Is Pakistani intelligence allowing the country’s tribal areas to become a Taliban stronghold? What can the West do about it?
Hollywood Takes on Hitler
Valkyrie is a triumph for Tom Cruise, but The Reader disappoints
Four Days of Terror in Mumbai
A city in the grip of rumour and recrimination—an eye-witness account of the jihadi attacks and their aftermath
Honourable Conspirators
The officers who tried to kill Hitler were spurred on by a deep sense of shame and guilt
Steady on Parade
Standpoint‘s Mole in the Cavalry and Guards Club salutes an institution that has adapted and survived
Ypres: Never Say Never Again
The Armistice commemorations in Ypres: Remembrance cannot cure us of the instinct for war, but it can help to restrain us
Duped by the Devil
Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West by Lawrence Rees
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal