Marek Kohn, the author of The Stories Old Towns Tell, describes the Christmas market in the medieval German town of Rothenburg and reveals a story that the tourist service doesn’t tell. “Rothenburg city square” by brianwiese is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. ‘Once a year the medieval town of Rothenburg transforms itself into a fairytale winter wonderland,’ the town’s tourism service tells the visitors who make a seasonal pilgrimage there in search of midwinter enchantment. ‘Ever since the 15th century the festive time prior to Christmas (Advent) has been accompanied by a delightfu ..read more

November 1st 2023 marks the 30th anniversary since the entry into force of the Maastricht Treaty, which established the European Union. This extract from Dermot Hodson’s book, Circle of Stars: A History of the EU and the People Who Made It, describes the events occurring in the European Community in the lead up to the signing of the Treaty. Håkan Dahlström from Malmö, Sweden, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Maastricht wasn’t written on a blank page. As the historian Kiran Klaus Patel shows, the treaty’s three signature projects – the single currency ..read more

Join Marek Kohn, author of The Stories Old Towns Tell, on a journey across Europe as he explores his favourite Old Towns and the surprising history behind many of the stunning façades. *** *** About the author Marek Kohn is a Brighton-based writer of non-fiction. He writes on themes of diversity, identity, nationalism, and the social implications of science. Marek’s latest book is The Stories Old Towns Tell, dubbed ‘a timely rallying call for retrospective inclusion and historical empathy’ by Charlie Connelly at The New European. You can find Marek on Twitter and Instagram. For more informa ..read more

Michael H. Kater, author of After the Nazis, contends with the legacy of controversial novelist Martin Walser, within the context of the emergence of postwar culture in West Germany. Walser in 2012, Blaues Sofa, CC BY 2.0 Martin Walser died on July 26 of this year, a controversial figure, at the age of ninety-six. He was the last of West Germany’s leading novelists of the immediate post-World War II era, along with Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass. Grass, his exact contemporary, who had snatched the Nobel Prize from him, had preceded him in death in 2015.  Hans Magnus Enzensberger ..read more

Survivors follows the lives of one hundred Jewish children who survived the Holocaust through their adulthood and into old age. First published in 2020, Rebecca Clifford draws on archives and interviews to chart the experiences of these child survivors, exploring the aftermath of the Holocaust in the long term and challenging our assumptions about trauma. In this blogpost, part of the 50 Years in 50 Books series for our 50th Anniversary, Rebecca Clifford shares how she came to write Survivors and gives an insight into the process of finding the archival material which became the basis of the ..read more

Access to water has played a pivotal role in the Israel-Palestine dispute. Israel has diverted the River Jordan via pipes and canals to build a successful modern state. But this has been at the expense of the region’s cohabitants. Gaza is now so water-stressed that the United Nations has warned it could soon become uninhabitable; its traditional water source has been ruined by years of over-extraction and mismanagement, the effects exacerbated by years of crippling blockade.   In In Search of the River Jordan, award-winning author and journalist James Fergusson travels to every corner of ..read more

Henry III rebuilt Westminster Abbey during his reign. He designed it from the start as a Coronation church. This extract from Henry III, Volume 2: Reform, Rebellion, Civil War, Settlement, 1258-1272, by renowned historian David Carpenter looks at the history behind Henry’s design of the church. ‘Westminster Abbey North Transept’, by Amandajm, CC BY-SA 3.0 Henry’s aim, first and foremost, in all his works at the Abbey was to win Edward the Confessor’s favour and thus secure, through his intercession, success in this life and a safe passage to the next. He also hoped to harvest th ..read more

Joseph Stalin led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953 in a reign marked by ruthless tyranny and the deaths of millions of people. Sunday 5th March 2023 marks 70 years since his death. In this post, we are sharing a series of free extracts from Yale books to shed light on the dictator, his oppressive regime, his demise and the aftermath. Stalin New Biography of a Dictator Oleg Khlevniuk The most authoritative and engrossing biography of the notorious dictator ever written, winner of the 2016 PROSE Award for Biography & Autobiography. ‘Enthralling, brilliant, and groundb ..read more

In The Stripping of the Altars, Eamon Duffy recreates lay people’s experience of religion in the pre-Reformation church, showing that late-medieval Catholicism was neither decadent nor decayed, but a strong and vigorous tradition. In this extract, Duffy explores the feast of Candlemas, the festival commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Candlemas, the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary or, alternatively, of the Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple, was celebrated forty days after Christmas, on 2 February, and constituted the last great festival o ..read more

In his annual press conference in December 2021, Vladimir Putin said, “‘Not one inch to the East,’ they told us in the nineties. So what? They cheated, just brazenly tricked us!”. He was referring to U.S. Secretary of State James Baker’s assurance in 1990 that NATO would move, “not one inch eastward” following German reunification. Putin again referenced the expansion of NATO to the east in his speech announcing a ‘special military operation’ on Ukraine. M. E. Sarotte’s Not One Inch was last night awarded the 2022 Pushkin House Book Prize for the best non-fiction writing on Russia in the Engli ..read more