History
Gorbachev’s appeal for peace and freedom
Reg Naulty
24/12/2022
As a world statesman and a student of world affairs, Mikhail Gorbachev’s perspective is worth having. His 2019 book, What ...
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Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to save communism, but buried it instead
Richard Shorten
08/12/2022
The death of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, under whose leadership the communist bloc was brought to ...
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How Hitler conspiracies and other Holocaust disinformation undermine democratic institutions
Carson Phillips
02/11/2022
Godwin’s Law posits that any online argument, if it continues long enough, will inevitably invoke a comparison to Hitler. Perhaps there ...
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Why the Middle Ages have such a bad reputation
Eduardo Baura García
18/10/2022
“People have the right to live as they wish, we are no longer in the Middle Ages.” This statement, made ...
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Moral ambiguity and the representation of genocide
Charlotte Grace Mackay
20/06/2022
On January 10 2022, the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee voted unanimously to remove Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus ...
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Ukraine as a ‘borderland’: A brief history of Ukraine’s place between Europe and Russia
Sheila Fitzpatrick
07/03/2022
One interpretation of the name ‘Ukraine’ is borderland. This needs to be taken seriously. Borderlands are all about diversity and ...
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Ukraine crisis: The Russian leader’s vision of the past
Paul Monk
01/03/2022
The day that Vladimir Putin sent Russian forces into Ukraine, President Biden spoke publicly about the sheer mendacity of Putin’s ...
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Why I won’t be celebrating Australia Day on 26 January
Ian Robinson
20/01/2022
Most nations – the United States, Greece, Finland, India, Indonesia and many others – celebrate their national day on the ...
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The sordid underbelly of Christmas past
James A. T. Lancaster
24/12/2021
When English Puritans outlawed Christmas in 1647, it was not without good reason. When American Puritans, in turn, outlawed Christmas ...
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Tolstoy’s last years
Reg Naulty
05/11/2021
Tolstoy’s death in 1910 occurred just seven years before the Russian Revolution. His last two essays What’s To Be Done? ...
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How do you spot a witch? A notorious 15th-century book gave instructions
Melissa Chim
03/11/2021
Books have always had the power to cast a spell over their readers – figuratively. But one book that was ...
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My time: The experiences of an ordinary soldier in Papua New Guinea
Stephen Mooney
05/07/2021
The overwhelming majority of Australians who have served in war zones have been volunteers. However, during the Vietnam war, 63,735 ...
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