Was the Treaty of Versailles really to blame for the rise of the Nazis?
The 1919 Versailles peace conference that followed the end of the first world war became the most famous, or notorious,…
Britain shouldn’t put up with Donald Trump
History is the march of folly and far too many of my countrymen are hearkening to a drumbeat which would…
Bring on the Trump protests
The coming week will see the last major commemoration of a second world war anniversary – 80 years since VE-Day…
History will wonder how we trusted Boris with Britain
I am besieged by media folk asking when I shall make good on a four-year-old threat to flee to Buenos…
History will wonder how we trusted Boris with Britain
I am besieged by media folk asking when I shall make good on a four-year-old threat to flee to Buenos…
Critical injuries: the perils of book reviews
A decade ago, a publisher produced a set of short biographies of Britain’s 20th-century prime ministers, which I reviewed unenthusiastically.…
Max Hastings’s diary
The Hastingses have idyllic lives but, like most seventysomethings, we find ourselves in ever-closer proximity to mortality. We hold season…
Max Hastings’ Diary: Historian Sir Michael Howard and a tale of E.M. Forster and sardines
Lunch with the great Sir Michael Howard, 95 last week. During a conversation about BBC1’s Howards End, he said: ‘I…
Diary
It has been a summer of tears, both of joy and sorrow. The latter first: how could stones not weep…
American Notebook
I have been driving many hundreds of miles across America, interviewing Vietnam veterans for a book. Though I have been…
Diary
During our annual odyssey around the Scottish Highlands, I read Tears of the Rajas, Ferdinand Mount’s eloquent indictment of imperial…
Demob unhappy
The ex-officers left behind after VE day
Diary
I am living in rustic seclusion while writing a book. Our only cultural outing of the week was to Newbury…
Diary
The looming centenary of the outbreak of the first world war offers an opportunity to break away from the Blackadder/Oh!…
