20th-century history
Who started the Cold War?
It was America, with its decision to build a global liberal order – not the Soviet Union, with plans to spread communism in Europe, argues Vladislav Zubok
When ordinary men did extraordinary things – D-Day revisited
The transporting of 150,000 troops across the Channel in total secrecy and the feats they did that day is a story we never tire of – and Max Hastings tells it exceedingly well
Passchendaele all over again
When Allied forces landed at Salerno on 9 September, they expected an easy run to Rome. But the intelligence proved dangerously faulty, as James Holland explains
Eastern promises
Many suspect mystics have exploited naive westerners in search of spiritual enlightenment over the past century, Philip Hensher discovers
A city under siege
Adam Sisman describes the toxic atmosphere in Berlin after the end of the second world war
Yalta was a carve-up — and the Poles are understandably still bitter about it
‘The strong do what they can. The weak suffer what they must.’ Thucydides’ principle expresses an uncomfortable truth. The eight-day…
How on earth did North Vietnam prevail against the world’s greatest power?
The 50th anniversary of the Vietnam war has produced an outpouring of books, along with Ken Burns’s 18-hour television spectacular,…
