Category: Full list of earlier posts on this blog

30 March 2020

For anyone reading this blog for the first time, I completed a PhD in history as a mature student in 2014, and am now a Visiting Research Fellow at Kings College London.

My main area of interest is the Allied Occupation of Germany after the Second World War, in particular the British zone of occupation. What did British people aim to achieve in Germany, and why, and how did this change over time? My current research focuses on military occupation as a form of government and system of rule, and the impact of war and occupation on the history of post-war Germany and Europe.

My first book, Winning the Peace: The British in occupied Germany, 1945-1948, was published by Bloomsbury Academic in January 2017. My second book Transforming Occupation in the Western Zones of Germany: Politics, Everyday Life and Social Interactions, 1945-1955, edited jointly with Camilo Erlichman, was published in August 2018. 

I also have a particular interest in history & policy, the use and application of history in government, and the relevance of the past to the present.

In my view, history is a process of discovery. I started writing this blog in October 2005 and since then have posted around 150 articles.

I have listed below all articles published on this blog since 22 June 2017. For earlier posts see: Full list of earlier posts on this blog

Epitaph for a lost cause, or hope for the future? 13 December 2019

Another referendum is the best and only way to ‘honour the result’ of the 2016 referendum? 27 March 2019

‘Stealing Brexit’ – Who are the real thieves? 22 March 2019

Led by donkeys 19 March 2019

Another three reasons why it is better to stay in the EU (5) 14 March 2019

Another three reasons why it is better to stay in the EU (4) 14 March 2019

Another three reasons why it is better to stay in the EU (3) 14 March 2019

Brexit and The Price of Victory 26 February 2019

Another three reasons why it is better to stay in the EU 19 December 2018

Better to stay in the EU 12 December 2018 

Winning the Peace: now available in paperback 3 December 2018

Transforming Occupation in the Western Zones of Germany – the book 29 August 2018 

History & Morality – some guiding ethical principles 22 June 2017

For earlier posts, see the links below: 

10 May 2017

For anyone reading this blog for the first time, I completed a PhD in history as a mature student in 2014, and am now a Visiting Research Fellow at Kings College London. My book, Winning the Peace: The British in occupied Germany, 1945-1948, was published by Bloomsbury Academic in January 2017. In my view, history is a process of discovery. I started writing this blog in October 2005 and since then have posted around 140 articles.

I have listed below all articles published on this blog since 21 July 2011. For earlier posts, see:

Winning the Peace – the book 17 January 2017

A German museum director remembers the British 'Monuments Men' 10 September 2016

'The Bride's Trunk' – Marriage with 'ex-enemy nationals' (continued) 15 August 2016

'The Allied Occupation of Germany Revisited' 27 July 2016 

'How it really was' 10 years on, after the Brexit referendum 1 July 2016

Winning the prize of the German Historical Institute, London 26 November 2014

Harold Ingrams and the 'Aden Emergency' 17 March 2014

The four stages of competence; or how history can help stop us forgetting the fundamentals and throwing the baby out with the bathwater 20 February 2014

History and Policy 6 February 2014

'Infantilisation' and 'Echoes of Empire' 21 January 2014

'Operation Butcher' 1 July 2013

Marriage with 'ex-enemy nationals' (continued) 24 May 2013 

'Hunting for Democracy' (continued) 2 April 2013

Collective biography 8 March 2013

The Craft of Research 12 February 2013

Colonel E H D (Eric) Grimley: 'Hunting for democracy' 7 August 2012

'Winning the peace': attempting to explain some of the contradictions in British policy in occupied Germany, 1945-1948 1 March 2012 

International Socialists 5 January 2012

"We pour petrol on them" 21 July 2011

11 July 2011

For anyone reading this blog for the first time, I am a PhD history student at the Centre for Contemporary British History at Kings College London, researching the British in occupied Germany after the end of World War Two. I am now in the fourth year of a six year part-time course. In my view, history is a process of discovery, and I try to post something new and interesting on this blog around once a week or once a month, as I work my way through the research.

I’ve listed below all posts on this blog since September 2009. For earlier posts, see:

16th March 2007

I’m going into hospital for a few days and will out of action for a month or so. So in the meantime, you may like to browse through some earlier items.

Here is a list of all posts on this blog since 1st October 2005. Alternatively you might like to look at the posts in one of the categories listed in the right hand column.

12 March 2007: Harry Bohrer – the other British officer who helped create Der Spiegel

5 March 2007: John Seymour Chaloner

25 February 2007: Raymond Ebsworth – Restoring Democracy in Germany

17 February 2007: Ethel Mannin – German Journey

4 February 2007: Fenner Brockway – German Diary

27 January 2007: Noel Annan – Changing Enemies

20 January 2007: William Strang – Home and Abroad

14 January 2007: Questions and Answers

6 January 2007: German Historical Institute conference talk on Germany under British occupation – as portrayed in Humphrey Jennings’ film ‘A Defeated People.’

31 December 2006: Group Captives, by Henry Faulk – The Re-education of German Prisoners of War (POWs) in Britain after the Second World War

18 December 2006: Deutschland, England über alles, by Michael Thomas

10 December 2006: Berlin Twilight by Lieutenant-Colonel Byford-Jones

4 December 2006: Feeling Sorry for the Germans

27 November 2006: Germany 1944 – The British Soldier’s Pocketbook

20 November 2006: ‘Victory over Japan’ exhibition

11 November 2006: Another view of Humphrey Jennings’ Film ‘A Defeated People’

4 November 2006: ‘Your Job in Germany’ a training film for US troops in 1945

29 October 2006: Humphrey Jennings’ letters home from Germany

21 October 2006: Humphrey Jennings’ wartime documentaries

14 October 2006: ‘A Defeated People’ – what the film reviews said in 1946

11 October 2006: ‘Germany under Control’ exhibition – part 2

8 October 2006: British Zone Review

1 October 2006: ‘Germany under Control’ exhibition

20 September 2006: Humphrey Jennings’ Film: ‘A Defeated People’

13 September 2006: Winning the Peace

25 February 2006: Bevan and the BMA

18 February 2006: Dancing with Strangers

11 February 2006: Bread Rationing (Conclusion)

21 December 2005: Bread Rationing (Part 4)

4 December 2005: Bread Rationing (Part 3)

26 November 2005: More on Bread Rationing

21 November 2005: Bread Rationing

12 November 2005: Postmodernism

5 November 2005: Victor Gollancz, Peggy Duff, and "Save Europe Now"

28 October 2005: Victor Gollancz – In Darkest Germany

23 October 2005: Clement Attlee – The Labour Party in Perspective

15 October 2005: Fragmentation and over-specialization

8 October 2005: Hidden Lives

8 October 2005: Wie es eigentlich gewesen (more)

1 October 2005: Wie es eigentlich gewesen