The historian Richard J. Evans has regularly crossed the boundary between historical research and political debate. For those outside the historical community, Sir Richard may be best known for his role in the defamation trial brought by David Irving against Deborah Lipstadt on the issue of Irving’s Holocaust denial. Evans’s testimony was pivotal in defeating […]
The latest Brave New World
Brave New World was a novel written by English author Aldous Huxley and published in 1932. Huxley was writing at a time when a worldwide economic depression was destroying the old economic certainties. Communism had triumphed in the Soviet Union, and fascism was on the rise across Europe. Despite the background, the novel appears to be more interested in […]
Legacies of Buster Keaton: Jackie Chan and Malcolm (1986)
Kevin Brianton, Adjunct Senior Research Fellow, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia In almost every Buster Keaton film, there is a scene where the audience gasps at the actor’s astonishing athleticism. It can be when Keaton wrestles with huge pieces of wood on his steam engine, The General or when a building collapses on him.In an […]
A legal approach to the decline and fall of the United States
When COVID-19 was beginning it spread throughout the United States, President Donald Trump turned his ire on the World Health Organisation. The White House charged that the WHO was slow to respond to the threat and overly influenced by China. A new book, Play by the Rules: The Short Story of America’s Leadership: From Hiroshima […]
The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film by W.K. Stratton My rating: 3 of 5 stars Stratton has written a highly entertaining account of the creation of the Wild Bunch. Beginning with the premise that it is the greatest film ever made, he is clearly besotted […]
Brownlow revises documentary on SDG meeting
The great Hollywood historian Kevin Brownlow has revised his documentary on DeMille. I mention this proposed change is in my book Hollywood Divided. Not sure, if the book had any impact on the change, but we did an email exchange a few years ago about it. You can see the new version here.
Mike Duncan: The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic – a review
Mike Duncan is an American podcaster. The History of Rome aired between 2007 and 2012 and covered Roman history from its founding to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The History of Rome won best educational podcast at the 2010 podcast awards, and was listed among the best podcasts of 2015 by Apple. “The Storm Before the Storm” entered the […]
Is Jesus History? A review
John Dickson has an impressive CV. He was the Founding Director of theCentre for Public Christianity. He has a degree in theology and a Ph.D. inancient history. An ordained Anglican minister, he was a Research Fellow of the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University, and became a Visiting Academic in the Faculty of Classics […]
It All Begins With A Song: The Story of the Nashville Songwriter
A recent documentary on famous singer song writer Dolly Parton showed her performing a 50th anniversary show at the Grand Ole Opry. This is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, which was founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio ‘barn dance”. It is the longest-running […]
The Brothers Mankiewicz review: a groundbreaking dual biography
Sydney Ladensohn Stern, The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope. Heartbreak and Hollywood Classics (USA: University Press of Mississippi, 2019) The writing talent alone of the Mankiewicz Brothers – Herman and Joseph – is overwhelming. Younger brother Joseph won academy awards for writing and directing, particularly for the verbal fireworks of All About Eve, and Herman laid the basis […]