To save mankind from the scourge of war… These eight words drawn from the preamble to the Charter of the United Nations have been ringing in my head for the past week. Most believe that they were penned…
Magda Szubanski’s engaging debut memoir, Reckoning, is an exercise in precisely that: reconciling the past. It is also a celebration of the life and career of one of our greatest comedians.
In the years following the end of World War II, Germany took in between 12 and 14 million refugees. What lessons does this past disaster have for today’s Europe?
Ivan Maisky’s account of his life in London provides a detailed and personal account of life at the epicentre of the dramatic events leading to World War II.
Many people outside China find it hard to understand its obsession with history. Appropriately enough, however, a little historical context can help to explain this. China has had more recorded history…
The Pacific War played out as a colonial war in the Pacific. It was brutal for non-combatant civilians in its path, and its impact epitomised the dehumanising capacity of both war and colonialism.
One ceremony on V J Day announced that the Sumatra railway had been completed, the construction of which had cost more than 80,000 lived and that 70 years later is still a little known story.
In the West, it is often forgotten that 1945 marks the end of not only the second world war but also of a much longer period of political and social upheaval in Asia.