Various reading and musing has led me to the foundation of the United States, not the least, my studying of the history of Mexico. I wrote a little piece on the its founding, on my blog, interestingly called https://davelevy.info/subsidiarity-representation-and-human-rights/. I say interestingly, because the title has little to suggest it is about US governance and…
Read moreEmpire Windrush Scandal
The scandal, which broke in April 2018, saw the UK government apologise for deportation threats made to Commonwealth citizens’ children. Despite living and working in the UK for decades, many were told they were there illegally because of a lack of official paperwork.
Read moreThe Glorious Revolution
Provoked by Adonis, I came across some stuff about the so-called Glorious Revolution. Here are my notes …
Read moreComparative Advantage
Looking for Dennis Healy’s admiration for how Austria came to terms with its loss of Empire and found ‘Like Romans Becoming Italians’: Italy as the Negative Paradigm for British Decline in the Language of the Press and Denis Healey by Ettore Costa, published it seems in 2018. An interesting read, here are my notes. i.e….
Read moreAnother Amethyst?
The Govt send HMS Defender into the Black Sea where it approached or entered Ukraine’s or Russia’s territorial waters and the Russians took some form of warning action using either artillery, naval guns and/or bombs. This is just a provocation. WTF were we doing there? …
Read moreThe Cold War, my part in it
Not really, but I was asked the other day. Here are some notes.
Read moreGramsci in context
Martin Thomas (of the AWL) together with Peter Thomas has produced a pamphlet/book on the Life and thoughts of Gramsci. I might read it some time, but not today. Their landing page which hosts the .pdf is called Gramsci in Context. I also found this, from Socialist Appeal which argues that many Communists and Social…
Read morePhilately
I need to sell my stamp collection, here are my notes.
Read moreMagna Carta
As part of my English revolution reading, prompted by Arden’s Left Handed Liberty, I took a look at Magna Carta itself, what did it codify/concede? How relevant is it today? Here are my notes. …
Read moreWhen did Capitalism start?
I have been doing some reading recently on what I considered pre-capitalist history much of which I tried to put in a class struggle context, basically about the coming of the bourgeoisie. I always felt that Capitalism came into being at the end of the 17th century but others challanged this and since I can…
Read moreEarly (English) revolutionary spirit
I am playing a game of inverse “would I lie to you” each weekend. We don’t have so many rules as the TV shows; I was considering doing one on English Revolts, but decided not to; but made some interesting discoveries, which for me reinforces the need for a debate on English History teaching. I…
Read moreThe Levellers
The Leveller’s and the mutinies. Curious as to whether there’s a battle to propose to Class Wargames, as a result of further thinking beyond my comments here.. It seems there was. Here are my notes which focus more on the politics now, rather than the military actions.
Read moreClass War 1939-1945
I was pointed at this review of, Chris Bambery’s book The Second World War: A Marxist History (2014) which takes a different from normal view of the politics of the second world war; the story where the people’s of the last democracies in Europe united with the United States to fight its fascist blight. This…
Read moreMexico
Mexico has a sad and long history, having finished Class Wargames, I am looking to pick up, “Mexico, a brief history”. Here are my other notes & links …
Read moreClass Wargames & the ECW
I have been/am still reading Richard Barbrook’s book, “Class Wargames”. Among its many fascinating themes is his study of the collapse of democratic military forces into dictatorship.He name checks Napoleon, Toussaint Louverture & the Russian Revolution. I wonder why he didn’t start earlier with the English Civil War, it would seem to me to be…
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