Brushing for Britain
The First World War revealed the bad state of Britain’s teeth. Intervention was required to keep the nation biting fit.
Interwar period
Is it Possible to Forgive and Forget?
Where fraught national histories are concerned, do policies of remembrance and education work, or is it better to wipe the slate clean?
Muslim Modernisers on the Silk Road
Uzbekistan was a product of Islamic modernism and Soviet might. Free from the latter, the nation now seeks to foreground the Young Bukharans.
The Great Fire of Smyrna
As the Ottoman Empire crumbled, the Greek and Armenian quarters of Smyrna were set ablaze on 13 September 1922 by the vengeful Turkish army.
‘Hitler’s People’ by Richard Evans review
Hitler’s People: The Faces of the Third Reich by Richard Evans asks what manner of men made themselves the Führer’s ‘paladins’.
The Powers of Soviet Puppetry
The puppet theatres of Kazakhstan combined Soviet ideals with Kazakh traditions to educate the masses.
Britain’s First Milk Bar Opens
Entrepreneur Hugh Donald McIntosh struck white gold when London’s Black and White Bar opened on 1 August 1935.
The ‘Experts’ from Afghanistan
Britain’s dearth of Afghan informants provided an opportunity for a disinherited Indian prince and his son to present themselves as an authentic conduit to the Muslim world. Soon they were advising the nation on subjects from geopolitics to the powers of the occult.
Japan, the West and the Treaty of Versailles
At the outset of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference Japan enjoyed a seat at the top table, but the vexed issue of racial equality set it and its notional Western allies on different paths.
The Theft of the Ghent Altarpiece
When a priceless altarpiece was stolen from a Belgian cathedral it sparked a 90-year hunt. The crime remains unsolved.