20th Century History Articles
The 20th century was an era of unprecedented global change, from world wars and political revolutions to cultural shifts and technological breakthroughs. It reshaped societies worldwide and influenced modern thought, art, and governance as we know them today.
Appeasement: An Introduction
Just twenty years after the War to End All Wars, Britain was once again at war with Germany. With hindsight a second conflagration had seemed inevitable, so did Britain sleepwalk into a world war that could have been avoided?
Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II
In school and college, many had been exposed to books and scholarship that argued that, by August 1945, Japan was ready to surrender, and that America’s real motivation in dropping the A-bomb was to intimidate Russia in the earliest days of the Cold War. The facts are otherwise.
-
by Evan Thomas
Amundsen’s Last Expedition
Shortly after 4pm on 18 June 1928, the flying boat carrying the great polar explorer Roald Amundsen on his last expedition was seen by a Norwegian fisherman flying over the Arctic ocean into 'a bank of fog that rose up over the horizon…and disappeared before our eyes' – and it was never seen again.
-
by Mark Piesing
Tackling the Mythology of the Arctic Convoys
Contrary to the prevailing mythology, not only did the Allies and the Royal Navy win the campaign in the Arctic, but they did so with the help of a huge and previously largely unacknowledged signals intelligence effort, at the heart of which lay the codebreakers of Bletchley Park.
-
by David Kenyon
.jpg)
The Spies Who Should Be Remembered
Women's roles in British Intelligence have largely been missing from the wider narratives of the world wars. Their legacy has been hidden for far too long.
-
by Helen Fry
The Fierce: David Whitelaw and Andrija Artuković
'The Fierce' tells the untold true story of a teenager who set out to bring the worst war criminal in America to justice. It is a David versus Goliath tale, set in the Cold War, when fear of communism permeated every facet of American life.
-
by Judy Piercey
The sinking of an unsinkable ship: Titanic
RMS Titanic hit an iceberg off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland at 11:40pm on 14 April 1912. Just two hours and forty minutes after the collision with the iceberg, RMS Titanic broke into two and sank. She crashed onto the ocean floor, almost 2.5 miles beneath the surface,
-listing-main.jpg)
Forged in Ice and Fire: The Tale of the Polish II Corps
It has taken a long time for the endeavours of forces like the Polish II Corps to make their way back into the global consciousness. There is still a long way to go until both the heroism and betrayal are fully appreciated.
-
by Steven Port
-listing-main.jpg)
The Myth of the First World War
The myths of the ‘Great War’ are the foundation myths of the twentieth century, providing a frame of reference for understanding ourselves and our community. In Britain, the pervading myth is one of soldiers bravely sacrificing themselves in a futile war. It is the pity and the horror of war, and it is enduring because, emotionally, it is true.
The Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942, was a cross-departmental meeting of the Nazi government. Its goal was brutally and clinically simple: to organise the final solution to the Jewish question.
