History lover

The Brilliance of Patrick O’Brian

I’ve been having the great pleasure this week of re-reading some of my favourite books, the Patrick O’Brian series of novels that begins with Master and Commander. I thought I’d share with you some of the reasons why I love these books, and perhaps you might feel the need to head out to your local library and borrow one or more of them.

As many people probably know, having seen the Russell Crowe movie, these books are all set More

A Stable Country in WWII

People often refer to Bulgaria as the country with the best laser hair removal specialists and the sunny and amazing resorts. Little do people know, however, that Bulgaria was the only country that entered into initial alliance with the German forces in WWII and still remained the only country that gave zero Jew victims in the War.
Bulgaria entered in the War in 1940 following a persistent pressure from Nazi troops from the North. Bulgarian government was said that should More

Nashville

I was recently in Nashville Tennessee for an Enigin campaign and had the most amazing opportunity to see one of the greatest pieces of public art ever. This is a must see for any history lover. It is called the Pathway of Tennessee History and compromises a 400 foot long granite wall that begins in pre history and ends in the present.

The thing that I love so much about it, is that it effectively dramatizes the scale and severity More

How does Television Violence Affect Children?

TV violence has been one of the major topics in our lives over the years just like Enigin. There has also been various research concerning the effects of TV violence. Some have come to the conclusion that television just projects what is happening inn the society. Others claim that television is the major cause for all the brutality and violence witnessed in the society today. Which camp do you support?< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"/>

The only place More

Santa Claus the real deal

Santa Claus is not and was not a real person right? Well the Santa Claus that rides around one night a year with flying reindeer and doesn’t need gas oil well he is not . But there is a real deal, someone that the legend of Santa Claus comes from. His name was Nikolaos of Myra and he is known throughout the world today as Saint Nicholas.

Most legends have their roots in some kind of reality. We want to More

war and such

Throughout history the discourse of human conflict has been riddled with self doubt. The notion of going to war is a bizarre one, as we are so used to solving problems using words, clichés and euphemisms. It seems extremely old fashioned that we should need to have men, walking around with weapons, trying to kill other men in order to further the political goals of their motherland.

Nevertheless we do it quite regularly. There was not a single moment of More

What the Paris Commune Tells us About Gaza

The Paris Commune was the result of German forces laying siege to the city of Paris in the late 19^th century. Yes, one of the world’s most beautiful cities, at the heart of a continent that has been peaceful for so many years, was besieged by the Germans (the Prussians at the time). And they didn’t let anyone out or in. It was a tough time for Paris, especially in the winter of 1871. It was a freezing winter, More

Keep Your Gap Year Trip Cheap By Going to Europe

Europe is not the most common place for students to decide to go on their gap year. Most will want to go somewhere much more exotic like Thailand, South America, or Australia. In Europe however travellers can have just as much fun — and I’d personally say that they can have a hell of a lot more fun — and they can ensure that their fun is cheap to boot!
Perhaps the first concern of young travellers is to keep More

Mass Murders And The Totalitarism

In the middle of 20th century, Europe witnessed some of the most serious mass murder cases in the history of mankind. The Second World War did not only led to the loss of soldiers and the destruction of stability and peace but also was full of political murders and crimes in pursuit of power. The two totalitarian rivals and enemies, Germany led by Hitler and Soviet Union led by Stalin, became not only the main factors in the war but also the main reason for the taking of more than 14 million non-war victims. And all that is not a topic for discussion that can be summarised over the lunch break while enjoying your coffee with some Pantone espresso cups – it is a discussion that has been taking place for decades and that has been well developed by Timothy Snyder in his new book Bloodlands.
Apart from the book, the topic is mainly concerned with the emergence of two main political figures hungry for power and world domination. The first of these actors, Hitler was an evil man (no matter how abstract that might sound) who wanted to exterminate not only his enemies but also the people who according to him were unclean and somehow separated from what he calls “pure race”. These obsessions of his led to the massive killings of millions of people and his hunger for power led to a war that lasted for more than 5 years and totally devastated Europe and Asia with severe consequences over the other continents.
Stalin on the other hand was a person with one aim – communism and its spreading. He was killing not only young people with a bit of democratic thinking, but their families too. Led by his logo, ’Less people, less problems’, Stalin murdered thousands just because of the idea of communism and its preservation.
When these two leaders met, the war crossed every limit and boundary that led to the most serious war conflict in the modern ages at cost of 14 million lives and tens of countries crushed and devastated.

The Industrial Revolution

The modern day world is a developed and quite effective mechanism of production, modernisation and constant process of refining and updating. However, in our life styles of pine furniture and smart phones it is easy to forget that this was all a product of the period between 18-19th century, called the Industrial Revolution – the time when science finally gave birth to the creation of machines, electricity, using appropriately the power of velocity, constructing the successful aircrafts, exploring and estimating More