(Nearly) all the bombs
There's been a huge amount of interest on Twitter and in the media about the new Bomb Sight website, developed by the University of Portsmouth with assistance from the National Archives and elsewhere,...
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The canals of Mars, 1861-1970 — I
In a recent, hmm, let's call it a discussion resulting from an old post I wrote about the US Air Force's one-time interesting in mapping Mars, I tried to assess how scientific interest in the Martian...
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The canals of Mars, 1861-1970 — II
In my post about the lingering scientific interest in the Martian canals hypothesis after 1909, I said that there was a problem with journal coverage. What do I mean by this? Have a look: This is a...
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The canals of Mars, 1861-1970 — III
So, to wrap up this accidental series. To check whether professional astronomical journals displayed the same patterns in discussing 'Mars' and 'canals' as the more popular/amateur ones I again looked...
View ArticleBritish newspapers online update, January 2013
I've updated my list of online British newspaper archives. This time, the new titles are: Aberdeen Journal AJR Information Catholic Herald Connacht Sentinel Cork Examiner Jewish Chronicle Irish Press...
View ArticleBorder patrol — I
[Cross-posted at Society for Military History Blog.] I recently came across what appear to be two bad books from what are two good publishers. There's nothing particularly unusual about that — these...
View ArticleThe many minutes of the Royal Aero Club
In May 1909, the three major organisations promoting aviation in Britain, the Aeronautical Society, the Aero Club, and the newly-formed Aerial League, announced that they would henceforth coordinate...
View ArticleBritish newspapers online update, April 2013
Having updated my list of online early 20th century British newspapers, I have mostly good news to report. The most exciting development comes from Wales. I have previously lamented the total lack of...
View ArticleVolcanic warfare — II
Quite some time ago I promised to write more about J. M. Spaight's Volcano Island (published in 1943 but written late in 1942). I probably should do that at some point. Such as now. Here I want to look...
View ArticleThis powder kills fascist aero-engines
I've written before about how the air defence problem seemed to inspire 'wildly creative' thinking in the early 20th century. Here are a couple more examples, submitted to the British government by...
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Portraits
An interesting Flickr set of photographs evidently taken in the south of England in the last year of the Second World War was recently posted to a WWII mailing list I'm on. Many show aircraft of...
View ArticleCause and effect in British air policy discourse
One of the most intriguing things to emerge from my post-blogging of the Blitz a few years ago (but which sadly didn't make it into my Blitz article) was the notion of reprisals after notice, that is...
View ArticleSelf-archive: '"Bomb back, and bomb hard"'
A year has passed since my article on the debate in Britain over whether to bomb German civilians in reprisal for the Blitz was published. Under the Australian Journal of Politics and History's...
View ArticleBritish newspapers online update, October 2013
It's been six months since the last one and so it's time for another update of my list of early 20th century British newspapers online. The most pleasing addition to the list of newspaper archives for...
View ArticleGaming the knock-out blow — I
As I discussed recently, Philip Sabin's Simulating War: Studying Conflict through Simulation Games (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2012) is primarily about using wargames to understand past wars....
View ArticleCourse correction
With my book's publication imminent and my return to the job market beginning to, if not loom, then at least creep up, it's time to think about what's next in terms of a research programme. I had been...
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The Imperial Aircraft Flotilla — I
We are familiar enough with the Spitfire Funds of the Second World War, in which patriotic individuals and groups could buy aircraft for the nation. There was a fair amount of precedent for this. In...
View ArticleBritish newspapers online update, July 2014
An update of my list of early 20th century British newspapers online is well overdue. As such, there are a large number of new titles available (some only for a limited range of years), along with the...
View ArticleMore on ‘the Few’
A few years ago I argued that 'the Few' in Winston Churchill's famous speech of 20 August 1940 didn't refer to the pilots of Fighter Command, as is almost universally assumed, but instead referred to...
View ArticleSeminar: ‘Staging the aerial theatre’
Last Friday, 3 October 2014, I gave the Humanities Research Seminar at the University of New England on the topic of 'Staging the aerial theatre: Britishness and airmindedness in the 20th century'...
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