Tim Worstall

Ho hum. Before this, such outbreaks would have remained localised, argues a provocative new book. But by then the “scramble for Africa” was under way and thousands of porters were crossing through the area. So it was, the authors claim, that colonisation by the European powers a century ago is responsible for unleashing HIV on [...]

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Private owners of capital used the state to force peasants – who, in the 14th century, worked about a quarter of hours that the average person does now – to work 12 hour days in factories. We’re supposed to believe that a peasant working in a subsistence economy works 10 hours a week are we? [...]

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Several years ago, a group of leaders from the Chinese church came to England on a holy pilgrimage. They had followed in the footsteps of one of Christianity’s great missionaries in the Far East, travelling for days to worship at the hallowed birthplace of their religious teacher. When they reached their destination, the church leaders [...]

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The spies were then given a choice of betraying their Nazi leaders or facing the firing squad. For hanging was the punishment at the time. A firing squad is, when used, a military punishment, not one for civilian spies even in time of war. Update: so, someone dares to contradict me in the comments, eh? [...]

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I believe you’ve got your history a little telescoped here. The fact that no remedy has seemed to work has had remarkably little impact on policy. During the Depression Milton Friedman’s call for an increase in money supply proved ineffective when that increase was merely hoarded by stricken banks. Thus pumping up the banks is [...]

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There have been periods in Britain’s history – the famine of the 1340s, followed by the Black Death – when there were colossal falls in living standards, No, the Black Death caused, for those who survived of course, a massiove rise in living standards. It was a Malthusian economy, see? Fewer people, same amount of [...]

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As Kentucky-based Sawyer, 58, points out: “I scarcely think Jesus could have overturned the tables of the money-lenders and driven them from the temple if he was a wimp. The model I use for my paintings is a surfer guy who’s built like a brick shithouse.” Historically, it would be very odd to think that [...]

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Nice set of pictures of the anti-Gorbachov coup 20 years ago. Bernard Levin, all those years ago, called it exactly, to the moment, when the Soviet system came tumbling down. At one point, the crowd defending the White House was called upon to disperse. Along the lines of “This is the KGB, we order you [...]

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Two little nuggets: From his earliest days, George Lascelles was blessed with an extraordinary ear for music and interest in facts about music, an eccentricity which prompted his uncle, the Prince of Wales (later the Duke of Windsor), to remark: “It’s very odd about George and music. You know his parents were quite normal — [...]

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On Mao’s Great Leap Forward: “One of the judges, [biographer] Brenda Maddox, simply said ‘this book changed my life – I think differently about the 20th century than I did before. Why didn’t I know about this?’ We feel we know who the villains of the 20th century are – Stalin and Hitler. But here, [...]

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Umm, excuse me, but I’d rather like a Professor of History to know his history. In the late 1940s every government on the continent ran postwar reconstruction as it had run its war effort, as a national mobilisation with the state as the prime planner, arbiter and coordinator. Ministries of planning were not confined to [...]

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Slightly odd statement in an obituary: Although two of the Indian characters were played by ethnic actors (in fact, one was Pakistani and the other Bangladeshi), an English actor, Michael Bates, “blacked up” to play the main comic “native”, the anglophile servant Rangi Ram. This, plus the casually racist humour of the time and the [...]

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Sigh: Is it any wonder that St Patrick enjoys such popularity in comparison? He’s a local boy made good, a saint the Irish can really take to their collective bosom. Paddy wasn’t in fact Irish. A Romano-Brit, almost certainly Welsh, who was carried off by Irish slavers. Came home again, then got the bug to [...]

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You might know the banana story. During the second world war, Evelyn Waugh‘s wife managed to procure three bananas for their children. When she brought the fruit home, Evelyn sat down in front of the children, peeled the bananas, poured on cream and sugar, and ate them all. Umm, well, that’s not the way I’ve [...]

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The model for that iconic poster: Doyle quit after just one week at the factory where her picture was made famous. And that’s how the war was won.

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And now someone has actually reached it properly: This thoughtful re-examination of the history of U.S. economic growth is built around a novel claim, that potential output grew dramatically across the Depression years (1929-1941) and that this advance provided the foundation for the economic and military success of the United States during the Second World [...]

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A fossilised little finger discovered in a cave in the mountains of southern Siberia belonged to a young girl from an unknown group of archaic humans, scientists say. The missing human relatives are thought to have inhabited much of Asia as recently as 30,000 years ago, and so shared the land with early modern humans [...]

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Why Frome is still cashing in on the Romans Last April, a man who hated history at school unearthed the largest coin hoard ever found in Britain. But why had it been buried in a field in Somerset? As a West Country boy myself I can answer this. Because, whatever the century, you certainly don’t [...]

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Of course, sons are not responsible for the sins of the fathers. But it is amusing.

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And what was it that brought cheap, fashionable specs to the masses? Was it State ownership and control of the Opticians with billions of tax money thrown in, or was it just freeing the market and letting competition bring its benefits? Hmm I wonder. This bloke.

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