Weekly audio essays from leading experts. Read by Leighton Pugh.
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Josef Joffe on Germany, the engine that couldn't
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Celebrated as predestined shepherd in the glory days of Angela Merkel, Germany in the 2020s is an uncertain giant who has defied expectations, good or bad. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: The top of the Reichstag Building. Credit: Artur Bogacki / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Maurizio Viroli on how we can learn from history
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We cannot afford not to rediscover the fine art, nowadays almost forgotten, of learning from history. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: 16th Century engraving by Theodoor Galle, titled The Printing of Books. Credit: The Granger Collection / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Philip Bobbitt on the decay and renewal of the US constitutional order
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A new constitutional order is coming. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. Credit: Lane Erickson / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Lars Trägårdh on the origins of Swedish democracy
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‘Democracy’ is in Sweden built on a basis fundamentally different from the one associated with the development of liberal democracy in the West. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Midsummer Dance by Swedish artist Anders Zorn (1860-1920) painted in 1897. A classic of Swedish art history showing traditional folk dancing in the Dalarna countryside in the …
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Josef Joffe on the future of the European Union
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What is the future of the European Union? The EU is sui generis. It certainly cannot be a nation state. Nor is it destined to turn into a Staatsnation or willed nation. Then what? Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: European Union flags. Credit: Brian Lawrence / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Simon Mayall on the history of the modern Middle East
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The current violence and turmoil in the Middle East is expressive of a conflict between rival ideas, between the modern nation state and an old, historical concept of an Islamic caliphate. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Abdel Nasser at a rally after the rupture of relations with Syria. Credit: colaimages / Alamy Stock Photo…
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Lawrence James on the invention of jingoism
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Jingoism was a natural offshoot of late Victorian imperialism. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Poster for a British imperial railway company. Credit: Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Steven Grosby on the persistence of nationhood
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What is a nation, what is its significance, and to what problems of life is its persistence a response? Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Lucas Cranach's The Crossing of the Red Sea, 1530. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Adrian Wooldridge on meritocracy
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The biggest division in modern society is between the meritocracy and the people, the cognitive elite and the masses, the exam-passers and the exam-flunkers. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Caricature of a Cambridge University library in the Georgian era. Credit: Thomas Rowlandson / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Mariano Sigman on how language has shaped human consciousness
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How did our ancestors think? Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A play is performed in an ancient Greek theatre. Credit: Classic Image / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Nathan Shachar on ideology in science
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There is no linear, moral progress in knowledge and science. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Triple-microscope made by the optician Camille Sebastien Nachet in Paris. Credit: gameover / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Gregory Feifer on the mirage of Russian power
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The mistake many Western countries make is to take Russia largely at face value. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Nesting Russian dolls showing former leaders. Credit: Mr Standfast / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Peter Heather on empire and development in first millennium Europe
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The story of first millennium Europe is one of remarkable economic change and demographic upheaval; a precocious analogue to the modern era of globalisation. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Charlemagne. Credit: The Picture Art Collection / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Barry Strauss on Ancient Greek geopolitics
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The Greeks invented the notion of the interrelationship of geography and politics; indeed, they elaborated it in myriad ways. Read by Leighton Pugh. https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/duality-determinism-and-demography-the-greeks-on-geopolitics/ Image: The Athenian fleet. Credit: INTERFOTO \ Alamy Stock Photo…
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Josef Joffe on the end of 'the end of history'
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We equated a brief respite from history with the dawn of a new age. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Fall of the Berlin Wall. Credit: Agencja Fotograficzna Caro / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Michael Broers on how Napoleon built a continent
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Napoleonic geopolitics didn't make much impression on Europe's maps, but its influence was wide-ranging. Read by Leighton Pugh. Napoleonic Europe: how the Emperor built a continent | Michael Broers Image: Napoleon crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David. Credit: GL Archive / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Norman Stone on the 1860s
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In the 1860s, commentators might have been justified in forecasting 'the end of history' and lauding universal progress. History was to return with a vengeance. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A lifeboat rescuing passengers from the ship Alarm in the 1860s. Credit: North Wind Picture Archives / Alamy Stock Photo…
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David Frum on how empire-states are changing the game
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From the Engelsberg Ideas Archive. States are back and they're out to challenge the international order. Image: Vladimir Putin captured from screen. Credit: Anton Dos Ventos / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Elisabeth Kendall on Jihadist poetry as propaganda
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Al-Qaeda's success in Yemen can in part be explained by the group's adept use of poetry as propaganda. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: An al-Qaeda logo is seen on a street sign in the town of Jaar in southern Abyan province, Yemen. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Malise Ruthven on the appeal of ISIS
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From the Engelsberg Ideas Archive. The organisation that emerged under the name ISIS is not simply a terrorist group. It is a hybrid organisation comprised of a proto-state, a millenarian cult capable of attracting recruits from far beyond its borders, a network of Salafi jihadist groups, an organised criminal ring and an insurgent army led by high…
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EI Weekly Listen — Andrew Preston on the invention of American national security
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By the time Kennedy and Johnson held the presidency in the 1960s, the definition of US national security had been stretched and expanded in previously unimaginable ways. It was not unusual for Americans to perceive their security frontiers as global – indeed, it was considered natural. But it hadn’t always been thus. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: P…
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EI Weekly Listen — Kimberly Kagan on the United States and the new way of war
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The United States, still the dominant military power in the world, is immersed in a new era of warfare that it has not yet recognised as endemic and enduring. America is losing its wars to less powerful but more adaptable adversaries, while preparing inadequately for future inter-state conflicts. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Posters of slain Irani…
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EI Weekly Listen — Pascal Vennesson on the rise of transnational war-making
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Political success for the global insurgents can arise not only from a military victory on the ground, but from a military stalemate and even a military defeat. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Mock Houthi-made drones and missiles are set up in a city square in Yemen. Credit: Zuma Press / Alamy Stock Photo…
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EI Weekly Listen — Rolf Ekéus on how to end wars
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There is only one way out of total destruction and collapse, which is creative diplomacy. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Dutch envoy Cornelis Calkoen received by the Ottoman grand vizier. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Philip Bobbitt on the new global disorder
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We cannot understand what is going wrong in the international order without first understanding what is going wrong in the constitutional order of states. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: The Statue of Liberty seen through a broken window on Ellis Island. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Yu Jie on the deep historical roots of China's global ambition
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China projects its power and secures its national interests in three ways: exercising might, spending money and expressing its own mindset. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: CCP propaganda printed in rice fields. Credit: Fabio Nodari / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Andrew Monaghan on how the past shapes Russian grand strategy
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Putin uses history not only to fit a narrative that Russia is strong when it stands together, but also to seek legitimacy. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Russian Second World War propaganda poster. Credit: Shawshots / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Pär Stenbäck on religion and politics in the Middle East
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Religion is often ignored as a political factor; in the Middle East, this is not possible. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Supporters of the pro-Iranian Lebanese Hezbollah group wave the party flags in front of a poster of late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini during a ceremony in Beirut. Credit: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo…
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EI Weekly Listen — Wolfgang Palaver on the complex relationship between violence and religion
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Wherever we insist on truth in order to win over our adversaries, we awaken a spirit of violence that endangers our living-together in the world. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre by Francois Dubois. Credit: Niday Picture Library / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Gary Lachman on the sources of mystical experience
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Mystical experience is the missing link in modern accounts of how human beings came to be conscious. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Trasverberazione di Santa Teresa d’Avila (1640). Credit: jozef sedmak / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Armin W. Geertz on the pre-historical roots of religious belief
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The history and evolution of (proto) religious behaviour is ancient. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Print of early humans making fire. Credit: Science History Images / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — David Goodhart on bridging the value divide
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Finding a new settlement between the Anywheres and the Somewheres is now the central task of modern politics. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Poverty in London, 1919. Credit: Classic Picture Library / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Kjell Nordström on the future of capitalism
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The proletarianisation of knowledge promises a bumpy ride for both us and capitalism as we know it. Read by Leighton Pugh. The New York Stock Exchange. Credit: Sergi Reboredo / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Maurizio Viroli on the city as a political order and urban space
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A good political community can only live and flourish in cities that speak to the soul of the citizens and inspire the love of order. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Map of Renaissance Florence. Credit: Pictures Now / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Gudrun Persson on rewriting Russian history
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In modern Russia, the past is being rewritten to suit Vladimir Putin's script. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: People carry portraits of their relatives - soldiers of the Second World War - as they take part in the Immortal Regiment march in downtown Moscow. Credit: SOPA Images Limited / Alamy Stock Photo…
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EI Weekly Listen — Fraser Nelson on the Intellectual Dark Web
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The intellectual dark web will, most likely, be a flicker in history, a reminder of when the West’s conversation was at its most shrill, and when free-thinking people had to look to underground clubs for a place to air their thoughts. Image: Camille Paglia. Credit: Independent / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Remaking the moral case for capitalism by Iain Martin
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A defence of capitalism will have to rest first and foremost on an appeal to ethics, obligation, and duty. Read by Leighton Pugh.Door EI Weekly Listen
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Spoken history: the modern importance of indigenous cultures by John Hemming
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Our information-rich civilisation is not superior or inferior to the pre-literate world of Brazil's indigenous peoples, just different. Read by Leighton Pugh.Door EI Weekly Listen
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EI Weekly Listen — Wealth and poverty in Renaissance Florence by Antony Molho
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This celebration of wealth, its frequent elevation to an almost religious level, and its justification not only in terms of its social utility but also, and more remarkably, in personal terms, is one of the defining characteristics of the Florentine public culture and private ethos in the fifteenth century and beyond. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: …
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EI Weekly Listen — The public realm and the language of architecture by John Simpson
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We must rescue our cities from a culture of ugliness. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Sol House, Northampton. Credit: Paul Hanson / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Can warfare ever be considered modern? By Rob Johnson
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Even with all its data and technology, contemporary conflict fits uneasily with our definitions of modernity. Read by Leighton Pugh Image: Mosul's old city destroyed by bombing. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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War and statehood by Philip Bobbitt
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Warfare made the early modern state. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Renaissance-era woodcut of King Louis IX of France and his army disembarking at Damietta, Egypt, in 1249. In a common anachronism, the army and fleet are equipped with cannons. Credit: Florilegius / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Clashing histories and present-day tensions in East Asia by Rana Mitter
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As China ramps up its military spending, the government in Beijing plays up its role in the Second World War. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Chinese poster from the Sino-Japanese War. Credit: Album / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Do we know the truth about the Thirty Years’ War? By Dick Harrison
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Different perspectives and eye-witness accounts reveal historical fallacies and myths about the war. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Gustavus Adolphus II. Credit: Wiki Creative CommonsDoor EI Weekly Listen
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Each Charter’d Street: Taking the long view on urban planning by Nicholas Boys Smith
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For as long as there have been cities they have attracted admiration and fear. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Eighteenth century map of London. Credit: Chronicle / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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34: The geopolitics and grand strategy of Alfred Thayer Mahan by John H. Maurer
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Alfred Thayer Mahan's writings on naval warfare have overshadowed his contributions to geopolitics. His theories, however, are clearly playing out today. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: A print of a First World War Imperial German Navy battlecruiser, the SMS Goeben. Credit: Troy GB images / Alamy Stock Photo…
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33: The cultural conversation of mankind by Christopher Coker
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Isolationist thinking and exceptionalism is on the rise and our global culture is the poorer for it. Our civilisations thrive when in conversation with each other: ideas are exchanged and self-reflection is promoted. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: An American Mercantile Building in Yokohama, 1861. Credit: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock…
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32: Epic news by Jessica Frazier
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What are myths for? More than entertainment alone, these epic tales helped the Ancients follow current affairs. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock PhotoDoor EI Weekly Listen
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31: The other side of the hill by Simon Mayall
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In war, we are, like the Duke of Wellington, still trying to guess what is on the other side of the hill, we just have more tools to help us do so. Read by Leighton Pugh Image: The Left Wing of the British army in Action at the Battle of Waterloo, June 18th 1815. Credit: Historica Graphica Collection/Heritage Images/Getty Images…
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30: In search of Lebensraum by Richard Overy
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Hitler's conviction that a new Eurasian order should be constructed with Germany at its zenith had its ideological roots in the early science of geopolitics. Read by Leighton Pugh. Image: This map of Russia and surrounding countries highlights Hitler's campaign in Russia and how it went wrong. Credit: Bettmann…
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