Eric Hobsbawm, the historian who taught at Cambridge and Birkbeck, wrote in his 1995 book The Age of Extremes that the 20th century was:

without doubt the most murderous century of which we have record, both by the scale, frequency, and length of the warfare which filled it […] but also by the unparalleled scale of the human catastrophes it produced, from the greatest famines in history to systematic genocide.

When the sources are studied, it is not hard to see how he reached this conclusion. The Holocaust is, in the Western world, the most infamous of the depravities of…

Writing articles purely for online publications presents unique challenges, but also offers a plethora of great opportunities. The barrier to entry is practically non-existent, but it can take some perseverance, open-mindedness, and practice to make real progress, grow a following, and make money.

From the few years experience I have working as a contributor and editor for a student newspaper, and the three years I spent working in marketing and content-creation and curation for an e-commerce business, I’ve learnt some things the hard way, lessons which I’m happy to share with you all. …

Does it bring about change, or does it just do more harm than good?

Over recent years, Western cultures have shown a rising tendency to no-platform and cancel those whose views are judged to be offensive, controversial, politically incorrect, and undesirable.

In many cases, the views or the conduct of those who have been “cancelled” have been detrimental. But “cancelling” people who air views which are generally considered detrimental can end up stifling healthy debate.

When cancel culture attacks people for their views, it can end up pushing the “cancelled” to the margins of our societies and cultures. …

The Suez Canal is one of the most important waterways in the world for global trade. It connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean basin. This route, therefore, links trade and travel between three continents — Europe, Asia, and Africa. The Suez Canal is located in Egypt, and it was officially opened for commercial passage in 1869.

Work on constructing the Canal began in 1859, and the man typically associated with overseeing operations was a French diplomat named Ferdinand de Lesseps. …

The Times recently published an article within which allegations were made by the French-American academic Guy Sorman, against fellow French academic Michel Foucault, who died from HIV/AIDS complications in 1984. Sorman alleges that Foucault was a paedophile, who abused prepubescent boys in Tunisia, where he lived and worked in 1969.

Sorman states that he personally witnessed Foucault exchanging money for sex with these boys. Although no victims have yet come forward to substantiate Sorman’s claims, moments from Foucault’s life and work do not reflect favourably on his reputation. …

I used Twitter pretty much every day for about 5 years. But eventually, I tired of the fact that I couldn’t communicate properly on there. I got sick of the fact that every time I logged in; I was confronted with hate, misinformation, and trolls.

I decided that turning my back on Twitter was the right thing to do. I abandoned the platform long before they started banning high-profile people for saying distasteful things. …

These are damaging attitudes our societies and cultures could do without

First of all, let me define what I mean by elitism and classism. By elitism, I refer to the point of view that a section of a population should, by hereditary right or privilege, preserve their prerogative to govern, to maintain their wealth, and to live with power and influence, purely by virtue of their birth into and their membership of monied families.

By classism, I refer to the haughty attitude that a strata, or class, of a population is destined to have power and authority over the rest…

As a kid, I had always been a pretty big reader. My parents got me into books while I was young, starting off with the typical nursery rhymes and fairy tales before introducing me to some fantastic children’s authors, including Spike Milligan, Dr Seuss, and Roald Dahl. The Twits was my favourite.

As I grew up, well into my early teens, I continued to read other popular books that many other kids were reading too — the Harry Potter series, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Spiderwick Chronicles, Anthony Horowitz’s Alex Rider books, Robert Muchamore’s books — name…