I first read the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire at about the age of 14 in a copy borrowed from my local public library.  It was a huge battered old volume with thick slightly yellowed paper.  It looked old enough to have been around since not long after the fall of the Roman

H.G.Wells – thanks to Wikipedia for the image When I was very young, 12 or 13 maybe, I acquired a paperback of  H.G.Wells’ History of the World.  I probably bought it at a jumble sale but I may have just found it left on a train.  It remains the only book which having read, I

European imperialism gets a bad press these days.  Somehow, world domination just doesn’t seem to be regarded as a valid goal any more.  But when European rule was at its height in Africa, there was an argument that it was a force for good.   It had the mission of civilising the world.  And as

Dambisa Moyo (thanks to Wikipedia for image) If you are going to write a book proposing that giving aid to Africa is a bad idea, you are going to find it much easier to do if you are African.  If you are an African with a very solid background in economics so much the better. 

I was a bit disappointed with the episode on science last week, but this one was back on form.  There isn’t as much to say this time.  He looked at the histories of North and South America after colonisation by Europeans.  The Spanish seized all the land, enslaved the inhabitants and created a society where

If you wanted to have a major summit meeting, by this time the place to have it was Milan.  This was where Constantine and Licinius met to celebrate the wedding of Licinius to Constantine’s sister and to sort out the details of their alliance.  But they didn’t have long.  Licinius found himself under attack by