The UK will be electing a new government in May of this year, and the coverage is already extensive.  The media always give elections far more coverage than most of us want in terms of volume.  However I always feel that we don’t get much in terms of depth. The party machines are adept at

The ice cap at the North Pole melted, and you were worrying about the budget deficit?  Sea levels rose around the world and you were bothered about bankers’ bonuses?  The world’s food supply failed to keep up with population growth and you were focused on immigration controls?  How are future generations going to look back

The Conservative Party’s origins go back ultimately to the royalists of the English Civil War – though the descent is not a linear one.  They have also acquired DNA from the Liberals with and without capital Ls and from intellectual influences like Edmund Burke.  They have always been about supporting the establishment, but have often

  It isn’t too hard to explain why Christianity became the predominant religion in the Roman Empire.  It was well organised.  It provided social security at a time of great insecurity.  It also had all the coercive power of the state behind it.   But how did the conversion of the barbarians make such inroads into

There are many reasons for reading the Decline and Fall of the Roman empire. For a start you get to know a lot about Roman history.  You also learn a lot about 18th Century Britain. I hope, or at least aspire, to get these across to people who haven’t read the book itself. But one thing

  Hi, I’m Colin Sanders, this is the History Books Review and this episode covers the rise of monasticism as described by Edward Gibbon in Chapter 37 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.