What is the Thucydides Trap?
"What made war inevitable was the growth of Athenian power and the fear which this caused in Sparta." The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides A Thucydides Trap is when a rising power threatens the hegemony of an established power. When such a challenge arises war becomes...
Mark is the author of 7 books including 5 novels, a short story collection, and a haiku collection
How Old Are The English?
Sauron… I mean, Tony Blair once said that Britain is a young country. “Maybe,” I’d say, “but England? That’s a different story. And the English? Well… the English are far older than you’ve been told.” English identity has often been called into question. The Tudors...
Amber and the Ancient Spark
Amber and the Ancient Spark: How Pre-Industrial Cultures Understood Static Electricity Have you ever rubbed a balloon on your hair and watched it stick to the wall? Or felt a tiny shock after walking across a carpet? These sparks of static electricity are so common...
The Apology for the Apostrophe
Germany is in uproar. The language authorities - something we English would never have, have given into those damn anglos. They have approved “the idiot’s apostrophe”. Well, in some uses and not others. Well, apart from being called idiots by the Germans (let thee...