Jeremy Black

Jeremy Black’s recent books include short histories of both war and France as well as The Importance of Being Poirot and England in the Age of Dickens.

England and Scotland are forever bound in mourning

From our UK edition

Today, on Remembrance Day, wreaths will be laid to remember the fallen at 11am at the Stone of Remembrance. It follows the firing of Edinburgh Castle’s One O’clock Gun at 11am yesterday on Armistice Day. In London, there was a firing of guns from Horse Guards Parade and a procession past the Cenotaph. Last Remembrance Day, Nicola Sturgeon lead a wreath outside Edinburgh City Chambers. Humza Yousaf will likely do the same this morning. The history of Scotland and England is one of shared war. It’s only relatively recently, then, that Scots have fought alongside the English, playing a major role in the British army. The union came through war and conquest. By 78 AD, all of England and Wales was under Roman control, but some of Scotland was never taken over.

What military lessons can we learn from Ukraine?

From our UK edition

The past comes in convenient lumps, each able to provide a lesson. When I was growing up, it was the Munich Agreement, giving Hitler the Sudetenland, and Suez, that embarrassment, that historians tried to glean some wisdom from. We later embraced the lessons from Vietnam, about guerrilla warfare, and after that the teachings of Iraq and Afghanistan, about counterinsurgency. All wars taught us something, apparently. Ukraine has appealed for international military support by presenting itself as a testing ground for future wars. The Ukrainian defence minister says that Ukraine is the perfect place for the arms industry to try out its new kit, and our own defence secretary has said as much too. You can learn your lessons, make your mistakes, in Ukraine.

How Thomas Jefferson became ‘problematic’

From our UK edition

A victim of revolution, King George III’s statue was toppled almost 250 years ago in New York. Now the statue of his most bitter critic, Thomas Jefferson, is to follow in his footsteps – after the founding father’s likeness was removed from New York City Hall this week because he was a slave owner. Jefferson’s statue will be moved down the road to the New York Historical Society, after the city’s public design commission unanimously voted to remove him from his plinth.