history

09 Mar 2020

The United States’ Sad History of Soft-Brain Presidential Campaigns

by Xan Holbrook As much as the world loves to pretend it doesn’t give a shit about the US election, it is the one event in world politics which draws the most deserved attention (I say deserved, as people ought to fret at least a little bit about whatever Caligula

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02 Mar 2020

Invading Afghanistan Remains a Historically Bad Idea

by Xan Holbrook It’s approaching cliche among historians and history buffs to say that Afghanistan is unconquerable. However, its reputation as the toughest nut to crack in geo-politics – from the Parthian Empire until now – is not meritless. For most Americans, Afghanistan first permeated the national psyche during the

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03 Feb 2020

The Deep Historical Roots of America’s Opioid Crisis

by Xan Holbrook During the trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor, I happened to be at my mother’s house. We watched a news report that detailed the extent of Jackson’s pharmaceutical drug addiction. My mother, a proud NHS nurse of 40 years, shook her head in incredulity at the drugs Jackson’s

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07 Jan 2020

Absinthe Isn’t Special and You Aren’t Special for Drinking It

by Xan Holbrook I see you there. You’re twirling your Hercule Poirot ‘stache, adjusting your pince-nez specs and drinking espresso from a cup so small you hold it with tweezers. Sitting there, in your Fort Greene café, keeping an eye on the Penny-Farthing you rode here on. Watching the world

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16 Dec 2019

Christopher Columbus was the 15th Century’s Epstein

by Xan Holbrook Little of the phony gravitas of Christopher Columbus remains nowadays. Not the first man to discover the Americas, nor the one who proved the world was round, nor a pious man, not even a man who loved the land he found… Columbus is an empty icon. More

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09 Dec 2019

The War on Clap: How the Allies Fought VD

by Xan Holbrook There’s a wonderful phrase that the idiot-savants at the British Army Rumour Service, or ARRSe, love to employ to describe something truly invincible. That term is squaddy proof. The thinking goes something like this: you can build something, spend billions testing it in civilian circles, and claim

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04 Dec 2019

Thank God for Schlock: Exploitation Films with Christian Financiers

by Xan Holbrook One recurring treat (among many) for the Bill Hicks fan is his theatrical disdain and revulsion for drug prohibition. Such a passionate hatred proved an excellent vehicle to showcase his near mastery of prose and rhetoric. In one of my favorite bits, he inverted the stifled, crusty

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