This week was the beginning of the next stage in my new life, la vita nuova as an independent author. After a ritual week on the liminal beauty of the Bay of Lorne in South-Eastern Australia, I transformed from a government official, wounded and now retired, to become an independent author.
My latest podcast takes a look at the influence of the Mongol Empire on Russian history, and indeed on world history.
In this 8th podcast episode in the 'Black Legend of Russian History' the myths about Ivan the Terrible are outlined, and then the stranger stories of his life are told.
In the early 1600s Russia suffered a traumatic civil war, political instability and social chaos - the Time of Troubles. Find out more on my latest podcast.
Episode 63 The Lessons of History - The Burning Archive podcast explores how the past is not dead, the past is not even past. But if that is so, what are the uses and lessons of history? How can history be used for guidance in our lives, and to advise governments on the big decisions that shape... Continue Reading →
I have released two new podcasts on the crises in America and the challenges of a multipolar world for Australia.
I have just released episode 55 of the Burning Archive podcast. This episode is about the concept of civilization, in both the legendary game Civ I-VI and in the traditions of history-writing. Civilization, the game, is soon to be released in its 7th edition. In this episode of The Burning Archive I respond to a... Continue Reading →
Does the history of the mafia have more to do with Italian Risorgimento politics, prisons and the disruptions of the nineteenth century than medieval brotherhoods?
Today I have recorded, edited and released the latest episode of The Burning Archive podcast - The Medici in Games and in History
Catherine Merridale, Lenin on the Train (2016), which I finished reading last night, is a very fine book. It is a gem, and perhaps ought to be recommended as among the very best introductions to the history of the Russian Revolution.
This morning I released the latest Burning Archive podcast. In games, we see a different pre-modern world of work - of artisans, craft skills and guilds. Was this world ever real, and what does this fantasy world of work tell us of our collective memory of work and collective organisation? Join me on this fascinating tour of the history of work, guilds and unions, and the global transformations of ideas of work in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
A new iron curtain is falling across the "Western" or Anglo-American world. This time curtain is not being brought down by a reincarnated Russian empire. It is being brought down by a failing empire of lies, the media-theatre state of the Global American Empire, spiralling into a dynastic collapse.
The Burning Archive 