Conservative History Journal

Tory Historian apologizes for the gap in postings. These will resume with their usual (and even better) regularity. Of course, should any reader want to post something, Tory Historian will be happy to know of it.In the meantime, here is an illustration from one of the greatest of the twentieth century novels, Mikhail Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita", a modern reworking of the Faust legend, a novel account of the Crucifixion and the events...

January 24, 1908 marked the publication of the first instalment of Robert Baden-Powell’s “Scouting for Boys”. There were six fortnightly instalments, which were collected and published in book form later in the same year. Both the magazine and the book version became immensely popular and not just among parents but among boys as well.The story is well known. Robert Baden-Powell had defended Mafeking and part of his strategy was to mobilize...

Counterfactuals are a lot of fun and, except for people who say rather grandly that they are not interested in alternatives, thus showing themselves to be determinists, of some import. Faced with certain historical developments it is tempting to take them apart and remove one particular aspect to see whether the same conclusion could have been reached. Most times the author of the counterfactual has to admit that history would probably...

This is the one, Tory Historian suspects, everyone has been waiting for. Are there any new quotes from Margaret Thatcher? Well, I have chose a couple of less well known ones but, I expect, most of our readers on this side of the pond will have heard them.To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs, principles, values and policies. So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.Why do you climb philosophical hills? Because they are worth climbing. There are no hills to go down unless...

Before I get on to the lady everyone is waiting for (and there has been a fair amount of posting about her) let me produce two quotations from that greatest of all communicators, probably the greatest twentieth century American president, Ronald Reagan. One well known, one not so well known. Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin....

Tory Historian has been reading instead of going to exhibitions (well, apart from following the abysmally bad East meets West trail at the Tate Britain) and the book of choice is John O'Sullivan's "The President, the Pope and the Prime Minister", already out in the United States and due out in the UK in the spring. This will be a must-read for all conservatives with either a big 'C' or a small one as it tells the story of three conservatives (Reagan, Thatcher and John Paul II, since you ask) who, n ot so long ago, changed the...

Back in the days Tory Historian studied A level history there was a saying (one with which most readers are probably familiar).Only two developments in history are inevitable: the country (whichever country) is always going to the dogs and the middle classes are always rising. In fact, there was an urban myth of a history examiner who set the following question: "Give an example of a period when the middle classes were not rising in England...

Another Bank Holiday and another exhibition. On New Year’s Day Tory Historian visited the excellent and, alas, soon to close “At Home in Renaissance Italy” at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In parenthesis it might be noted that the V & A is a superb museum or would be if the powers that be would finish developing it and get down to running it.Anyway, the exhibition was not much liked by Brian Sewell, who felt that anything that was...

A very happy and prosperous new year to all readers of the Conservative History blog (and of the Journal, whose next issue will appear in January). Tory Historian intends to carry on writing the somewhat random postings of the kind that appeared last year and hopes that many more readers will join in the discussions.Together with my co-blogger, Iain Dale, I hope that many more of you will join in the Conservative History Group activities and, if you have any ideas about them, please let us know either here or through the Conservative...