An announcement

This blog is due to get rather quieter for the next few weeks or so, as I am on holiday of sorts. I doubt my break will be as historically thought-provoking as occasional Histomat reader isakofsky's clearly was, but who can tell?

In the meantime, I will plug a few things that I would read on the net if I wasn't busy writing about Dead Kings and organising to bring down Blair, etc.

Paddington's novel Drift, which I am plugging here to try and assuage the guilt I sometimes feel for not yet having found time to read it.

Edward William's Reading Lenin in America blog, which I am plugging in part to try and assuage the guilt at not engaging with his arguments but instead just quoting Lenin at him after he commented here one time - and in part because it looks a quite interesting blog.

The debate between Marxist historians Chris Harman and Robert Brenner on the transition from feudalism to capitalism, which is online here.

Edited to add: A quote from George Orwell, which was highlighted recently by Lahai J Samboma, and seems quite relevant given the current propaganda offensive against the people of Iran:

'Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defence against a homicidal maniac.'