Blog
Jesse Owens
In yesterday’s posting, I offered some details about the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Central to that was Jesse Owens’ feat of achieving four gold medals, three of which were world records. Here is a bit of trivia that I included in the Historical Background section of...
Mein Kampf, The Emoluments Clause & Donald Trump
Below is a short excerpt from Lebensborn, the second book in the Addlestone Chronicles trilogy: Louise said, “I actually read both volumes of Mein Kampf on my European tour in the summer of 1934. Even then, the book was available everywhere in shops and has now been...
Anthony Blunt and the Cambridge Apostles
Anthony Blunt appears in all three novels in the trilogy and is central in the fourth. When James Harcourt-Heath met him, Blunt was about three years older, a graduate student, and a Modern Languages tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge. Blunt was a leading light in...
Karl Kraus, His Aphorisms & Donald Trump
Kraus was an Austrian Jewish writer and journalist. He was also known as a satirist, essayist, aphorist, playwright, and poet. He aimed his satire at the press, German culture, and German and Austrian politics. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature on...
Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Last evening, I was watching episode 2 of Foyle's War, the 2002 British ITV production set during and shortly after the end of WWII. In this episode, titled The White Feather, reference was made to the book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In Lebensborn, the...
Supermarine Spitfire Fighter Aircraft
The Spitfire was critical in defeating the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. It was designed by Reginald Mitchell and others under the direction of Barnes Wallis. All worked at Brooklands Race Circuit, located about three miles from Woburn Park in Addlestone,...
Lügenpresse
In Addlestone, the first book in the trilogy, The Addlestone Chronicles, James Harcourt-Heath, an undergraduate at King’s College, Cambridge, is being interviewed as a potential candidate for a position in the British Secret Services, Department MI5. He is asked by...
Jarrow Crusade
Below are two short extracts from Magdalene, the third book in the Addlestone Chronicles trilogy. “Louise lost interest in James’s narrative and began reading an article on the second page of The Times. It described the Jarrow March. This morning, two hundred men had...
Fascism vs Socialism
Here’s a snippet from Addlestone, the first book in the Addlestone Chronicles trilogy. James is invited by Anthony Blunt to meet a person he described as an influential politician. The person turned out to be Captain Anthony ‘Jock’ Ramsay, Member of Parliament. Over...
Women in Nazi Germany
Below is an excerpt from Addlestone, the first book in the trilogy, The Addlestone Chronicles. As James and Louise were sitting at a Bierstuben in Berlin’s Tiergarten, Louise pointed toward a group of teenage girls who walked by in military order. She said, “They’re...
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Coco Chanel, & the Nazis
In Lebensborn, the second book in the series The Addlestone Chronicles, I introduced readers to the anti-Nazi role that Dietrich Bonhoeffer played and contrasted it with the support that Coco Chanel gave to Hitler. In the Historical Background section that followed...
Principles of Fascism
Proto-fascist leaders assert that in all social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties, to perform the drudgery of life. They need little intellect and few skills; hence there is no need for formal schooling for this class of people. They simply need to...
FASCISM vs SOCIALISM
Here’s a snippet from Addlestone, the first book in the Addlestone Chronicles Trilogy. James is invited by Anthony Blunt to meet a person he described as an influential politician. He turned out to be Captain Anthony ‘Jock’ Ramsay, Member of Parliament. Over lunch,...
Captain Archibald Maule Ramsay, MP
Captain Archibald Henry Maule (Jock) Ramsay was a British Conservative Party member of Parliament in the 1930s. He was also the head and founder of the ultra-right-wing fascist organisation called the Nordic League. His most noteworthy achievement while in Parliament...
Aims of my fiction writing April 21st 2024
These novels were inspired by my lifelong interest in economics and economic history, particularly the events that occurred between the two world wars. Prior to that, the conventional wisdom believed that free-market capitalism was a successful economic system that...
Joachim von Ribbentrop
This is an extract from the Historical Background section of Lebensborn, the second book in the series, The Addlestone Chronicles. Joachim von Ribbentrop is mentioned on several occasions in Addlestone and Lebensborn. He was a sycophantic supporter of Hitler, who...
John Maynard Keynes
Keynes appears with speaking parts in all three Addlestone Chronicles novels. During the 1930s and 1940s, Keynes was Bursar of King’s College, Cambridge and served as an advisor to His Majesty’s Governments. He is universally acknowledged as the most influential...
The Trinity College Apostles
In Addlestone, James Harcourt-Heath, a final year Maths student at King’s College, Cambridge, is recruited by the British Secret Services, Section MI5. His first assignment is to infiltrate a Trinity College based secret society called The Apostles. John Maynard...
Welcome
I have been a teacher of Economics and Political Economy my entire professional career. After graduation from Stanford University in 1965, I continued my studies at the University of Warwick in the Midlands of England, and was awarded an M.A. and then Ph.D. in...
Introducing the Addlestone Trilogy
The Addlestone Chronicles was written as a result of my lifelong interest in economics and economic history, and particularly the events that occurred between the two world wars. Prior to that, the conventional wisdom was that free-market capitalism was a successful...