Recent content by DomM

I thought much the same thing. Do you think the right to access the internet comes immediately after the section outlawing poison gas or the bit guaranteeing medical care for prisoner of war?

Actually it's Tesco that's pulling the dubiously legal move here. Selling stock at less than cost price can actually be illegal (although it probably wasn't in this case).

If you think roundabouts are bad, look at this: Yes, it's a roundabout of roundabouts. And the only possible reason for going to Swindon.

Happy to be of service.

Just to check, you do mean the fifth book don't you? If so I would definitely listen to the the radio series - if you don't want to listen to all of it you can find you can find the last episode here [http://www.youtube.com/user/XistundTheBookKeeper#p/search/0/TRk456HHeB0]. It picks up from...

Have you listened to the final series of the radio version? It makes it all much better.

People keep saying that, but aside from the German invasion of Russia, which was a special case and had as much to do with supply, geography and the weather as much as sheer numbers, I'm struggling to think of more than three battle where a larger force overcame a numerically inferior but better...

That is the very top end of the range that I've seen, most historians argue that the population was reduced by 15-25%, which is pretty typical for a seventeenth century conflict (the siege of La Rochelle saw over 80% of the population die). It seems a little harsh to pillory Cromwell when...

I suspect that I've been studying a different Oliver Cromwell. Yes, he was a bit of a megalomaniac, and I don't condone what he did in Ireland, but on the other hand he was reformed the army, broke the power of the monarchy, turned down the offer to become King, attempted to rule on behalf of...

Before I answer I should declare that I am by no means an expert in this area and it's four or five years since I rigorously studied it. I think the Japanese got that idea partly through rhetoric (the US was always banging on at the European powers to leave their colonies and grant them self...

There were of course trying to destroy their military capacity as well, but ask yourself this: If the entire American Pacific fleet had been sunk at Pearl Harbor, what would America have done? It us now it's obvious that they'd have built more ships and fought on, but the Japanese thought...

I must admit when I saw the thread title I thought it sounded like the worst idea ever but now I'm intrigued. My suggestions: 1) Understanding motivations. Have you read Von Clausewitz? One of the main themes of his work is about using war as an extension of foreign policy. In WWII the...

I'm 26, I've never had a girlfriend (aside from one unfortunate incident which I'm not going to talk about here) and I doubt I ever will. It's not that I'm not interested or anything (and I have loads of female friends) but I'm just a bit useless. Let me illustrate: A close female friend of...

The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1. Massively important to European history and very poorly understood.

I'm slightly surprised that people keep mentioning Canada, has Wolfe's victory on the Heights of Abraham been forgotten already? In answer to the original question: It depends on what you mean by "the use of violence". There are a few nations which gained independence and which have no armed...