Russ McBee

Ninety years ago today, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the War to End All Wars came to a close. Although its carnage was eclipsed by the global disaster that followed twenty years later, the devastation of the First World War was the worst ever seen up to that point. As I discussed in this post, Dad and I visited ...

This year is the 60th anniversary of the start of the Cold War, and today marks the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Berlin Airlift. In recognition of that anniversary, Spiegel has published an interview with Helmut Schmidt, who was chancellor of West Germany from 1974-1982. It's a fascinating interview, touching on everything from the ...

In response to Kosovo's recent declaration of independence, a mob of Serbian punk nationalists started a riot in Belgrade today. Egged on by Serbia's hard-right nationalist prime minister, Vojislav Kostunica, a crowd of tens of thousands rampaged through Belgrade, attacking the embassies of the US, Croatia, Bosnia, and Turkey. The US Embassy was ...

Next week, bookstores in France will begin selling the diary of Helene Berr, a young French Jewish woman whom many are describing as the ''French Anne Frank:'' It starts like any other young woman's diary - with a description of hobbies, a first boyfriend, schoolmates and trips to the country - but it ends like few others. The final words are ...