FEAST OR FAMINE

Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow (2012) is an account of America’s military history and developmnent from the end of the Vietnam War (1955-1975) to the end of the Iraq War in (2003-2011) and the Afghanistan War (2001 to the time of her writing in 2011, which continued to 2021).    Rachel Maddow claims that America has drifted away from its original peace time goals to ‘being at peace with perpetual war.’ She details presidential war time decisions, particularly from Lyndon B Johnson to Ronald Reagan, and George H W Bush to his son George W Bush – the decision to go to war, the human costs, the financial costs, and the aftermaths.    Mostly, she explores the position of executive authority – exactly which individuals make the decisions, and who made the decision to outsource  the war-making capabilities to private American companies. She also looks at the rise and fall of citizen support for war – often told through the rise ...

    MARTINA NICOLLS Website Martinasblogs Publications Facebook Paris Website Animal Website Flower Website SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES    MARTINA NICOLLS  is an international aid and development consultant, and the  author   of:  The Paris Residences of James Joyce   (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

  To commemorate the bicentenary - 200 years - since the death of Napoleon, the 2021 Napoleon Season is holding a number of exhibitions and events. These include a large exhibition at La Villette in Paris from 14 April to 19 September 2021; and two exhibitions about Emperor Napoleon at the Invalides in the Army Museum:  Napoléon n’est plus  ( Napoleon is No More ) and the exhibition  Napoléon? Encore! (Napoleon? Again!)  from 7 May 2021 to 30 January 2022. Since January 2021, the “France Mémoire” section of the Institut de France has overseen the selection of official figures to commemorate. This year its list includes Napoleon, emphasizing the importance of debate, democratising memory, and accurate historical information. Thierry Lentz, a major Napoleonic historian and the director of the “Fondation Napoléon” said that one issue with commemorating Napoleon today is his reintroduction of slavery. France abolished slavery in 1794, but Napoleon reintroduced it in...