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Afghanistan is mainly known to GCSE history students for two tragic reasons: the bloody and costly Soviet occupation, which lasted from 1979 to 1989; the ongoing war stemming from the [...]

Women were part of the British workforce long before the First World War. According to the 1911 census, about one third of all women were employed outside the home. They [...]

In Beijing's Tiananmen Square stands the massive Chairman Mao Zedong Memorial Hall, which houses the remains of the man many credit with the creation of modern China. Mao died on [...]

American political life has never lacked scandal or controversial figures--and Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy (Source A) was perhaps one of the most controversial of these. Between 1950 and 1955 he [...]

The Japanese use the phrase kurai tanima (dark valley) to describe the years 1931-45. This was a time when the influence of the Japanese army in politics and government was […]

On 25 December 1991 the red flag was lowered over the Kremlin in Moscow for the last time. This act marked the end of the Soviet Union and Communism in […]

The People's Republic of China was born on 1 October 1949, when Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese Communists, stood on a balcony overlooking Tiananmen Square and proclaimed a new […]

Following the abdication of the Tsar and the establishment of a provisional government, the Bolshevik Party was one of several political groups that saw an opportunity to seize power. In […]

Russia's political, social and economic problems began long before 1914, but the country's involvement in the First World War marked the beginning of the end of Tsarist rule. Russia was […]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Allied victory in 1945 saw the collapse of the short-term marriage of convenience between Moscow and Washington to defeat Hitler and the demise of cooperation between the […]

A key feature of twentieth-century US history is the country's fear and mistrust of communism and of the Soviet Union in particular. In the autumn of 1917 the Tsarist regime […]

In October 2006 thousands of Hungarians took to the streets of the capital, Budapest, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most celebrated and tragic events in their […]

In late 2001 American troops invaded Afghanistan to hunt down Osama Bin Laden, the man America held responsible for the 11 September terrorist attacks, and to remove from power the […]

Of all the eastern European states that were Soviet satellites during the Cold War, Poland was, arguably, the most troublesome to Moscow. Stalin was reported to have said that establishing […]

In the early 1980s relations between the two superpowers were not good, to say the least. The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the 'Star Wars' Strategic Defence Initiative, the deployment of […]

The economic depression of the 1930s is best remembered for blighting the lives of millions of ordinary people. It also proved a catalyst for much political and social turmoil. In […]

November 1917 witnessed the end of the Provisional Government in Russia and the Bolshevik seizure of power. Most GCSE textbooks give ample coverage of these important events. In contrast, relatively […]

Between the end of the First World War and 1929 the USA seemed to get richer and richer. This was the time known as the 'Boom' and it was characterised […]

The modern struggle for civil and political equality for African Americans has its roots in the end of slavery, which followed the American Civil War in 1865. It was not, […]

For 13 days in October 1962 the world came to the brink of full-scale nuclear war when the two superpowers--the USA and the Soviet Union--stood 'face to face' in conflict […]

Last November a few thousand or so die-hard Communists in the former Soviet Union quietly celebrated the 85th anniversary of the end of the Tsarist regime and the Bolshevik seizure […]

The need to send messages and information from one place to another during a war makes some form of communication vital. The coding (see Source B) of such messages or […]

Imagine yourself in the following situation. With little advance notice you are separated from your parents, taken to the local station and put on a train with hundreds of other […]

'Under the conditions of terror, most people yield, but some don't.' These are the words of the Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt. In September 1939 Germany invaded Poland and opened its […]

History has not been very kind to Neville Chamberlain. As Prime Minister he is remembered for one thing above all else: his appeasement of Hitler. Appeasement today stands as a […]

The end of the First World War in November 1918 was welcomed in Britain (see Source A). Society had changed for ever in just 4 years; the life of every […]

To students of the Second World War the Italian campaign is perhaps one of the less well remembered. It remains, however, one of the longest, bloodiest and most costly of […]

Twenty years of increasingly fragile European peace came to a shattering end at 4.30 in the morning of Friday 1 September 1939. On the false pretext of a Polish border […]

Writing about the First World War, A. J. P. Taylor tells us how 'until 1914 a sensible law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the […]

British dissenters in the Second World War Following the disastrous Munich conference in 1938 and Hitler's subsequent annexation of Czechoslovakia, most Britons fully accepted the need to use force to […]

Many of you who have studied the USA will be familiar with events: on 29 October 1929 frantic trading on the New York Stock Exchange resulted in an eruption of […]

The article offers an analysis on how the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union along with their allies started during the Potsdam Conference in Germany. Results of the conference in Tehran in 1943 and in Yalta in 1944 described the perception of the late Winston Churchill, the late Theodore Roosevelt and the late Joseph Stalin towards each other. Harry Truman's anti-Communist stand reportedly affected his decisions on key issues with Stalin.

The article narrates how the Soviet Union defeated the Nazis on the Eastern Front during World War II. Then dictator Adolf Hitler's aim to occupy the agricultural land of the Soviet Union meant driving out the Slavs, whom Hitler refers to as sub-humans. The Soviets, through the leadership of Josef Stalin, used the "scorched earth" strategy, dismantled and then relocated factories, and produced superior quality weapons to defeat the Soviets.

The article focuses on the popularity and success of the Jazz Age in the 1920s in the U.S. It cites some of the fads that made their way around the nation during this time, including new forms of dancing such as Tango and dance marathons, beauty pageants, and live goldfish eating contest. It also mentions the important aspects of the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement composed of African American artists who lived in New York, including the appearance of African American actors in films.

The article focuses on the consequences of Iraq war in March 2003, which includes the conflict among the Iraqi people and the international ties with the British and the U.S. governments. The initial impact was the chaos and lawlessness toppling the Iraqi state, looting, and the disruption of water and electricity. The emergence of insurgents forced the U.S. to send additional troops to fight them. The British mission ended in April 2009 while U.S. withdrew its mission in August 2010.

The article focuses on how a teacher driven professional growth model developed at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida. It mentions that school understood from faculty and other school constituents through surveys that there is a strong desire within the community to transform the way they assessed faculty performance and promoted professional growth. It investigates how school started evaluating teacher performance, assessing school's culture, and promoted participative leadership.

This article gives information on the role of Afghanistan in the global showdown between the U.S. and Soviet Russia as it ensued during the Cold War. It looks at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the international condemnation that came after it. It details the policy of déetente and how it guided the policies of Soviet Russia in its dealings with the West, particularly with the U.S. It also explores the termination of déetente with the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the eventual role that the U.S. will play soon after.

This article examines the events that led to the Russian Revolution in 1917. Tensions in Russia had been building for years between a populace restless for change and an intransigent monarchy. World War I was the impetus as defeat, privation, and economic collapse combined to create the perfect set of circumstances for political opposition to rebel against the established order.