Some of the world’s most eminent historians are to appear in a vast new online project that aims to shed new light on World War II and provide a growing archive of audio, visual and text information about the conflict.
Andrew Roberts, Antony Beevor and Robert Service, who have all written bestselling books about the conflict, are among those who will appear on the Web site, which is to charge users for access to information and new footage. Other contributors include two professors, Sir Ian Kershaw, the leading authority on the rise of Adolf Hitler, and Sir Richard Evans.
The creator of WW2History.com, Laurence Rees, has written seven books on World War II. During a long career at the BBC, most recently as creative director of history programs, Rees also produced several critically acclaimed programs about the conflict, including The Nazis: A Warning from History and Auschwitz: the Nazis and the Final Solution.
He also hopes the site will counter orchestrated online attempts by Holocaust deniers to question the events of the 1930s and 1940s.
The site, which is due to launch next week and has been built by Sunday Publishing, is intended to appeal to the growing number of people who have fueled the recent boom in history books, as well as to students and teachers.
Rees plans to charge for content, which will include lengthy interviews with 25 historians who are acknowledged as experts in their fields, and detailed written accounts of key events in the war, also marks a new attempt to make such a project pay.
“[The historians] have all given me one hour of their time,” he said.
The centerpiece of the site is a detailed timeline which can be accessed free of charge, dotted with short videos under 10 minutes long that users pay to access. They feature historians answering questions such as “What motivated the kamikazes?”
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese