Benzion Netanyahu, father of Binyamin Netanyahu served as chief aide and secretary to Ukrainian defence organizer, Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky, the leader of the rightwing Revisionist breed of Zionism, precursor to the now-ruling Likud party. This essay explores the role played by the 1905 Revolution in the creation of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine. The energetic…
The Massels of Manchester and New York
Just how Alexis Sheftel found himself among the revolutionary exiles in London remains something of a mystery, but it’s possible that his dedication to the printing business may have had its roots in Ukraine, the country of his birth. One of the most active presses in Sheftel’s hometown of Kiev and Berdichev was the ‘Sheftel…
Leon Goldman, Iskra and the Spark That Lit a Massacre
The socialist revolutionary, Leon Isaakovich Goldman, arrived in Kishinev (modern-day Chișinău) in May 1901, approximately two years before the infamous Kishinev Massacre, a murderous attack on Jews that was every bit as savage as the pogrom of October 7. Leon’s arrival in the town followed a secret trip to Munich, where he had met and…
I am the Resurrection. The Death of Max Gerlach and the Birth of an American Hero
In the final part of our series on Max Gerlach — ‘The Real Great Gatsby‘ — I want to take a look at how F. Scott Fitzgerald’s first biographer, Arthur Mizener was told of his existence by Princeton graduate, Dan Piper, and how Piper had learned him first hand from the author’s wife, Zelda in…
A New Race of Man — How Trotsky’s Dream of a Soviet Superman Helped Perfect the American Dream
This essay explores the interplay between F. Scott Fitzgerald’s vision in The Great Gatsby and the revolutionary ideals of Leon Trotsky, tracing influences from Shelley and Nietzsche through Soviet and American eugenics, cosmism, and utopianism. It examines the concept of a ‘New Race of Man’—a blend of idealism, social reform, and scientific aspiration—shaping both the…
Sir Bernard Pares Russophile, Adventurer … Secret Agent
The role played by scholar, academic and adventurer Bernard Pares in Britain’s relationship with Imperial Russia and the signing of the Anglo-Russian Convention continues to be overlooked in popular history. This article explores the complex relationship between Pares’ groundwork for the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce in 1907, the British Russia Bureau during the First World…
Vegetable Eugenics — Genius Lost and Genius Regained.
16-minute podcast discussion If F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby exposed the tragic reality of Eugenics and the cruel, pyrrhic triumph of the American Dream, then it was only because previous attempts to drive a nail through its genetically superior heart with comedy had failed to prevent its moronic spread. The cheeky, irreverent view the…
Victor Grayson & the Etaples Mutiny
On September 9th 1917 former Colne Valley Socialist MP and would-be revolutionary Victor Grayson (Charles Strange in the TV Series) arrived in Etaples Base Camp. A few hours later a mutiny was in full swing.
Eugenically Speaking — How F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘Love or Eugenics?’ prepared the way for Gatsby
Listen the 11-minute podcast The Great Gatsby wasn’t the first time that F. Scott Fitzgerald had confronted the rising tide of bigotry that had been surging around Eugenics. As an 18 year-old student at Princeton University, Scott had written what even his contemporaries — and more extraordinarily still, his fellow students — had regarded as…
The Rise of the Coloured Empires — Gatsby and Eugenics
“Civilization’s going to pieces,’ broke out Tom violently. ‘I’ve gotten to be a terrible pessimist about things. Have you read The Rise of the Coloured Empires by this man Goddard? Well, it’s a fine book and everyone ought to read it … This idea is that we’re Nordics. I am, and you are, and you…