Here is a classic, somewhat absurd case of progressive presentist inversion and distortion of history in the captioning @britishmuseum: 'by the beginning of the first century millennium the Israelites occupied most of Palestine'.

Canaan is probably the right word here. Or even Judea. Or even Holy Land. But not Palestine since Hadrian redesignated Judea as part of Syria-Palaestina around 135AD which is over a thousand years later and in a different world.

Someone enjoyed writing this I'm sure and well done for getting into the public display ... but we do expect high standards from @britishmuseum @GeorgeOsborne One could also add that though the Bible narrative suggests a much earlier conquest by Israelites, long before the first millennium, many secular scholars now lean towards the theory that the Israelites originated from indigenous Canaanites and other Levantine peoples. So no occupation there at all.

This ranks as one of the very best history books of the year. Its been a superb year for history but Augustus the Strong by Tim Blanning ranks up there with the very very best!
I cant recommend it strongly enough. It should be a bestseller and if you give any present to history-loving friends or relations this Xmas, this will delight them.
Lets just say its is both scholarly and outrageous, beautifully written, deeply researched and even now shocking in its debauchery but also acute in its analysis of power politics that explains some features of today's geopolitics, specifically the eclipse of Poland, Sweden and the Ottomans, the rise of Russia. But it is so riotous it is impossible to read without thinking of picaresque characters and wild scenes in the movies and novels of Fielding’s Tom Jones and Thackeray’s Barry Lyndon.

Augustus the Strong was an artistic maestro and unscrupulous political failure and a world-class sinner famed for one pub-quiz-winning fact: he is supposed to have fathered 354 children. And the fact he was said to have slept with his own daughter without realizing so plentiful was his progeny. However, as Tim Blanning reveals in Augustus the Strong, his irresistible feast of a biography of the now oft-forgotten Polish king who led a major European power for more than 35 tumultuous years, this was little more than gossipy exaggeration. Augustus actually fathered just eight children, out-conceived by Louis XIV and Charles II. 
I quote one para from my review in the everbrilliant culture section of @FT :
"Priapic sexual infidelity and tireless hunting were both regarded then as essential pastimes for monarchs. Augustus did both to excess. He was a champion fox-tosser (200 killed in one bout) and held hunts in which animals were chased into rivers and off cliffs. Meanwhile, his lovers were legion (English diplomat George Stepney noted “the first woman who offers is sure of his caresses”) " and we meet many in the book...
His politics were pretty catastrophic. When Augustus died obese in 1733 at 62: Poland and Sweden were finished as great powers and Russia was ascendant.
At the end of the book Prof Blanning writes “a virtuous king is a king who has shirked his proper function: to embody for his subjects an ideal of illustrious misbehaviour absolutely beyond their reach.”
That is very much Augustus.

ft.com/content/ea60b8… via @ft This: @PenguinUKBooks @PenguinBooks @AllenLaneBooks

Enjoying my 1st visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia having covered its history in my books.The Kingdom enjoying a stunning renaissance, the centre of gravity in a turbulent region yet most touching r its sophisticated pragmatic optimistic views for peaceful prosperous MiddleEast





Here are is Diriyah the first capital of the two first Saudi states. Here is the fortress of Riyadh stormed by Abdulaziz in 1902. His cars inc a Rolls Royce from Churchill & a royal feast in the desert…

David Attenborough seems the closest equivalent in UK. But who in US?

Who would be our equivalent of a national treasure so respected he/she wld lead govt after a revolution?

Professor economist Muhammad Yunus sworn in as interim leader of Bangladesh
after overthrow of despot

https://twitter.com/simonmontefiore/status/1821144734452134164

Probably The Rock. Or Schwarzeneggar. Or The Boss. Oprah. Michelle Obama. Henry Louis Gates? Or how about Tom Hanks. Yes surely Tom Hanks or The Rock

The rise of the Russian Empire & what it means to Putin now. Ivan the Great. Ivan the Terrible. Peter the Great. Catherine I. Elizaveta. Catherine the Great & Prince Potemkin. Listen to me talking to @DalrympleWill @tweeter_anita @EmpirePodUK podcast - & read the books….





Heres the link

linktr.ee/empirepod

On this bleak day in darkest english countryside, i want to celebrate six books that made me love history (& even aspire to write it). Antonia Fraser’s Cromwell. @simonschama Citizens. Duff Cooper’s Talleyrand 1/2 The seven books that as a young person made me love history… (and even aspire to write it.)
I m sure u have some of yr own….
Isabel de Madariaga, Russia in age of Catherine the Great. Robert Conquest, Great Terror. Peter Hopkirk, Great Game. Robert Massie, Peter the Great.