Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Gerard DeGroot
Russia’s Greatest Love Machine
Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs by Antony Beevor In the dying days of the Russian Empire, highborn ladies would willingly cut the dirty fingernails of the peasant Grigori Rasputin and then sew the clippings onto their dresses like sacred talismans. He would, on occasion, take six women to a bathhouse, then order them to strip naked and wash him.
Russia's Greatest Love Machine
4 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that the U.S. does not plan to renew a waiver allowing the purchase of Russian oil and petroleum products that are currently at sea. And, he said, a renewal of the one-time waiver for Iranian oil at sea is totally off the table. “Not the …
Artemis mission reeks of Musk Don’t cheer for the Nasa mission
The astronauts are there to satisfy Nasa's belief that the public wants heroes. (Gregg Newton / AFP via Getty Images) Artemis missionsdonald j trumpElon Musk Americans, it seems, are returning to the Moon. The Artemis II mission, barring any delays, is due to be launched today. It will take four astronauts on a flyby, in preparation for eventually establishing a permanent station. That lunar base might then be used as a starting point for a trip to Mars.
The First Ghetto by Alexander Lee
A sweeping, riveting history of the Venetian Ghetto, the world’s first Jewish ghetto. 'Brilliantly researched and deeply moving' - Roger Crowley, author of City of Fortune 'Alexander Lee combines expertise in Venetian history, with sensibility to the Jewish past, and a gift for story-telling.
November 15, 2025 - Air Mail
Graydon Carter and Alessandra Stanley Ashley Baker Ash Carter Elena Clavarino George Pendle Carolina de Armas Jeanne Malle Paulina Prosnitz Dana Brown Cazzie David Lisa Henricksson Walter Isaacson Pico Iyer Rachel Johnson John Lahr Jonathan Margolis Linda Wells James Wolcott Lili Anolik Johanna Berkman Joseph Bullmore Spike Carter Vassi Chamberlain William D.
It Was an Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini...
Modernity comes in many forms. It might manifest itself as a technology, a fashion design, or new music. Change, both social and political, then radiates outward from that small innovation. In 1950s Spain, modernity arrived as two small pieces of colorful fabric worn at the beach. It’s fair to say that the bikini was instrumental in Spain’s modernization. It might even be argued that it destroyed Fascism.
"Winston and the Windsors" by Andrew Morton, Reviewed by Gerald DeGroot
Winston and the Windsors: How Churchill Shaped a Royal Dynasty by Andrew Morton On May 8, 1945, Londoners celebrating V-E Day gathered outside Buckingham Palace, hoping to see the royal family. The royals duly obliged, appearing on the balcony that afternoon. Smack in the middle, however, was an interloper—Prime Minister Winston Churchill, smoking his trademark cigar. The scene was symbolic of how Churchill had wormed his way in among the Windsors.
The Monologue That Briefly Cost Jimmy Kimmel His Job Tames in Comparison to “Howl”
On October 7, 1955, the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg read his poem “Howl” at the Six Gallery, in San Francisco. Poems don’t usually change the world, but “Howl” did ruffle some feathers. More than 100 people attended that night, more than expected. The Six was both venue and metaphor: as a converted auto-repair shop, it was perfectly suited to a movement dedicated to dissonance. Ginsberg took the stage, clutching his typewritten pages.
The Princess Hesse Diaries
The Lives and Deaths of the Princesses of Hesse: The Curious Destinies of Queen Victoria’s Granddaughters by Frances Welch Frances Welch is good at conveying the mundanity of court life, although that’s probably not her intention.
The great American exodus
Donald TrumpemigrationSocietyUS According to the Declaration of Independence, Americans possess “certain unalienable Rights… among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. Life and liberty are self-explanatory, but “pursuit of happiness” often confuses people. According to the eminent historian Arthur Schlesinger, this doesn’t mean chasing happiness, but rather actually enjoying it. In short, the Declaration states categorically that Americans have an “unalienable right” to be happy.
Elon Musk just wants to go to space
Elon MuskJeff BezosMarsScienceSpaceSpace travelUS In 414 BC, Aristophanesā The Birds was first performed in Athens. In this comedy, two disgruntled middle-aged men, fed up with life on Earth, convince a giant bird to create a great city in the sky. Free from the cruel tyranny of the Olympian gods, mankind could achieve true fulfilment in this avian paradise. Out of this came the expression ācloudcuckoo landā, used to describe an idea completely divorced from reality.
Inside a Daring World War II Parachute Raid
Operation Biting: The 1942 Parachute Assault to Capture Hitler’s Radar by Max Hastings As the men of 2 Para approached Bruneval, they sang songs like “The Rose of Tralee.” German anti-aircraft fire provided an unwelcome backbeat. A water bottle, filled with rum, was passed round. The date was February 27, 1942, the target a German radar post on the Normandy coast. The plan was to get in, get out and go home, with breakfast waiting in Portsmouth.
1848's Culture of Revolution
Revolutionary Spring: Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848–1849 by Christopher Clark In 1848 Europeans revolted from Norway to Sicily and from Switzerland to Portugal. “This was the only truly European revolution that there has ever been,” Christopher Clark writes. “All were included in the band of brotherhood,” the Italian insurgent Enrico Dandolo wrote.
English History on LSD
Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England’s Kings and Queens by David Mitchell Let’s face it, the English monarchy can be rather boring. Granted, a few individuals stand out, either because they were surprisingly competent (Alfred the Great, Edward III and the two Elizabeths) or more often because they were stupendously awful (Richard III, John, Aethelred the Unready, Henry VIII).
25 best history books of 2023
We haven't been able to take payment You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription. Act now to keep your subscription We've tried to contact you several times as we haven't been able to take payment. You must update your payment details via My Account or by clicking update payment details to keep your subscription.
Life in a Hot-and-Cold Climate
The Earth Transformed: An Untold History by Peter Frankopan In Europe, the period from the 16th to the 19th century was especially cold. In winter, canals in Holland regularly froze and Baltic ports were blocked with ice. This is commonly known as the Little Ice Age, and several causes have been proposed including low solar radiation. The sociocultural effects seem clear. The Dutch developed a talent for speed skating, which they retain to this day.
California Literary Review
[Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Gerard J. DeGroot‘s new book Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest.] The race was won. But, in order to give the impression that it was always more than just a race, Americans would go back to the Moon.
Searching for Spain
España: A Brief History of Spain by Giles Tremlett What is Spain? The question has always troubled Spaniards. Is it best understood as the land of Velázquez, Cervantes and Almodóvar, epitomized by the exuberant noise of Barça fans, the aching beauty of the Alhambra and by King Juan Carlos delivering democracy? Or is Spain defined by its darkness: the Inquisition, the slave trade, the cruelty of Cortés, Francoist fascism and King Juan Carlos taking bribes?
Inside Russia's Brutal Civil War
Russia: Revolution and Civil War 1917–1921 by Antony Beevor In December 1919 a rumor circulated among American troops in Siberia. They were allied to White Russians, part of a multinational force fighting the Bolsheviks. According to the rumor, enemy troops had raided a Red Cross hospital in Irkutsk and tossed patients out of windows, leaving them to die in the snow. “That might well have been an exaggeration,” Antony Beevor warns. As exaggerations go, it’s pretty tame.
The Best and Worst of the British Monarchy
Laurence Olivier as King Henry V of England, in the 1944 film that he also directed. Crown & Sceptre: A New History of the British Monarchy, from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II by Tracy Borman “The benefits of a good monarch are almost invaluable,” the journalist Walter Bagehot wrote in 1867, “but the evils of a bad monarch are almost irreparable.” While he was a widely admired constitutional expert, that seems hyperbolic.
Making Waves
The Vikings went wherever rivers would take them. River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Roads by Cat Jarman In the beginning, there was a small orange bead. It seemed at first unremarkable — a trinket easily mistaken for something from Accessorize. Cat Jarman found it in a Tupperware box containing items unearthed in 1982 during an archaeological dig at Repton. Thirty-five years later, Jarman was cataloguing the stuff — more than 9,000 objects spanned 1,300 years.
Hot Commodities - Air Mail
Fans toast Mandy Rice-Davies, the call girl of 1960s England. Harlots, Whores & Hackabouts: A History of Sex for Sale by Kate Lister In 1444 King Charles VII named Agnès Sorel his royal mistress, the first woman officially designated as such in France. In exchange for sexual favors, she received enormous rewards, her title an acknowledgment of her sexual prowess. The king’s generosity toward her, however, contrasted sharply with his repressive policies toward the sex trade in general.
Off with His Head!
Edmond Van Daële, center, as Maximilien Robespierre in Abel Gance’s 1927 film, Napoléon. The Fall of Robespierre: 24 Hours in Revolutionary Paris by Colin Jones ‘Je suis peuple moi-même,” Maximilien Robespierre claimed. In his many roles within the French Revolution he saw himself not simply as the representative of the people, but as their embodiment. Known as “the Incorruptible”, he perceived no shades of gray.
Hitler's Attacks on Modern Art and the Mentally Ill
Adolf Hitler visits an exhibition on “degenerate art” put together by Joseph Goebbels, meant as an indictment of the mid-1930s art world. The show attracted more than three million visitors. The Gallery of Miracles and Madness: Insanity, Modernism, and Hitler’s War on Art by Charlie English How should art be judged? Does it stand alone, or is the artist’s character essential to an assessment?
Top 25 JAPAN Forward Reader's Favorites of 2020: 20 - 16
~JAPAN Forward reached new milestones in monthly and daily readership in 2020. We invite you to find what attracted readers to our most popular articles of the year, including favorites 20-16, below~ Thanks to you, our valued readers, JAPAN Forward reached new milestones in monthly and daily readership in 2020.
The End or the Beginning? – Air Mail
“It’s been grand knowing you!” Anne Applebaum says democracy is in its final days. The author says, Not so fast By Gerard DeGroot Illustration by Ross MacDonald Anne Applebaum likes to throw parties — big parties that last all night, where complete strangers pass out on her basement floor. This book begins with one party at the dawn of the millennium and ends with another in August 2019. Very few guests went to both parties, something significant to her message.
Trump's unpredictable nuclear policy
Donald Trump wants to resume nuclear testing. That’s a sentence I hoped never to write. Rumours started circulating in mid-May that the president wants to stage a test as soon as possible — the first since 23 September 1992. Since every test is an aggressive political act, a resumption brings the threat of nuclear war inevitably closer. The subject arose at a meeting of national security officials on 15 May after the administration accused both Russia and China of conducting low-level nuclear tests.
Whatever happened to the polymath?
Becoming a polymath used to be fairly straightforward. First, study hard, and ideally start early: Blaise Pascal was thinking up ground-breaking mathematical theories in his teens — useful preparation for inventing existentialism and the calculator. Second, find a patron: Leonardo da Vinci’s career as artist, inventor and scientist was supported by his work as Cesare Borgia’s chief engineer.
Can the uni experience survive Covid-19?
The coronavirus attacks individuals, but also institutions. When I walk through St Andrews, where I’ve lived for 35 years, I think sadly of the small family businesses that will never reopen. I look at the ancient university, which should now be a hive of activity with students rushing to exams or celebrating the end of them. The usual student haunts are eerily quiet. There’s no certainty that the life undergraduates once enjoyed will soon be restored.
Covid-19 can't spoil America's appetite
The Green Bay Packers are America’s most famous football team. They got their name from the Indian Packing Company, a local meat processing firm that sponsored their first set of jerseys. Outside of Wisconsin, not many Americans know that story. This week, however, Green Bay is in the news for reasons other than its football team. It’s now a Coronavirus hotspot and the explanation is again rooted in the city’s meatpacking industry.
America's Race to the Moon
Astronaut Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17, The Final Lunar Mission [Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from Gerard J. DeGroot‘s new book Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest.] The race was won. But, in order to give the impression that it was always more than just a race, Americans would go back to the Moon.
Coronavirus will change nothing
Three years ago, I chaired a meeting of COBRA, called in response to pandemic flu. It felt deadly serious, even if it was only a simulation of what would happen were flu-induced mass-mortality to come to these shores. Officials had run through the “early stages” of the epidemic, but now they wanted to expose ministers to some of the appalling choices that would have to be made as the crisis hit its peak. It was a sobering affair.
March 21, 2020 - Air Mail
Military ambulances on Guam await the arrival of the U.S.S. Solace with casualties from Okinawa, the site of the bloodiest W.W. II battle in the Pacific. Battle-Ready By Gerard DeGroot Crucible of Hell: The Heroism and Tragedy of Okinawa, 1945 by Saul David Everything about the Battle of Okinawa was big, except for the island itself. The Americans gathered together the largest open sea armada in history — 1,200 aircraft, 1,300 ships, 540,000 servicemen and 747,000 tons of cargo.
A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
On Aug. 17, 1940, John Colville, Winston Churchill’s private secretary, was walking in the Sussex countryside when he came upon a downed German bomber. It was, writes Erik Larson, “an alien mechanical presence” — a rude anomaly lying in “classically English” countryside. He senses a metaphor suitable to the war: brutal German modernity assaulting a serene English Elysium. Kultur attacking Culture. Appearances, however, are deceptive; they encourage dangerous myth.
A giant leap for womankind
The dozen Moonwalkers to date have all been men. Credit: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images Global affairs A giant leap for womankind The Moon needs more than men The Moon is feminine in French – in all the Romance languages, in fact. Even in English, which does not assign genders to inanimate objects, the Moon is presumed female.
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Soviet launch of Sputnik on October 4th, 1957, plunged the American people into black despair. In one dramatic stroke, the Russians had undermined the credibility of the United States as a modern, dynamic nation.
Elon Musk's extra-terrestrial threat
That irrepressible scamp, Elon Musk, is planning to blot out the stars with satellites. Credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images Global affairs Elon Musk’s extra-terrestrial threat Eyes in the sky matter more than men on the moon In a few days, we mark the 50th anniversary of the first man on the moon. But a more significant anniversary is 13 December 2022 – when it will be 50 years since the last man on the moon (Gene Cernan).
How Jeremy Kyle undersold humanity
Groupthink How Jeremy Kyle undersold humanity Why has kindness come to be seen as a mug's game? I have a shameful weakness for trashy Netflix-style revenge movies. The premise is always roughly the same. The film begins with some terrible act of violence committed against the hero or, more typically, his (sometimes her) family. The hero then goes on to visit bloody retribution against those who have wronged him. Think of Liam Neeson’s righteous fury in Taken.
Dictator Literature: A History of Despots Through Their Writing by Daniel Kalder - tyrants were titans of tedious prose
Dictator Literature: A History of Despots Through Their Writing by Daniel Kalder — tyrants were titans of tedious prose Writing history is not usually a heroic pursuit. Daniel Kalder, however, deserves a medal. He spent years trudging through the writing of tyrants, from Lenin to Putin by way of Salazar and Saddam. This venture, he complains, was “excruciatingly painful” because dictators “almost always produce mind-numbing drivel”. Yet our hero Kalder kept to his task.
Why are Israeli kids so Right wing?
Flyover country Why are Israeli kids so Right wing? Jewish millennials have been drawn to Netanyahu's message On the day of the election, 16-year-old Yehuda stood outside a bustling Jerusalem polling station wearing a black velvet skullcap and a Likud T-shirt. As voters walked in, he thrust a mock ballot slip bearing the party’s initials into their hands – it was a last minute plea for Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection.
Sputnik 1957 | HistoryNet
The Cold War got hot when the Soviets successfully launched the first satellite into space. To Americans who had spent the 1950s on a frenzied hunt for Communists, Sputnik—Russian for ‘fellow traveler’—was a sure sign that their archenemies were bent on global domination. Back in October 1957, Little Richard was doing a concert tour in Australia. While performing on the Sydney quayside, he claimed he sighted Sputnik, launched a few days earlier, passing overhead.
Selling Ronald Reagan: The Emergence of a President
The Right Stuff By I B Tauris 311pp £20 order from our bookshop Subscribe or Sign In to read the full article For People Who Devour Books
Review: ‘Stalin’s Daughter’ by Rosemary Sullivan
Svetlana Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin’s daughter, was seldom alone but always lonely. Her life was crowded with people intending to manipulate, swindle or exploit her. She had friends, but intimacy carried great risk because her father’s evil was a noxious cloud that swirled round her. “Never in my life have I been so directly shaken and captured by the tragedy of another person,” David Samoilov, a lover, wrote.
A false saint and sexual predator in a warped Rome convent
Sister Maria Luisa was the novice mistress at the Sant’Ambrogio convent in Rome. She was intelligent, charismatic and stunningly beautiful. She was also a sociopath, embezzler, false saint, sexual predator, pathological liar and murderer. How do you solve a problem like Maria? Had her crimes been committed outside the convent, the problem would have been easily solved. Maria Luisa would have been arrested, tried and quickly executed.
“The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined,” by Steven Pinker
Appearances often deceive. Steven Pinker’s “The Better Angels of Our Nature” landed on my desk in the immediate aftermath of that terrible massacre in Norway. As I read the book, Syrian forces slaughtered pro-democracy protesters, riots engulfed English cities, and murders punctuated the news. But, if we believe Pinker, all this violence is just the background noise behind a relentless paean of peace. He’s probably right. The world today is less violent than it has ever been.
‘Tomorrow is Christmas; if you don’t fight, we won’t': Historian credits Germans for initiating Christmas Truce of 1914
The Great War was supposed to have been over by Christmas. Instead, by the end of 1914, it had become a voracious monster, beyond the control of politicians, commanders and kings. All that was terrible in the world was contained within that monster, a beast feeding on nations. Yet beneath the carnage, a tiny flicker of humanity still glowed. One hundred years ago, on Christmas Day 1914, that humanity provided a moment of warmth that would live forever.
Politics or physics? – Physics World
Taken from the November 2013 issue of Physics World Gerard DeGroot reviews Churchill’s Bomb: a Hidden History of Science, War and Politics by Graham Farmelo Matters of war: Graham Farmelo argues in his new book that Winston Churchill (pictured with a visiting Albert Einstein in 1939) made a series of mistakes when it came to the atomic bomb. (Courtesy: Time and Life Pictures/Getty Images) In late May 1944 Niels Bohr met Winston Churchill to discuss the atom bomb.
The Dark Side of the Moon Race
The Soviet launch of Sputnik on October 4th, 1957, plunged the American people into black despair. In one dramatic stroke, the Russians had undermined the credibility of the United States as a modern, dynamic nation.
Books of Note | Arms Control Association
Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons. By Joseph Cirincione, Columbia University Press, March 2007, 192 pp. Arms Control in the Middle East: Cooperative Security Dialogue and Regional Constraints. By Emily B. Landau, Sussex Academic Press, July 2006, 172 pp. Small Arms and Security. By Denise Garcia, Routledge, October 2006, 266 pp. India's Nuclear Bomb and National Security. By Karsten Fey, Taylor & Francis Books, August 2006, 208 pp.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Gerard
Contact Gerard, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack