Keith Lowe
As seen in:
Medium,
BBC,
Daily Mail,
The Guardian,
The Mail on Sunday,
The Telegraph,
TIME,
Financial Times,
Newsweek,
Entrepreneur
and
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 Keith Lowe
The pogroms after the Holocaust
Politicians and community leaders gathered recently in the Polish city of Kielce to commemorate one of the seminal moments in postwar European history. In July 1946, the city witnessed a wave of antisemitic violence that had not been seen since the war. Many of the victims were survivors of the Nazi concentration camps: they had returned home believing the Holocaust was over, only to find themselves under attack once more.
The myths that built the postwar world
The Second World War was one of the most devastating events in all of human history. For the men and women who lived through that war, the experience was often too overwhelming for conventional language to describe. Instead, they used religious or mythical imagery in order to make sense of the incomprehensible. These images and ideas have remained ever since, and are the bedrock upon which the postwar order was built.
The Eichmann trial changed the world
Sixty-five years ago, on 11 April 1961, one of the most important trials of the 20th century began. The former Nazi administrator Adolf Eichmann was brought before a court in Jerusalem to face 15 counts of some of the gravest charges known to man. They included war crimes, crimes against the Jewish people, and crimes against humanity.
Nuremberg: The Translator's Tale, by Helen Fry
80 years ago, one of the great courtroom dramas of the 20th century took place in Germany: the Nuremberg trials of the top Nazi leaders. But while the whole world was focusing on events in the court room, a second, less well-known drama was also taking place in their prison cells. A team of Allied psychologists had been tasked with interviewing each of the defendants in an attempt to see what made them tick.
The Iron Curtain 80 years on
On 5 March 1946, Winston Churchill made one of the most important and widely quoted speeches of his entire career. Speaking at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, he warned of a new danger stalking the world: From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent.
The dream of a universal picture language
From ancient times, people have always tried to pass on messages to others by drawing pictures. Sometimes these pictures are self-explanatory, like the drawings of mountains or trees on a map. Sometimes they represent quite complex ideas that need to be learned. Egyptian hieroglyphs are one example, mathematical symbols another. Until recently, very few of these picture languages passed from one culture to another.
How the traffic light changed the world
The world’s first set of traffic signals was installed in London in December 1868. It stood outside the Palace of Westminster, towering over the junction between Bridge Street and Parliament Street. It is no accident that this world-conquering machine should have had its genesis here. In the 1860s, London was by far the biggest city on the planet, with a population close to four million.
Black Ribbon Day's new urgency
Black Ribbon Day, which falls on 23 August, is supposedly a major event in the European calendar, officially recognised by almost every nation in Europe, as well as by the EU itself. Yet outside of a handful of countries, few people have ever heard of it. Given the political threats that Europe now faces, both internal and external, this may need to change. The official title of Black Ribbon Day is the ‘European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism’.
The Yasukuni Shrine and the shadow of the past
This summer, as the Japanese people prepare to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, all eyes will be turned towards the Yasukuni Shrine. On the face of it, this is the natural venue to hold a commemoration service on 15 August. The shrine is dedicated to all those Japanese soldiers who sacrificed their lives on the battlefield since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the vast majority of them during the Second World War. It is more than just a memorial site.
Hamstrung by history: the United Nations 80 years on
In 1945, as the Second World War was still raging, delegates from 50 countries gathered in San Francisco for the founding conference of the United Nations. Their core purpose, according to the soaring rhetoric of the UN Charter, was ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind’. The Charter was unanimously adopted and signed on 26 June.
Carta abierta al pueblo de Estados Unidos
Este mes de mayo conmemoramos el 80º aniversario de uno de los momentos más trascendentales de nuestra historia. Durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, las naciones de todo el mundo se aliaron contra la Alemania nazi en un combate y un sacrificio que forjaron un vínculo duradero entre Estados Unidos y Europa. Hoy, los principios que nos unieron en la lucha contra la tiranía —la libertad, la democracia y la verdad— están de nuevo acorralados.
The Siren Song of False History
Keith Lowe writes about how the myth of Parthenope, entwined with historical misconceptions about Naples, shows how fiction interweaves with history. Don’t forget to get his latest book Naples 1944, in bookstores everywhere! The study of history is littered with myths, half-truths and downright falsehoods. The first duty of any historian is to navigate his or her way through this labyrinth and find a way to the truth. But it is not always straightforward.
Defying the lessons of history
President Trump announced this week that he had held a ‘lengthy and highly productive’ phone call with Vladimir Putin, ending three years of diplomatic silence between the White House and the Kremlin. Their conversation, according to Trump, was an attempt to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. But it had taken place without any prior consultation with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. We have been here before.
Herunterladen PDF The Beautiful Game - Yamile Saied Méndez
Keith Lowe · Follow 2 min read · -- Download PDF Here >Download The Beautiful Game Read PDF Here > Read The Beautiful Game A powerful story about family, fútbol, and playing like a girl from the award-winning author of Furia. At thirteen years old, Valeria “Magic” Salomón is already the best soccer player her town has ever seen.
(Herunterladen) The Curious Crown: Young Queens #3 (Young Queens Collection) - Megan Hess
Keith Lowe · Follow 2 min read · -- Download PDF Here >Download The Curious Crown: Young Queens #3 (Young Queens Collection) Read PDF Here > Read The Curious Crown: Young Queens #3 (Young Queens Collection) Best-selling author Megan Hess shines in The Christmas Crown, a glorious original fairy tale about a legendary crown, and the girl who needs to borrow it for a festive miracle … As the snow swirls on Christmas Eve, young Ella Rose gazes out the palace window and sees a boy whose own tree...
PDF/ePub Black Star (The Door of No Return, #2) - Kwame Alexander
Keith Lowe · Follow 2 min read · -- Download PDF Here >Download Black Star (The Door of No Return, #2) Read PDF Here > Read Black Star (The Door of No Return, #2) The riveting second book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Door of No Return trilogy stars Kofi’s granddaughter, Charley, who’s set on becoming the first female pitcher to play professional ball but who soon has to contend with the tensions about to boil over in her segregated town. You can’t protect her from knowing.
R J B Bosworth - Renegades, Rebels & Racketeers
Curzio Malaparte (1898–1957) is a quirky figure in the annals of Italian Fascism. An extremist who pushed Mussolini towards declaring himself dictator on 3 January 1925, he had the classic background of bemedalled service in the First World War. Thereafter a writer and journalist, he spurred Mussolini towards revolution in Italy, founding a journal entitled La Conquista dello Stato (‘The Conquest of the State’).
How Tarp Innovation is Shaping Safety, Productivity, and Cost-Effectiveness in Waste
Electrically operated tarp systems boost safety and efficiency for the waste industry by the way of innovative engineering, providing the necessary tools for waste haulers to operate smoothly. By Keith Lowe and Kevin Anderson You are already familiar with the dangers of working with containers and trailers hauling debris.
The Yasukuni Shrine
The Yasukuni Shrine is an island of calm in an otherwise bustling city. Mature pines and cypress trees surround it, screening it from Tokyo’s relentless traffic noise. Shady walkways, sacred ponds and dozens of cherry trees make it a haven for those who come here to honour their ancestors. For those who look more closely, however, clues to the regional rage and global controversies that plague this place lie all around.
The road to firebombing Tokyo was paved with good intentions
The firebombing of Tokyo in 1945. Credit: Alamy In the 1930s, a group of American airmen had a dream. Air power, they believed, would do away with the need for armies and navies. The aeroplanes of the future would be able to drop bombs so accurately that there would be no need to kill soldiers in their millions: a handful of strikes on a few key factories would be enough to cripple an enemy’s economy and force them to sue for peace. It did not take long for this dream to turn sour.
Will Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine Ever Find Peace?
by Keith Lowe | January 13, 2021 The Yasukuni Shrine is an island of calm in an otherwise bustling city. Mature pines and cypress trees surround it, screening it from Tokyo’s relentless traffic noise. Shady walkways, sacred ponds and dozens of cherry trees make it a public haven for the many Japanese people who come here to honor their ancestors.
Twin Terrors
Torsten Silz/AP Images for AVAAZ Who was worse, Hitler or Stalin? It sounds like the sort of question that two teenagers might ask in a debate over comic book supervillains. And yet it is an issue that historians are forced to treat with deadly seriousness—not least because there are extremely delicate national sentiments involved. In western Europe it is Hitler who generally wins the prize.
Twin terrors - Standpoint
Who was worse, Hitler or Stalin? It sounds like the sort of question that two teenagers might ask in a debate over comic book supervillains. And yet it is an issue that historians are forced to treat with deadly seriousness—not least because there are extremely delicate national sentiments involved. In western Europe it is Hitler who generally wins the prize. The killing factories that were set up in his name at Auschwitz and Treblinka are today seen as the apogee of evil in the 20th century.
Memorializing History's Dark Corners With Absurdity
No matter how much we might wish to, there is no escaping the monsters of our past. We might try to ignore them, or bury them, but sooner or later they always burrow their way back up to the surface. We might be tempted to rehabilitate them or excuse them; but that only makes us complicit in their crimes. Or we might try to annihilate them; but then their absence itself becomes a sort of presence. Monsters will always remain, whether we like it or not. There is one final course open to us: ridicule.
How the Fight Over One Monument Shows the Power of the Past
In Jersey City, overlooking the Hudson River, stands one of the most dramatic Second World War memorials in the world. Thirty-two feet high, standing on a granite plinth, is a bronze statue of a bound-and-gagged soldier being stabbed through the back with a bayonet. He appears to be in the throes of death. His body is arched in pain, and his face is tilted up towards heaven. The point of the bayonet emerges through the left side of his chest, exactly where his heart is.
AoH Book Club: Keith Lowe on Savage Continent
What was your inspiration for Savage Continent, your book about Europe in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War? Did it grow out of your work on the devastating bombing of Hamburg? That was the seed out of which it grew. Having seen how devastated Hamburg was after the war I originally wanted to write a book about Germany as a whole.
Have we forgotten the lessons of 1945?
As the world around us reels from one crisis to another, it is worth pausing occasionally to remind ourselves that things could always be worse. Seventy-five years ago, the world was emerging from a catastrophe that makes our own troubles look trivial. We still live in its shadow today. writes Keith Lowe. The Second World War was probably the single most destructive event the world has ever seen.
The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing
Should you outsource business functions or is it better to keep them in-house? Grow Your Business, Not Your Inbox Stay informed and join our daily newsletter now! Email Will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy March 4, 2002 5 min read Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Q: Is outsourcing really a good way to grow my business? A: Outsourcing has become a big deal in our economy.
Monuments and men
“Current events would seem to suggest that there is no consensus on what “our values” might actually be. Society is more divided than at any time I can recall in my lifetime” “The Motherland Calls”, a 280-foot statue in Volgograd, provokes hollow laughter in eastern Europe (Administration of the Volgograd region CC BY-SA 3.0) Citizens of mature, liberal democracies accept that some things done in our name by those who guard us take place in the grey margins of the law.
Jonathan Meades - Lest We Forget
The past will evidently not stand still. In March this year, more than three quarters of a century after the Bohemian village of Lidice was razed in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the director of the memorial there was forced by the Czech minister of culture to resign because she failed to denounce a historian whose researches did not accord with the officially sanctioned martyrology.
Five times immigration changed the UK
Image copyright Getty Images Since the end of World War Two, immigration has transformed the UK. After the war, fewer than one in 25 of the population had been born outside the country; today that figure is closer to one in seven. Many moments have contributed to this transformation in net migration. Here are five key turning points. 1948: The Windrush Generation In the aftermath of the war, the UK saw huge investment in public infrastructure.
Five times immigration changed the UK
Image copyright Getty Images Since the end of World War Two, immigration has transformed the UK. After the war, fewer than one in 25 of the population had been born outside the country; today that figure is closer to one in seven. Many moments have contributed to this transformation in net migration. Here are five key turning points. 1948: The Windrush Generation In the aftermath of the war, the UK saw huge investment in public infrastructure.
The importance of effective medicines recording as part of a home care service
Featured article - 15 October 2018 By Keith Lowe; Consultant, NICE Quality Standards committee member and former regulator Within my work with home care providers, I have often been asked to identify those activities which present the greatest risk to people using services. Although this does depend on the service provided by individual providers, the safe recording of medicines is probably the one activity that many services fail to consistently get right.
‘To what should we cling?’
Not Me: Memoirs of a German Childhood, by Joachim Fest, translated by Martin Chalmers, Atlantic, RRP£20, 336 pages When the Nazis came to...
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 Keith
Contact Keith, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack