Most Recent
The Year of the Black Swan – Brexit and Trump
This article was first published in New View magazine Issue 82, Jan. – Mar. 2017 The study of biography is an important and growing area of research in anthroposophy, related as it is to Rudolf Steiner’s work on the study of karma and reincarnation. As such, biographical work has a socially hygienic function, as it helps to promote the understanding of time (and timing) in one’s life and thus to restore meaning. And it is meaning that human beings crave above all, for we are beings who create meaning through the act of cognition,...
read moreMoltke, the West’s War on Russia & the ‘New Roman Empire’
This article was first published in The Present Age magazine Vol. 2, No. 3, June 2016 In his Reflections and Memories, written in Homburg in November 1914, Helmuth von Moltke makes quite clear that “Our failure to overwhelm France in the first attack was due to England’s fast intervention”(1). The British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey kept British military plans and intentions to aid France in the event of war secret, even from his own fellow Cabinet members, until the secret came out in 1911. Later, in Berlin in the...
read moreEchoes of the 9th Century in Our Time
This article was first published in New View magazine Issue 81 Autumn 2016 “Matthew was an angel as a young child – sensitive, well-behaved, affectionate, often joyful, and often dreaming away on another plane. After turning nine, however, he soon changed into quite a different person. He was sometimes rude and critical, and often moody if not downright wretched…. Prior to age seven or eight, most children are sunny, smiling, exuberant, joyful beings – little angels, for the most part. Around the ninth birthday, however, a tinge of...
read more2016: Britain’s Year of Decision
This article was first published in New View magazine ‘No. 79 Apr – June 2016 2016 looks to be a momentous year in British history, when the nation makes its choice in the referendum on 23rd June on whether to remain in the European Union or leave it. This could affect Britain’s direction for decades, if not centuries. In the world of science Professor Stephen Hawking (74), who seems to be regarded by the media as something of a British scientific ‘cardinal’ in the contemporary western world’s modern ‘religion’ of...
read moreHistorical Conscience – From Uriel to Michael
This article was first published in New View Magazine Issue 77 Autumn 2015 The light from the widths of the world Lives on within me powerfully, Becoming light of soul And shining into spirit depths, To bring forth all the fruits Which in course of time shall ripen The Self of Man from the Self of the World - Rudolf Steiner, The Calendar of the Soul (Week 22) translated by Terry Boardman In October...
read moreThe best book yet on the causes of the First World War
As the anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War approached, a number of new books appeared to explain what happened in 1914. I have read most of the new books published in English, including those by historians Christopher Clark, Margaret Macmillan, Max Hastings, and Sean McMeekin, but in my opinion, the best book on the subject appeared in April this year. It was the product of 14 years’ work and was written by the German historian Dr. Markus Osterrieder PhD of Munich. It presents a more comprehensive and far-reaching...
read moreKaspar Hauser; Erste Weltkrieg; Beziehung England und Deutschland
Terry Boardman, Vortrag: Kaspar Hauser, der Erste Weltkrieg und die Beziehung zwischen England und Deutschland Kaspar-Hauser-Festspiele 2014, Ansbach, Deutschland 2. August 2014 Guten morgen. Ich möchte Eckart Böhmer danken, mir die Gelegenheit zu geben nochmal hier bei den Kaspar Hauser Festspielen zu sprechen, zu diesem Thema das nicht nur für unser Verständnis der Vergangenheit so wichtig ist sondern auch für die Zukunft Europas. Ich muß aber mit zwei Bitten um Ihre Entschuldigung beginnen. Erstens, daß ich mein Vortag im...
read moreThe First World War & the Ukraine Crisis: 1914 – 2014
This article was first published in New View magazine Issue 71 April-June 2014 What is the connection between the world catastrophe that broke out in 1914 and the current crisis in Ukraine, a hundred years later? To attempt to answer this question we can start by considering the relationship between three large cultural groups of people, those in southern, northern and eastern Europe: the Latins or Romance peoples, the Germanic peoples and the Slavic peoples. In the 8th cent. BC the Germanic peoples of northern Europe were what the already...
read more“37 Days” BBC World War 1 drama – A Critique
It’s as General Helmuth von Moltke once wote to his wife, nearly 10 years before 1914, that (non verbatim) a whole stream of lies is being put out from England about Germany and its aims. Yesterday I watched the last of the 3 episodes of the BBC drama “37 Days”. It’s essentially set in the Foreign Offices of Britain and Germany between the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 and Britain’s declaration of war on Germany 4 August 1914. For those who haven’t...
read moreSyriana? Part 2
This article was first published in New View magazine #70 Jan. – Mar. 2014 The first part of this article (in New View #69 Oct-Dec2013) outlined some of the economic and geopolitical aspects to the current war in Syria. Since it was written and published, there have been major developments in the region. Following a vote rejecting military action against Syria by the UK Parliament on 29 August, US President Barack Obama called off what had seemed in late August to be an imminent western attack on Syria after unproven Anglo-American...
read more