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Kit Kowol @KitKowol

Sometime historian, full time dog dad. My book 'Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War' is out on September 12 2024.

Joined July 2014
  • Tweets 4,550
  • Following 1,339
  • Followers 1,370
176 Photos and videos
German POW numbers peak in the UK in September 1946 at around 400k when British “owned” POWs were shipped back from Canada and the US partly to support agriculture. Every time I feel like I have a good handle on WWII facts like this turn up…
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Kit Kowol retweeted
Tom Kelsey@tom_kelsey_
May 30
Delighted to receive my print copy of the latest Technology and Culture. My prize-winning essay on Concorde's critics appears in this volume, which tells a new story about the technological disillusionment of the late 1960s. You can also read it online: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/9… ✈️
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Might anyone have a copy of John Childs' 'The Military Use of Land' that they might be able to share with me?
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Kit Kowol retweeted
Think Defence
@thinkdefence
May 24
Let's talk about... The immediate post conflict operations at Port Stanley airport, 1982. Harrier and Hercules, the two essential aircraft THREAD
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Does anyone know what has happened to the website Secret Bases?
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Kit Kowol retweeted
Get History@GetHistory
May 22
In 'Blue Jerusalem' @KitKowol has done an outstanding job of refuting the mythical foundations of our modern social state and of proving that the Conservative Party could be just as radical, just as idealistic, as their Labour counterparts. gethistory.co.uk/reviews/boo…

Blue Jerusalem: British Conservatism, Winston Churchill, and the Second World War, Kit Kowol

We all think we know the story of the foundations of the modern welfare state, but in his excellent new book, Kit Kowol pulls the myth to pieces.

gethistory.co.uk
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I love Cold War history. Did you know that RAF Greenham Common’s runway - among the longest in Europe - was broken up in the 90s to be used a fill for the new Newbury bypass? Wonder if Swampy knew…
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I am over the moon to announce that I have just inked the deal with @AllenLaneBooks for my next book, “Warrior Britain: A Nation in Arms, 1945-1960”. It will be a social, cultural, and environmental history of Cold War British militarism.
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It will argue that the UK after WWII was as much 'pre-war' as it was 'post-war' and act as a travelogue to a vanished Britain in which the armed forces suffused everyday life.
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It should be out in 2028, in time for the anniversary of the conclusion of Britain’s H-Bomb tests which, perhaps ironically, helped to precipitate the end of this remarkable chapter in British history.
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Kit Kowol retweeted
David Blagden@blagden_david
Mar 5
True, though a few corollaries… - If you’re a Chinese/Russian planner, you already know this. So, you’d much rather face a US that’s burned years’ worth of missile production, and having had a chance to study their current AI-enabled operational art. 1/6
Think Defence
@thinkdefence
Mar 4
Lets all take a moment to appreciate just how powerful the USAF and IAF are. Is this level of dominance unprecedented in modern warfare?
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Kit Kowol retweeted
David Blagden@blagden_david
Feb 19
It’s entirely possible - some would say reasonable - to be pleased both that there’s a new obstacle to the UK’s pointlessly costly Chagos deal *and* that HM Govt is pointedly disentangling itself from yet another US war in the Middle East. From last year: thecritic.co.uk/the-case-for…

The case for keeping out of things | David Blagden | The Critic Magazine

On 23 June, the Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, arrived in Singapore. Reportedly accompanying her were various highly capable escorts, including HMS Dauntless (a…

thecritic.co.uk
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Doing some research into 'The Rocket Propulsion Establishment' in Westcott in Buckinghamshire where work on Britain's intermediate ballistic missile - Blue Streak - began. Set up in 1946 what worried locals wasn't the possible accidents but potential German scientists...
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Today, the Rocket Propulsion Establishment is no more. Turned into a light industrial estate. It at least is on OS maps (unlike in the Cold War). The intrepid can still look for traces of old Blue Streak works like these bits of the old test silo.
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But what happened to the German's at Westcott? Did they end up staying? What was there effect on village life? That I am trying to figure out as part of a wider story about the all embracing impact of Cold War militarism on British life...
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Kit Kowol retweeted
David Blagden@blagden_david
Jan 20
Just re-read this on the US-UK alliance that @PatPorter76 and I did for @CommonsDefence a ~decade ago… Got quite a few of the big things: dependency born of Trident, impotence born of denuded conventional forces, exposure born of Brexit, and vulnerability to coercion… 1/2
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