This week: on the 50th anniversary of the October War, we look at Egypt’s political gamble and ask whether it paid off. Also: Sun Tzu’s most successful conquest, the death of St Francis of Assisi, and as Britain’s love affair with tobacco goes up in smoke, we explore its origins.
Fifty years ago, on 6 October 1973, 32,000 Egyptian soldiers crossed the Suez Canal to hoist Egypt’s flag over the Sinai Peninsula, following six years of Israeli occupation. The surprise attack was co-ordinated with a Syrian advance on the occupied Golan Heights, and was only challenged with the help of an immediate airlift of US arms. President Anwar Sadat revelled in Egypt’s smashing of the myth of Israel’s invincibility, and was duly crowned ‘Hero of the Crossing’. The first claim has stood the test of time: the Egyptian plan is still taught in military strategy courses around the world. But was Sadat the true architect of this feat of resistance?
The New World of Tobacco Once Britain got hooked on tobacco, smoking paraphernalia became ubiquitous. These items provide an insight into the anxieties and aspirations of the early modern psyche.
Diamonds and the Holocaust As Jewish lapidaries were held in Nazi concentration camps, diamond sales soared in the US. Both sides saw gemstones as integral to the war effort.
