Welcome to A Historian's Diary

the prologue

In October 2024, I embarked on an entirely new historical project: a comprehensive study of German history spanning the years 1870 to 1941, with a significant focus on colonial affairs. For some time, I have felt that key aspects of German history have receded into the background, with the connective threads between them increasingly lost to memory. Many of these issues—or themes—have emerged as challenges or recurring motifs in my earlier books and research, leaving a host of unresolved questions. Among these, perhaps the most pressing is how Germany’s formal state institutions engaged with its colonies and who the key practitioners were in these endeavours. Considering that Imperial Germany was a federal monarchy, which states outside Prussia played a central role in colonial administration? What became of imperial institutions after 1919, when Germany lost its colonies, and what were the wider ramifications of this loss?

This project seeks to explore these and other questions, and I am fortunate to have the full support of Hurst & Co. in bringing it to fruition.

To date, my books have primarily employed a methodology that emphasizes practitioners over theorists. During my early research, under the guidance of the late Professor Richard Holmes, we frequently discussed my approach. He believed that certain subjects—particularly those dealing with the Holocaust—demanded a level of evidentiary rigor akin to a major criminal investigation. This perspective profoundly shaped my work in Hitler’s Bandit Hunters (2006) and Birds of Prey (2021), where meticulous detail was essential for addressing the gravity of German war crimes and genocide.

However, Richard also cautioned me against applying this level of detail indiscriminately, particularly to topics less intense than the Holocaust. My first attempt to adapt to Richard’s thinking came with broader subjects. Firstly, with the political discourse in Putin’s War: Russian Genocide (2023) and followed by a more refined social historical approach in War Comes to Aachen (2024). These two works expanded into the realms of politics and war, blending my style with a sharper narrative focus. Across these shifts in content and style, some constants have remained: the identification of strategies, operational methods, institutional cultures, and key individuals or cliques. While this methodological core will persist, I am now prepared to turn my attention to the larger canvas of German history with this new project.

That said, this endeavour is far from a simple exercise in transferring research into book form. On the contrary, A Historian’s Diary represents a deliberate response to the challenge of making my progress both public and open to critique. Thus far, social media has been an invaluable motivator, and I aim to integrate it more fully into the writing process. There will, of course, be hurdles. I hope to maintain a regular schedule of weekly updates, though unexpected disruptions are inevitable. At times, there may be little of value to share—but, like any journey, unforeseen detours are part of the process.

Freed from the constraints of academia, my position as a freelance scholar affords me greater latitude in both content and approach. For example, the military history component of this book will be woven into a broader examination of Imperial Germany’s military-industrial complex, exploring how war production fuelled both ideology and extremism. The framework I am currently developing focuses on key drivers such as ideology, sustainability, the quest for autarky, and the role of “security warfare” in German strategic thought. One of the primary aims of this book is to determine whether Germany functioned as a “warfare state” geared toward external conflict or a militarized society oriented around internal control and protection—and to examine how these characteristics persisted or transformed across regime changes. Then my work will examine the longer-term ramifications on Nazism and for postwar Germany. This is a massive project, but I feel confident to identify new conclusions in German history.

From the first week of January, I will be maintaining this Historian’s Diary with weekly notes on progress and development. I hope all our friends and followers will join me on this journey.

Best wishes for 2025

Dr. Philip W Blood