Steven Tucker

Steven Tucker is a UK-based writer and independent scholar whose work has appeared in print and online in the US, UK, Australia and Ireland, and who writes the regular ‘Strange Statesmen’ column in Fortean Times magazine, detailing the lives and misdeeds of history’s strangest politicians and military dictators. He is the author of over ten books about various overlapping fields such as history, politics, economics, science, folklore, mythology, medicine, fringe-beliefs and eccentrics. His latest book, ‘Hitler’s & Stalin’s Misuse of Science’ (Frontline/Pen & Sword) is out now, and demonstrates how the political abuse of science in historic totalitarian dictatorships is playing out anew again today in the modern West.

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Dictators of Reality: When Political Ideology Sows the Seeds of Pseudoscience

When ideology is placed before truth in science, the laws of nature themselves can become its greatest victims.

With God On Their Side: When Prayer Is Mightier Than the Sword

Praying to God for victory in warfare is all very well – but what if your troops just don’t believe in it?

God or Godzilla?: Oppenheimer and the Dangers of Taking Nuclear Metaphors Too Literally

Some spiritual interpretations of atomic warfare are perfectly valid – others are positively radioactive

The Wild-Goose Chase For Red October: The Resurfacing of Sweden’s Phantom Submarines

Recent rumors of secret Russian underwater operations across Scandinavia have their (sonar) echoes in similar events from the 1980s.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Subtext: Science-Fiction as a Guide to China’s Military Future, Part Two

How might Cixin Liu’s Three-Body Problem trilogy of novels reveal plans for China’s desired future military expansion – to infinity and beyond?

Literary Devices: Science-Fiction as a Guide to China’s Military Future, Part 1

Sci-fi has often enabled writers to fight the wars of tomorrow – today! But what do such stories tell us about potential 21st-century conflicts involving China?

Cancelling Churchill: Did Sir Winston Cause the Bengal Famine?

Attempts to tear down the legacy of Sir Winston Churchill are really just attempts to tear down the legacy of the West itself.

Powers of the Air: Poison Gas, Demons and Childhood Mass Hysteria in War-Zones

Rumors of gas-poisoned Iranian schoolgirls have far stranger parallels in conflict-zones elsewhere.

Occidental Heroes or Foreign Devils?: The Feminist War for Mother Russia’s Soul

The anti-Christian antics of certain pro-Ukrainian activist groups can sometimes make Putin seem a saint by comparison.

Land of the Rising Dead, Part Two: Death and Taxes

As military spending spirals, should Tokyo consider channeling the free-market spirit of the 1980s?