ABOUT

This is a site about the books and other writing by James Rodgers, author of Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia From Lenin to Putin (new edition 2023; first published July 2020); Headlines from the Holy Land (2015 and 2017); No Road Home: Fighting for Land and Faith in Gaza (2013); Reporting Conflict (2012). My work looks at how stories of international affairs, especially armed conflict, are told to the world.

BIOGRAPHY

I am an author and journalist. During two decades of covering international news, I reported on the end of the Soviet Union; the wars in Chechnya; the coming to power of Vladimir Putin; 9/11; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the 2003 war in Iraq; Russia’s war with Georgia in 2008. I completed correspondent postings for the BBC in Moscow, Brussels, and Gaza. I now teach in the Journalism Department at City St George’s, University of London.

The Oakland Coliseum: Back to the Ballpark to say Goodbye

August 31, 2024
A stand at The Coliseum, Oakland, California, 4 July 2024, before Athletics vs Angels This is a rare post about sport, and about a sport, baseball, to which I am a newcomer. I do not pretend to any expertise, and apologize to any fans who find errors. This is...

Reporting on The Putsch to Save Soviet Power: Moscow, August 19, 1991

August 19, 2024
To mark the anniversary of the attempted coup in Moscow on August 19, 1991, I am sharing an extract from Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia from Lenin to Putin that covers those days that decided the fate of the dying Soviet Union. DECLARING THAT GORBACHEV had resigned for health...

Alexander Werth Reporting from Stalingrad in World War II–Conclusion

July 11, 2024
This is the second and final part of my article on Alexander Werth’s reporting from the Soviet Union during World War II. You can read the first part here, and the whole article on the website of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television where it was first...

New: Alexander Werth Reporting from Stalingrad in World War II

July 1, 2024
This new post is the first part of a long academic article I wrote for the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television about the reporting of Alexander Werth from the Soviet Union for the BBC during World War II. Werth’s despatches, broadcast mostly under the title ‘Russian Commentary’,...

Special Derby Book Festival Event, with Clive Myrie

June 15, 2024
ON JULY 29th I will be in conversation with my former BBC colleague Clive Myrie at the Derby Theatre, a special event organized by the Derby book festival. We will be discussing his book Everything is Everything, and my own work in, and writing on, Russia–including Assignment Moscow: Reporting...

A European Journey 80 years after D-Day

June 5, 2024
AS I LEFT my house in London that morning, I passed the door of another: a house where once I heard the stories of an old soldier. He came to live in my street for what became the last years of his life. Victor Syborn was part of the...

To Germany by train: a journey through European history

May 18, 2024
A railway bridge over the Rhine in Mannheim, Germany © James Rodgers For this week’s New European, I wrote about travelling from London to Germany by train, and about the railways’ history in European culture, commerce, and conflict. TIRED OF DELAYS and of all those onerous, if necessary, security...

Book Review: ‘How Finland Survived Stalin’ by Kimmo Rentola

April 20, 2024
I have not posted on here for some weeks because research for my next book, on Russia and The West since the end of the Cold War, has been my priority. I have, though, done some journalism, a review of How Finland Survived Stalin (yale.edu). I have published the...