Thomas L. Friedman is the foreign affairs Opinion columnist. He joined the paper in 1981 and has won three Pulitzer Prizes.

At the northern end of the Black Sea, Crimea sits at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, having been at various times in its long history either coveted, conquered or controlled by various powers.

Can "anything new be said about the Second World War", asked Adam Sisman in The Observer. "Unexpectedly the answer is yes." Among the "surprising facts" I learnt from this "revelatory book" are ...