Reviews

Review

Britain’s ruthless rise

Early-modern Britain’s capitalists, industrialists, and entrepreneurs combined ambition, ingenuity, and moral compromise to transform the economic world.

Samuel Rubinstein January 19, 2026

Review

The woman who made the Tudors

Margaret Beaufort, grandmother of Henry VIII, used her iron resolve to lay the foundations of Tudor England.

Katherine Harvey January 15, 2026

Review

Thomas Mann’s art of contradiction

Morten Høi Jensen’s 'The Master of Contradictions' explores the tensions at the heart of Thomas Mann’s world and shows how, in 'The Magic Mountain', he heroically struggles to reso..

Charlotte Stroud January 14, 2026

Review

Seeing angels with William Blake

It is tempting to write Blake’s visions off as mere flights of fancy, the vivid but insubstantial by-products of a peculiarly mystical imagination. But for Blake, they were the key..

Alexander Lee January 6, 2026

Review

The ecstasy of Saint Rosalía

Lux is a game-changer for Rosalía and for the relationship between popular and classical music.

Duncan Wheeler January 2, 2026

Review

Henri Rousseau’s wild dreams

Responding to a taste for the tropics, wild animals, and adventure, Henri Rousseau turned his dreams into fantastical, sometimes bizarre paintings.

Michael Prodger January 2, 2026

Review

Books of the Year 2025

Contributors to Engelsberg Ideas highlight the books they’ve enjoyed in 2025.

Engelsberg Ideas December 23, 2025

Review

Zadie Smith and the perils of broad-mindedness

Criticism of Zadie Smith raises questions about whether the humanist tradition that shaped 20th-century Anglo-American letters still holds sway today.

Tomiwa Owolade December 23, 2025

Review

Camus’ life without illusion

Albert Camus’ notebooks show a mind that faced the world squarely, appreciating its strangeness and beauty even in the absence of overarching purpose or ideology.

William Fear December 22, 2025