Reviews Archive

Review

The fall and rise of Central Europe

The cosmopolitan world of Central Europe was destroyed by the 20th-century tragedies of total war and Communism. Yet as an idea, it lived on, providing a powerful rallying point fo..

Morten Høi Jensen September 9, 2025

A craftsman is seen etching and embossing a ceremonial sword.

Review

The lost world of crafts

Traditional craft industries, now vanished or endangered, used to play a vital role in cementing communities. Why might they not do so again?

Michael Prodger September 8, 2025

A still from a 1984 film directed by Shūji Terayama.

Review

Inside Japan’s avant-garde

A creative tension between the trauma of war and the allure of Americanised, postwar life lay at the heart of the Japanese avant-garde. Its artists' compelling work continues to sh..

Christopher Harding September 5, 2025

The House of Commons (c. 1710), in the former St. Stephen's Chapel in the Old Palace of Westminster. Oil on canvas by Peter Tillemans.

Review

The invention of party politics

At the turn of the 18th century, English political life was suffused with sectarian strife. This is a story of partisanship with a peculiarly contemporary resonance.

Max Skjönsberg September 4, 2025

Review

When England began

Despite his strong claim to have been the first king of a united England, the enigmatic Æthelstan has long been neglected by historians. His remarkable achievements are finally bei..

Samuel Rubinstein September 3, 2025

Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem's Marriage of Peleus and Thetis.

Review

Catullus 64 unravelled

Gail Trimble's commentary on the text of Catullus’ Poem 64 is a triumph of painstaking yet imaginative scholarship, and an extraordinary mine of knowledge about Latin and Greek lit..

Armand D'Angour September 2, 2025

An oil painting of Place du Tertre in Montmartre, Paris, France.

Review

A culinary quest through Paris

Chris Newens has captured the French capital in all its bewildering variety. The expat Englishman paints an optimistic portrait of a city of many different parts, rubbing along tog..

Henry Jeffreys August 29, 2025