Reviews Archive

Russians queue for milk in St Petersburg, 1990s. Credit: Janine Wiedel Photolibrary

Review

The noble failure of Russia’s liberal reformers

Russia’s rapid economic decline in the 1990s was the result of too little, rather than too much, ‘shock therapy’.

Friedrich Asschenfeldt August 17, 2026

Review

Christian Kracht against minimalism

The Swiss writer's latest novel sends up Nordic and Japanese minimalism via the mad and joyful world of fairy tale.

Morten Høi Jensen August 10, 2026

'The Artist's Family' by Jan Van Noort (1620-1676), oil on canvas, from the National Museum in Gdansk, Poland. Credit: Album

Review

The embodied life of an early modern woman

Many troubling attitudes towards the female body have their roots in the early modern period, argues Erin Maglaque.

Katherine Harvey August 7, 2026

Newly arrived British Indian soldiers stand at attention prior to inspection at Singapore in December 1941.

Review

Asia’s long war against Imperial Japan

A new history of the Second World War promises to provide a vital Asian perspective on the conflict, but ends up flattening complex events into a simplistic caricature.

Robert Lyman August 6, 2026

Lenten Still Life by the Circle of Georg Flege (1566–1638). Credit: CalimaX

Review

An ode to the humble herring

Who knows what tomorrow holds for herrings and the fleets that chase them, but what a bright trail the silver darlings have cut through history.

Mathew Lyons August 5, 2026

Female members of the Free Women's Units, the women's military wing of the Kurdistan Workers' Party PKK in northern Iraq (2014)

Review

Why Kurdish militancy went into retreat

Abandoned by its erstwhile American allies and outmanoeuvred by the Turkish government, can the Kurdistan Workers' Party move beyond armed struggle and adjust to new geopolitical r..

Hannah Lucinda Smith July 31, 2026