Reviews

Review

The woman who invented George Sand

Fiona Sampson reclaims one of the 19th century's most influential French novelists 150 years after her death.

Katherine Pangonis July 8, 2026

Review

The afterlife of the Soviet spy

The spy fiction written by Soviet intelligence officers was far more than propaganda.

Martin D. Brown July 7, 2026

Review

The unlikely triumph of Napoleon III

The French emperor was a highly skilled politician whose audacity and breadth of imagination allowed him to perceive trends of great historical significance.

Jack Dickens July 3, 2026

Review

Slavery before race

In the early modern period, thinking about slavery had little interest in racial categories.

David Wootton July 2, 2026

Review

George Forster’s dazzlingly humane vision

The German naturalist rejected the racial classifications of his age, and his capacity for forgiveness was almost inhuman. Andrea Wulf lets the reader bask in his sensitive apprehe..

Mathew Lyons July 1, 2026

Review

The restless eye of James McNeill Whistler

A man in constant motion, Whistler was a painter, printmaker and provocateur who spent a lifetime reinventing both himself and his art.

Alexandra Wilson June 30, 2026

Review

Brexit and the roads not taken

On the 10th anniversary of the referendum, three recent histories explore Britain's fraught relationship with the EU.

Sean McGlynn June 23, 2026

Review

Russell Kirk’s poetics of power

Russell Kirk was an exceptional kind of conservative intellectual, talented and blessed with a practical bent, who revealed the poetic sensibility that inspired some of America's g..

Ferenc Hörcher June 19, 2026

Review

A history of Britain in by-elections

The fate of Britain's peculiar democracy has often turned on obscure by-elections, where a local grievance could herald an earthquake in the nation's affairs.

Christopher Silvester June 18, 2026