Reviews

Review

This isn’t Europe

Ben Judah's uneven history of Europe has moments of thrills and revelation. But focusing on the stories of people living and working on the Continent - and beyond - leaves the narr..

Nicholas Harris June 22, 2023

Review

The many paradoxes of Bernard Mandeville

Bernard Mandeville was a satirist not a moralist; a humourist not a philosopher; an enemy of do-gooding reformers who was himself a do-gooding reformer.

David Wootton June 13, 2023

Review

The Franco-Prussian War was more than an historical event

The conflict of 1870/71 set the tone for the extreme violence of both World Wars.

Katja Hoyer June 12, 2023

Review

John Hersey’s lasting testament

One of the first and most consequential pieces of literature on the Holocaust, John Hersey’s The Wall combines exhaustive research with empathetic storytelling to capture both the ..

Angus Reilly June 7, 2023

Review

People of the desert

An old-fashioned narrative informed by the latest discoveries could only be the work of a master historian of the grand scale.

Anthony Sattin June 6, 2023

Review

Everything is not really okay in Afghanistan

Hassan Abbas’ portrayal of the Taliban’s first year in power tracks the difficult transition from insurgent group to cabinet government, and argues for engagement for the sake of t..

Suzanne Raine June 2, 2023

Review

Highs and lows

A trio of new productions of operatic masterpieces suggests that less is more.

Paul Lay June 1, 2023

Review

In defence of the literary critic

Literary criticism is casting off its stultifying, exclusionary shackles. Its redefinition as something more personal meets the reader on equal terms in a quietly defiant act.

Charlotte Stroud May 25, 2023

Review

The British Empire: a Very English Perspective

An explicitly ‘progressive’ survey of nascent British imperialism buckles under the weight of its contradictions.

Samuel Rubinstein May 15, 2023