Reviews

Review

Element of the absurd — In Search of Romania by Dennis Deletant review

Deletant draws on nearly six decades’ entanglement with a country of contradictions in memoir that is both deeply personal and historically insightful.

Katja Hoyer June 24, 2022

Review

A marriage of the geopolitical, the military and the material — Victory at Sea: Naval Power and the Transformation of the Global Order in World War II by Paul Kennedy review

While the intricacies of twentieth-century military history offer a well-trod path, the experience of reading Kennedy’s latest work is as humbling as it would be to watch a master ..

Lincoln Paine June 17, 2022

Review

Excavating Londinium — London in the Roman World by Dominic Perring review

Dominic Perring provides a meticulous and exhilarating account of London's early history, which often leaves the reader dazzled by the way the evidence for the life of the city has..

Armand D'Angour June 16, 2022

Review

Despotism or anarchy? — Promised Lands: The British and the Ottoman Middle East by Jonathan Parry review

Parry chronicles Britain's tumultuous, sometimes comical, imperial efforts in the Middle East throughout the nineteenth century.

James Barr June 1, 2022

Review

A collision of rival visions — Empire and Jihad: The Anglo-Arab Wars of 1870-1920 by Neil Faulkner review

Faulkner orientates the reader through the clash between imperialism and Islamism via the African slave trade.

Bijan Omrani May 27, 2022

Review

Statecraft for an age of blood and iron — The Strategy of Denial: American Defence in an Age of Great Power Conflict by Elbridge Colby review

This work not only spells out in careful exactitude what America’s choices are. More fundamentally, it turns to the most essential question: what is strategy and statecraft for?

Patrick Porter May 20, 2022

Review

Shaping society — The Making of Our Urban Landscape by Geoffrey Tyack review

Geoffrey Tyack offers a compelling exploration of two millennia of British architecture and the history reflected in the built environment.

Matthew Lloyd Roberts May 13, 2022

Review

Great Books: Albert Camus’ Le premier homme

Albert Camus' final work on his childhood and adolescence is the key to fully understanding his philosophy and politics.

Eve Webster May 6, 2022

Review

Policy shaped by personal conviction — False Prophets: British leaders’ fateful fascination with the Middle East from Suez to Syria by Nigel Ashton review

Successive prime ministers behaved as if Britain had an outsized role to play in the troubled region despite economic pressures at home and public opposition.

Peter Ricketts April 29, 2022