Reviews Archive

An illustration of the Gin Palace in Charles' Dickens 'Hard Times'.

Review

Great Books: Charles Dickens’ Hard Times

Charles Dickens’ only dystopia has been rather unheralded, but it is a tale for our fossil-fuel powered age.

Helen Thompson April 14, 2022

The stormed Stasi headquarters, 1990. Credit: German Federal Archives via Wikimedia.

Review

The inner lives of others — The Stasi Poetry Circle: The Creative Writing Class that Tried to Win the Cold War by Philip Oltermann review

How soul-seeking secret agents looked to sonnets for ideological salvation in the literary circles of the German Democratic Republic.

Katja Hoyer April 8, 2022

A truck owned by a Nepali man Kul Chering. He is reported to be the first person to buy a vehicle from China and use it for the transportation of goods from China to Nepal in the Limi valley.

Review

Nepal’s shifting loyalties — All Roads Lead North: China, Nepal and the Conquest for the Himalayas by Amish Raj Mulmi review

As the old adage goes, Nepal is a yam between two boulders. However, slowly but surely Nepal is unsticking itself from its southern neighbour and turning north towards China.

Eve Webster April 1, 2022

Review

Great Books: E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops

Although previously dismissed as fanciful and tedious, the world of E.M. Forster’s The Machine Stops in fact bears an unsettling resemblance to our own.

Alastair Benn March 25, 2022

Review

Time running out in China’s waiting game — The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order by Rush Doshi review

A goal for China which had recently seemed attainable is beginning once more to recede into the distance, argues Rush Doshi.

Brendan Simms March 11, 2022

Review

Missing the boat in a broad canvas — Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern by Mary Beard review

Mary Beard focuses on more tangible aspects of Roman imperial representations

Armand D'Angour March 4, 2022

Flying Fortress bombers during a Second World War bombing mission. Credit: GL Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

Review

Do we really know what war is anymore? — The Weaponisation of Everything: A Field Guide To The New Way of War by Mark Galeotti review

This comprehensive – and somewhat bleak – survey of modern warfare questions our assumptions of what war is and details how we can develop the awareness and resilience needed to su..

Gill Bennett February 17, 2022

People try to save their belongings from their destroyed houses in the Marienstrasse (Marien street) after an airstrike during the Second World War in Hamburg, 25 October 1944. Credit: dpa picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

Review

A hook to uncover hidden histories — My Grandfather’s Knife: And Other Stories of War and Belongings by Joseph Pearson review

By placing objects at the centre of his research, Pearson allows the complexities and conflicts of the Second World War to co-exist.

Katja Hoyer February 11, 2022

Review

A ship without a captain — Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union by Vladislav Zubok review

Zubok's mammoth work is a provocative, honest examination of the dissolution of the Soviet empire and Gorbachev's failings. At the end, it strikes a note that is intriguingly perso..

Sergey Radchenko February 11, 2022