Paul Bew has achieved the near impossible: he has somehow written a book on an important aspect of Winston Churchill’s statecraft that is totally comprehensive, genuinely ground-breaking and yet capable of being read in an afternoon. In a life that has been trawled over literally thousands of times
The problem with iconic events is that myths stick to them like Velcro. Consequently, historians who write about them often have to expend as much energy writing about things that did not happen as about things that did. Frederick Taylor is used to encountering this problem. In one of his previous books, about the bombing […]
The Ottoman Empire came to a definitive end in two stages in July and October 1923. An international treaty defined the boundaries of a new country called Turkey, which in turn declared itself a republic. But five years earlier, everyone in the Ottoman capital, Istanbul, knew that the old regime was already done for. In […]
Frank Trentmann begins his dazzling book on consumption with the improbable assertion that the ‘typical German owns 10,000 objects’. I look anxiously around my flat and, even allowing for the quantity of read and unread books, the shirts, ties, sweaters, shoes and socks, the cups, spoons and crockery, the CDs, the knick-knacks and the rubbish, […]
Hitler had, in a sense, the greatest shotgun wedding of all time. His lady friend, Eva Braun, had been kept in seclusion, as Hitler made out that he was wedded to the nation, and he did not pay her much attention. When grand personages visited Hitler in his mountain retreat
Surveying the various models available in 1787 for governing the still-constitution-less United States, James Madison, perhaps the shrewdest of the Founding Fathers, was certain of one thing: the Holy Roman Empire, at that date the largest of all European states
I’m a lecturer in Victorian literature, so when people hear that I’ve been working on a book about running they’re usually a little bemused. First, I have to reassure them that I’m not writing a history of the activity but instead investigating what running can tell us about the body, the environment and the way […]
India's 'festival of democracy', or general election, begins next month. Like every good festival, it looks likely to have its fair share of murders and arrests.
@OwenBennettJon probes the state of democracy in India:
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Are iPhones ruining children's lives? A prominent American psychologist thinks so.
@tiffanyjenkins is not so sure:
Tiffany Jenkins - The Smartphone Pandemic
Tiffany Jenkins: The Smartphone Pandemic - The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an...
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India's 'festival of democracy', or general election, begins next month. Like every good festival, it looks likely to have its fair share of murders and arrests.
@OwenBennettJon probes the state of democracy in India:
Owen Bennett-Jones - New Delhi Confidential
Owen Bennett-Jones: New Delhi Confidential - The Incarcerations: BK-16 and the Search for Democracy in India by Alpa Shah
literaryreview.co.uk
Where is the world's newest narcostate and why is it thriving?
@AdamBrookesWord investigates Asia's meth mecca.
Adam Brookes - Meth Comes to Myanmar
Adam Brookes: Meth Comes to Myanmar - Narcotopia: In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Outwitted the CIA by Patrick Winn
literaryreview.co.uk