Political

‘Peacemaker’ by Thant Myint-U review

Peacemaker: U Thant, the United Nations and the Untold Story of the 1960s by Thant Myint-U captures the optimism and ambition of Burma’s bridge between worlds.

A Dance round the Poles, cartoon on the partition of Poland between Russian empress Catherine II, Prussian king Frederick II, and Austrian emperor Joseph II, Richard Newton, 1794. Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie. Public Domain.

On the Spot: Richard Butterwick-Pawlikowski

‘What is the most common misconception about my field? That “anarchic” and “fanatical” Poland was partitioned by its more “enlightened”, “tolerant” absolutist neighbours.’

Creamware teapot, Derby, c.1763. Bridgeman Images.

The Radical John Wilkes

Parliament’s champion of the people or scandalous, self-serving politician? Georgian radical John Wilkes kept a foot in both camps.

Jess M. Ritchie demonstrating AD-X2 to the Senate Select Committee of Small Business, 1953. National Institute of Standards and Technology. Public Domain.

AD-X2: When US Politicians Took on Science

The dismissal of a government scientist over the unproven battery additive AD-X2 galvanised the American scientific community in the 1950s.

Kennedy files illustration © Ben Jones/Heart Agency.

Lost in the Kennedy Files

The release of government documents related to the Kennedy assassination will keep scholars busy for years, but will we learn anything new?

Public Characters, at the centre are rivals Charles James Fox (Whig) and William Pitt the Younger (Tory), along with prominent Whigs George Tierney and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Thomas Rowlandson, 1801. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘The Rage of Party’ by George Owers review

They go low, we go lower. The Rage of Party: How Whig Versus Tory Made Modern Britain by George Owers offers up the origins of Britain’s fractious political culture.

Æthelstan gives away his sister, St Editha to Sigtrid, king of Northbria, watercolour byThomas Mattews Rooke after a stained glass window by Ford Madox Brown, 1909. Birmingham Museums Trust/Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Public Domain.

‘The First King of England’ by David Woodman review

The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom by David Woodman looks beyond the empty tomb to find perhaps the most consequential monarch of the Anglo-Saxon age.

‘A Bit of War History: The Veteran’, Thomas Waterman Wood, 1866. Metropolitan Museum of Arts. Public Domain.

‘The Strange and Tragic Wounds of George Cole’s America’ review

In The Strange and Tragic Wounds of George Cole’s America: A Tale of Manhood, Sex, and Ambition in the Civil War Era, Michael deGruccio discovers a generation betrayed by the fight for freedom.

Henry Kissinger poses for a portrait in the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing at the White House, Washington, DC, 1969. Photo © Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Getty Images.

‘Zbig’ by Edward Luce and ‘Henry Kissinger’ by Jérémie Gallon review

Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America’s Cold War Prophet by Edward Luce and Henry Kissinger: An Intimate Portrait of the Master of Realpolitik by Jérémie Gallon reveal the parallel lives of the Cold War frenemies.