‘Red Dawn Over China’ by Frank Dikötter review
Red Dawn Over China: How Communism Conquered a Quarter of Humanity by Frank Dikötter is a balanced account of the violent years between Kuomintang and communist rule.
Volume 76 Issue 3 March 2026
How Important was the Battle of Hastings?
The Norman Conquest is credited with reshaping England, but was 1066 really all that?
‘Strikingly Similar’ by Roger Kreuz review
Strikingly Similar: Plagiarism and Appropriation from Chaucer to Chatbots by Roger Kreuz finds that copyright isn’t always a matter of black and white.
Peace Talks: Letter from America 80 Years On
Eighty years ago the BBC tried to remedy postwar Anglo-American friction with Alistair Cooke’s Letter from America.
‘The Cancelled Prime Minister’ by Walter Reid review
The Cancelled Prime Minister: The Extraordinary Rise and Tragic Fall of Ramsay MacDonald by Walter Reid finds the romance behind Labour’s great betrayer.
Defending the Tichborne Dole
The introduction of bread rationing by the postwar Labour government threatened the centuries-old tradition of the Tichborne Dole and, with it, the national understanding of what England was.
The US Occupation of Greenland
Strategically important during the Second World War, US soldiers could not wait to leave Greenland.
Edward Lee: Erasmus’ English Foe
Shortly after Edward Lee arrived in Europe he found himself embroiled in a bitter dispute with one of the era’s most famous intellectuals. He was soon reviled across the Continent.
Refusing Malaya: The Penang Secessionist Movement
As Malaya headed towards independence, the spectre of identity politics loomed. What place for cosmopolitan Penang and its diverse population?
Chivalry in Chains: Prisoners in the Crimean War
During the Crimean War soldiers died in appalling conditions, but the treatment of enemy prisoners was surprisingly humane.