Volume 76 Issue 8 August 2026

Middleham, Yorkshire, Peter DeWint, undated. Yale Center for British Art. Public Domain.

‘This Dark Night’ by Deborah Lutz review

This Dark Night: The Life of Emily Brontë by Deborah Lutz vividly reconstructs the world that produced Wuthering Heights. Are there limits to this approach?

‘Effects of the Explosion at the House of Detention Clerkenwell Seen from Within the Prison Yard’, 1867. Museum of London.

The Clerkenwell Outrage

The first Irish Republican bomb detonated on English soil was not intended as an act of terrorism, but its impact – and death toll – sent shockwaves through Victorian London.

A copy of ‘The Proclamation Ceremony of the People's Republic of China’, by Tong Hsi-wen, 1951. Muzeul Național de Istorie a României (CC BY-SA).

How Inevitable Was the Rise of the Chinese Communist Party?

It is the most powerful political party in the world, controlling China’s future as well as its past, but was the young CCP in control of its imperial destiny?

‘Male-feathered Peahen’, from A General History of Birds, by John Latham, 1781-85. University of British Columbia, Canada. Public Domain.

Charles Darwin’s Sexual Revolution

The potential implications of Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection did not sit well with Victorian gender mores – or with Darwin himself.

The great seal of king Henry I on a charter for Holy Trinity Prior established by Matilda, c.1108. The National Archives. Public Domain.

‘Empress Matilda’ by Elisabeth van Houts review

Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English by Elisabeth van Houts is a sympathetic biography of the woman who would be king.

Bust of Marcus Tullius Cicero, first century BC. Bridgeman Images.

Caesar and Cicero’s War of Words

As ancient Rome was divided by civil war Cicero found himself torn. Caesar was his old adversary, but he was also powerful, and it was politically and personally expedient to support him.

Scene from the Legend of the True Cross, c.14th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

Making Crusading Great Again?

Would St Augustine have considered the US attack on Iran a just war? The pope and the vice president are split on the matter.

Portrait of Hipólito da Costa holding a copy of the Correio Braziliense, c.1810. Acervo do Ministério das Relações Exteriores - Coordenação-Geral de Patrimônio Histórico (CGPH/MRE). Public Domain.

The Free Brazilian Press

Brazil’s first newspaper was published from London by an exiled Freemason on first-name terms with British royalty. Who was Hipólito da Costa and what was his news?

Franklin D. Roosevelt shortly before his public address in Chautauqua, New York, 14 August 1936. Associated Press/Alamy.

1936’s Promise of Peace: Roosevelt on Campaign

In August 1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a boldly pacifist campaign speech, promising no American would have to go to war. It had seemed a realistic promise.