Reviews

‘The last glimpse of Erin’, sheet music, by Thomas Moore, c.1850. Yale Center for British Art. Public Domain.

‘Rot: A History of the Irish Famine’ by Padraic X. Scanlan review

Padraic X. Scanlan levels familiar charges against British colonialism and capitalism in Rot: A History of the Irish Famine. Is there more to the story?

Automedon with the horses of Achilles, by Henri Regnault, 1868. Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Public Domain.

‘Epic of the Earth’ by Edith Hall review

Epic of the Earth: Reading Homer’s Iliad in the Fight for a Dying World by Edith Hall sees the signs of environmental collapse amid the adventures of Achilles.

‘Fisherman's Family (The Lookout)’, by Winslow Homer, 1881. Museum of FIne Art, Boston. Public Domain.

‘Scholars and Their Kin’ review

Scholars and Their Kin: Historical Explorations, Literary Experiments, edited by Stéphane Gerson, has historians scaling their family trees.

George Villiers, first duke of Buckingham and lover of James I, after Renold Elstack, c.1700-20. Yale Center for British Art, Gift of George A. Douglass. Public Domain.

‘Queen James’ by Gareth Russell review

Queen James: The Life and Loves of Britain’s First King by Gareth Russell illuminates the inner life and passions of James VI and I.

‘The Church Militant’, by John Collet, 1779. Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Public Domain.

‘The Crisis of Colonial Anglicanism’ by Martyn Percy review

The Crisis of Colonial Anglicanism: Empire, Slavery and Revolt in the Church of England by Martyn Percy takes the British Empire’s church militant to task. Is there a case to answer?

Seated Amitabha Buddha, Ming dynasty China, c.1600. The Cleveland Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘Buddhism’ by Donald S. Lopez Jr. review

Buddhism: A Journey Through History by Donald S. Lopez Jr. swiftly soon loses sight of the Buddha himself. Is that a bad thing, and was he ever there?

Bertrand Russell at press conference in New York, 1950. Rijksmuseum. Public Domain.

‘Vietdamned’ by Clive Webb review

Can Vietdamned: How the World’s Greatest Minds Put America on Trial by Clive Webb rescue Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre’s activism from irrelevance?

Stone head of a man wearing a cap or helmet, found in Yorkshire, c. 2nd-3rd century. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘The Celts: A Modern History’ by Ian Stewart review

Historians may no longer talk of a single Celtic culture, but in The Celts: A Modern History Ian Stewart crafts a unified history of a changing idea.

‘Le mariage républicain’, by Jean-Baptiste Mallet. Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris. Public Domain.

‘The Soldier’s Reward’ and ‘Matchmaking and the Marriage Market...’ review

The Soldier’s Reward: Love and War in the Age of the French Revolution and Napoleon by Jennifer Ngaire Heuer and Matchmaking and the Marriage Market in Postrevolutionary France by Andrea Mansker reveal romance in a time of revolt.

A large-scale artwork by contemporary artists The Singh Twins paying homage to their father’s migration journey, from the Migration Museum’s All Our Stories exhibition. © Artwork: The Singh Twins.

‘This Land of Promise’ and ‘Multicultural Britain’ review

This Land of Promise: A History of Refugees and Exiles in Britain by Matthew Lockwood and Multicultural Britain: A People’s History by Kieran Connell foreground the castaways in our island story.