Reviews

The Sacrifice of Polyxena, Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, c.17th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘On the Altar’ by Jonathan Sheehan review

On the Altar: A History of Sacrifice from the Sacred to the Secular by Jonathan Sheehan places bloodletting at the heart of Western thought.

A storage room at the Foreign Office, 1949. Nationaal Archief. Public Domain.

‘Fakers’ by Rory Cormac review

Fakers: A Top-Secret Tale of Phantoms and Forgeries on the Disinformation Front Line by Rory Cormac brings Britain’s shadowy Information Research Department into the light.

Members of the Iranian armed forces commemorate the 2,500th anniversary of the Persian Empire, Persepolis, October 1971. Popperfoto/Getty Images.

‘The Shah’s Party and the Iranian Revolution That Followed’ review

In The Shah’s Party and the Iranian Revolution That Followed Robert Templer reveals the hubristic high point of the Pahlavi regime’s self-regard.

An Allegory of the Triumph over Heresy, with St. Domenic to the Fore, Abraham van Diepenbeeck, c.1650-60. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘The Cheese and the Worms’ by Carlo Ginzburg review

A new translation marks the 50th anniversary of Carlo Ginzburg’s pioneering microhistory The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller.

‘Hail Germania!’, First World War sheet music, Josef Spary, 1916. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Public Domain.

‘Charismatic Nations’ by Joep Leerssen review

Charismatic Nations: A Cultural History of Nationalism in Europe from 1800 to the Present by Joep Leerssen looks to art and not politics for the birth of the nation.

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?

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.

Margaret Bondfield gives a speech to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1932. LSE Library. Public Domain.

‘Margaret Bondfield’ by Nan Sloane review

Margaret Bondfield: The Life and Times of Britain’s First Female Cabinet Minister by Nan Sloane illuminates an overlooked trailblazer of the Labour movement.