Reviews

People gather to read a special edition of the Nürnberger newspaper reporting the sentences handed down by the International Military Tribunal, 1 October 1946. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.

‘The Writers’ Castle’ by Uwe Neumahr review

In The Writers’ Castle: Reporting History at Nuremberg, Uwe Neumahr discovers that it wasn’t just the men in the dock who had scandalous social lives and hidden agendas.

Reason, Righteousness and Sincerity teaching some women, c. 1425-50. KB, National Library of the Netherlands. Public Domain.

‘Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife’ and ‘God’s Own Gentlewoman’ review

Poet, Mystic, Widow, Wife: The Extraordinary Lives of Medieval Women and God’s Own Gentlewoman bring the real world of medieval women out of the margins.

A police officer checks the ID of three members of the Ku Klux Klan in Panorama City, California, 18 September 1966. University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections (CC BY 4.0).

‘A Great Disorder’ by Richard Slotkin review

In A Great Disorder: National Myth and the Battle for America, Richard Slotkin attempts to untangle the stories that the US tells itself about race, colonialism and the Civil War. Is it a lost cause?

The assasination of George Villiers, the duke of Buckingham, and favourite to King James IV and I, by Romeyn de Hooghe, 1699. Herzog August Library. Public Domain.

‘The Scapegoat’ by Lucy Hughes-Hallett review

The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett picks through the fragments of George Villiers, James VI & I’s favourite mistake.

‘Death in the Crimea’ by William Bullock Webster, 18 January 1856. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain.

‘Crimean Quagmire’ by Gregory Carleton review

In listening to the war’s loudest voices, Crimean Quagmire: Tolstoy, Russell and the Birth of Modern Warfare by Gregory Carleton drowns out the diversity of opinion.

Seeing is believing: a flying saucer, sighted on 4 June 1964. NARA, Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Public Domain.

‘After the Flying Saucers Came’, ‘Think to New Worlds’ and ‘How to Think Impossibly’ review

Recent books by Greg Eghigian, Joshua Blu Buhs and Jeffrey J. Kripal demonstrate the challenges that historians face in making sense of Fortean times.

‘Venus and Adonis’, by Peter Oliver, c. 1631. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Public Domain.

‘Straight Acting’ by Will Tosh review

Bard romance? Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare by Will Tosh sets the stage for the next wave of accessible queer histories.

Portrait of the widowed Catherine de’ Medici, by François Clouet,c. 1565. Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris. Public Domain.

‘Catherine de’ Medici’ by Mary Hollingsworth review

In Catherine de’ Medici: The Life and Times of the Serpent Queen, Mary Hollingsworth helps the pragmatic queen escape her ‘black legend’.

Students hurl rocks at the US embassy in Moscow to protest the Vietnam War whilst Soviet police look on. US Information Agency. Public Domain.

‘Outposts of Diplomacy’ by G.R. Berridge review

Outposts of Diplomacy: A History of the Embassy by G.R. Berridge shows us that debates about the role of the ambassador are as old as the institution itself.