Reviews

Beyond Balfour and Sykes-Picot

Steering clear of Orientalist fantasy and patriotic British myth, this innovative analysis brings clarity to the complexities of the Middle East in the early 20th century.

Mesmerism In Victorian London

Mesmerism was a short-lived phenomenon, but its most celebrated British exponent, John Elliotson, attracted large crowds, which incensed his rivals. 

The Antikythera Mechanism

Since its surprising discovery on the Aegean seabed over a century ago, the Antikythera mechanism has intrigued astrologers, classicists and historians of science. 

Stripping Down the Buttoned Up

An examination of the ‘fleeting, fine-grained intimacies’ of letters, diaries and memoirs produces a witty and scholarly account of Victorian attitudes to the body.

A Forensic Take On Deviance

Microhistories, examining a range of notorious and mundane crimes, can help recover marginalised figures and forge links to wider cultural histories.

Picts, Pins, Stones and Bones

A vivid account of groundbreaking archaeological excavations at a Scottish site of crucial importance to the North Sea world.

The Lost Obelisks of Egypt

The story of the transportation of three obelisks to London, Paris and New York captures the 19th-century mania for all things Egyptian.