Reviews

Public Characters, at the centre are rivals Charles James Fox (Whig) and William Pitt the Younger (Tory), along with prominent Whigs George Tierney and Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Thomas Rowlandson, 1801. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘The Rage of Party’ by George Owers review

They go low, we go lower. The Rage of Party: How Whig Versus Tory Made Modern Britain by George Owers offers up the origins of Britain’s fractious political culture.

Æthelstan gives away his sister, St Editha to Sigtrid, king of Northbria, watercolour byThomas Mattews Rooke after a stained glass window by Ford Madox Brown, 1909. Birmingham Museums Trust/Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. Public Domain.

‘The First King of England’ by David Woodman review

The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom by David Woodman looks beyond the empty tomb to find perhaps the most consequential monarch of the Anglo-Saxon age.

‘A Bit of War History: The Veteran’, Thomas Waterman Wood, 1866. Metropolitan Museum of Arts. Public Domain.

‘The Strange and Tragic Wounds of George Cole’s America’ review

In The Strange and Tragic Wounds of George Cole’s America: A Tale of Manhood, Sex, and Ambition in the Civil War Era, Michael deGruccio discovers a generation betrayed by the fight for freedom.

Henry Kissinger poses for a portrait in the Situation Room in the basement of the West Wing at the White House, Washington, DC, 1969. Photo © Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Getty Images.

‘Zbig’ by Edward Luce and ‘Henry Kissinger’ by Jérémie Gallon review

Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America’s Cold War Prophet by Edward Luce and Henry Kissinger: An Intimate Portrait of the Master of Realpolitik by Jérémie Gallon reveal the parallel lives of the Cold War frenemies.

A poster for the VIII Sokol Festival Prague, Alphonese Mucha, 1925. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Public Domain.

‘Central Europe’ by Luka Ivan Jukic review

In Central Europe: The Death of a Civilization and the Life of an Idea, Luka Ivan Jukic makes the case for Mitteleuropa as a time that land forgot.

Reading the News at the Weavers' Cottage, Adriaen van Ostade, 1673. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

‘The Great Exchange’ by Joad Raymond Wren review

The Great Exchange: Making the News in Early Modern Europe by Joad Raymond Wren looks to the 15th century for the birth of the press.

‘Mrs Greece and her rough lovers’, Robert Seymour, 1828. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University. Public Domain.

‘The Invention of the Eastern Question’ by Ozan Ozavcı review

The Invention of the Eastern Question: Sir Robert Liston and Ottoman Diplomacy in the Age of Revolutions by Ozan Ozavcı offers the ‘sick man of Europe’ a second opinion.

Portrait of Mary of Modena, Nicholas Dixon, 1763. Art Institute of Chicago. Public Domain.

‘The Graces’ by Breeze Barrington review

The Graces: The Extraordinary Untold Lives of Women at the Restoration Court by Breeze Barrington looks beyond the warming pan to the real Mary of Modena.

A battle between royalists and parliamentarians during the English Civil War, by John Joseph Barker, 1886. Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery. Public Domain.

‘The Blood in Winter’ by Jonathan Healey review

In The Blood in Winter: A Nation Descends, 1642 Jonathan Healey holds Juntos and ‘jittery times’ responsible for England’s slide towards civil war.

Cecil Rhodes and the Boer War, L’Assiette au Beurre, 28 June 1902. Caricadoc/Bridgeman Images.

‘The Colonialist’ by William Kelleher Storey review

Though his relics are reviled, his impact is more keenly felt than ever. Can The Colonialist: The Vision of Cecil Rhodes by William Kelleher Storey find the man for our time?