‘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?
Social
Sex Workers and Salvation in the Renaissance
Renaissance Florence had a problem: it wanted female sex workers, but it also needed to offer them a way out. The solution was a new brothel district – and a nunnery for former prostitutes
VE Day: The Quiet After the Peace
When VE Day finally came in May 1945 it was met with relief, exhaustion, and cynicism. Was the Second World War really over?
‘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.
Delivering the Chinese Post Office
As Late Imperial China sought to rebuild as a modern state from the ashes of war, a new national post office was born.
‘The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages’ by Shane Bobrycki review
A tool for tyrants... or their undoing? The Crowd in the Early Middle Ages by Shane Bobrycki crafts a history for the medieval mob.
Following Threads to Colonial Barbados
Two rare textile discoveries connect 18th-century Barbadian schoolgirls to England.
‘The Worlds of Victor Sassoon’ by Rosemary Wakeman review
Rosemary Wakeman’s The Worlds of Victor Sassoon: Bombay, London, Shanghai, 1918-1941 is a tale of three cities linked by globalisation and a singular global citizen.
‘The Tree Hunters’ by Thomas Pakenham review
In The Tree Hunters: How the Cult of the Arboretum Transformed Our Landscape, Thomas Pakenham reveals the discoveries of Britain’s buccaneering botanists.
‘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.