How the CCP is Closing China
Forty years of opening and reform persuaded a lot of people that the Chinese are not really communists. But modern China was modelled on the USSR, and its leaders want to revert to their Leninist roots.
Recently published
Deeds Not Words: Slashing the Rokeby Venus
From the suffragettes to Just Stop Oil, Britain’s National Gallery – specifically Diego Velásquez’s Rokeby Venus – has been a magnet for attack by activists. Why?
‘Churchill’s American Network’ and ‘Mirrors of Greatness’ review
Cita Stelzer’s Churchill’s American Network and David Reynolds’ Mirrors of Greatness seek to bring Churchill’s contemporaries and adversaries out of his shadow.
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and the Making of Stars
What are stars made of? When a young astronomer upset standard explanations for the formation of the solar system, the establishment told her she was wrong – then stole her findings.
Petticoat Alley: London’s Forgotten Women’s Clubs
Despite their reputation, London’s private members’ clubs have never been entirely for men.
When Did Britain’s Age of Deference End – and Why?
An old-fashioned feature of a fusty, inegalitarian past, when did the British stop knowing their place?
The Death of a Mnemonist
Solomon Shereshevsky died on 1 May 1958. He dreamt of being a hero but achieved greatness of another kind.
‘The Emperor and the Elephant’ by Sam Ottewill-Soulsby review
The Emperor and the Elephant: Christians and Muslims in the Age of Charlemagne by Sam Ottewill-Soulsby surfaces Umayyad and Abbasid perspectives on their Frankish frenemies.
Nottinghamshire’s Bitter 1593 Election
A Nottinghamshire election in 1593 descended into farce, violence and, ultimately, futility.
Rehabilitating the East India Company’s Nabobs
The nabobs of the East India Company were considered violent, greedy and – worst of all in a time of Enlightenment – uneducated. Could their reputation as philistines be laundered?