Europe

The Road to Siberia

Daniel Beer looks at how much Soviet labour camps owed to the theories of Russian liberals on crime, its causes and how to treat it.

Death in the Vienna Woods

Gabriel Ronay revisits the story of a Crown Prince’s suicide pact with his mistress and finds the evidence clearly pointing to murder. 

Prague’s Spring

Michael Simmons draws on many years experience of living in, and reporting from, central Europe to look back at the upheavals in Czechoslovakia of 1968.

The Last Valois: A Tragic Story

Robert Knecht describes the shortcomings of Henry III, the last Valois king, and the circumstances that led him to become the first – but not the last – French monarch to die at the hands of one of his subjects.

The Shadow of a King? Charles II in Exile

Charles II was the only king of England for two hundred years to survive exile and return to power. Anna Keay considers how he kept up his regal appearances whilst in exile, paving the way for his return to the throne.

Revisiting Orientalism

Edward Said’s controversial book is now thirty years old. A new exhibition of Orientalist paintings at Tate Britain provides a timely opportunity to revisit its argument, says Kamran Rastegar.

Spain’s Returning Jews

The last 150 years have seen a chequered but eventually triumphant reintegration of Jews into a society whose heritage they helped to mould, says C.C. Aronsfeld