Books

Spuds with everything

Potatoes were hyped as the key to a well-nourished populace by the European intelligentsia in the 1700s

Passing the Tebbit test

Dominic Lawson reviews 10,000 Not Out: The History of The Spectator, 1828-2020 by David Butterfield

Jane’s profound piety

Jeremy Black reviews Jane Austen: Writing, Society, Politics, by Tom Keymer

Decline of the sclerotic West

Richard Reinsch reviews The Decadent Society, by Ross Douthat

Pretty prose and ugly reality

Review: “Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World” by Jessica Valenti and Jaclyn Friedman

Decadence in the time of corona: A conversation with Ross Douthat

The New York Times columnist updates his arguments for a country rocked by pandemic and protest

Grasping for the divine

The church has lost its way but our need for lasting purpose remains

The fascinating objects of fascism

Roger Moorhouse shows it’s possible to treat modern history properly and in context

Men and women and men

John Self reviews Sorry for Your Trouble by Richard Ford, This is Pleasure by Mary Gaitskill and Cleanness by Garth Greenwell

More plausible than real life

John Preston reviews Beneath the Streets by Adam Macqueen