Book Review
Is China heading for global empire or Soviet collapse?
Dan Blumenthal’s new book wants us to be pessimistic, realistic, and proactive
Are all political beliefs ultimately selfish?
Thomas Prosser’s new book argues that there are elements of self-interest and altruism in all political ‘isms’
Back to the drawing board: How the modernist cult captured architecture
Mark Alan Hewitt’s book is a welcome breath of sound common sense in a field where expensive insanity seems to have ruled the roost for far too long
Francis Bacon’s love affair with France
Limited to only 206 copies, ‘Francis Bacon: Francophile’ is an attractive book sure to be snapped up by Baconophiles
Murders for the end of the month
From laugh-out-louds to gripping plots, Jeremy Black recommends murder mysteries for the end of the month
Francis Bacon: A life lived to the full
While the authors of Francis Bacon’s latest biography deliver nothing new on the art, they do show how Bacon lived his life with a unique intensity
Museums need to refocus on their collections
Dinah Casson’s book will inspire and galvanise anyone involved in British provincial museums
Three first-rate books on maps
What about the past should and could be mapped, and how to do so, are vexed issues in cartographic studies
The story of Scottish art
The Story of Scottish Art is not a scholarly work of art history; it gives an easy-to-read account of artists’ lives with a faintly awestruck tone
Louis XIV: a monarch of purpose
Despite its length, Philip Mansel’s biography of the Sun King is ‘a welcome prize for any reviewer’
