Book Review
Sharing the great American dream
The Upswing by Robert Putnam, with Shaylyn Romney Garrett
Between war and empire
Jeremy Black weighs in on two recent historiographical offerings
Murders for the onset of shorter days
Professor Jeremy Black on British Library Crime Classics and his favourite ‘whodunits’
Seven kinds of people you find in bookshops
Former bookseller A.S.H. Smyth enjoys a bestselling bookshop owner’s taxonomy of bookshop people
Raunchy tale of pedigree chums
The spouse of a longstanding MP has an opportunity to offer a particular perspective
Inside the room where it happens
John Bolton’s account of his time in the Trump administration gives a damning report of the president’s ignorance
Reflections of a scientific humanist
Michael Shermer’s new book is a collection of skilful elucidations of academic ideas
Flirting with damnation
As Greene explained to his wife when their marriage ended, what made him a bad husband was precisely what made him a good writer
American Xanadu: an appreciative history of Mar-a-Lago
Les Standiford’s book situates Mar-a-Lago’s surreal qualities in the larger history of Palm Beach
Harrumphing and hot air
Bernard-Henri Lévy’s polemic against coronavirus lockdowns is “a stale little bonbon”
Most Read
The martyrdom of Young Bob
On ebbing power of the political influencer
Why has Keir Starmer been so unpopular?
He was the perfect embodiment of a failing system
Grooming gangs and the truth
We should not give ammunition to deniers of the grooming gangs scandal
Babies need women
Leaving children with only men who are not their parents is foolish and dangerous
Can Russell T Davies write “terfs”?
In Tip Toe, Russell T Davies is more nuanced than one might expect — much to the dismay of gender ideologues
The forlorn hope of growth
Voters are struggling economically but wrongly believe the country to be rich
Homage to Zaporizhia and Sumy
Horror continues in Ukraine — but the tide could be turning
How the Boat Race sank
Yet another great British tradition is disappearing beneath the waters of history
Like a homecoming
A haunted house
Venice Biennale 2026
Collected detritus of Biennales past, left available for recycling when there’s space to fill
Gender self-ID was never the law
Barrister Akua Reindorf KC speaks about the controversial trans guidance the government is so loath to implement
The futility of right-wing cancel culture
Trying to get left-wing comedians fired for edgy jokes is stupid as well as wrong
First-place Finnish
Shostakovich: Symphony 1; Moscow Cheryomushki (Philharmonia Records)
Beauty from the ruins of war
Painting gave artists and their viewers a temporary way out of the grim wartime reality
The artist formerly known as Nero
The life and death of Rome’s last Julio-Claudian emperor revealed every Roman fear about the dangers of one-man rule
The meaning and meaninglessness of Makerfield
Andy Burnham has triumphed — but can he maintain his success?