History
Joseph Roth’s golden twenties
When Hitler came to power, the bubble burst
The story of the people, by the people
What is History, Now? offers a passionate defence of the pluralism of historical study
The Critic Books Podcast: The Barn
The Barn is a history of the lives, landscapes, and lost ways of an old Yorkshire farm building
Is the myth of the “plucky Brit” false?
Professor Phillips O’Brien, Robert Hutton, and Graham Stewart discuss the British mindset during WWII
Glaring omissions of a whistle-stop tour
Carey is the tour guide of a magnificent villa telling of the wonders that lie beyond a closed door
A life indecently full of fun and games
This is not a journey you will find in most accounts of the twentieth century
An Enlightenment king vindicated
Andrew Roberts dispels the myths and sticks to the facts about George III
To catch a culture thief
A vast global market in stolen and forged art and artefacts has only grown in the context of the pandemic, but technology and international policing may be catching up
The Crimean War
Professor Jeremy Black on how Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire found themselves fighting together in the Crimea
The Napoleonic Wars
Professor Jeremy Black discusses why and how Europe was engulfed in wars with France between 1792 and 1815
Most Read
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
Self’s the man
Will Self can be absurd and obnoxious — but also highly entertaining and insightful
Dumbed-down democracy
“Public opinion” is useless when the public is largely ignorant
Questions for the Munich hawks
It is wrong to use Neville Chamberlain as a byword for cowardice and fecklessness
Manchesterism is dead in the water
Andy Burnham already appears to have abandoned hope for meaningful change
How to build a Europe of the peripheries
Resetting Britain’s relations with the EU should not mean being beholden to France and Germany
Britain will be worse without hereditary peers
The expulsion of the hereditaries is neither fair nor pragmatic
The original sin
It should not have been difficult to see that there were problems with appointing Peter Mandelson
Gas shock therapy
Ed Miliband must abandon his absurd and failing approach to energy
Homes for Ukraine — and everywhere else
Why were some non-Ukrainians far more likely to enter Britain under a scheme meant for Ukrainians?
Squeezing out your generation
New laws are harming, not helping, younger people
It’s not a level pitch
Where did it all go wrong for Crystal Palace?