HALLOWEEN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 is
about Scotland’s Darkest Secret This is not just a book about witches, but about Scottish witches! And Halloween is mentioned many times. Author Allyson Shaw, who has written much about…
HISTORY OF IDEAS
In the history of ideas, no one stands taller than the philosopher John Locke (1632-1704). To quote from a recent book by Marco Sgarbi, Locke was persuaded that it is…
MOUNTBATTEN in Burma and India
Bloomsbury has recently published two books relating to Lord Louis Mountbatten, one of the two Supremos of World War II (the other being Eisenhower). One is about how the news…
French Philosophy of Science
Bloomsbury is publishing a series of books about the philosophy of Michel Serres (1930-2019). This is the third. The first two are Michel Serres and the Crises of the Contemporary;…
The Jeffersonians
This book on the presidencies of Jefferson, Madison and Monroe is superb. Even though it is chocked full of detail, the prose style of the author makes it read like…
Nothing Human is Foreign to TIME
Do not take this book with you to the beach this summer. I thought this was going to be an easy read, and while that expectation got shot down after…
The Male Gaze in Ancient Greece
The historical texts by Xenophon (430-355 BCE) are the subject of a close study here by Rosie Harman, Lecturer in Greek Historiography, University College London. But her take on Xenophon…
Plutarch’s Cities
Born in the reign of the Roman Emperor Claudius, Plutarch (46-120 CE) took great pride in being a priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi (he was born just…
CICERO and The Last Gasp of the Roman Republic
Cicero wrote several great dialogues. This book deals with two of them, and later this year I’ll be reporting on another Oxford University Press book that examines two more. The…
A Roman Historian
For someone living now, the 17th century seems like a long time ago. Four hundred years have passed; only specialist historians have a good grasp on those who were once…