Category Archives: History

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT – JULY 24, 2026 PREVIEW

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT: The latest issue features ‘Emily Brontë’s mysterious power’….

Uncloistered

Oxbridge in the postwar world By Richard Vinen

Freeing life from facts

The awesome, mysterious work of Emily Brontë By Claire Harman

All very hush-hush

Silence in literature By Daniel Karlin

Feel good philosophy

Should human life have a purpose? By Crispin Sartwell

HISTORY TODAY MAGAZINE – AUGUST 2026 PREVIEW

History Today August 2026
HISTORY TODAY MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘Caesar and Cicero’s War of Words’

How Inevitable Was the Rise of the Chinese Communist Party?

It is the most powerful political party in the world, controlling China’s future as well as its past, but was the young CCP in control of its imperial destiny?

Charles Darwin’s Sexual Revolution

The potential implications of Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual selection did not sit well with Victorian gender mores – or with Darwin himself.

‘Empress Matilda’ by Elisabeth van Houts review

Empress Matilda: Queen of the Romans, Ruler of the English by Elisabeth van Houts is a sympathetic biography of the woman who would be king.

Caesar and Cicero’s War of Words

As ancient Rome was divided by civil war Cicero found himself torn. Caesar was his old adversary, but he was also powerful, and it was politically and personally expedient to support him.

Making Crusading Great Again?

Would St Augustine have considered the US attack on Iran a just war? The pope and the vice president are split on the matter.

The Free Brazilian Press

Brazil’s first newspaper was published from London by an exiled Freemason on first-name terms with British royalty. Who was Hipólito da Costa and what was his news?

1936’s Promise of Peace: Roosevelt on Campaign

In August 1936 Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a boldly pacifist campaign speech, promising no American would have to go to war. It had seemed a realistic promise.

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – JULY 22, 2026 PREVIEW

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features

Meet Peggy, Britain’s naughtiest dog

Agnes Stamp meets the cereal-snaffling, bed-wrecking, turkey-wrangling miniature bull terrier who took the title—and rounds up the best (or worst) of the rest

Spreads from Country Life 22 July 2026

The 39 steps to being a good dog owner

From clamping down on begging to sweetening bad breath, William Hanson presents his guide to modern pet-iquette

Ian Seath’s favourite painting

The Royal Kennel Club chairman chooses a work that celebrates canine collaboration with humans

Pup and coming

There have never been so many options for pampering your pooch. Mary Skipwith explores the rapidly evolving world of canine luxury

Spreads from Country Life 22 July 2026

Country-house treasure

John Goodall marvels at the extensive 18th-century library at Powderham Castle in Devon

The legacy

Kate Green applauds Enid Blyton for dreaming up the spirited adventures of the Famous Five

A power in the landscape

In the first of two articles, John Goodall explores the early history of Curraghmore in Co Waterford, one of Ireland’s great houses

Spreads from Country Life 22 July 2026

Bone appétit

Why settle for discarded street snacks when there is succulent chicken on the menu, asks Jack Russell Maud Parker Bowles

Interiors

Arabella Youens investigates interiors designed with pets in mind and Amelia Thorpe shares accessories for the (dog) house

Winging it

Why can’t we learn to love the wood pigeon, asks Mark Cocker

You got me there

David Profumo pursues tricky brown trout in a day on the Test

Everything bar the Oompa Loompas

Harry Pearson visits The Oldest Sweet Shop in England, which has traded in treats since 1827

Spreads from Country Life 22 July 2026

Luxury

Fruity accessories offer rich pickings for Amie Elizabeth White

Colour for all seasons

Kathryn Bradley-Hole admires the spectacular successional planting in the new gardens of The Copper House in Kent

Travel

Steven King savours the spirit of the Hebrides and the natural beauty of the Isle of Harris during a stay at historic Rodel House

Spreads from Country Life 22 July 2026

Arts & antiques

The rise of service à la russe in the 19th century turned the tables in upper-class British dining, discovers Carla Passino

To say nothing of the dog

Michael Prodger examines the history of canines on canvas and reveals how artists have warmed to Man’s best friend

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – JULY 15, 2026 PREVIEW

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features the magic, power and beauty of water, pays tribute to the king of British powerboating and enjoys the Victorian splendour of Scarborough.

Why our water is going down the drain

Investment, organisation and effort can guarantee secure water supplies for everyone in Britain, argues Lord Deben

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

The power of water

Kate Green surveys the surging strength of the Severn Bore, the haunting beauty of the flooded Somerset Levels, life on the edge at Dawlish and the capital’s mighty Thames Barrier.

Why every drop counts

People who work with water tell Kate Green and Mary Skipwith why we need to reconnect with our most precious resource

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

Up with the gulls, to bed with the owl

Patrick Galbraith experiences an eventful day in the life of the ever-changing, but enduringly beautiful Cley estuary in Norfolk

On peak form

Artists such as Turner, Bierstadt and Wolf took painting to new heights with their depictions of mountains, finds Michael Prodger

Let all the world sing

The 2026 BBC Proms promises to be a truly global spectacle, as Henrietta Bredin discovers

The queen of spas

Scarborough in North Yorkshire is the original Victorian seaside resort. Kathryn Ferry charts the development of its spa complex

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

The Revd Sam Wells’s favourite painting

The St Martin-in-the-Fields vicar chooses a painting where ‘magnificent humanity’ is laid bare

Country-house treasure

John Goodall unearths evidence of Bowood in Wiltshire’s wartime role as a ‘beacon of recovery’

Pooling assets

George Plumptre is charmed by the Anglo-Italian landscape at Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

The legacy

Agnes Stamp pays tribute to speed merchant Sir Max Aitken, the king of British powerboating

Winging it

Mark Cocker assesses the anti-social antics of the herring gull

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

Luxury

Jonathan Self ponders the power of fine jewellery and Amie Elizabeth White finds coral for all

Interiors

Arabella Youens visits a kitchen giving a nod to history, and reveals that chequerboard floors are back

Travel

Rosie Paterson is looking for a New England in Nantucket

Spread from Country Life July 15, 2026

Arts & antiques

Carla Passino investigates the intriguing tale of ‘Mad Madge’, a pioneer of science-fiction

Truth, lies and somewhere in between

Michael Billington delves into a world of deceit and infidelity

The American Scholar Magazine – SUMMER 2026

CoverSummer26

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR: The latest issue features ‘Forget Me Not’ – Some people remember their pasts with eerie clarity, for others, there’s only a void…

You Must Remember This

On the nature of autobiographical memory By Jonathan Weiner

Twain Town, U.S.A.

Samuel Clemens is everywhere in Hannibal, Missouri, but is the story the town tells about its favorite son grounded in reality or myth? By Ruth Franklin

Found in Translation

The act of rendering plays from Romanian to English has allowed me to discover my family’s past—and myself By Amanda L. Andrei

Thanatos Rising

A 1930s correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud laid out each man’s views on war and peace By George Makari

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS – JULY 23, 2026

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS: The latest issue features

An Uncertain Triumphalism

America’s centennial in 1876 was celebrated with a grand exhibition that projected an image of national unity and inventiveness in the anxious aftermath of civil war and recession.

Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America’s Future by Fergus M. Bordewich

Hungary: The Flood

Peter Magyar’s landslide electoral victory in April made clear that after sixteen years, Hungarians were tired of Viktor Orbán.

Space Oddity

Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff’s Muskism examines how Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire, by selling a vision of the future that very few people would want to inhabit.

Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff

Song of Our Cells

Though a mystery to Darwin in his lifetime, the constant mutation of our genes is what allows for life’s magnificent diversity.

Beyond Inheritance: Our Ever-Mutating Cells and a New Understanding of Health by Roxanne Khamsi

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT – JULY 10, 2026 PREVIEW

TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT: The latest issue features Allen Ginsberg at 100; Shere Hite and the female pleasure principle; Shakespeare’s politics…

Best of enemies

The Iranian regime’s long confrontation with America By Azadeh Moaveni

Allen Ginsberg at 100

Poet, counterculture critic and self-promoter By Douglas Field

Getting real

Do objects exist independently of human experience? By Emily Herring

Forgotten feminist

How Shere Hite put women’s pleasure first By Angela Saini

MONTHLY REVIEW MAGAZINE – JULY/AUGUST 2026 PREVIEW

MONTHLY REVIEW MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘The Global Structural Crisis of Capital’…

The Global Structural Crisis of Capital

The notion of a “global structural crisis of capital” defining our times was first introduced by István Mészáros in the third edition of his Marx’s Theory of Alienation in 1971, and in his Isaac Deutscher Memorial Lecture, “The Necessity of Social Control” that same year.2 In 1995 in Beyond Capital, Mészáros distinguished the emerging, epochal structural crisis of capital from the cyclical and conjunctural crises that are “capital’s natural mode of existence.” 

Capitalism and Cognition: The Fate of Science in a System in Decline

Tech Billionaires, the AI Threat, and Resistance

Value Chains in the Digital Age: Labor Exploitation and Systemic Ecocide

Imperialism in a Full World: Neomercantilism and the Return of the Zero-Sum Game

Why Can China Resist Financialization?

Monetary Policy and Capitalism

U.S. Imperialism Resurgent

Between the Times: Privatized Keynesianism, Permanent Catastrophe, and the Task of an Economy of Social Production

On the Economic Crisis of Capitalism

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – JULY 8, 2026 PREVIEW

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘The Experts’ Experts’ – Country Life asks architects, designers and specialists on its Top 100 list to delve into their little black books to reveal the talented craftspeople and suppliers they turn to for inspiration on their own projects…

Magazine spread from Country Life 8 July 2026

Why haste creates waste

Hold off on that online-shopping impulse buy — there’s no substitute for carefully crafted quality 

It’s getting hot in here

Ben Lerwill sets his tastebuds a-tingling as he meets the British chilli-sauce makers adding to the spice of life  

Luxury

If you only buy one suitcase, make it a classic GlobeTrotter, suggests Amie Elizabeth White

Winging it

Mark Cocker looks beyond the raven’s grim reputation to seek the truth about our largest corvid

Magazine spread from Country Life 8 July 2026

Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s favourite painting

The Speaker of the House of Commons is captivated by the Westminster riverfront in a work with a photographic quality  

On top of the world

Kirsty Fergusson applauds the stamina of the hardy souls who tend the spectacular clifftop gardens at Chygurno, Cornwall 

Magazine spread from Country Life 8 July 2026

Country-house treasure

John Goodall stands in the stead of William Tyndale behind a preacher’s pulpit at Bucklebury House in Berkshire  

The legacy

Agnes Stamp salutes Agnes Marshall, the Queen of Ices 

While the cat’s away…

David Glasper lifts the lid on the cat flap, the means by which the regal feline can come and go precisely as it pleases  

An architectural evolution

Jeremy Musson charts the rise of Selwyn College, Cambridge, from its origins as a memorial to a 19th-century missionary  

Magazine spread from Country Life 8 July 2026

The raw deal

Tom Parker Bowles savours the lip-smacking summer freshness of that Peruvian classic ceviche 

Travel

Rosie Paterson unpacks the latest in luxury-yacht looks and follows in Frida Kahlo’s footsteps 

Arts & antiques

Beauty and function were fused in the form of the sedan chair, the conveyance of choice for the upper echelons of Georgian society, reveals Carla Passino 

Art to dine for

Intriguing art can be a meal-time conversation starter in country-house dining rooms, as Melanie Cable-Alexander discovers 

Catch of the day

Collector Paul Martin shares his tips on amassing a school of exquisite antiquarian fish prints 

THE PHILOSOPHER JOURNAL – SPRING 2026 PREVIEW

THE PHILOSOPHER JOURNAL: The latest issue features “Towards a Critical Theory of Finance

Hegel turned the world onto its head and Marx turned it back on its feet, and now finance is turning the world on its head again. In the early 19th century, Hegel proposed that human history was shaped by consciousness, by human spirit, by the head. Marx argued, in turn, that history was actually determined by practical social conditions, by the way people make their means of living, standing on their feet. It was capitalism that made it seem like heads, owners of industry and leaders of states and their apologists, intellectuals, made history happen, and not workers. The feet were the source of power while the heads claimed all the power for themselves. It is harder to believe this is true now. Industry does not matter much to finance, and labor even less. Finance packages up the productive economy to resell it according to its own rules. A few prescient people have been studying the way the new rules ruin living conditions, pervert political possibilities, and increasingly dominate the global order. Yet, there is still no field dedicated to theorising the ill effects of the newly upside-down world. We need, in short, a critical theory of finance.

In ‘Money,’ Stefan Eich exposes a paradox. Money needs everyone’s trust to operate, and yet economists and politicians claim that only they can decide on its uses. In ‘What is Monetary Policy,’ Leah Downey explains how the technocratic apparatus of policy prevents democratic decision-making. Melinda Cooper considers the challenge supposedly presented by Schumpeter’s view of the relation between family, capitalism, and democracy. Radhika Desai demonstrates a tradition in Marxist thought that already predicts financialisation and has a strong theory of it. Finally, Paul North briefly evaluates four very general positions from which to critique finance, as a preparation for a critical theory of finance.

Also in this issue, Peter West explores how Plato continues to speak to our present moment, with Angie Hobbs’ recent book offering a timely defence of dialogue against the rise of censorship, polarisation, and performative debate. Meanwhile, Marie Snyder reflects on The End Doesn’t Happen All at Once, a pandemic memoir in letters that traces how friendship, literature, and mutual care sustained lives through the disorientation and inequalities of Covid.

Kristie Miller puzzles over our preference for how our well-being is distributed over time; Alison Stone delves into Victorian philosophy as a distinct tradition in which women philosophers played a significant role; Matthew Sharpe makes the case for reclaiming Stoicism from the manosphere and the far right; Mary Peterson continues a conversation started in her 2024 article in The Philosopher, on restorative justice and sexual misconduct; and Adrian K. Yee asks what ethical issues are raised by the use of machine learning in counterterrorism.