Tag Archives: History

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – FEBRUARY 13, 2026 PREVIEW

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘The Men’s Club’ – Epstein’s world and the attendant role of women…

The latest tranche of the Jeffrey Epstein files have been in the public domain for less than two weeks, but already their contents have sent shock waves around the world.

Nowhere is this more true than in Britain, where the fallout has come to the door of Keir Starmer over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington, amid questions about how much the prime minister knew of his former envoy’s links to Epstein.

Starmer looks to have weathered the immediate pressure to resign this week, despite having lost his influential chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, over the scandal. But the vultures are still circling and it seems a matter of when, rather than if, the prime minister will go. Kiran Stacey weighs up the possible challengers from within the Labour party, while Oliver Holmes and Chris Michael consider why the scandal hit home so hard in the UK.

Spotlight | The last post for press freedom in the US?
Jeff Bezos’s axing of more than 300 jobs at the Washington Post has renewed fears about the resilience of America’s democracy to withstand Donald Trump’s attacks. Ed Pilkington and Jeremy Barr report

Technology | The continuing risks and rewards of AI
As policymakers and tech executives prepare for the next global AI summit in India, an annual safety report highlights the issues that will be at stake, writes Dan Milmo

Interview | Can Zack Polanski pull off a green revolution in the UK?
With polls and membership at an all-time high, the UK Green party is having a moment – and it’s largely down to the party’s charismatic (if slightly cheesy) new leader. Simon Hattenstone went on the road with him

Opinion | What links UK politics and Epstein? A thick seam of contempt
We’re often told the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, is a ‘decent’ man. But in appointing Peter Mandelson he chose political convenience over doing right, argues Nesrine Malik

Culture | The sign language of Margaret Calvert
Airports, road signs, typefaces … the design legend revolutionised how Britain looked and her brilliantly clear designs are still used today. Catherine Slessor met her

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE – FEBRUARY 11, 2026

Cover of Country Life 11 February, 2026 featuring The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

COUNTRY LIFE MAGAZINE: The fine art issue, featuring Seurat, art in literature and Sir Antony Gormley, plus Ampthill Park House and the long-eared eagle owl. 

Cast in the same mould

Sir Antony Gormley examines the parallels between his own Reflect and the Adriaen de Vries bronze of Antiope and Theseus

Don’t believe in modern love?

With Valentine’s Day looming and singlehood rising, Will Hosie seeks dating tips from the finest minds among the Ancients

Ford momentum

Harry Pearson enjoys the thrill of splashing through the countless fords criss-crossing the rivers and streams of the British Isles

Spread from Country Life February 11, 2026

Luxury

Jonathan Self is bewitched by the poetry of poesy rings and Amie Elizabeth White says ‘if you only buy one Derby boot…’

Life in the fast lane

Norfolk farmer Gavin Lane tells Julie Harding of the sleepless nights he has endured since taking the reins at the CLA

Sir Thomas Drew and Hélène Duchêne’s favourite paintings

His Majesty’s Ambassador to France and the French Ambassador to the Court of St James share their artworks of choice

Country-house treasure

John Goodall glimpses early-20th-century life at Mapperton House in Dorset in the form of a black-and-gold satin dress

Spread from Country Life February 11, 2026

A house of collections

In the second of two articles, Jeremy Musson explores the exceptional modern collection in the historic setting of Ampthill Park House in Bedfordshire

The legacy

Carla Passino hails the artworks amassed by Sir William Burrell

Where the wild things are

Exotic animals from around the world were unveiled to European eyes by artists such as Dürer and Stubbs, finds Michael Prodger

Spread from Country Life February 11, 2026

Winging it

Mark Cocker profiles the elusive and elegant long-eared owl

Interiors

Arabella Youens lauds a London drawing room and Amelia Thorpe keeps the home fires burning

Floral geometry

Banish the gloom with glorious winter-flowering Camellia japonica, suggests Charles Quest-Ritson

Spread from Country Life February 11, 2026

Slow and steady wins the race

Tom Parker Bowles savours the boozy boeuf à la Bourguignonne

Travel

Ben Lerwill delves into the story of space travel when he touches down at NASA HQ in Houston

Arts & antiques

Georges Seurat’s sublime French seascapes are taking centre stage at the Courtauld Gallery in London, reveals Carla Passino

Write side up

Art has long drawn inspiration from literature — from Ovid and Virgil to Shakespeare and Lewis Carroll, discovers Carla Passino

LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS – FEBRUARY 19, 2026 PREVIEW

LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS: The latest issue features Seamus Perry: Pluralism and Poetry; James Wolcott: Updike Reconsidered; James Meek on Romania’s Far Right;

Seamus Perry · Pluralism and the Modern Poet: Pluralism and Poetry

‘Art arises,’ Auden writes, ‘out of our desire for both beauty and truth and our knowledge that they are not identical.’ We want things two ways, which analysis says we cannot have; but for a moment a poem lets us, in a way that discursive prose, for instance, cannot.

Jonathan RéeKojève v. Hegel

Alexandre Kojève described his book on Hegel as ‘very bad’, and he had a point. His take on The Phenomenology of Spirit is not only misleading but slapdash, dogmatic, frivolous and flamboyant. The characters he filled it with, from the Master and Slave to the Sensualist and the Sage, sound rather like Mr Worldly Wiseman, Madam Bubble and Mr Sagacity in Pilgrim’s Progress.

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS – FEBRUARY 26, 2026

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS: The latest issue features Fintan O’Toole on the murders in Minneapolis, Trevor Jackson on the problem with central banks, Ingrid D. Rowland on Fra Angelico, Namwali Serpell on Toni Morrison’s sense of humor, Julian Gewirtz on the new microchip race, Vivian Gornick on Arundhati Roy, Joy Neumeyer on Poland’s far right, Ian Tattersall on all creatures great and small, Maurice Samuels on escaping the Nazis in Vichy France, Ben Rhodes on Robert McNamara’s sins, poems by Mary Jo Salter and James Arthur, and much more.

The Crime of Witness

Fintan O’Toole

Renee Good and Alex Pretti were murdered for daring to interfere with the Trump administration’s efforts to normalize abductions and state violence.


The Struggle for the Fed

Trevor Jackson

The Fed is under attack. Can it be both protected and held accountable?

Our Money: Monetary Policy As If Democracy Matters by Leah Downey

Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America by Peter Conti-Brown and Sean H. Vanatta

Our Dollar, Your Problem: An Insider’s View of Seven Turbulent Decades of Global Finance, and the Road Ahead by Kenneth Rogoff

When the Chips Are Down

President Trump’s reversal of a ban on sales of advanced semiconductors to China undercut the strategic logic behind years of American policy that was meant to keep the US ahead in the race to develop AI systems.

The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China by Ya-Wen Lei

The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip by Stephen Witt

The Nvidia Way: Jensen Huang and the Making of a Tech Giant by Tae Kim

PHILOSOPHY NOW MAGAZINE FEBRUARY/MARCH 2026

PHILOSOPHY NOW MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘Roman Philosophy’….

What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us?

by Rick Lewis

News: February/March 2026

Texas Prof Banned from Teaching Plato • Chatbots Have Favourite Philosophers • Singer Fears AI Doesn’t ‘Get’ Animal Rights — News reports by Anja Steinbauer

ROMAN PHILOSOPHY

Machiavelli’s Roman Empire

Sam Spound explains why the author of The Prince thought about Rome so much.

Cicero & the Ideal of Virtue

Abdullah Shaikh explores Cicero’s ideas about the core Roman principle of virtus.

The Educational Philosophy of Quintilian

Philip Vassallo learns from a classic of Classical education.

Ancient Synergy

Yolanda De Iuliis looks at how Roman Mithraism incorporated Stoic philosophy.

The Post Paralysis Peace Paradox

Cassandra Brandt offers the reflections of a sedentary Stoic.

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – FEBRUARY 6, 2026 PREVIEW

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘USA-IRAN’ – Collision Course….

Have Donald Trump’s hard talk and the arrival of a strike-ready flotilla finally made Tehran blink? It certainly seemed so by Monday evening, when Iran said it was willing to talk. A week of trading threats turned to strong indications that Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, and Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s minister for foreign affairs, were readying to meet in Istanbul on Friday. In this week’s big story, Ashifa Kassam and Andrew Roth chart how momentum to war slowed and fears of a wider regional conflict eased, albeit marginally.

The background to Trump’s war of words against Tehran was the huge protests that rocked Iran last month, until they were brutally repressed by the regime. Analysts suggest a fragile domestic security situation prompted the Iranian government’s softening towards US demands. Our diplomatic editor and longtime Iran watcher, Patrick Wintour, explains that while the streets are now quiet, a shift in the balance of power between the people and the government has emboldened domestic demands for a full investigation of the killing and imprisonment of protesters.

Spotlight | The Epstein files, part two
Daniel Boffey details the biggest bombshell among the 3m newly released documents: disgraced former minister Peter Mandelson’s deep and compromising relationship with the convicted paedophile

Environment | Nature runs wild in Fukushima
Free of human habitation after the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown, Fukushima is now teeming with wildlife. But this haven could vanish if people come back, finds Justin McCurry

Features | From hope to despair
The postwar new town of Newton Aycliffe with its boarded up shops is a symbol of the Britain’s economic gloom – and a warning for Labour as it battles the rise of Reform UK, reports Josh Halliday

Opinion | Art, groceries, Greenland – thieves are everywhere
Jonathan Liew reflects on how we all seem to live in a world defined by petty theft and no one, whether it’s the pickpocket or the big AI company, seems to get punished

Culture | Small acts of magic
Mackenzie Crook tells Zoe Williams how his approach to comedy has mellowed with age. Gone is the nervous, awkward energy of Gareth from The Office, to be replaced by the gentle curiosity that animates his new series Small Prophets

LITERARY REVIEW —- FEBRUARY 2026

LITERARY REVIEW : The latest issue features Norma Clarke on Charlie Chaplin’s London; Richard Bourke on revolution; Lucasta Miller on George Sand; Peter Davidson on Constable; Philippe Marlière on far-right France; Munro Price on the Marquis de Morès; Piers Brendon on Trotsky’s demise; Mark Glancy on Hitchcock’s scores

High-Builded Clouds – Constable’s Year: An Artist in Changing Seasons By Susan Owens

Where Fry Met Laurie – The Cambridge Footlights: A Very British Comedy Institution By Robert Sellers

Partners in Suspense – Hitchcock and Herrmann: The Friendship and Film Scores That Changed Cinema By Steven C Smith

APOLLO MAGAZINE – FEBRUARY 2026 PREVIEW

Apollo cover image 1

APOLLO MAGAZINE: The latest issue features ‘Miquel Barceló’s Mutant Art’….

The Asia Society Turns 70

Los Angeles After The Fires

Hans Holbein’s Big Break

On Viollet-le-Duc, the punchbag of Notre-Dame

While the architect’s approach to restoring France’s medieval buildings remains controversial, his many and varied talents are still utterly awe-inspiring by Tim Smith-Laing

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY – JANUARY 30, 2026 PREVIEW

THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY: The latest issue features ‘Showdown’ – Minneapolis, Ice and A Moment of Truth.

Is the worm turning against Trump? Last week saw a concerted pushback against the US president by western allies over Greenland. This week, it is on the domestic front where the Trump administration seems to be buckling – this time under intense criticism after the killing of another American citizen by federal agents in Minneapolis.

The massive winter storm that swept across North America last weekend could not obscure from the nation video footage of an ICE agent shooting dead Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse and father of three who was seemingly rushing to protect a woman as she was pepper-sprayed by Border Patrol personnel.

As our Washington bureau chief David Smith writes in this week’s big story, the events were seen by many as clear evidence of fascistic overreach and a potential moment of reckoning for Trump in the US. A wave of condemnation from politicians across the political spectrum led to a swift softening of tone from the White House, though not before leading administration figures had wrongly tried to pin the blame on the victim.

From Minneapolis, Rachel Leingang reports on the sense of shock and fury in the city, while in a stark commentary, Francine Prose voices her fears that the US may be on the brink of an authoritarian takeover.

Spotlight | Are Trump’s tantrums pushing America’s allies closer to China?
After a week of diplomatic turmoil, some western nations are turning to a country that many in Washington see as an existential threat. Amy Hawkins reports

Science | Fly me to the moon, again
Nasa is readying its most powerful Artemis II rocket for a new, 1.1 million km lunar circumnavigation flight – and lift-off could come as soon as next week. Science editor Ian Sample sets the scene

Feature | Secrets of the superagers
Why do some people age better than others? Five extraordinary individuals – who scientists are studying – share their tips with Isabelle Aron

Opinion | It’s now clear. Labour needs a new leader – and quickly
UK prime minister Keir Starmer’s dismal decision to block likely leadership challenger Andy Burnham from standing in a byelection has bought him time, but it won’t change his fate, says Polly Toynbee

Culture | Has Netflix killed our attention spans?
Matt Damon has got it right, argues Stuart Heritage: the streaming giant knows we all just watch TV with one hand gripping our smartphones, which is why we need plotlines explaining to us over and over again

LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS – FEBRUARY 5, 2026 PREVIEW

LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS: The latest issue features ‘Visions of America’

Made in Tehran

Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi

Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History  by Vali Nasr.

No King

Daisy Hay

Friends until the End: Edmund Burke and Charles Fox in the Age of Revolution by James Grant.


One Life to Lead: The Mysteries of Time and the Goods of Attachment by Samuel Scheffler


El Cid: 
The Life and Afterlife of a Medieval Mercenary by Nora Berend