History books
Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe by Niall Ferguson review – information overload
This dizzying history tour of disasters takes its lead from Covid, and China’s role in ‘cold war II’, but offers little clarity
Andrew Anthony
17, May, 2021 @8:00 AM
Aids and Act Up: Sarah Schulman puts women and people of color back at the heart of the story
The activist’s new book, Let the Record Show, is a rejoinder to works on the HIV epidemic by and about white men
Benjamin Ryan
16, May, 2021 @6:00 AM
Secret history: the warrior women who fought their enslavers
Historian Rebecca Hall works with a graphic artist in her new book to reclaim the stories of the female rebels on ships and plantations
Rob Walker
16, May, 2021 @5:15 AM
Who’s missing? Top author stirs anger with ‘too white’ history
Richard Cohen’s new book, which has reportedly been dropped by his US publisher despite extensive additions, is still set for British release next month
Richard Brooks
16, May, 2021 @5:15 AM
The Ground Breaking review: indispensable history of the Tulsa Race Massacre
On the centenary of the attack on ‘Black Wall Street’, one of the worst racist outrages in US history, Scott Ellsworth has produced an impeccable work
Michael Henry Adams
15, May, 2021 @6:00 AM
A User’s Guide to Melancholy by Mary Ann Lund review – senses of humour
A learned and readable picture of Renaissance medicine with less comic eccentricity than Robert Burton’s 1621 magnum opus
Nicholas Lezard
13, May, 2021 @11:00 AM
Empire of Pain review by Patrick Radden Keefe – the dynasty behind an opioid crisis
This examination of the Sackler family, purveyors of OxyContin, lays bear its responsibility for the US’s opioid epidemic
Samanth Subramanian
13, May, 2021 @6:30 AM
The Life of Music review – pushing at the boundaries of the classical canon
Nicholas Kenyon’s wide-ranging survey of the development of western music is packed with his passion for the subject
Fiona Maddocks
11, May, 2021 @6:00 AM
Cate Haste obituary
Historian, biographer and documentary film-maker whose subjects ranged from the cold war to sexual freedom in Britain
Hella Pick
07, May, 2021 @5:23 PM
Doom by Niall Ferguson review – how to make sense of catastrophe
A study of horrible afflictions, from famines to pandemics, and our failure to learn from past mistakes
Rafael Behr
07, May, 2021 @8:00 AM
How Holbein left clever clue in portrait to identify Henry VIII’s queen
New evidence shows miniature long held to be of Catherine Howard could depict Henry’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves
Dalya Alberge
01, May, 2021 @2:00 PM
The Kidnapping Club and A Shot in the Moonlight reviews – slavery’s long shadow
Two books on the pre- and post-civil war New York and Kentucky deal with dark but also more hopeful episodes in US history
John S Gardner
01, May, 2021 @5:00 AM
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