Reviews

'China and the West in the 21st Century' - Outdated or still aplicable?

‘China and the West in the 21st Century’ is Will Hutton’s 2007 book, presenting his interpretation of China’s economic growth and his...

Jul 24, 20212 min read

'Bound Feet and Western Dress' Pang-Mei Natasha Chang

‘Bound Feet and Western Dress’ is Pang-Mei Natasha Chang’s dual memoir of both herself and, mainly, her great-aunt Chang Yu-i – an...

Jul 13, 20214 min read

'The New Silk Roads' - Nothing New

Frankopan’s ‘The New Silk Roads’ is a somewhat controversial coverage of the new trade relationships forming along old routes, as well as...

Jul 6, 20212 min read

‘The Less You Know, The Better You Sleep’

David Satter’s ‘The Less You Know, The Better You Sleep’ is a concise introduction to the period of descent into terror that followed the...

Jun 24, 20214 min read

Stop Believing Lazy Anti-Catholic Myths

*this is an article I wrote to be published in my school paper - but thought I'd add it here also. This is, however, why it is slightly...

Jun 1, 20213 min read

'Red Famine' - Anne Applebaum's Transcendent coverage of the Holodomor

Anne Applebaum’s ‘Red Famine’ is a deep dive into the Holodomor, a famine that ravaged Ukraine during the early 1930s (particularly...

Jan 12, 20214 min read

'Ways of Seeing' - Still A must-read for understanding our visual culture (John Berger)

‘Ways of Seeing’ is Berger’s 1972 revolutionary interrogation of the semiotics which form our artistic and visual culture. Whilst holding...

Jan 3, 20213 min read

‘The Soviet Union During the Brezhnev Era’ – I want my £2 back (Charles River Editor)

From the very beginning, ‘The Soviet Union During the Brezhnev Era’ sets a tone of historical incompetence. It manages to carry this on...

Dec 28, 20202 min read

'The Cold War: A World History' - Odd Arne Westad. Strange and Mundane?

The Cold War – odd Arne Westwad ‘The Cold War’ is an adequate and intensive history of the world under the cold war, as its title...

Dec 26, 20203 min read

'The Odd Man Karakozov' - my Book of the Year

Verhoeven’s book, ‘The Odd Man Karakozov’, is a brilliant insight into the birth of terrorism and one of the most overlooked yet seminary...

Dec 23, 20204 min read

'Darkness at Noon' - A book everyone should read

‘Darkness at Noon’ is a study of complicity and guilt, which is what makes it so superior to other, more obvious, condemnations of Stalin...

Dec 20, 20203 min read

Rating Random YouTube Documentaries on Queen Mary I

Here are some ratings for the most accessible documentaries on the first monarch queen – from a semi-biased catholic sympathiser, though...

Nov 19, 20203 min read

Carolly Erickson's 'Bloody Mary' - sensationalist or worthwhile?

Carolly Erickson’s 1978 biography of Mary Tudor, ‘Bloody Mary’, is an incredibly well measured account of one of the most controversial...

Nov 16, 20203 min read

Khlevniuk's 'Stalin' - Perfectly Adequate?

In May 2015 Oleg Khlevniuk released ‘Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator’. It is a relatively concise book, only 18 hours in audiobook...

Nov 11, 20202 min read

J. Spence's Biography of Mao - is it too short to be worthwhile?

Spence’s biography of Mao is short, only reaching around 200 pages, and is therefore limited from the outset on what it can achieve. With...

Nov 10, 20202 min read

'Bearing False Witness', Rodney Stark on the myths about Catholicism

Stark’s 2016 book, ‘Bearing False Witness’, is a brilliant and fast paced overview of the most pernicious catholic myths of history. In...

Oct 30, 20203 min read

Sheila Fitzatrick: The Russian Revolution

Sheila Fitzpatrick’s history of ‘The Russian Revolution’ is an exemplar insight into the formation of the Soviet Union and a...

Oct 12, 20202 min read

Radzinsky's 'Stalin' - The Best Biography of Stalin?

Edvard Radzinsky’s biography was a standout on its release in 1977, as it was one of the first to access the newly declassified Russian...

Sep 27, 20204 min read

'The Fall of Constantinople 1453' - Top Quality content

'The Fall of Constantinople 1453' - Stephen Runciman, Cambridge University Press In 1453 the young Ottoman sultan, Mehmed II, attacked...

Aug 26, 20204 min read

A Critique of 'inside a monsters mind' - Hattersley's disastrous non-review

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jul/20/biography.features When researching the acceptance of ‘Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar’...

Aug 24, 20205 min read