Books

Leonard Woolf had a logical mind, a lucid style, a rare honesty and a keen eye for cant. He was, after John Maynard Keynes, the most worldly, capable and impressive member of the Bloomsbury Group

Are human rights dependent on “human dignity”—and what does “human dignity” even mean?

It really does not matter what structures are in place to coordinate, direct, and execute strategic military aims; what matters is clarity of responsibility

More than most statesmen of his time, Metternich thought about history and his place in it. He was right to worry: most biographies have depicted him as an essentially reactionary politician—a “coachman” of Europe who was fond of the whip hand

The Windrush Betrayal describes a shameful episode in the history of the Home Office, and in Britain’s treatment of a section of its Caribbean minority, but in its highly selective analysis and extreme conclusions it also contributes to an ideological assault on the proper operation of Britain’s border

‘In the US, levels of religiosity are traditionally high. But Americans aren’t somehow hard-wired to preserve their faith in a high-tech world. They are just behind the curve’

‘William Dalrymple dismantles the inadequacies of prep school history: Britain was a relatively poor, agricultural nation in 1599, while much of India was populous and rich’

‘Houllebecq’s novel Serotonin is yet another specimen of the thriving industry of déclinisme — disenchantment with neoliberal woes and political correctness’