Books

Devorah Baum applauds a timely attempt to take on the naysayers and give the French philosopher his due

Catherine Rottenberg enjoys a sharp analysis of the sexual politics behind the devices that provide domestic services

Richard Joyner enjoys a vivid account of a larger-than-life scientist and reflects on whether Haldane’s career would be possible today

The former professor of imperial and global history and author of Unlocking the World: Port Cities and Globalization in the Age of Steam on old favourites, empire and commerce, and horse power

A. W. Purdue is impressed by a dazzling analysis of the human capacity for violence and how it has moulded our lives

Suzanne Franks has reservations about an impressive study of the ideals journalists should embrace

Robert Eaglestone has reservations about a pre-eminent historian’s analysis of the continuing myths about the Nazis 

Our regular look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers 

Angelia R. Wilson applauds a wide-ranging survey of American racism but remains unconvinced by the solutions on offer

Lennard Davis is impressed by a compendious account of all the ways the hearing world has tried to put Deaf people right

Jane O’Grady is enthralled by a meticulous meditation on possible worlds and paths not taken 

The professor of communication and media and author of The Politicization of Mumsnet discusses social media’s good and bad, debates over gender and feminism, and Val McDermid’s Scotland

Mark Erickson applauds an analysis of where higher education in the US and beyond has gone wrong

Stephen Joel Trachtenberg has doubts about the wider applicability of the ideas of an innovative university president

Caroline Stevenson applauds a powerful exposé of Parisian haute couture that raises troubling questions for fashion schools as well as for those working in the industry

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

David Gewanter suggests that time has not been kind to the works of the wild-living poets and novelists of the Beat generation

Andrew Blake enjoys a comprehensive account of ‘the most influential musicians of their generation’

Cait MacPhee enjoys a tour of the disaster scenarios that put even a pandemic into perspective

The Classics scholar and author of Mapping the Afterlife: From Homer to Dante talks about discovering Roman Britain in the Australian heat and how a sports-car-driving teacher fuelled her interest in Latin

Robert A. Segal questions the assumptions behind a wide-ranging survey of world religions

Ruby Guyatt regrets the lack of women in an elegant survey of a concept we seem not to be able to do without

Emma Rees praises a lively yet forensic analysis of systemic misogyny

Our regular look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Nathan Abrams is intrigued by the creepy possibilities film directors have found in refrigerators, typewriters and shower curtains

Clive Bloom finds the rap sheet on an iconic cultural figure frustratingly incomplete

A. W. Purdue considers how Britain’s wartime prime minister was a lifelong master at keeping himself in the public eye

The professor of French studies and author of Today Sardines Are Not for Sale: A Street Protest in Occupied Paris explains how exploring small, overlooked episodes brings human drama to history

Roberta Mock is intrigued by a radical account of the currents that have shaken her native city

A fascinating insider’s account of launching a tech start-up engages Martin De Saulles even if it does not quite cohere as an agenda for change

James Stevens Curl is delighted by a comprehensive study of an often underrated architectural era 

Nick Hillman assesses the arguments for and against banning certain speakers from campuses

Our regular look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Chloe Chard considers the differences between ‘dreamers’ and ‘poets’ in the ways they portrayed human figures

Robert Eaglestone applauds a bold, although not wholly successful, attempt to reorientate our thinking in the wake of trauma

David Gunkel enjoys a stimulating polemic about why we need to reflect on what ‘getting back to normal’ means in the wake of the coronavirus crisis

The history lecturer and author of Rummage: A History of the Things We Have Reused, Recycled and Refused to Let Go discusses her fascination with waste and reuse and how to write about ephemeral themes

Jane O’Grady wishes this study of ideological inconsistencies had gone a bit deeper

Panikos Panayi enjoys an ambitious but partial study of London’s sleaziest district

Randy Malamud admires a distinctly engaging account of an energy-sapping emotion

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Kalwant Bhopal thinks that the authors of a new anti-racism toolkit need to go deeper

Emma Rees applauds a detailed analysis of how women are sidelined in the art world – and how they can fight back

John Gilbey is fascinated by an ambitious attempt to analyse and address the disastrous human impact on the biosphere

The historian and author of The Politics of Humiliation discusses fairy tales and myths, the history of emotions, and the relationships between victim, perpetrators and onlookers

Kristen Ghodsee is intrigued by an ethnographic account of how women found ways to reinvent themselves after the collapse of the USSR

Tammy Lai-Ming Ho offers a local’s view of a well-contextualised look at the territory’s once-unthinkable pro-democracy demonstrations

Peter J. Smith applauds a fascinating, if stomach-churning, study of ‘the pongs of the past’

A look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Failings on protective clothing have caused immense suffering for families of the dying, argues researcher

Andrew Delatolla gets a clear overview of the Arab Spring’s effects on the relationships between government and society in the region

Tanja Sihvonen enjoys a collection of interviews with the queer game makers who are transforming the whole world of video games

Tony Mann is impressed by a study of what we mean by numbers that ranges across millennia

Michael Marinetto enjoys a bold attempt to challenge the scientific consensus about consciousness

As the tools of complexity theory prove crucial in responding to the pandemic, they must be taught far more widely in universities, argues former oil executive turned researcher

Joe Moran is intrigued by a deep history that has gained unexpected relevance at a time of self-isolation

Kieran Williams is impressed by a dialogue about the history of a single country that offers a powerful defence of liberal, constitutional government

The author of The Olympic Games: A Critical Approach discusses seeing sport through ‘a feminist, anti-racist lens’, anti-doping efforts and Outback Noir

Our regular look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Catherine Rottenberg discovers how progressive causes can harness the power of ‘counter-data’ to challenge the status quo