Books

Helen Bynum admires a physician’s quest to distinguish alternative medicine from quackery

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Jonathan Mirsky on one family’s memories of life in a Shanghai alleyway, from Mao to the modern day

Alec Ryrie welcomes a study of an Elizabethan scholar that dispels a posthumous Puritan label

Fred Inglis on a collection of articles that touches on, but should have focused on, the corruption of universities by corporate forces

Robert Gellately on how Hitler’s forces tried to forge alliances with Muslims during the Second World War

Sandra Leaton Gray on a chilling true story of the monetisation of the contents of academics’ heads

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones on the Persian king who has always been sidelined by Alexander the Great

It’s not machines but rather man that makes us dread the clock’s tick, Stina Lyon discovers

Fred Inglis finds much to savour in a shrewd and affectionate study of a cherished satirical sitcom

E. Stina Lyon on the unrealistically high expectations placed on women

Gary Day extols a fascinating study of Modern Library books

Shakespeare’s use of legal rhetoric is the force behind much of his drama, says Willy Maley

Richard Bosworth on the revolutionaries, Romantics, tourists and Fascists that have shaped the Italian city

Katharine Reeve on the fundamental impact of paper on human life, work and culture

A cross-class relationship burns bright in a study of an experiment in ethical living, says Nadia Valman

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A surgeon finds that what empowers terminally ill patients is humane honesty, finds Helen Bynum

Sharon Wheeler applauds a rigorous and passionate appraisal of Conan Doyle’s literary contemporaries

Are we primarily biological entities, or embodied consciousnesses? Christopher Belshaw on a fine book examining the arguments

A thoughtful study on joblessness has little to say on the most pressing problems, finds Kitty Stewart

John Shand on a message that is undermined exaggeration

The Indiana Jones of biology is an engaging guide in this marine detective story, says Philip Hoare

Eileen Pollard on a collection of interviews capturing important truths about the doctoral process

Paul Bernal finds much to admire in this compelling examination of the diverse events the group has been involved in

A tale of the priest, the boy, his aunt and her arrest in 1762 is first-rate micro-history, says Alec Ryrie

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones on a study of the muscle and myth movies of the 1950s and 1960s

John Gilbey on an ambitious and comprehensive look at the changing world of computers

Emma Rees on the difficulties of defining and exploring women’s sexual subjectivities in the 21st century

Philip Hoare on an alternative look at Britain - from hidden canal systems to ancient energy circuits

Paul Bernal admires an analysis of the sanctified ‘neutrality’ of the encyclopedia we all love to hate

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

David Salter is moved by reflections on changing attitudes to mortality across cultures and time

Chris Knight on a theory that an excess of morality is the cause of most violence and conflict today

Elizabeth Chell on a common-sense guide to managing innovation in businesses

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Film-makers are challenging mainstream media depictions of state terror, finds Linnie Blake

Clare Griffiths on the things that were remembered and the things that were forgotten about the crisis

Ana Carolina Hosne on a 17th-century figure who had ‘imperial ambitions’ for the Society of Jesus

Racial structure is cemented by theories on the fixed nature of the ‘other’, finds Yolanda T. Moses

Cait MacPhee on an examination of current theories about our history

Shahidha Bari on a collection of essays concentrating on four American writers

Untangling our emotional commitment to books is a complicated affair, says Deborah Rogers

Hester Vaizey on the political and religious divisions across a lesser known part of the Iron Curtain

Clare Griffiths on a fresh perspective of social and public history through the author’s personal investigation of her own genealogy

Roger Morgan lauds a biography charting Labour statesman’s rise from a colliery to the Cabinet

Giulia Miller writes on the weird backstory to a female superhero, from women’s suffrage to lie detectors

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

A potent study revisits familiar territory and gives new insights into tales for children, finds Shahidha Bari

Jane O’Grady on a debate between two philosophers, who offer elegant ‘solutions’

The folksy charm of these essays threatens to detract from the main argument, says Simon Underdown

Alex Danchev considers a history of a small but influential group of cultural ‘hijackers’

An examination of our bathroom habits is a little…constipated, finds Peter J. Smith

Fred Inglis salutes a big-hearted exploration of society’s obsession with youthfulness

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers

Philip Clarke asks whether ecological issues can be solved by studying aboriginal knowledge

Clare Brant on a form of writing that offers a unique insight into the private lives of women

Martin Cohen on a brief but powerful look at the history of avarice in society and what can be done to temper its more extreme elements