Simple isn't always best Simon Barton is disappointed by a lopsided, broad-brush tale of Dark Ages Muslim-Christian clashes 8 May
Asking questions of the quotidian Ian Patterson wishes a study built around writers' day-to-day concerns wasn't quite so workaday 8 May
The book of the week: Jerusalem: City of Longing Bernard Wasserstein on Royal David's Divided Dity 8 May
Pithy, polemical and paradoxical Nick Prior finds plenty to think about in a new translation of one of Pierre Bourdieu's last works 8 May
Betting on the seeds of change Jules Pretty weighs up the arguments for GMO solutions to Africa's continuing agricultural crisis 1 May
A global shortage of solutions John Whitelegg on a review of current economic challenges that overpromises and underdelivers 1 May
The quest for a new New Deal Howard Davies appraises the sound economic and political sense behind Paul Krugman's latest work 24 April
A human among the immortals Christopher Eyre on an attempt to enliven a history of the pharaonic era with an ordinary girl's life story 24 April
The Book of the Week: Pacifism and English Literature: Minstrels of Peace Catherine Belsey writes on the futility of war 17 April
Palmistry's digital analogue Chris McManus considers claims that finger-length ratios point to individual and sex differences 17 April
In defence of the final human right A review of euthanasia and end-of-life issues may help to spur legislative change, says Julie Stone 17 April
The book of the week: The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History June Purvis on the mother of all resources 10 April
Bad teeth and shrewd politics Paul T. Nicholson on a lucid summary of the Queen of the Nile's historical context and eternal allure 10 April
Fighting words, in all their glory Simon Blackburn revels in a trawl through our rich and varied tradition of ad hominem attacks 10 April
Theory through the prism of a life A thinker who had no truck with biography is well served by this moving portrait, says Chris Thornhill 10 April
The Book of the Week: Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle between East and West Tom Palaima on a long, bloody clash of cultures 3 April
The Cult of Statistical Significance: How the Standard Error Costs Us Jobs, Justice, and Lives Steve Fuller on Deirdre McCloskey's ongoing struggle against economists' fetishisation of data 3 April
