Humanities

A major figure’s rise and fall reveals a gap between discourse and reality, Barbara Graziosi finds

This valuable work sheds light on the building of an ‘international sisterhood’ to further the struggle for women’s rights, says June Purvis

Amy Whitworth on a rich examination of philosophers’ ultimate sacrifice

Clare Griffiths on a well-researched book that reappraises the role of fathers in social history

The idea that there is too much going on in our lives is itself full of complexities, says Mary Evans

Victoria Harris relishes a clear-eyed study of the experiences of ordinary men called to serve

A network of ‘smart systems’ to make our lives easier must be greeted with caution, says John Gilbey

Ayesha Ahmad on a thoughtful contribution to a controversial debate

A.W. Purdue is impressed by a daring new interpretation of the Allied victory

Elizabeth Greene applauds this compelling examination of the American poet’s achievement

Richard Joyner on the dwindling role of German and Russian in the communication of research

Robert Mayhew on how geographical texts of the early 18th century preferred an aesthetic of the ‘exotic’ over accuracy

The first act in an entertaining study of gifted stage performers is the most powerful, says Lisa Hopkins

Donald M. MacRaild on an exploration of imperial expansion in the 17th century

Jane Shaw on a compelling study of how an American housewife’s visions of the Virgin Mary led to friction with the institutional Church

A sense of not belonging coloured an outsider’s journey to the avant-garde, learns Tracey Warr

A sensitive study of transgression breaks new ground for queer theory, says Rachel Moss

An detailed account of the bigger picture around the astronomer’s discoveries interests Robyn Arianrhod

Hester Vaizey is impressed by a collection of interviews with young victims of the purges

Robert Gellately on a study analysing the dictator’s perceptions

Ursula King on a profile of the many faces of Islam in one country

An eminent scholar’s sure-footed essays serve to take the temperature of the field, says Neil Gregor

This guide gets right to the heart of the virtues that make a scholar, Robert Eaglestone discovers

Laurence Coupe on an ambitious and challenging exploration of the ecology of the past

Jane Stabler on a fascinating account of the aristocrat-poet’s fame

John Barber on a powerful critique of Western policy

Sharon Wheeler relishes the detailed research in this true crime tale

An engaging account of an unruly city, but why so little on Empire, wonders Danny Dorling

Catarina Dutilh Novaes on an investigation of the merits and limits of rational debate

John Gilbey is fascinated by the unseen fibre-optic communications cables that gird the globe

Joanna Lewis on the assassination of the nation’s first democratically elected leader

Laurence Coupe relishes inspiring reflections on the natural world’s relationship with language

To ensure freedom and public trust, institutions must prioritise veracity, says Andrew Hadfield

Peter J. Smith on the literary giants who have drawn inspiration from their nocturnal perambulations

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones on the drama that formed and maintained Near Eastern civilisations

Biancamaria Fontana finds out how the telling of fibs went from being a sin to a social skill

The authors’ case for a cosmology in crisis is infinitely plausible, finds Jon Turney

Jelena Obradovic-Wochnik baulks at the questionable assertions in a polemic about traveller communities

A gripping pilgrimage towards a seminal period in the genesis of a literary classic, says Elizabeth Scala

Lynne Segal on one woman’s efforts to revitalise a political force

A German lawyer’s experience brings home the horrors of early Nazification, writes Hester Vaizey

Peter Wothers revels in a treasure trove of ‘wrong’ chemistry and great history

News of the death of the iconic disc has been greatly exaggerated, says Hillegonda C. Rietveld

Donald M. MacRaild on the English colonists’ determination to hold on to their identity in the New World

Robert Gellately on an examination of the role of the Wehrmacht leadership

Janet Sayers admires a detective-like tale of the psychoanalyst and her involvement with Jung and Freud

Sandeep Parmar on an elaborate account of one moment in Modernism

Call it a ‘hypercane’ or a ‘weather bomb’, we’re as much at its mercy as ever, writes Philip Hoare

There’s a piggy in the middle of this gripping tale of depilation, finds Emma Rees

Simon Underdown on the complicated process by which science replaced religion as means of explaining the world

Jane O’Grady on a survey of Sartre’s works and politics, and the contradictions they contained

Research tools have been revolutionised by the internet but, asks John Gilbey, are they reliable?

Andrew Blake on a study of politics and the arts in the New Labour era

Jonathan Mirsky on a revealing study about the roots of changes in sexual habits

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