C20th experimental and idealistic collectives, including Santiniketan in Delhi, England's Dartington, Germany's Bruderhof. Their leaders were charismatics too - Tagore, Gurdjieff, et al - ... read more
In 1849 Garibaldi gave up the defence of Rome to the besieging French troops and made his way northwards with a few thousand volunteers; this is an earlier phase of the attempt at Italian li... read more
This is not the Alexandria in the Nile Delta, but rather Alexandria 'Beneath the Mountains', in Afghanistan, discovered by a wandering scholar and archaeologist called Charles Masson in 1833... read more
Traces Napoleon's accrual of the spoils of war: the negotiated, carefully targeted removal of Renaissance masterpieces including works by Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, as well as the ... read more
JR wrote a superb novel ('Kozlowski') about the Katyn massacre. This book uses the testimonies of survivors and investigators to understand how the effects of the massacre rippled on for de... read more
Interwar Cairo was raucous and cosmopolitan, its burgeoning counterculture pioneered by women - singers, dancers and actresses.
Publication of this book has been delayed under May 6th 202... read more
Alex Renton is a journalist and writer: he uncovers his own family's slave-owning past and uses this as a means of approaching the growing debate about such legacies and contemporary consequ... read more