“the idea that political projects such as nation-making can ever be totally successful is a misconception”

The history of Mexico is epic. There are the Maya and the Aztecs; the meeting of two continents, with Moctezuma and Cortés; a cry for independence led by a priest-turned-general; the loss of more than

TARIQUE RAHMAN HAS LOST HIS VOICE. THAT ISN’T IDEAL for the aspiring leader of Bangladesh, the South Asian nation of 175 million. It’s also tinged with irony since, as his homeland’s de facto oppositi

“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” Antonio Gramsci’s words, written in prison near Bari almost 100 years ago, ring out to us now. The politi

You wouldn’t guess from the cover design—three songbirds silhouetted over swatches of picturesque Englishness—but Catherine Clarke’s A History of England in 25 Poems hits one of its sweet spots with a

Imaobong D. Umoren Empire Without EndA new history of Britain and theCaribbean528pp. Vintage. £25. At the height of the British Empire, the idea that we needed to study the history of Britain’s coloni

The first thing to remind ourselves is that our view of the past is definitely shaped. The way that we understand history is translated, constructed, created for us in multiple ways – the majority of