The Barbary corsair ship appeared suddenly on the horizon, bristling with cannon. Its decks swarming with armed men, it sliced through the waves at a clip that its quarry – the British merchant ship A

Bernard Mandeville’s defence of private vices with public benefits

Did you know that Thomas Müntzer, leader of the German Peasants’ War in 1525, used a rainbow flag to rally his followers? It’s an aptly exuberant image for the radical charisma of Müntzer, and for the

When I last spoke with the historian Sudhir Hazareesingh we were talking about Black Spartacus, his prize-winning biography of the Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture. Now, we’re meeting again

Terrorism’s record of failure

Kerry James Marshall, ‘poised between narrative and allegory’