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

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Sometimes, a single narrative comes to dominate how we remember a year. So it is with 1776. This, as every history lover knows, was the date that the American colonies declared their independence, beg

Ray Madoff The Second EstateHow the tax code made an Americanaristocracy192pp. Chicago University Press. £19 (US$25). Vanessa S. Williamson The Price of Democracy The revolutionary power of taxation i