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“... Foden’s first two novels, The Last King of Scotland, about Idi Amin’s Uganda, and the Boer War-set Ladysmith, seemed, though far from flawless, almost effortlessly distinctive and intelligent; and while his third, the self-consciously terse, thrillerish Zanzibar, was less impressive, it is with Turbulence, his first book since his appointment as ...”

“... a series called ‘Literature in History’. In a writing career that almost spans the post-war period, he has established himself as this country’s leading critic within academic English of the very concept of ‘Literature’. So much so, that he would have preferred to see English Literature replaced as a core subject in our school and university ...”

“... pronounced. In Latour’s most recent work to appear in English, On the Emergence of an Ecological Class, written with Nikolaj Schultz and published after his death, ecology is more or less synonymous with environmental activism; you could even think of it as a programme. But not all his writing is so easy to follow. He can be perfectly clear as he leads you ...”

“... influence of Stalinist ideology in Soviet society. Stalin’s conception of progress through ‘class war’ captured the minds of a whole generation of people, barely literate and new to the city. It gave them black-and-white explanations of the confused world in which they lived, and goals in which to believe as a remedy for their poverty. Many of ...”

“... those of the soon-to-be-martyred priest Miguel Hidalgo at the beginning of Mexico’s 11-year war with Spain in 1810. It was an impressive piece of stagecraft, but the most memorable part of the night was the fireworks show, the rockets bursting from behind the cathedral and filling the sky as if the city itself were in flames. Calderón’s big bash ...”

“... Ripka, the Czech journalist. Connections helped, of course: her background was remorselessly upper-class – her mother had 72 first cousins, one of whom was Clementine Churchill. Ambassadors recognised their own kind and provided time and invitations. Nevertheless, she must have been a remarkable girl: idealistic, high-minded and convinced – naively but ...”

“... Halfway​ between the end of the Second World War and the present, the 1984-85 miners’ strike marks a dividing line in Britain’s recent history. Before the strike, the country was characterised by comparative egalitarianism, the (relative) power and legitimacy of organised labour, and an industrial economy in which state industries played a prominent role ...”

“... which killed him in 1962. Hamilton was born in Hassocks in 1904 into a typically reputable middle-class family. His father was an alcoholic and an atrocious novelist; his brother Bruce raised the familial tone by being merely a hard boozer and a third-rate writer; his mother committed suicide. Patrick himself broke with bourgeois respectability, plunging ...”

“... house was heated by coal and lit by gas, because when she and her husband came back after World War Two, the landlord told them the whole street was going to be demolished in six months and it wasn’t worth putting in electricity. And after her husband died she could never be bothered. During the war, when Mr A. was ...”

“... with cannons blazing, humiliating China and its technologically backward armies in the first Opium War. The country that Mao inherited was poor and economically devastated. Its situation compared to the major powers was arguably worse than it had been when the Europeans made their scramble for China a hundred years earlier. Mao knew this and had no intention ...”

“... that Hitler’s was Germany’s first genuine bourgeois revolution. So, perhaps it’s a matter of class?The reason, Martin-Heinz Douglas Freiherr von Bora, is that you are all that we’re striving to leave behind, the kind of Germany of lords and ladies and generals’ sons and estates … I’m not even sure you are fighting for the same Germany I’m ...”

“... Ross McKibbin’s remarkable study of the way the cultures of class shaped English society has, at a stroke, changed the historiographical landscape. One learns more about almost any aspect of English society by reading this book than one would by reading, for example, A.J.P. Taylor’s English History 1914-45 – which makes it indispensable for anyone studying the politics, sociology or history of English society ...”

“... some of those scarce resources which drove trade wars over the edge. Throughout the Second World War, Germany remained energy-starved. In 1943, the United States produced two-thirds of the world’s oil – to which Britain had unstinted though perilous access via the Atlantic convoys. The USSR produced another 10 per cent. By contrast, Germany controlled ...”

“... which few in affluent countries can claim innocence: The clouds and the stars didn’t wage this war the brooks gave no information if the mountain spewed stones of fire into the river it was not taking sides Your Native Land, Your Life (1986), in which those lines appear, also contained the best of her verse talismans on the theme ‘everything is ...”

“... of real unification. This November was different. There was still plenty to worry about – the war in Afghanistan dragged hopelessly on; the world’s financial economy was in ruins – but the Germans seemed not to mind. In Berlin this time, few people talked about betrayed hopes or the failures of free-market capitalism. Instead, they simply celebrated ...”