“... What Chakrabarty wants to do with ‘Europe’, then, is in some ways similar to what Edward Said did with the ‘Orient’: to fashion a subversive genealogy. But instead of Said’s relentless polemic, Chakrabarty’s book features critique and self-criticism in equal measure. For me, Chakrabarty has the ...”

“... correspondingly florid in its fears. When the time came for examples to be made, Jones, who had said too much in the presence of a shorthand-writing spy, was prominent among them, convicted on a handy recent law of sedition. He served two years in Tothill Fields, a couple of stones’ throws from the House of Commons that he had hoped to enter. Two ...”

“... old and new: ‘technology in use’ as opposed to an ‘innovation-centred’ history. We are said to be living in an age of unprecedented change; indeed, we have been told this in the popular media for the past century at least. Yet much of the technology that now surrounds us would have been clearly recognisable to previous generations. Edgerton ...”

“... to destruction in 1936-37. The crisis had three phases, of which the actual abdication of King Edward VIII was only the most visible. The monarchy had already been placed under acute strain by Edward’s unkingly conduct in the few months since his father’s death – his feckless hedonism, his dangerous political ...”

“... In Marlowe’s Edward II, the royal favourite Gaveston plans delicious entertainments which ‘may draw the pliant king which way I please’. He will introduce musicians to the court, ‘wanton poets’, Italian masques by night, and ‘pleasing shows’. Edward, walking abroad, is to encounter pages dressed as ‘sylvan nymphs’, and Sometime a lovely boy in Dian’s shape With hair that gilds the water as it glides, Crownets of pearl about his naked arms, And in his sportful hands an olive tree, To hide those parts which men delight to see, Shall bathe him in a spring ...”

“... in the foreground, rising from the grave with his ear trumpet, but you should also know that Edward Malone, his biographer, said that, were he alive, Reynolds would have subscribed to Miss Provis’s method. The flying, farting putto labelled ‘VENTUS MALONICUS’ now starts to make sense. The portfolios labelled ...”

“... ask him to explain the killing. His reply is indeed monstrous: ‘I killed her because I could, I said, what more can I say?’ And he adds: ‘We were all startled by that, I as much as they.’ It is this perception that nothing can be said that will explain, excuse, or even condemn, that subverts ordinary notions of ...”

“... preconceptions about languor, effeminacy and debauch emphasised in the commentaries excoriated by Edward Said – that tendency doesn’t emerge until a good two hundred years later. But Lorck was certainly set on finding out what he could, even if he avoids voyeurism, and voyeurism’s Orientalist obverse, condescension. His Turkish drawings include a ...”

“... his dismal performance at the battle of Saintes in 1242, his bitterest enemy, Simon de Montfort, said to his face: ‘It would be a good thing if you were taken and shut away, as was done to Charles the Simple. There are houses with iron bars at Windsor that would be good for imprisoning you securely.’Henry was also affectionate by nature and incurably ...”

“... Murdoch in 1939, have to do with his execution? In E.P.’s account, this question looms large (Edward had joined the party in 1942 before being called up). He believes the answer is yes and argues that while Frank was in Bulgaria decisions were being made in Whitehall that were no less prejudicial to the mission than Dimitrov’s instructions from ...”

“... characteristic gesture.) However, he has to face up to the fact that he quite likes what Kissinger said. ‘Hardest of all, as one becomes older, is to accept that sapient remarks can be drawn from the most unwelcome or seemingly improbable sources, and that the apparently more trustworthy sources can lead one astray.’ So Schmitt can’t be entirely ...”

“... Who recalls who wrote it, or the England that it called out to? The author of the hymn was Edward Carpenter (1844-1929), the dimly remembered socialist, vegetarian, mystic and sandal-wearer. Carpenter is slowly being dragged back into the present by a variety of interests and pressures, the most obvious being the campaign for homosexual rights and the ...”

“... Horne talks about the three hundred thousand which have already been devoted to this one man, but Edward Whitcomb brings about a substantial (and welcome) reduction by referring only to some two hundred thousand. David Chandler explains that ever since he wrote his excellent book on the campaigns of Napoleon ten years ago, he has been inundated by requests ...”

“... in women ‘a passion for a mysterious Race of black Enchanters: such as of old were said to creep into Houses, and lead captive silly Women’. It’s significant, in the history of East-West relations, that Shaftesbury could only understand the alien bogeys in terms of beliefs rather closer to home than Baghdad or Cairo.Another reason the work ...”

“... no genetic connection with the old royal dynasty at all, though his sister was the wife of King Edward. William’s dynastic connection was actually slightly stronger, since he was the son of King Edward’s first cousin, but they were only maternal cousins (William’s grandfather was the brother of ...”