“... But he never shows why such claims are necessary for Foucault’s specific projects. Even Donald Davidson, on whose views Norris relies extensively in arguing against relativism, insists that we cannot recognise a conceptual framework or tradition unless we are in broad agreement with most of its elements. Davidson’s view, therefore, explicitly ...”

“... which to receive Anthony Blunt. The new prefatory statement is interesting in itself, and throws light on the already existing material. Rebecca West collects traitors. Through four decades she has pinned down a startlingly large number of them. The genus has several species: scientific traitor, diplomatic traitor and so on. West is reminded of the course of ...”

“... 19th-century administrations actually operated. The 1868-74 Cabinet emerges in a rather different light from that in which it has traditionally been seen by historians. As Dr Matthew points out in his perceptive introduction to the two volumes, it had more in common with the style of the 18th century than the 20th century. We may in retrospect regard 1868 as ...”

“... We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedoms.’ The Donald may be no Adolf, but he sings the same Song of the Will. After the worst of wars, there has to be a winding down, a settlement of outstanding grievances, insisted on, whether brutally or charitably, by the victors, and resisted or grudgingly accepted by ...”

“... documents in the fireplaces; French civilians wandered around looking for goods and paper to light their own fires. The ‘countless agencies normally attached to a regular T-Force’ had, he said, ‘more or less gone wild’. Each of them ‘bagged material for itself in the “first come, first served” manner … As a result, most of the targets ...”

“... a £3 fee. Facebook is understood to have had a significant influence on the votes for Brexit and Donald Trump the following year.TikTok and other platforms were instrumental both in spreading outrage at the killing of George Floyd in May 2020 and in mobilising the vast Black Lives Matter protests that assembled in response that summer. But as Paul Gilroy ...”

“... spoke too of a mistake – his own, which is at least some advance on Mosley’s disembarrassment. Donald Davie has spoken for Pound: ‘To take only the most blatant and damaging of the charges, his anti-Semitism, should we not respect him for admitting, however belatedly, “the worst mistake I made was that stupid, suburban prejudice of anti-Semitism”? It ...”

“... of agrarian protest is continued in two new contributions to the lively debate on the Land League. Donald Jorden joins in a key issue of that debate – the nature and limitations of the class alliance involved in what is another local study (despite its title), of Mayo. His economic/demographic analysis of the county in core-periphery terms is impressive, as ...”

“... American scholarship and money, this particular millennium construction would not have seen the light of day for many years. Louis has not produced an encyclopedia. Anyone searching for information about events in specific countries, or on the origins of current crises, would be seriously disappointed. Only Ireland gets a decent showing over the centuries ...”

“... She wore a baseball cap and an aid-worker apron with the Kreyòl translation of ‘Many hands make light work’ printed on it. Gaining entry at the US’s southwest border has become incredibly complicated. Each of the 48 crossing posts has its own rules, which change often and are arbitrarily enforced. The language – not only around immigration law and ...”

“... I want to know why we, like upside-down sunflowers, turn to the dark side rather than the light.Rachael Berdach,The Emperor, the Sages and Death (1938)What​ is left of the inner life when the world turns more cruel, or appears to turn more cruel, than ever before? When it reels from inflicted blows – pandemic, war, starvation, climate devastation or all these together – what happens to the fabric of the mind? Is its only option defensive – to batten down the hatches, to haul up the drawbridge, or simply to survive? And does that leave room to grieve, not just for those who have been lost, but for the broken pieces and muddled fragments that make us who we are? Barely six months after the outbreak of the First World War, on Christmas Day 1914, Freud wrote to Ernest Jones to lament that the psychoanalytic movement ‘is now perishing in the strife of nations’ (the two men were on opposite sides in the war ...”

“... provides testimony which brings out its susceptibility to romantic and dualistic interpretation. Donald Davie has written lately in this journal: ‘Great poetry is greatly sane, greatly lucid; and insanity is as much a calamity for poets and for poetry as for other human beings and other sorts of human business.’ These are impressive words. But of course ...”

“... ironed out by the time of the European Commission meeting last March, Brexit news has mostly been light relief in the Bulgarian press. Westminster and Brussels feel very far away, even though it’s predicted that a third of Bulgarian businesses will lose out after the UK’s departure, and that the price of imported cars and medicine will rise ...”

“... been excavated. It’s a mistake. Walking through these tall narrow chambers, none with natural light and few with more than the faintest fresco, I feel it’s no more inspiring than a tour round a 19th-century municipal gasworks, which it undoubtedly resembles. Most of the party wear headphones and follow the cassette guide and so become dull and bovine in ...”

“... Burglary in Pangbourne I attended once where they done it halfway up the wall in an 18th-century light fitting. Any other sphere and they’d have got the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.’ ‘You’ve perhaps not noticed,’ Mr Ransome said grimly, ‘but we don’t have any light fittings.’ ‘Another one in Guildford did ...”