Julian Goodare reviews Karin Bowie’s book on the rising prominence and changing dynamics of Scottish opinion politics in the tumultuous period of Protestant reform and regal union.
Review Archives
The Press and the People: Cheap Print and Society in Scotland, 1500-1785
Laura Stewart reviews this first full-length study of cheap print in early modern Scotland, finding that it opens ‘rich new seams of material’, expanding our ‘understanding of Scottish society and culture in the pre-modern age’.
In the shadow of Enoch Powell: Race, locality and resistance
Over half a century ago, Enoch Powell made national headlines with his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, warning of an immigrant invasion in Wolverhampton. Shirin Hirsch’s book bring a rich local history focus to a key moment in British history; Saffron East reviews.
The Crisis of the Meritocracy
Before the Second World War, only about 20% of the population went to secondary school and barely 2% to university; today everyone goes to secondary school and half of all young people go to university. How did we get here from there? David Civil reviews a work that positions ‘education at the interface between the citizen and the post-war state’, exploring and questioning tension between meritocracy and democracy.
Four Nations Approaches to Modern ‘British’ History: A (Dis)united Kingdom
Sara Caputo reviews this edited volume, which ‘begins to tear down the disciplinary boundaries imposed by geographical specialisation’ and increase ‘dialogue and connection among historians of different areas’.
Sex, Law, and Sovereignty in French Algeria, 1830–1930
Charlotte Legg reviews an ‘exceptional contribution to historical understanding of the colonial legal regime’ in Algeria, which sets out to explain ‘how “the Muslim question” became a sexual question’.
Masculinity and Danger on the Eighteenth-Century Grand Tour
Michèle Cohen reviews ‘a provocative and fascinating book which asks fresh questions and offers ground breaking insights into the ever intriguing Grand Tour’.
Medieval Welsh Genealogy: An Introduction and Textual Study
Barry J. Lewis reviews this ‘in-depth investigation of the genealogies of medieval Wales’, judging it ‘a major contribution to a vital but neglected field’.
Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power
David A. Nichols reviews this ‘deeply researched and insightful’ study of ‘an expansive and enduring Indigenous regime that commanded human fates in the North American interior for generations’.
Early Modern Ecclesiastical Law and Consistory Courts
Jennifer McNabb reviews a monograph and two edited volumes that ‘expand our understanding of ecclesiastical justice and its impact on early modern people in meaningful ways’.