‘The most unliberated women in the world’? Carmen M. Mangion complicates the view of Catholic communities out of touch with the modern world, looking at Catholic sisters living at the heart of the turbulent 1960s. Grace Heaton reviews.
Review Archives
Empire and epidemic
Amina Marzouk Chouchene looks at two histories of imperial policy and colonial reactions and where they intersect.
The Imposteress Rabbit Breeder: Mary Toft and Eighteenth-Century England
In the harvest season of 1726, Mary Toft was found to have given birth to 17 rabbits in Godalming, Surrey. Sarah Fox reviews a highly personal story that charts huge social and cultural changes in English history.
How the Old World Ended: The Anglo-Dutch-American Revolution 1500-1800
Tim Hasker reviews this expansive look at how the intertwining of Anglo-Dutch-American politics, economics, and religion laid the unlikely foundations for the Industrial Revolution.
The Grim Years: Settling South Carolina, 1670–1720
Bradford J. Wood reviews this narrative of neglected histories, tracing the graphic story of South Carolina’s tumultuous beginnings.
Colonial Ecology, Atlantic Economy: Transforming Nature in Early New England
Rachel Winchcombe reviews a significant contribution to the ecological history of early modern America, compellingly grounded in the mundanity of everyday life.
Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean 1800-1850: Stammering the Nation
Michalis Sotiropoulos reviews this “testament to the bigness of small stories”, which proposes different genealogies for the history of nationalism, liberalism, revolution, and modernity.
Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day
Brian Girvin reviews a welcome and original study on how difficult it is to secure democracy.
Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America
Angela F. Murphy reviews an accessible, scholarly telling of the life of the enslaved Henrietta Wood; a study which connects with current discussions of reparations and the legacy of slavery in the US.
A Convert’s Tale: Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy
Allegra Baggio Corradi reviews this full-colour portrait of the equally raw and embellished life of a prominent Jewish Renaissance artist who, charged with a scandalous crime, renounced his faith.