Bismarck

Israel’s Iron Prime Minister

5 October 2024 9:00 am

At home, the left sees him as cynical, conniving and corrupt; while the right sees him as tired, weak and…

Whitewashing Bismarck just won’t wash

16 January 2021 9:00 am

The reviewer’s first duty is to declare any skin he may have in the game, so here goes: I write…

London calling

28 October 2017 9:00 am

Madame Monet was bored. Wouldn’t you have been? Exiled to London in the bad, cold winter of 1870–71. In rented…

The Emperor Maximilian I by Bernhard Strigel

The Holy Roman Empire has been much maligned

23 January 2016 9:00 am

The Holy Roman Empire has been much maligned over the centuries. In fact it worked remarkably well, says Jonathan Steinberg

Portrait of Lord Dufferin, 1893

The first Lord Dufferin: the eclipse of a most eminent Victorian

28 February 2015 9:00 am

The first Marquess of Dufferin and Ava is largely forgotten today — rotten luck for the great diplomat of the…