History
England
Who, my husband asked, expects every man will do his duty? He was responding to the interesting and important question…
The 100-year plot
To understand the real meaning of the EU, you must grasp that it originated in the first world war, rather than the second
America’s war on sleep
The relentless rise of ‘you snooze, you lose’
Trampling out the vintage
John Steinbeck (1902–1968), an ardent propagandist for the exploited underdogs of the Great Depression, had barely enough money for subsistence…
Home truths
Did Macmillan stitch up his succession – or did Iain Macleod’s famous Spectator piece, 50 years old this week, stitch up Macmillan?
Getting Nixon taped
Simpsons star Harry Shearer on what it takes to play the president
Notes on a scandal
I was ten when the Profumo affair began at my home, Cliveden. Andrew Lloyd Webber has captured some of the story – but not all
Eat, drink and be merry…
... for tomorrow traditional seasonal rituals may just be ghostly memories of a vanished world, says Melanie McDonagh
Dutch courage in the trenches
‘You have no idea,’ wrote the publisher Ralph Hodder-Williams in 1929 to one of his authors, what terrible offence Journey’s…
A shaggy dog story
Books become films every day of the week; more rarely does someone feel inspired to write a book after seeing…
It all began in 1963
If you’re looking for the year when the old England died, this was it
Jack all alone
Ten years ago, a determined historian transformed our picture of John F. Kennedy. Robert Dallek had finally got his hands…
Criminal damage
Anyone with a passing interest in old British buildings must get angry at the horrors inflicted on our town centres…
How to enrich your life
Among the precursors to this breezy little book are, in form, the likes of The Story of Art, Our Island…
For the fallen
We constantly need to be reminded that the consequence of war is death. In the case of the first world…
Sleeping with the enemy
Around 200 Englishwomen lived through the German Occupation of Paris. Nicholas Shakespeare’s aunt Priscilla was one. Men in the street…
Thinking outside the box
Everyone loves an anniversary and the crossword world — if there is such a thing — has been waiting a…
No country for old men
‘Is he a good writer? Is he pro-regime?’ an Iranian journalist in London once asked me of Hooman Majd. Majd…
Nationalist stirrings
Philip Hensher on how an impassioned, chaotic group of amateur 19th-century composers created the first distinctively Russian music
The baby and the bathwater
Mrs Christabel Russell, the heroine of Bevis Hillier’s sparkling book, was a very modern young woman. She had short blonde…
Market values
After reading Portobello Voices, I feel more strongly than ever that the unique Portobello market mustn’t be allowed to close.…
A rogues’ gallery
Hands up Spectator readers who can remember the American celebrities Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Al Capone, Jack Dempsey, Zane Grey,…
Beating Boney
We are accustomed to the thrill and glamour of the grands tableaux, but a nuts-and-bolts study of Napoleonic warfare makes for equally gripping reading, says David Crane
All together now
The Great War involved the civilian population like no previous conflict. ‘Men, women and children, factory, workshop and army —…
Garden of earthly delights
It was Hazlitt who said of Hogarth that his pictures ‘breathe a certain close, greasy, tavern air’, and the same…
