New York Times Book Review

Howard W. French’s ‘Born in Blackness: Africa, Africans, and the Making of the Modern World, 1471 to the Second World War

Laurence Bergreen’s ‘In Search of  a Kingdom: Francis Drake, Elizabeth I, and the Perilous Birth of the British Empire‘

Roger Crowley’s City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas

Hugh Thomas’s ‘World Without End: Spain, Philip II, and the First Global Empire’

Columns

America and the Wild West

The death of the High Street?

Trump and the Know Nothings

Volcanic Southern Italy

The semiotics of Peppa Pig

The remarkable journey of the lost Leonardo

The great Shakespeare authorship debate

How culture helped thaw the Cold War (and could help us today)

The cult of the English gentleman

Marco Polo and the new Silk Road

The new Victorians