France
French Lessons in Liberty
Alexis de Tocqueville saw that 19th-century America combated individualism through the art of association. Are there lessons here for Cameron’s 21st-century Big Society?
All About Himself
La Carte et le Territoire by Michel Houellebecq
Mao’s Little Helpers
The Wind from the East: French Intellectuals, the Cultural Revolution, and the Legacy of the 1960s by Richard Wolin
The French Path of Most Resistance
Jean Moulin, the leader of the struggle against the Nazis, died in 1943. Now his aide’s memoirs have revived controversy
Gauche Ghosts
May ’68 was supposed to be the start of something new in France. But why did it all go so wrong?
Horse Power
Russia Against Napoleon by Dominic Lieven
Not Tonight, Pauline
Venus of Empire: The Life of Pauline Bonaparte by Flora Fraser
Paris: Prisoner of the Barbarians
‘In February 2007, a naked, emaciated, mutilated, charred and stabbed man is discovered near railway tracks in the Parisian suburb of Sainte Geneviève-des-Bois. He is taken to hospital where he is pronounced dead just before noon.’
The Dying of the Light
A German novelist reflects on his time working at a home for the mentally ill, and the moral dilemmas surrounding euthanasia that have shaped his writing life
Revolutionary Woman
Dancing to the Precipice: Lucie de la Tour du Pin and the French Revolution by Caroline Moorehead
The Brexit crunch approaches
Thorny issues remain unresolved as the transition period comes to a close. Yet the hurdles to a deal are not insurmountable
Meritocracy makes a new ruling class
Innovation has often come from hard work by unlettered people. But young progressives now seem to treat education as a proxy for virtue
Some black lives matter more than others
Black Lives Matter misses the point—we should highlight the progress we have made, not split society and trap ourselves in victimhood