Kidnapping remains a lucrative business. Anja Shortland's new book examines how and where it thrives

‘Rights language gives less and less help in the resolution of conflicts’

Free trade is not without costs — but those costs are outweighed by the benefits. And where costs exist, the answer to “open” is rarely “closed”

Willy Loman is back in town, still pursuing the American dream, while Ibsen’s unhappy ghosts return too

‘It is odd that wealth and position should play a part in Tory leadership considerations —but again they surely will’

The lives of Southern Irish Protestants are almost invisible to external observers. A new book of essays sets out to reveal something of them

Imperialism has been a fact of historical life, at all times and throughout the world. So why is the British variety singled out? Jeremy Black has raised his head above the parapet, not so much to defend the Empire as to ponder why it arouses such animosity

Jonathan Rée’s history of philosophy is way too long but worth sticking with for the connections it makes across whole networks of thought

President Ramaphosa has won the election but his position is fragile: South Africa faces poverty, inequality and corruption almost entirely self-inflicted by the ruling ANC

The three lives of Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus