Many apologies for bragging about having overcome our technical problems, then not being able to send the email, then sending two emails…as Julian Cope used to say halfway through some shambolic concert: ‘My inner soundtrack is telling me – be more professional!’
So, without further ado, and with an air of calm competency – here are the reviews.
We begin with Elena Woodacre’s The Queens Regnant of Navarre: Succession, Politics and Partnership 1274-1512. Michelle Armstrong-Partida and the author discuss a survey of five queens and their strategies for ruling which offers much to the study of queenship (no. 1598, with response here).
Then we turn to Empire, Migration and Identity in the British World, edited by Kent Fedorowich and Andrew S. Thompson. Esme Cleall finds plenty of rich and exciting material in a collection which is a useful addition to the existing scholarship (no. 1597).
Next up is James Thompson’s British Political Culture and the Idea of ‘Public Opinion’, 1867-1914, and Ben Weinstein believes that although some might be put off by the absence of a uniform, linear narrative, this book’s complexity is a source of great strength (no. 1596).
Finally Jonathan Waterlow reviews Moscow 1937 by Karl Schlögel, a book which skips like a stone across the water: we rarely go beneath the surface level, but the trajectory of travel is undeniably compelling (no. 1595).