Review
List of Review articles
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An aerial photo of a resort lit up at night. Chinese Exceptionalism Just Won’t Die
The idea of a special Chinese model rings increasingly hollow.
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The cover of the newspaper, the Evening Standard, is seen on a busy street in London. The Real Reason Britain Can’t Change
A new book accidentally puts forward a provocative thesis on the country’s entropy.
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A flower is seen in a broken window in a Ukraine building riddled with bullet holes. A Tale of Haunted Love Captures Wartime Ukraine
“Daybreak” is a nightmarish romance about the horrors of war.
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A woman frowns as she balances a bag of rice on her head. The bag is printed with the red stripes and blue field of stars of the American flag. How Haiti Became an Aid State
A new political history reveals the dark side of foreign assistance.
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A stadium full of people, most wearing red, wave Russian flags. Ukraine Isn’t Putin’s War—It’s Russia’s War
Jade McGlynn’s books paint an unsettling picture of ordinary Russians’ support for the invasion and occupation of Ukraine.
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A photo illustration of Sam Bankman-Fried surrounded by Bitcoin with a smirk on his face. The Crypto Con Years Aren’t Over Yet
Three books explore the failures of regulators—and sometimes journalists.
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A historic painting depicts Hong Kong harbor When Economics and Great-Power Foreign Policy Collide
Dale C. Copeland’s new history of commerce is magisterial—and prescient.
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A painting depicts the Burning of the Chateau d'Eau at the Palais-Royal of Paris with soldiers in the foreground and fire in the bulidings. Why Some Revolutions Fail to Make History
Europe’s tumultuous year of 1848 is often forgotten, but a new book argues that it could teach us a lot about politics today.
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Illustration with Frantz Fanon headshot and silhouettes of people holding signs on a green background What the World Got Wrong About Frantz Fanon
Fanon is a global anti-colonial icon, but he could never truly embody the revolution he supported.
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A scene from the TV show The Long Season shows three men sitting on a cushioned bench. And older man wearing a vest sits in the middle, and two younger men flank him, one smoking a cigarette and the other appearing to yawn. How Did This Brilliant Chinese Rust Belt Noir Get Made Under Xi?
“The Long Season” is the funniest, saddest show to come out of China.
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U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Korean Ambassador You Chan Yang sit next to each other at a table as they sign a treaty. Both wear suits in a historical photo. Why Middle Powers Can’t Pursue Grand Strategy
The U.S.-South Korea alliance perfectly illustrates the limits of independent action in an unstable world.
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Dozens of people carrying socialist signs with workers rights messages march in New York on May 1, 2018. Socialism Doesn’t Win American Elections
There’s no magic fix for Democrats at the ballot box.
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The book cover of Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA by Liza Mundy. What It’s Actually Like Being a Woman in the CIA
Ex-spy Valerie Plame on the “secret history” of women in the agency.
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A picture taken in December 1960, shows soldiers guarding Patrice Lumumba (R), Prime Minister of then Congo-Kinshasa, and Joseph Okito (L), vice-president of the Senate, upon their arrest in Leopoldville (now Kinshasa). A Cold War Killing That Still Haunts Congo
As Congolese citizens go to the polls, Stuart Reid’s ‘Lumumba Plot’ reminds the world of a crime that reshaped the country’s future.
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A grid collage shows photos of world leaders in profile, including Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and, former U.S. President Donald Trump. These photos are layered over an illustration of Julius Caesar in the background. The Original Authoritarian
A new book looks at how Julius Caesar’s legacy informs the strongmen of today.
