Jacobs, Steven Leonard, A Short History of Judaism and the Jewish People (London: Bloomsbury, 2024), 235 pp. RRP £14.99 ISBN: 9781350236462 Darkness o’ershadow’d Israel all, Woe, and death, and lamentation; The Heathen walk’d on Sion’s wall, The Temple all was desolation; A dumb demoniac shape of stone Was...

In August 2023, I had the privilege of staying in the city of Fortaleza in the state of Ceará, Brazil, with two very close friends, Leandro and Washington. I’d been to Brazil before and I have visited many places there including Rio de Janeiro (usually the first stop in Brazil for anyone going from Europe to Brazil) as well as Belo Horizonte (where...

“There is one great resource which I trust will never abandon us, and which has shone forth in the English character, by which we have preserved our existence and fame as a nation, which I trust we shall be determined never to abandon under any extremity, but shall join hand and heart in the solemn pledge that is proposed to us, and declare to His...

Fair VENUS holds up the contrary Theam Affected to the Lusitanian-Nation, For the much likeness she observ’d in Them To her old ROME, for which she had such passion, In their great hearts, in the propitious beam Of their to-AFFRICK-fatal constellation, And in the charming musick of their Tongue, Which...

In sunny clime behold an Empire rise, Fair as its oceans, glorious as its skies! ‘Mid seas serene of mild Pacific smiles— Republic of vast federated isles —Ernest Jones, ‘The New World: A Democratic Poem’ (1850) Introduction The London Journal remarked in 1877 that ‘there has not elapsed, within...

A lot of work goes into writing essays on this site and I thoroughly enjoy it. I’m currently working an essay on Victor Hugo’s Notre Dame de Paris (1831) which will, when finished, I predict, total more than 6,000 words. Indeed, the average word count for a single essay now goes up to at least 5,000 words (such was the case with my essay on Juana...