Gladstone · March 2026
Did Gladstone arrive in Corfu a conservative and leave a liberal?
Disraeli’s attempt to sideline Gladstone politically paradoxically catalyzed his shift to Liberalism.
March 15, 2026
All Essays
Disraeli · February 2026
Review: Edelman’s Disraeli in Love and Disraeli Rising, mismarketed as 1970s romance novels, died an unfortunate death
Amid the launch of the “bodice-ripper” and the rise of the Harlequin era, a campy but intelligent pair of historical novels got lost.
February 19, 2026
Wilson · January 2026
An aside: Byron and Shelley’s influence on Wilson and Gladstone
Woodrow Wilson worried genius marries badly, because of Shelley’s example. He was thinking of himself. His wife replied sarcastically: “the poor helpless men of genius are not utterly unprotected.”
January 31, 2026
Disraeli · January 2026
Turning Tory: Disraeli domesticates the scandalous Lord Byron in his novel Venetia
Disraeli wrote a novel about the long lost love of his hero Lord Byron. In doing so he positioned himself for a new role as a conservative, simultaneously rehabilitating and distancing himself from the poet. So why do so few critics mention Byron’s childhood sweetheart?
January 27, 2026
Disraeli · December 2025
Review: Disraeli’s Henrietta Temple is not biography, but it would be better if it was
A dandy politician-novelist in deep debt choosing an older married woman in 1837? Fascinating. Too bad that’s not the story Disraeli’s love novel tells.
December 21, 2025
Wilson · November 2025
The Scholar in Politics
Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were a new breed of college-educated politician. Looking back at a time with a tenor different from our own.
November 21, 2025