Disraeli · May 2026
Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s ideational evolution
He pulls Disraeli left, then Disraeli pulls him right.
May 6, 2026
Posts
Gladstone · April 2026
I Did Not Mean It: Gladstone, Homer and a Second Chance at Providence
A 1,600-page study of Homer becomes a window into the statesman's private wrestling with fate, free will and progress.
April 14, 2026
Disraeli · March 2026
Review: Gore Vidal, inheritor of Disraeli’s tradition, painted a kind of political self-portrait in Julian
"You cannot be both a politician and a writer," Vidal said. But that didn’t stop him from trying.
March 29, 2026
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
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