Britain at the Turning Point

Britain at the Turning Point

Advance Britannia: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1942-1945 By Alan Allport. Knopf, 2026. Hardcover, 656 pages, $40. Reviewed by John P. Rossi. Advance Britannia is the second volume of Alan Allport’s history of Britain’s role in World War II. The first...
Geopolitics and the Making of the Modern World

Geopolitics and the Making of the Modern World

The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars and the Making of the Modern World By Hal Brands. W.W. Norton, 2025. Hardcover, 320 pages, $29.99. Reviewed by John P. Rossi. Hal Brands, author of a handful of books on foreign policy and a professor at Johns Hopkins (as well...
The Dangers of Modern Nationalism

The Dangers of Modern Nationalism

A Generation of Materialism, 1871-1900 By Carlton J. H. Hayes. Harper Collins, 1941. Reviewed by John Rossi. When I started teaching an introductory European History course over 60 years ago, I chose as my textbook Carlton Hayes’s two volume A Political and Cultural...
The Last European

The Last European

The World of Yesterday: Memoirs of a European By Stefan Zweig. Viking Press, 1943 (English Translation). Reviewed by John P. Rossi. On February 23, 1942, while Axis forces were triumphing everywhere—the Japanese overrunning the Philippines, the British withdrawing...
The Definitive Guide to the Irish in the Modern World

The Definitive Guide to the Irish in the Modern World

On Every Tide: The Making and Remaking of the Irish World By Sean Connolly. Basic Books, 2022. Hardcover, 528 pp. $35. Reviewed by John P. Rossi.  Writing about the Irish diaspora, especially as it relates to those Irish who emigrated to the United States, has...