Category: Reviews
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Book Review – The Earth Transformed by Peter Frankopan
Peter Frankopan’s The Earth Transformed explores the role of the climate across a vast span of history. Ailsa Fraser discusses the book and its contributions to environmental history.
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The History of Sex, Scandal and Society: Betwixt the Sheets with Kate Lister
In “Betwixt the Sheets”, historian Dr Kate Lister takes listeners on a journey of sex, scandal, and society throughout history, whilst tackling themes that are incredibly pertinent today. Naomi Wallace shares her review of the podcast.
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Six the Musical: A History Student’s Perspective
Six the Musical has been a smash hit since it first ran in 2017, but how does it hold up historically? Naomi Wallace analyses its portrayal of the six wives.
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‘Every baby needs a da-da-daddy’: Andrew Dominik’s Blonde
Georgia Smith explores themes of gender, sex, and the self in a review of the 2022 film “Blonde”, which tells a fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe’s life.
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Book Review – Parreñas, Rhacel. 2011. Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration, and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Rhacel Parreñas’ 2011 text, “Illicit Flirtations: Labor, Migration, and Sex Trafficking in Tokyo”, seeks to examine the misconceptions surrounding the Filipina hostesses of Japan whose livelihood came under global scrutiny through the US-led anti-trafficking campaign. Rosie Inwald discusses Parreñas’ work and the issues with a top-down perspective on the agency of these women.
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Book Review – Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence
R. F. Kuang’s 2022 novel, “Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence”, holds a critical lens to the British Empire, examining the atrocities perpetuated by academic institutions. Naomi Wallace discusses Kuang’s work which combines fantasy with a powerful critique of imperialism, set in nineteenth-century Oxford.
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Film Review – All Quiet on the Western Front (2022): A Gut-Wrenching Tale of War
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (2022) explores the brutality and trauma of war, following the life of a German soldier during WWI. Fleur O’Reilly reviews Edward Berger’s adaption of this classic work.
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Film Review – Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling: Tragedy and the Pursuit of Perfection
Olivia Wilde’s 2022 feature, “Don’t Worry Darling” blends the macabre and the glamorous against a background of 1950s America. Georgia Smith delves into Wilde’s world of seduction, tension, and Victory.
Retrospect Journal 