The death of Venezuela’s longstanding and out outspoken Hugo Chávez has led academics and analysts including historians, to attempt to come to terms with how far the polarising president fulfilled the manifesto of his Bolívarian Revolution. The populist agenda of his administration amassed widespread support amongst the working classes. Vehement and widely publicised condemnations of Continue Reading
Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum at the British Museum
The British Museum’s Pompeii and Herculaneum exhibition opened to considerable fanfare at the end of March. A number of prime-time TV documentaries heralded its coming and the Mayor of London, no doubt enchanted with the subject he studied at university, waxed lyrical at the press opening. Neil MacGregor, Pontifex Maximus of the cultural establishment, had Continue Reading