The Writers’ Castle: Reporting History at Nuremberg
By Uwe Neumhar
Pushkin Press
The Nuremburg trials witnessed 23 of the biggest criminals of the Nazi regime. More than 200 correspondents from around the world covered the trials and “witnessed history at the very moment it was being written” (Walter Cronkite). Much to their annoyance many of the journalists were housed in a bomb-torn castle. They slept in rooms with up to 10 beds, not a satisfactory arrangement for some of the world’s star reporters accustomed to extravagant lifestyles. Tensions were high and mutual mistrust between Soviet and western correspondents ensured they never got too close to each other. The Nuremburg trials did not just change the lives of those who witnessed them, they also altered the very way they wrote. This report is rich in historical detail and anecdote. Owen Dawson
Poor Artists
By Gabrielle de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad
Particular Books, £20
The White Pube is the collaborative identity of UK-based art critics Gabriella de la Puente and Zarina Muhammad. Those familiar with the art critic duo can expect their usual irreverent, anti-establishment provocations of the “pale, male, stale art establishment”. In this book we follow fictional artist Quest Talukdar as she struggles through the moral and economic quandaries of the contemporary art “industry”. In typically unorthodox fashion, the dialogue in the book is drawn from anonymised interviews with folk including a knight, a Turner Prize winner and a communist messiah. Because, of course, only surrealism can capture the absurdity of creating and living off art under capitalism. What results is a thought-provoking read that at times veers too far into polemic. Brigid O’Dea
The War Against the Past: Why the West Must Fight for its History
By Frank Furedi
Polity, £25
Furedi declares his hypothesis early in his introduction: “Culture warriors have, in effect, opened up a second front to gain mastery over how the past is viewed.” You can take it for granted that Furedi is not aiming to convert readers of a centrist or centre-left mindset. His arguments contain ample references to culture wars, wokeism, decolonisation and something he calls “grievance archaeology”, pinning his colours firmly to the mast. In making his argument that the current “re-writing” of history through the lens of contemporary western sensibilities “nullifies” the past, Furedi employs emotionally charged, incendiary phrases that are familiar in today’s extremist political discourse. Claire Looby
