PETER MASON applauds the revival, 39 years later with the same team and cast, of Manfred Karge’s version of Brecht’s 100-year-old play, Mann Ist Mann
Busting the myth of ‘manifest destiny’
CARLOS MARTINEZ recommends a book which ruthlessly exposes the concept of US exceptionalism
Founding-fathers fantasy: The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth by Jennie A Brownscombe
New releases from Biita Houdei, The Mary Wallopers, and The Tubs
New releases from Biita Houdei, The Mary Wallopers, and The Tubs
MAYER WAKEFIELD applauds a fearless attempt to bring to the stage the 1984 toxic gas disaster in Bhopal, India
ALEX HALL applauds the account of a dogged, traumatic and punishing campaign for justice that has lasted from 1998 to the present day
NICK WRIGHT laments the political bias of an epic attempt to tell the history of the liberation of France from the Nazis, that excludes both the decisive contribution of the Soviet Red Army, and of the French communist party itself
American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News, from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror
by Roberto Sirvent and Danny Haiphong
(Skyhorse, £19.99)
THIS important work of Marxist sociology and history relentlessly unpicks the foundational myths of the United States which, with their accompanying ideology of exceptionalism and innocence, act as a “cultural drug” that serves to pacify and deceive the masses.
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JOE GILL traces the ideology and method of contemporary imperialism back to the greed, hubris and violence of the late 15th century Portuguese
RON JACOBS welcomes the political lessons for today, about organisation and withdrawal from conflict, made by an erudite and conversational biography
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
ELLIS RAE recommends a stunning history of the active role played by the British monarchy in establishing and profiting from slavery