CATHERINE STEEL relishes a compelling novel about Augustus’s right hand man, but misses the politics, the cultural shifts, and more detail about his restoration of Rome
The Levellers’ Revolution by John Rees (Verso Books, £25)
THE ELITE in most countries inculcate an ambivalent relationship with the revolutionary past.
But few go as far as the British in actually denying its existence and books still appear with titles like How Britain Never Had a Revolution.
SETH SANDRONSKY recommends a Marxist critique of the ‘race-first’ views of the influential black US theorist Cedric Robinson
As the US marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, the People’s World Editorial Collective argues that the real legacy of 1776 lies not in official celebrations but in centuries of popular struggles to make democracy a reality for all
CJ ATKINS commemorates one of the most dramatic moments in working-class history
The selection, analysis and interpretation of historical ‘facts’ always takes place within a paradigm, a model of how the world works. That’s why history is always a battleground, declares the Marx Memorial Library



