Such folie de grandeur is not a Trumpian aberration but a longstanding American habit. The US has long treated geography as something between a suggestion and a shopping list. (£) www.thetimes.com/culture/book... By @pratinavanil.bsky.social

‘Despite Gandhi’s obsession with national unity, at the time of her death India was more unstable, more violent and more divided than at any moment since Partition.’ @pratinavanil.bsky.social on Indira Gandhi. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

ако ви е интересен този брутален период от съвременната история на Индия, "Крехко равновесие" от Рохинтън Мистри е безстрашен и много увлекателен роман по темата, преведен абсолютно великолепно от @vilervale.bsky.social

"The steelmaker, hotelier and airline mogul J.R.D. Tata praised Gandhi’s ‘refreshingly pragmatic’ approach: the trains ran on time, strikes ceased, markets rose. Two thousand union leaders were imprisoned and wages were frozen."

‘In the name of “beautification” and “family planning”, during the Emergency Gandhi mère et fils bulldozed thousands of slums and sent eleven million Indians to sterilisation camps. That was one way of getting rid of 𝘨𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘪.’ @pratinavanil.bsky.social on Indira Gandhi. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘For all the admirers who queue at the Indira Gandhi Memorial museum to pay homage to the blood-stained sari she wore on the day of her assassination, the taint of corruption still clings.’ @pratinavanil.bsky.social on Gandhi and her legacy. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘Being underestimated​ was Indira Gandhi’s chief political asset. The Congress elders who helped her become India’s third prime minister imagined that they were installing a pliable cipher. Within a few years she had defenestrated the lot of them.’ Pratinav Anil: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

The Times on Saturday 31st July 1976, printed that year's Oxford Modern History class list on p. 14. Is it the man himself or someone else w. the same surname? Well, the other details--initials, school, college, & degree subject--match up with what's reported on his Wiki page, so I think it's him.

Read a free extract from ‘A Historian in Gaza’ ➡️ tinyurl.com/tm4vhnsj

French historian of Gaza, Jean-Pierre Filiu offers an ‘An unflinching eyewitness account of the destruction wreaked by Israel, with Anglo-American support. Look no further for an impartial account of the tragedy of the Palestinians.’ @pratinavanil.bsky.social @theguardian.com ‘Book of the Year’

Typically thoughtful review of some of this year’s history books by @pratinavanil.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

Thrilled to see @pratinavanil has highlighted @pratinavanil.bsky.social 'A Historian in Gaza' in the Guardian round-up of 'Best History and Politics Books of 2025'. Get your copy at 50% off during our holiday sale, offer ends December 9th. 🇵🇸 ➡️ www.hurstpublishers.com/profile/jean...

“Formidable female novelists, ghastly literary men, a faith-shaken poet, eunuchs, pirates, horny wolves, international terrorists…" It's been great fun to judge this prize ... and here are the six finalists ... www.thebailliegiffordprize.co.uk/inside-the-c...

Forget Wilberforce — violent resistance killed off slavery I enjoyed Sudhir Hazareesingh’s account of how black resistance led to abolition. My latest for @thetimes.com: www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

'Welcome to my last four years.' A search for accountability and a full, detailed explanation for Martha's death . . . www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

'Sam Dalrymple’s Gandhi is no saint, but a character who became progressively unhinged.' Pratinav Anil on the reordering of India and its neighbours

Review of The Story Of CO2 Is The Story Of Everything that is as pithily well written as the book itself : “Like life, death can be viewed unsentimentally as a slow unspooling into water and carbon dioxide” www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

On carbon dioxide, climate change, and capitalism. My latest for @thetimes.com: www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Another pan of the book: TCW has "marooned himself on an island of vacuity." I know a little about publishing industry lag but a "summer of 2020 was CRAZY" book amid the summer of Alligator Alcatraz... yeah man maybe shoulda sent the draft in sooner. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

I read a superb new history of Carthage by Eve MacDonald - a finer cicerone than Flaubert - for @thetimes.com. My lead review today: www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

OMG this review. Read it to the kicker. www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

I enjoyed this slogging more than — or perhaps exactly as much as — I should. “Williams’s grand subject being himself, now we have a third memoir. Summer of Our Discontent takes a caustic look at BLM from the lofty vantage point of his Parisian garret.” www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

Spot the fuck on: “Fixated on slagging off the left, he has marooned himself on an island of vacuity.” www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

what is great about this review is that the author is clearly sympathetic to the premise but can’t get past the basic fact that the author is a vacuous fool www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

‘His homeland, he says, is a “society that is frankly more democratic, multi-ethnic, and egalitarian than any other in recorded history”. The Gini coefficient and Democracy Index beg to differ.’

"Fixated on slagging off the left, [Williams] has marooned himself on an island of vacuity." Ouch.

“Williams’s grand subject being himself, now we have a third memoir. Summer of Our Discontent takes a caustic look at Black Lives Matter from the lofty vantage point of his Parisian garret.” Damn

the other reason i like this review is it confirms that i’m not the only person who has read this dude’s work and thought, “him? really?”

this made me cackle

This is Kendrick Lamar level takedown, good lord.

"Excelling in sending up bien-pensant opinion, he has no answers. Fixated on slagging off the left, he has marooned himself on an island of vacuity." Summer of Our Discontent by Thomas Chatterton Williams review – the liberal who hates leftists www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

I enjoyed reading this acute review because, honestly, you could not pay me enough to make me read the actual book.

A richly deserved, & precisely executed, pan.

“Williams’s other objections appear to be mostly aesthetic. Visiting BLM-ravaged Portland, he mourns that “a beloved statue of an elk has been toppled”. This in a town with a “well-deserved reputation” for “exquisite gastronomy”. Quelle horreur.”

I read Thomas Chatterton Williams' new BLM memoir for @guardianbooks.bsky.social and wasn't particularly impressed: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/j...

🇮🇳 📚This month marks the 50th anniversary of Indira Gandhi’s declaration of the ‘Emergency.' Now in pb, read ‘The best & most comprehensive book on the Emergency.’ @bsindia.bsky.social by‪ @jaffrelot.bsky.social‬ & @pratinavanil.bsky.social 25% off w/code DICTATORSHIP25 ➡️: tinyurl.com/38ff6dh6

Glorious Failure reviewed by @pratinavanil.bsky.social for the Literary Review. Publication date is June 26th :) @hurstpublishers.bsky.social literaryreview.co.uk/from-paris-t...

Full-page review in the Sunday Times culture supplement today. “a cheerfully eccentric introduction to London clubland...enormously entertaining...There’s a great deal of practical information here as well...Thévoz makes a persuasive case as to why you should join one.”

India’s new iconoclasts | @pratinavanil.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/essays/india...

Severed heads, petrified penises, revolting peasants ... a very entertaining review by @pratinavanil.bsky.social in today's @thetimes.com #History thetimes.com/culture/book...

This septic isle My latest, on pox and proles in 14th-century England, for @thetimes.com: This septic isle — England in the calamitous 14th century www.thetimes.com/article/0ca8...

Religious tensions have often underpinned the ongoing discord between India and Pakistan. ‘Another India’ by @pratinavanil.bsky.social reveals the history of Muslims in India post-independence. 'Essential reading' - @litreview.bsky.social ➡️ tinyurl.com/325ts9yz

Fascinating review by @pratinavanil.bsky.social of a new Mark Twain biography. I had no idea he had an “Aquarium Club” of “Angelfish” (10 to 16-year-old girls) who he used to dote on in letters and in person www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

On Mark Twain for @thetimes.com: www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

On the Mitteleuropean migrants who made Britain. My latest for the @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

🇮🇳📚 Early stock alert! Now available in pb, order @pratinavanil.bsky.social sky.social's Another India at 25% discount w/code ANIL25 here ➡️ tinyurl.com/ykvyu3cm ‘Successfully punctures the myth that the secularism of Nehru’s India was a golden age for Indian Muslims.’ @thespectator1828.bsky.social

Honoured and thrilled in equal measure to be a judge on this year's @BGPrize

'Taylor, belongs to that rare class of writers who can effortlessly encompass both scientific arcana and intellectual currents. There are some deliciously provocative passages in this book' @pratinavanil.bsky.social reviews Impossible Monsters @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/books/2024/m...

Don't apply for the position of royal harem manager Some advice on negotiating the job market in 16th-century Istanbul My lead review in @thetimes.com: www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Sue Prideaux ‘is one of the finest biographers working today. She also has a feel for place: life in Polynesia was tough’ @pratinavanil.bsky.social reviews Wild Thing (@faberbooks.bsky.social) in @thetimes.com www.thetimes.com/culture/book...