Robert Shiels

Robert Shiels reviews a book that sheds light on personalities who shaped 21st-century Russia. With the end of Soviet Russia, there was little in the way of precedent or planning for the political class to follow in the move to a new society and economy. A socialist state does not plan for its own d

Robert Shiels reviews a new book on one of the UK's best-known spying scandals. There is an aphorism along the lines of history is past politics and present politics is future history, and that might well be a suitable introduction to a new book on the Spycatcher affair.

Robert Shiels reviews a new book on the psychology of killing with drones. Remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) were used initially for surveillance but, increasingly and cost-effectively, are of value when armed with guided weapons for precise targeting.

The monograph The Signature in Law: From the Thirteenth Century to the Facsimile explores the judicial development of the concept of the signature from the 13th century to the age of the facsimile transmission and telex — that is, down to 1990. The concept of the signature is considered in its

Robert Shiels reviews Why War?, a new book by British historian Richard Overy.

Robert Shiels reviews Operation Morthor: The Last Great Mystery of the Cold War. On 18 September 1961, a plane transporting Dag Hammarskjöld, then the secretary-general of the United Nations, flew across the Congo on a long route to avoid a vast area that had seceded from the main part of the c

Scottish lawyer Robert Shiels reviews a book on the life of Roger Casement. How do you present a biography of a person in a different age who travelled the world and attained great fame? Any such subject would test even an experienced writer and Sir Roger Casement more so.

Robert Shiels reviews Warriors, Rebels and Saints: The Art of Leadership from Machiavelli to Malcolm X. A simple question: do leaders make history, or does history make leaders? Seeking an answer formed the basis of a course by the author on leaders and leadership in history at Harvard University.

The Cleveland Torso Murderer, also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, was an unidentified serial killer who was active in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1930s. In parenthesis, it should be acknowledged immediately that these sorts of designations assume that there is one responsible person but that

Robert Shiels reviews an account of Manchester United's "glory years" by the club's lawyer. It is rather sad that the manuscript for this book was completed by its author, Maurice Watkins, a solicitor to and director of Manchester United, shortly before his death in 2021.

Robert Shiels commends a new biography of the comic genius who fell victim to the USA's post-war red scare. This attractively produced book, with many photographs, is a social, political and cultural history of a crucial period in the life of an influential 20th century figure, an original and indep

Professor Joseph Bristow’s impressive new study, which deserves close attention, shows that the civil libel suit and the criminal trials involving Oscar Wilde were understood to be within the legal procedures of the time, writes Robert Shiels. The significantly wider importance of his book may

This small book, with a big title, is commendable in several ways: it shows quite how many courts or tribunals and different types of case a member of the Bar, in the author’s generation at least, might have had to deal with. The nature and extent of the pressing political and legal issues tha

There is an aphorism to the effect that history is past politics, and politics is present history. In this study, journalist Phil Tinline considers some of the events, over the first century of mass democracy, when politics lurched from crisis to crisis. The aim is see how this history of political

The criminal trial of Marshal Philippe Pétain in Paris in 1945 was that of the highest ranking military officer accused of treason, in having betrayed his country by collaboration with the enemy. The contrast in personal fortunes was extreme: Pétain had, as supreme commander of French