Can rape and murder make beautiful art?
An exhibition at the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, raises the question of depicting violence
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Music New York
Photographing a city of buskers
FDR, the President whom nobody knew
Robert Dallek's biography adds very little that is new to our knowledge of an almost totally inscrutable President
Family saga in war and peace
The story of a family over two generations becomes embedded in the history of the 20th century in Mark Mazower's What You Did Not Tell
Hopes and fears of all the years
The little town of Bethlehem has been irrevocably linked with Western visions of the Holy Land, but Nicholas Blincoe shows there is much more to its history
Notes from the departure lounge
Robert McCrum's Every Third Thought asks: how, when, and where are we going after death?
Dallying with Il Duce
Iris Origo's diary of the runup to Italy entering WW2 is a fascinating record which cuts through Fascist propaganda
Nifty shades of grey
A new exhibition at the National Gallery displays an extraordinary range of monochrome works
Acting the goat with the Greeks
Innumeracy at the top of European politics beggared Greece and may now vitiate Brexit negotiations