1920s America was at peace at home and abroad but issues facing the nation were highlighted by a series of trials including baseball's Black Sox, Al Capone, John T. Scopes, Sacco and Vanzetti, Leopold and Loeb, and the court martial of Billy Mitchell. Americans will find this book on trials of the Roaring Twenties provocative. Great Trials begins with an extensive introduction describing the setting of that tumultuous decade, and follows with an in-depth examination of 10 trials, touching on nearly every facet of American life. Each case is a fascinating story, and the fierce jousts in these...

These essays cover topics as radically diverse as Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Vaclav Havel, The Magic Flute and Viz magazine. All have been published before, and many have already proved controversial. The author, a leading Oakeshott scholar, contributes frequently to the TLS . Witty, moving and erudite, his prose is also conspicuously graceful and clear. This collection is addressed as much to the educated general reader as to the academic specialist. It includes an otherwise almost unobtainable exchange with Sir Isaiah Berlin."