MARIA DUARTE recommends the true story of the remarkable woman who sued Donald Trump for sexual assault not once, but twice
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Spotlight on Paraguay
JOHN GREEN relishes the rediscovery of a Spanish anarchist and radical, and the light he throws on the little-known story of Paraguay
NATIONAL TRAUMA: Paraguayan families displaced during the England instigated and organised war of the Tripple Alliance (Brasil, Uruguay and Argentina) the brutal conquest in which between 60-80 per cent of the population was killed.
[National Archives of Brasil/Public domain]
![E Jean Carroll [Pic: Courtesy of Dogwoof]](https://morningstaronline.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/desktop/public/2026-07/AskEJean_1.jpeg.webp?itok=v-N35HPp)
KENNY MacASKILL is disappointed by a polemical, rather than factual, account of the Lone Star State and its political path since the civil war
PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society
GORDON PARSONS appreciates fine performances and a feel for ambiguity, but misses the music of the dialogue
DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
Paraguayan Sorrow: Writings of Rafael Barrett, A Radical Voice in a Dispossessed Land
Edited and translated by William Costa, Monthly Review Press, £21.99
PARAGUAY, probably the least-known of South America’s republics, is a landlocked country squeezed between its two powerful neighbours, Argentina and Brazil. It has a population of around 6.1 million, nearly 2.3 million of whom live in the capital and largest city of Asuncion, and its surrounding metro area.
Paraguay threw off the yoke of Spanish colonial rule in 1811 and Jose Rodriguez de Francia was installed as the first Paraguayan-born leader. He ruled until his death in 1840 as an authoritarian but visionary leader. He reduced the power of the Catholic church and attempted to create a utopian society based on Rousseau’s ideas.
Only two decades after his death, the so-called war of the triple alliance (1864-70) broke out between Paraguay and an alliance of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. In the preceding years, Paraguay had been involved in boundary and tariff disputes with its more powerful neighbours.
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