Essays Archive

essays

How War Made Odessa More Ukrainian

War challenges all assumptions, and nowhere is this clearer in Ukraine’s historic – and strategically placed – Black Sea port. Its citizens have – mostly – turned their back on Rus..

Thomas de Waal May 17, 2023

Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine were crowned Emperor and Empress of France on 2 December 1804.

essays

Liberty in the shadow of Bonaparte

Benjamin Constant’s considered response not only to the mass murder inflicted by the French Revolution, but to the attempt to reduce the whole French population to the condition of..

Jeremy Jennings May 15, 2023

During the Soviet-Finnish war (1939-1940) skiers of the Finnish army in white camouflage made lightning and effective attacks on units of the Red Army.

essays

Why Finns Joined The Fight

Finland’s path towards NATO may have been a long one, but Finland is in no sense a reluctant ally.

Charly Salonius-Pasternak May 10, 2023

A stamp printed in the USA shows Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

essays

Thomas Jefferson’s spirit of scientific endeavour is what America needs today

Now a firm tenet of American romantic popular imagination, Lewis and Clark’s early nineteenth-century expedition, sponsored by Thomas Jefferson, was also a pragmatic one, which led..

David Cowan May 10, 2023

essays

The Passion of Hilma af Klint

The passion of Hilma af Klint in every sense – sexual, aesthetic, and religious – is the key to her art.

Stephen Kern April 28, 2023

essays

Made in Taiwan: How Developing Countries Can Leverage High Tech

Taiwan’s hi-tech revolution began with a vision – now the small island-state has captured around sixty per cent of the world market in semiconductor chips, used in everything from ..

Lukasz Bednarski April 27, 2023

essays

Can Epic Poetry Revive History?

‘Read history, poetry’, urged the historian David McCullough. When combined, as the ancients knew, history and poetry offer an incomparable insight into the human condition.

Michael Auslin April 25, 2023