essays
Taking Pushkin off his pedestal
Too often Russian literature is fetishised. It needs to be liberated. That process should begin with Pushkin.
Thomas de Waal
April 12, 2023
Essays
Long-form writing from leading scholars and commentators on history, statecraft, warfare, philosophy and culture.
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essays
Spartacus, history’s nowhere man
Spartacus is a figure who floats between history and allegory, an empty void, like the upper slopes of Vesuvius, where he and his supporters first took refuge, now obliterated by e..
Richard Miles
April 11, 2023
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essays
A most rebellious territory
Xinjiang’s Uighurs live under the heaviest surveillance in the world, victims of a long battle between China and Russia to settle their Central Asian borderlands.
Michael Sheridan
April 5, 2023
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essays
How 1970s California created the modern world
What happened in California in the 1970s played an outsized role in creating the world we live in today – both in the United States and in large parts of the globe – for better or ..
Francis J. Gavin
April 3, 2023
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essays
Plautus punching up: a different class of comedy
Little-studied today, the Roman playwright Plautus has much to teach us about both Ancient history and modern humour.
Orlando Gibbs
March 30, 2023
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essays
Can Europe come to NATO’s defence?
Despite the Russian threat, few European states are committed to their own defence. NATO solidarity is transatlantic only – if it exists at all
Janne Haaland Matláry
March 29, 2023
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essays
Liberty under attack from enemies within
Just as generations did before us, we are learning that a belief in liberty is not self-evident and its expansion is not inevitable.
Juliet Samuel
March 24, 2023
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essays
US aiding Ukraine won’t deter China
The US should engage in a more intense and uncompromising dialogue about the division of labour and the hard trade-offs between allies.
Patrick Porter
March 24, 2023
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essays
Liberty and the myth of Venice
Liberty was central to the idea of Venice, but was remarkably fragile. The republic had to guard it fiercely and expound it as a tangible way of living for flawed human beings.
Alexander Lee
March 14, 2023