Essays

Long-form writing from leading scholars and commentators on history, statecraft, warfare, philosophy and culture.

Bowood Park, Wiltshire, home of the Marquess of Lansdowne, c1880. Wood-engraved plates after paintings by Benjamin Fawcett and Alexander Francis Lydon.
essays

How Arcadia was won and lost and found again

Arcadianism is so deep-rooted in the British national psyche. Everyone wants their own slice of Arcadia. But if everyone gets one, how much will be left?

Clive Aslet September 9, 2021
US Army tank drives along a road in Iraq
essays

Unipolar America: another imperial delusion ends

Modern America has followed a generic pattern set by triumphant dynasties of the past, from the Ming Dynasty to Achaemenid Persia. History shows hubris creates the conditions for d..

Patrick Porter September 3, 2021
Four Cambridge students ride a four seat tandem bike on the campus wearing mortarboards and gowns.
essays

Meritocracy v the people

The biggest division in modern society is between the meritocracy and the people, the cognitive elite and the masses, the exam-passers and the exam-flunkers.

Adrian Wooldridge August 31, 2021
Photograph of a flying saucer
essays

It came from outer space

Far from being a throw-away genre trope, the unresolved puzzle of extra-terrestrial visitors gives us unique insights into the nature of thought, communication and memory.

Tim Jenkins August 27, 2021
Battle of Waterloo
essays

The other side of the hill

In war, we are, like the Duke of Wellington, still trying to guess what is on the other side of the hill, we just have more tools to help us do so.

Simon Mayall August 26, 2021
The public funeral of Victor Hugo in Paris, 1885.
essays

Victor Hugo’s ideal of Europe

The famed French chronicler of poverty and war saw hope in the prospect of the European ideal - over a century before the creation of the EU.

Agnès Poirier August 20, 2021
Darius Semaska in the Soviet Orienteering Championships, bottom right.
essays

The Soviet military was a hollow colossus

After the fall of the Soviet Union, some of its military conscripts from former republics ended up in NATO countries. Their personal stories are not only compelling accounts of re..

Elisabeth Braw August 19, 2021
An Iranian woman walks past an anti-US mural depicting the Statue of Liberty on the wall of the former American embassy in Tehran.
essays

Islam and the contingency of politics

The Islamic relationship between religion and state has a deep history – but the modern politics of nationalism has re-cast Islam in a new political mould

Charles Tripp August 13, 2021
A technician in the server hall of the Russian state telecommunications operator.
essays

Information loss

The Internet is now home to modern culture. But like paper, it is at risk of decay unless we archive and store it properly.

Michael L. Nelson August 5, 2021

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