Essays

essays

Parallel visionaries – Hilla Rebay and Hilma af Klint

Rebay and af Klint, both strong-willed artists, were dedicated to their beliefs in the potential of art to hold spiritual value.

Tracey Bashkoff November 20, 2020

essays

Machiavelli and the benefits of civil strife

Niccolo Machiavelli, Renaissance statesman and political theorist, saw factional politics as essential to the prosperity of the Roman Empire and his native Florence. Are today's pa..

Alexander Lee November 10, 2020

essays

A government of laws

The constitutional order is changing as citizens become alienated and demand more say. Americans must take care that their habits of law – the ethos that makes the US exceptional –..

Philip Bobbitt November 7, 2020

essays

How the British made the NHS their religion

Britain's reverence for its National Health Service was developing long before the post-war promise of a New Jerusalem.

Bruce Anderson October 30, 2020

essays

Being human: we were born to cooperate

The human ability to cooperate is what elevates us above apes and monkeys.

Katrin Redfern October 22, 2020

essays

John Hughes and the making and unmaking of the American dream

John Hughes's films re-established and updated the American dream for a new generation. His complex legacy helps us understand what went so wrong.

Johan Hakelius October 16, 2020

essays

Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy – true to her own self

No matter how perilous her situation, Margaret of Austria lost neither her calm nor her composure, nor even her sense of fun.

Leonie Frieda October 12, 2020

essays

The great beauty of Donatello

Donatello, one of Florence's most distinguished sons, produced sculpture worthy of the ages.

Bruce Anderson October 9, 2020

essays

Continuity Thatcher: rescuing a complex leader from historical cliché

To argue that Thatcher attacked the post-war dream is to caricature, not illuminate, her importance to British history.

Graham Stewart October 7, 2020