Essays

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

Once, illicit sex was believed to be the ultimate transgression and a danger to society. Since the Enlightenment, attitudes have grown more tolerant.

The history of man is a story of mimicry and copying rather than innovation and 'light-bulb moments'.

The Romans burnt Carthage's books and buildings - but 'Punic' identity remained influential throughout Antiquity.

Napoleonic geopolitics didn't make much impression on Europe's maps, but its influence was wide-ranging.

Love has become widely seen as a democracy of salvation open to all.

Our information-rich civilisation is not superior or inferior to the pre-literate world of Brazil's indigenous peoples, just different.

This period of turbulence could turn today's twenty-somethings into the leaders of a new liberal revolution.

The elaborate infrastructure we have created in order to eat food before it rots is one of the great triumphs of modern civilisation.

The Greeks invented the notion of the interrelationship of geography and politics; indeed, they elaborated it in myriad ways.