Notebooks

Notebooks are snapshots from our writers, reflecting on current affairs and underappreciated aspects of culture and history.

Australian Army personnel on assignment to the Gold Coast in January 2024.

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Australia must confront the perils that lie ahead

Like America's allies in Europe, Australia cannot afford to be complacent about the demands of the Trump administration or the aggression of authoritarian powers.

Mick Ryan August 11, 2025

The Grateful Dead performing at the Felt Forum in 1971.

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Jerry Garcia’s American journey

The Grateful Dead's music is a form of Americana, an eclectic gathering of forms and style, a way of celebrating the whole of America through its native musical forms.

Bryan Appleyard August 8, 2025

Stella Rimington at her desk as Director General of MI5.

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Stella Rimington, trailblazer in the Secret World

The late Dame Stella Rimington changed the history of MI5.

Helen Fry August 7, 2025

Poster advertising China's atomic project.

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Inside China’s dangerous nuclear game

China's nuclear strategy is a sign it is playing for the highest geopolitical stakes.

Michael Sheridan August 6, 2025

The Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that delivered the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, depicted in this painting by Bob Moreau

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Hiroshima, the dawn of a nuclear world

The United States' atomic attack on Hiroshima, carried out 80 years ago today, marked the culmination of a new and terrifying way of waging war. In a split second, it changed the w..

Iain MacGregor August 6, 2025

Senator Joseph McCarthy with G. David Schine (left) and Roy Cohn (right) at a session of the McCarthy-Army dispute hearing on June, 7, 1954.

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The Cold War origins of Trump’s rift with Europe

At the height of the Cold War, an ill-fated attempt to export Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade to Europe generated a transatlantic row over freedom and censorship.

Jeffrey H. Michaels August 5, 2025

A man raising money for charity outside a sex shop in Brighton, East Sussex.

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When sex becomes a spectacle

The bedroom has become a broadcast studio, and what was once private has transformed into the ultimate public performance.

Tiffany Jenkins August 4, 2025

Matt Damon as Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

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The perils of adapting Homer’s epic

In remaking Homer's Odyssey for the big screen, Christopher Nolan must reckon with the poem's sheer vastness, as well as the poignancy and power of the human story at its heart.

Armand D'Angour August 1, 2025

A stamp printed in the USSR celebrates The Helsinki Accords.

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The Helsinki Final Act – a masterpiece of modern diplomacy

Fifty years on from the signing of the Helsinki Final Act, one of the most important agreements of the Cold War, the accord remains a textbook example of successful negotiations am..

Kai Hebel August 1, 2025