Notebooks

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

A Greek lithograph depicting the Young Turk Revolution of 1908.

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How the Young Turks became tyrants

The course of a late-Ottoman revolution warns us that liberators can easily turn into tyrants, and that new political dawns can be deceptive.

Jack Dickens April 9, 2025

US President Donald Trump announces tariffs on all imported vehicles on March 26, 2025.

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Trump’s tariff paradox

Playing the tariff game may undermine Trump’s domestic economic agenda.

Samuel Gregg April 9, 2025

A large crowd of protestors gathered in Gwangju, South Korea.

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South Korea’s crisis could be a geopolitical catastrophe

Amid domestic upheaval and international tensions, South Korea's next president will have to move quickly to mend the country's relationship with the United States and counter thre..

Edward Howell April 8, 2025

A late-19th-century Puck magazine illustration of Joseph Chamberlain holding a pair of shears labelled 'Protection'.

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The Edwardian assault on free trade

At the turn of the 20th century, British protectionists waged a long and unsuccessful crusade against free trade. Like President Trump’s trade policies today, their campaign for ta..

Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri April 7, 2025

President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico speaking at the National Palace.

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How Jewish leaders have defied the political odds

The remarkable success of Jewish leaders around the world defies easy explanation. In part, it is a result of their dedication to the national ideal, combined with a refusal to acc..

Elijah Granet April 4, 2025

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The new great power competition for minerals

Great powers have long coveted the resources beneath our feet. The Trump administration's quest for mineral wealth is nothing new.

Paul Josephson April 3, 2025

Oda Nobunaga, 16th century Japanese Daimyo.

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Gaming Japan’s bloody past

Controversies over the latest instalment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, set during Japan’s bloody Sengoku jidai, or ‘era of warring states’ (c.1467-1600), show why the past sho..

Christopher Harding April 2, 2025

Marine Le Pen in the French Assemblée Nationale, in December 2024.

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Marine Le Pen’s reckoning

For decades, Marine Le Pen has called for stricter laws to tackle corruption in public life. Now, the law has caught up with her, unleashing a political earthquake that could trans..

Agnès Poirier April 1, 2025

The Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich in Moscow in 1943.

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Shostakovich spoke truth to power

The Russian composer's evocation of the crimes of Nazism and Communism in his Babi Yar Symphony illustrates both the hallowed nature of art, and the artist's responsibility to spea..

Benjamin Poore March 31, 2025