Notebooks

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The multiple mysteries of Italian wine

Italy accounts for more than a third of the world’s grape varieties, a reflection of the country’s proudly fragmented culture and geography.

Tobias Jones July 6, 2023

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The Ancients loved dogs too

Greeks and Romans took a generally unsentimental view of animals, but there is evidence that some people in antiquity were no less inclined than moderns to love their dogs.

Armand D'Angour July 4, 2023

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La Haine: jusqu’ici tout va bien?

The 1995 breakthrough film about life in troubled banlieues still holds up a mirror to France in 2023.

Muriel Zagha July 3, 2023

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What Richard Wagner can tell us about the Wagner Group

There’s something distinctly Wagnerian about Prigozhin’s rise and fall.

Elisabeth Braw June 30, 2023

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Russia: a short history of failed coups

In Russia, failed coups are usually harbingers of chaos and collapse. Three examples spring to mind: the 1991 attempted coup d’état against Mikhail Gorbachev, Lavr Kornilov’s 1917 ..

Sergey Radchenko June 28, 2023

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In search of Ararat

The slippery nature of representation is the focus of Atom Egoyan’s film about the Armenian genocide, a multi-layered work that is also a meditation on denial.

Muriel Zagha June 27, 2023

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Machiavelli’s take on mercenaries

According to the great Florentine master of statecraft, when it comes to keeping control of your soldiers of fortune, cruelty works.

Alexander Lee June 27, 2023

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The Wars of the Roses and the problem with private armies

In autocracies, no one can be safely relied upon, as the medieval English conflict between the houses of York and Lancaster demonstrates.

Francis Young June 26, 2023

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Marching on Rome

Yevgeny Prigozhin’s attempted coup draws parallels with the great civic conflicts of ancient Rome and the reign of terror that followed.

Armand D'Angour June 26, 2023