It was the decade of Friends, Bill Clinton and a fresh new pan-European passport. Underneath the teen-pop smile of the nineties there were blemishes.
In the digital age, intellectual debate is more polarising and vituperative than ever. To generate the new thinking needed to navigate our uncertain global landscape we should revisit the kind of serious ideas on geopolitics that scholars like Fukuyama, Mearsheimer, and Huntington advanced in the 1990s.
Our cities are so saturated in the mythology of the ancient world that classical allusions pop up in unexpected places.
A 17th century reflection on the virtues of travel shows us what is being lost during the pandemic.
The poet Edith Sitwell has more to offer than her infamous reputation suggests.
The King of the Zulus, Cetshwayo, turned defeat into diplomatic success after winning the hearts of the British public.
Reading the Andalusian Arab writer al-Bakri is to go on a magnificent journey through harsh deserts and lands rich in gold watched over by quixotic local rulers.
Eighteenth century literary ephemera give us an insight into the true identity of Bridgerton’s elusive Lady Whistledown.
The deceptive tranquility of Norwich’s Mousehold Heath was the setting for the first documented case of the anti-semitic ‘blood libel’ myth.
Why did Joe Biden’s quotation of St. Augustine on society and love strike such a chord?
Hollywood liked Trump and helped make him. Then he became President. Can entertainment and politics be restored to their proper place?
The presidential inauguration makes manifest the complexity and beauty of the American Dream.
Richelieu’s cats are not alone in the pantheon of historic pets. There are many of these animals – silent witnesses to the mighty spasms of human history and, it is said, humanisers of some of history’s great figures.
The great dancer Vaslav Nijinsky’s astonishing revival after decades of madness ranks as one of the most mysterious events in art – he found it in himself to have one last dance.
To follow the course of London’s ancient rivers is to take a journey through centuries of history.
The shadow of 1912 hangs heavily over today’s Republican party. The Republicans lost out to the Democrats after Theodore Roosevelt continued to campaign on a ‘Progressive’ ticket although he had been beaten in the primaries by incumbent President William Howard Taft.
We should take inspiration from Georgia O’Keeffe’s high-minded approach to art and morality. Her life story is a lesson in the importance of deeply felt principles.
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to endless list-making and tally-counting. History shows us that this is a fundamental human need.
The fortunes and friendships of Maurice Princet – mathematician and ‘godfather’ of Cubism – testify to the enduring link between art and abstraction.
From pagan rituals to paper hats, the tradition of the festive season has always evolved with the times.
The master storyteller – who has died aged 89 – chronicled the Cold War and revealed powerful truths about the human condition
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