Notebooks

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Why we don’t remember pandemics

While wars are endlessly memorialised in the West, the non-narrative and morally complex nature of a pandemic mean it is rare to come across a memorial to its victims, much less a ..

Mark Honigsbaum July 19, 2022

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George Orwell’s idea of technology

Orwell was no scientific illiterate, but his focus on the moral implications of surveillance society suggest a disinterest in the realities of technology.

D. J. Taylor July 15, 2022

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Bat-and-ball-games — an Italian obsession

Italy today is synonymous with football, but it wasn’t always so — historically, a great variety of bat-and-ball games enjoyed huge success throughout the peninsula — and created f..

Tobias Jones July 13, 2022

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The British have lost the art of eating out

Social changes mean there is no clear script in service industry scenarios.

Daisy Dunn July 8, 2022

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Handling the heat — lessons from Egypt to a warming world

Humans can survive and adapt but it's tough in extreme heat, as people in places like Egypt have discovered over the ages.

Maria Golia June 30, 2022

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Russia digging in for a long war with the West

In attempting to deliver a knock-out blow to their enemies, Moscow underestimated Ukrainian resistance and resilience. But since then has Russia really 'downsized' the war?

Andrew Monaghan June 29, 2022

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Running Up That Hill: Origin Story

Kate Bush’s 1985 hit has been reborn as the song of summer, and is everywhere from TikTok to the top of the charts as it is discovered by a new generation. The story of how the ext..

Fay Schopen June 24, 2022

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The first Yugoslav

Amidst growing unease with Austrian-Hungarian political dominance in the nineteenth century, Ljudevit Gaj, a visionary 26-year old Croatian linguist and writer, laid the foundation..

Edward Thicknesse June 23, 2022

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The Queen, Stoicism and the defence of the Faith

The recent Jubilee celebrations in Britain have centred around a queen who has shown us the value of a philosophy based on self-discipline, forbearance and moral integrity.

John Raine June 16, 2022