Notebooks

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

Beyonce performs at the half-time show at Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans, Louisiana. Credit: Francis Specker / Alamy Stock Photo

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God Bless America: A Short History of the Super Bowl Halftime Show

The wildly-popular twelve-minute performances are a fascinating microcosm of the country’s wider political issues.

Fay Schopen February 11, 2022

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Weimar on the West Coast

Many German literary exiles flourished briefly in post-war Los Angeles – and their legacy lives on in a variety of ways.

Simon Beattie February 4, 2022

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The cloak-and-dagger intrigue of Italian presidential elections

The recent spectacle has held Italians and political observers spellbound — but the system’s twists and turns are also strangely dispiriting.

Tobias Jones February 1, 2022

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The intoxicating humanism of Truffaut’s Les 400 Coups

Truffaut’s interest in people - their emotional lives, their relationships with one another - continues to fascinate. His films are about childhood, adolescence, love, loss, desire..

Agnès Poirier January 27, 2022

Bolshevik propaganda poster of Polish-Soviet war, 1920. Text reads: 'This is how the Polish lords' plan finishes. Long live Soviet Poland'.

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The 1920 Battle for Ukraine — a warning from the past

Having practically saved Europe from a communist takeover, Poland's head of state Joseph Pilsudski’s insistence a century ago on a strong, independent Ukraine, protected by the Wes..

Joshua D. Zimmerman January 24, 2022

An American soldier takes a selfie at the U.S. army base in Qayyara, south of Mosul. Credit: REUTERS/Alaa Al-Marjani

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Careless posts cost lives

Our culture of immediate information-sharing puts military operations in jeopardy.

Elisabeth Braw January 21, 2022

Ronald Pickup playing Orwell in the 1983 BBC series 'Crystal Spirit: Orwell in Jura'. Credit: tom Kidd / Alamy Stock Photo

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Orwell in all weathers

The weather was more than just a backdrop to Orwell's narratives - it shaped his life and art in profound and unexpected ways.

Malcolm Forbes January 21, 2022

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Putin needs ‘General Frost’ on his side to win in Ukraine

In 1812, the brutally cold Russian winter helped defend Moscow and defeat Napoleon’s army. In 2022, Vladimir Putin will be hoping the ground freezes to allow his conventional force..

Tim Marshall January 18, 2022

Homer Singing the Iliad at the Gate of Athens by Guillaume Lethiere (1760-1832).

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‘Make it New’ — the rewards of novelty in ancient literature

Classical and novel appear antithetical but a search for the new is evident in some of the oldest literary works.

Armand D'Angour January 16, 2022