Reviews

Significant works reviewed by Engelsberg Ideas writers.

The seven plaques on the Holocaust Memorial wall at Campo de Gheto Novo in Venice.
Review

Venice and the fate of the Jews

The history of the Venetian Ghetto complicates the notion that Jewish history is merely a chronicle of suffering.

Samuel Rubinstein March 3, 2026
Gerhard Richter's 'Herr Uecker'.
Review

Gerhard Richter, between past and present

The work of the 94-year-old German artist, now retired, tests the limits of memory and the image itself.

Jared Marcel Pollen February 27, 2026
A French propaganda poster during the First World War.
Review

The strange death of the nation state

Nation states were never a natural or immutable part of our world order, and their decline and displacement through technological transformation may ultimately be a positive story.

Bryan Appleyard February 26, 2026
A scene in a Carthusian monastery painted by Franciszek Ksawery Lampi.
Review

The visions of Harald Voetmann

Rich, brutal, and darkly funny, the Danish novelist's harrowing trilogy concludes with a portrait of the 11th-century scholar Othlo of St Emmeram, exploring humanity’s efforts to d..

Daniel Skeffington February 19, 2026
August Strindberg (1849-1912), the Swedish playwright and novelist painted by Edvard Munch in 1892.
Review

Strindberg’s study of a marriage

In 'The Dance of Death', August Strindberg imagines marriage as a sealed citadel of resentment and mutual destruction.

Malcolm Forbes February 18, 2026
A portrait of Charles III.
Review

Charles III’s philosophy of harmony

The monarch's philosophy of ‘harmony’ is a theistic vision rooted in Renaissance humanism and natural law, seeking to reconcile unity and diversity in an ordered cosmos.

Esmé Partridge February 17, 2026
Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2005
Review

How Germany misread Russia for three decades

Berlin's 30-year rapprochement with Russia is a cautionary tale of a country that became blind to the possibility of war – and is now paying the price.

Friedrich Asschenfeldt February 9, 2026
Ernst Kantorowicz seated at his desk, photographed and signed by Trude Fleischmann. Credit: Leo Baeck Institute, F 3891F.
Review

The transformation of Ernst Kantorowicz

The mutable German-Jewish historian was many things, but never dull.

Samuel Rubinstein February 6, 2026
A. Provost's 'Ball at the Opera de la rue Le Peletier in Paris around 1850'.
Review

How not to save opera

Treating culture as a battlefield is not the way to revitalise the world of opera.

Alexandra Wilson February 2, 2026

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