The Gin Palace
July 19, 2021
Lee Jackson— The emergence of the ‘gin palace’ in the 1830s, on the cusp of the Victorian era, seems a good place to start. These alluring drinking establishments, adorned with… READ MORE
Category: European History
Richard III
July 15, 2021
Michael Hicks— It is half a millennium since Richard III (1483–5) was king. He is traditionally regarded as the last of England’s medieval monarchs – 14th and last of the… READ MORE
Robert Walser and the Russian Ballet
July 14, 2021
Susan Bernofsky— In the spring of 1909, thirty-one-year-old novelist Robert Walser, then living in Berlin, saw a performance by one of the greatest ballet dancers of the twentieth century. Anna… READ MORE
Even Their Ghosts Do Not Fade Away
July 7, 2021
R.J.B. Bosworth— The far-right party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy) evokes the national anthem, written in 1847 as a theme tune of Italy’s unification in the Risorgimento. In October 1946,… READ MORE
Rahvalod and Rahneda
July 6, 2021
Andrew Wilson— In one of the north-western corners of Rus lay the town of Polatsk, on the western river Dzvina. In those days, rivers made nations. They set trade and… READ MORE
Protecting Capitalism: The Past and Future of Empire
July 5, 2021
John Shovlin— For centuries, empires protected the commercial activity of Europeans overseas and secured their access to crucial resources and markets. Commerce requires protection to flourish, officials and merchants understood…. READ MORE
Northern Ireland
July 1, 2021
Feargal Cochrane— It is difficult to overstate the chaos, confusion and emotion that accompanied the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921. It was not a smooth transition. At the stroke… READ MORE
What Could Be More Tempting?
June 30, 2021
Harry Rée— What was it that made an Englishman want to parachute into occupied France, in civilian clothes? It was understandable for Frenchmen: they naturally wanted to get back home… READ MORE
Needed: A New Security Order for Eastern Europe
June 24, 2021
Michael O’Hanlon— On his trip to Europe in June of 2021, President Biden faced a question that he would likely have preferred to avoid: should Ukraine be invited to join… READ MORE
Recent Posts
-
We Can’t Innovate Our Way Out of Ecocide
- Cannabis and Hashish in the West: The Colonial Origins
- Burning With Passion: Selected Poems from Catullus
- Ep. 134—The Therapeutic Benefits of Reading Greek Tragedy
- Selected Poems From The Earth in the Attic
- Empires, Wars, Collapse: 1914-2024
- The Universal Whole: A Conversation With Can Xue and Annelise Finegan Wasmoen