Quillette (Page 7)

The Totalitarian Artist: Politics vs Beauty

After Duchamp, the art world came to view the pursuit of beauty as naïve and gravitated toward political art in their search for meaning. But this is a Faustian bargain: you can have meaning, but you do not get to make it for yourself.

Megan Gafford

20 Sep 2024 · 27 min read

Tragedy and Half-Truths: A Gaza Diary

Atef Abu Saif’s ‘Don’t Look Left’ provides a vivid account of the horrors of daily life in the Gaza Strip, yet omits to mention Hamas’s role in the war.

Benny Morris

19 Sep 2024 · 15 min read

Detail from cover of Summer of Fire and Blood by Lyndal Roper. Warriors on horseback, illustration.

When Germany Waged War on Itself

In a forthcoming book, Lyndal Roper argues that the German Peasants’ War of 1524–25 was a missed opportunity to enshrine a Christian theology centred on equality and brotherhood.

Jonathan Kay

18 Sep 2024 · 9 min read

NATO and the Return of Trump

If the United States abandons Europe, Beijing will be more emboldened than ever.

Matt Johnson

17 Sep 2024 · 8 min read

Podcast #251: Tracing the Rise of Radicalised Anti-Zionism on American Campuses

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with author Paul Berman about the lingering influence of ‘Black Power’ advocate Stokely Carmichael, who once infamously claimed that ‘the only good Zionist is a dead Zionist.’

Jonathan Kay

16 Sep 2024 · 29 min read

The British Columbia Parliament Buildings in Victoria, British Columbia

I Blew Up My Lucrative Public-Service Career (And So Can You)

A veteran of British Columbia’s public-sector workforce explains how DEI enforcers forced him to choose between keeping his job and honouring his values.

Nick Osmond-Jones

16 Sep 2024 · 23 min read

Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments

How to effectively counter some perennial arguments against free speech.

Greg Lukianoff

12 Sep 2024 · 14 min read

Bruce Springsteen, black and white photograph, head and shoulders, in a striped shirt

Born to Boss

Springsteen and the rock critics.

David Cohen

12 Sep 2024 · 14 min read

Detail from Der große deutsche Bauernkrieg (The Great German Peasants’ War), a 1955 painting by Max Lingner (1888–1959).

Where Virtue Meets Terror: A Brief History of Proto-Communism

In a new book on the history of communism, Sean McMeekin traces the movement’s roots to egalitarian creeds embraced throughout history by prophets, philosophers, utopians, and serfs.

Sean McMeekin

10 Sep 2024 · 18 min read

A collage featuring Sigmund Freud and an old painting of Oedipus and Antigone.

Freud’s Best Theory

While Freud mooted various bizarre theories that haven’t stood the test of time, the best of his thinking can help us better understand ourselves, others, and our world.

Andrew Hartz

9 Sep 2024 · 9 min read

Composite image of Stokely Carmichael speaking; background is a Gaza solidarity encampment at a university

A Stupid Cartoon and the University Ideology

Frantz Fanon, Stokely Carmichael, and the roots of the uproar over Zionism.

Paul Berman

9 Sep 2024 · 41 min read

Kremlin Cash

The Tenet media scandal and the convergence of right-wing American punditry and Russian propaganda.

Cathy Young

8 Sep 2024 · 9 min read

A colourful male and dull female mandarin duck. Representing sexual dimorphism.

Race Is a Spectrum. Sex Is Pretty Damn Binary

Male versus female is one of surprisingly few genuine dichotomies.

Richard Dawkins

6 Sep 2024 · 12 min read

Detail from Ignatius Loyola, by Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera. Oil painting. A man in bed with a book and cast on leg.

Return of the Jesuits

In the 22nd instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes how Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu used their nascent Quebec colony as a means to promote French global power and spread Christianity.

Greg Koabel

5 Sep 2024 · 20 min read