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Art and Culture

A collection of 682 posts

A modern model depicting Samuel de Champlain’s 1608 Habitation at the site of what is now Quebec City.

The Birth of Quebec

In the twentieth instalment of ‘Nations of Canada,’ Greg Koabel describes how Samuel de Champlain and Récollet missionaries established a fledgling French colony in what we now call Quebec City.

Greg Koabel

4 Jul 2024 · 17 min read

A close up of Robyn Hitchcock's face in black and white with a microphone covering his mouth.

England’s Daydreaming

Robyn Hitchcock’s new memoir takes us back to 1967—a year the British singer-songwriter never outgrew.

Dave Thompson

2 Jul 2024 · 12 min read

Illuminated manuscript style illustration of a coronation.

France’s Founding Fathers: A Review of ‘House of Lilies’

In a new book, Justine Firnhaber-Baker tells the story of the Capetian dynasty (987–1328), whose rulers stitched a set of medieval duchies and counties into a single kingdom.

Charlotte Allen

26 Jun 2024 · 20 min read

People on a trans-rights protest march, with flags, megaphone, banners.

The Roots of Progressive Radicalism: Nellie Bowles vs. Musa al-Gharbi

In two new books, a journalist and an academic offer competing explanations for the extremist ideological tendencies within left-wing cultural, academic, activist, and political institutions.

Jonathan Kay

25 Jun 2024 · 16 min read

A still from The Chocolate War. 4 boys in coats stand on the roadside.

Too Much Chocolate

Fifty years of Robert Cormier’s “classic” young-adult novel is more than enough.

Kevin Mims

13 Jun 2024 · 9 min read

A black and white portrait photo of Roger Corman in 1978. He is sitting at a desk and looks happy. Palm trees in background.

Roger Corman: A Filmmaker’s Filmmaker

An account of all the lives Corman touched, the careers he helped to jump-start, and the genres he pioneered would fill several books.

Jacob Bielecki

6 Jun 2024 · 12 min read

A black & white photo of young Orwell with a Hitler moustache & a USSR May Day poster of a young couple holding a red flag.

George Orwell’s Error

Had he lived long enough to witness the fruits of liberal capitalism, perhaps Orwell would finally have accepted the failure of socialism.

Christopher J. Snowdon

6 Jun 2024 · 13 min read

Collage of images from the Mad Max movies

Blood, Sweat, and Gasoline

The story of Hollywood’s most unlikely blockbuster franchise, Mad Max.

Allan Stratton

5 Jun 2024 · 21 min read

Crackhead Barney, Deborah de Robertis, and Ava Louise

The Perfect Trifecta

The new attention economy will always privilege the lowest common denominator in performance art, as it does in everything else.

Julia Friedman

4 Jun 2024 · 8 min read

Salman Rushdie on stage, holding a copy of his book, Knife.

Unbowed but Gravely Wounded

Salman Rushdie’s new memoir, ‘Knife,’ describes the assassination attempt its author survived and offers a moving contemplation of mortality.

Paul Berman

3 Jun 2024 · 15 min read

Silhouettes on people on a hill, amid flowers, looking towards a futuristic city.

The Problem with Utopias

The history of utopian fiction proves that we can’t even imagine a better world.

Ewan Morrison

23 May 2024 · 16 min read

A childhood photo of Rob Henderson in a humble living room, smiling in front of a Christmas tree.

Imposing Order on Grief

Rob Henderson's 'Troubled' is a disjointed book, but provides valuable testimony to the importance of a stable childhood.

Iona Italia

22 May 2024 · 23 min read

A still of Ryan Gosling in The Fall Guy trailer.

A History of Stunts

Ryan Gosling’s new film is a love letter to an under-appreciated art.

Allan Stratton

17 May 2024 · 9 min read

Analyst or Moralist?

Analyst or Moralist?

The increasingly political nature of cultural criticism does a disservice to the arts, to artists, and to criticism itself.

James Jackson

15 May 2024 · 11 min read

Tom Wolfe in 1990. Alamy

Less Than Half ‘A Man in Full’

One of US television’s most experienced and talented writers has made a mess of Tom Wolfe’s second novel.

Kevin Mims

13 May 2024 · 24 min read