Podcast #253: A Brief History of Communism Jonathan Kay speaks with Bard College historian Sean McMeekin about his new book, To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism. Quillette 4 Oct 2024 · 16 min read
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
Melvin Lasky: Diary of a Cold Warrior Melvin Lasky was an indefatigable defender of the liberal spirit during the recovery of postwar Germany. Oscar Clarke 19 Aug 2024 · 13 min read
Nostalgia for Confinement Why are some in Russia and Eastern Europe pining for the communist system that once oppressed them? John Lloyd 18 Apr 2024 · 8 min read
China, the West, and The Three-Body Problem The themes of Liu Cixin’s trilogy undermine his protestations of loyalty to the People’s Republic. Jason Garshfield 15 Mar 2024 · 17 min read
Milan Kundera: The Nobel Prize for Literature Winner We Never Had Few writers in our time were more committed to the novel or had more idealism about the heights the form could scale. Robin Ashenden 11 Jul 2023 · 12 min read
The Enduring Relevance of Czesław Miłosz’s ‘The Captive Mind’ It is into such pathologies that The Captive Mind delves, and why it has such application to our time. Robin Ashenden 19 Mar 2021 · 11 min read
Under the Frog: Why Tibor Fischer’s 1992 Booker-Nominated Novel May Have Found its Moment Under the Frog was based on his Magyar parents, both of them basketball players who, in the wake of the doomed 1956 uprising against the Soviets, fled Hungary for Britain. Robin Ashenden 9 Sep 2020 · 11 min read
A Letter From Hong Kong The myths of the obedient Hong Kong child, of the disciplined dronelike worker, of the person who puts money above everything else, are shattered for ever. Peter Baehr 3 Sep 2019 · 7 min read
The Communitarian Revival The rising star of Pete Buttigieg—a young mayor of a blue-collar city whose political message leans heavily on the importance of faith and community and away from political orthodoxy—is a powerful testimony to the emerging market for applied communitarian thinking on the political Left. John R. Wood, Jr. 10 May 2019 · 10 min read
George Faludy: Hungarian Poet and Hero for Our Times Faludy’s greatest weapon—what really allows him to swat away the mosquitoes of passing ideologies—is his delight in sensual pleasures. Robin Ashenden 19 Apr 2019 · 6 min read
Milan Kundera Warned Us About Historical Amnesia. Now It's Happening Again Conflict-induced-apathy can be manipulated for political ends. Ewan Morrison 31 Mar 2019 · 8 min read
A Witch-Hunt on Instagram Knitting, which helps lower the blood pressure and keep the mind busy, has enjoyed an upsurge in popularity in recent years. Kathrine Jebsen Moore 17 Feb 2019 · 10 min read
The Bolivarian God That Failed The available scientific and statistical evidence (not to mention common sense) weighs strongly against belief in bodily resurrection from the dead. Clifton Ross 1 Feb 2019 · 21 min read
How Should We Read the Totalitarian Philosophers? This is particularly true of Marx and (especially) Heidegger, who gave concrete support to parties and proposals that resulted in the deaths of millions of people. Matt McManus 30 Jan 2019 · 10 min read
