A Minority of One
A valuable new collection of wartime letters written by Leslie Fiedler shows how politically astute the budding literary critic was about communism.
Ron Capshaw
· 7 min read
Communism
A collection of 20 posts
Red Spies and Lies
Clay Risen’s new book about the American “Red Scare” emphasises the injustices of anti-communism but minimises the true extent and danger of communist infiltration.
Ronald Radosh
· 23 min read
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, Sean McMeekin
· 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
· 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
· 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
· 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
· 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
· 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
· 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
· 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
· 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 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
· 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
· 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
· 10 min read