A Subterranean Celebration
How the 6 Gallery reading in San Francisco on 7 October 1955 changed the counterculture.
David S. Wills
· 13 min read
History
A collection of 446 posts
The Good War No More
Jon Lee Anderson’s powerful new book on Afghanistan reminds us that the justness of a cause is no guarantee of its success.
Brian Stewart
· 6 min read
The Liberal-International Order Will Survive
...but it will need to be reimagined in the post-Trump era.
Matt Johnson
· 20 min read
Peace and Appeasement
Israel now stands accused of genocide for refusing to accept its own annihilation.
Yuki Zeman
· 8 min read
The Phantom Enemy of the Culture War
The postwar decline of the West was not sabotage, it was conviction slowly unwound in the face of horror.
Joseph Zeller
· 9 min read
The 100 Million Killed Under Communist Regimes Matter
The death toll under Communist regimes is of incredible magnitude. Yet whenever I attack Communism for being an evil ideology, I get a serious number of rebuttals.
Razib Khan
· 6 min read
Another JFK Assassination Nothingburger
Jefferson Morley’s dogged pursuit of a CIA connection in Miami is all smoke and no fire.
Fred Litwin
· 16 min read
Detonation Days
Garrett Graff’s new book provides the story of America’s quest for the bomb with a valuable human quality without sacrificing the epic sweep.
Ron Capshaw
· 10 min read
Ancient Indian Tradition—Or Twentieth-Century European Export?
Evidence suggests that today’s common yoga practices were inspired by a popular 1924 Danish gymnastics manual.
Carl von Siemens
· 20 min read
Getting China Wrong
American conservatives show no interest in understanding their country’s greatest geopolitical foe. The consequences of this incuriosity could be disastrous.
D. Marshall
· 17 min read
The Soldier and the Revolutionary
The contrasting lives and ambitions of two major figures in the fight for Indian Independence: Kodandera Subayya Thimayya (“Timmy”) and Subhas Chandra Bose.
Phil Craig
· 28 min read
Podcast #295. War and the End of Empire
Iona Italia talks to historian and film-maker Phil Craig about the latest in his series of books about World War II: ‘1945: A Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World.’
Quillette, Phil Craig, Iona Italia
· 46 min read
Sol Stern 1935–2025
A tribute to a brilliant writer and a journalist of great integrity and candour.
Ronald Radosh
· 14 min read
Hell in North Germany
A riveting new book by American historian Lynne Olson re-examines the story of Ravensbrück, the Nazis’ notorious concentration camp for women.
Ron Capshaw
· 12 min read
The Firing of Wolf Ladejinsky
What a Cold War scandal can teach us about democracy.
Michael Conlon
· 9 min read