Features

Smuggling Plato to Prague

Edward Lucas pays tribute to his father J.R. Lucas, Oxford philosopher and Cold War champion of the Czechs

American Tolstoy

Time to proclaim the greatness of Herman Wouk, once feted for the sweep of his historical novels

Anti-China syndrome

Both US parties are seeking to be tough on Beijing — but at what cost?

The week the war ended

Seventy-five years ago this month, peace finally came to a destroyed Europe

Empire of conformists

The NHS is immune to criticism because its deficiencies are seen as departures from its essential goodness

The coronavirus cure for global populism?

How the pandemic exposed some leaders’ bluster and might yet undermine authoritarian regimes

When it’s great to be British

The country of understatement and the stiff upper lip responds well in a crisis

Defenders of a shared culture

Oliver Letwin compares and contrasts two conservative philosophers, the late Roger Scruton and Michael Oakeshott

Endless tragedy of blood and sand

Syria’s civil war is the latest grisly chapter in more than a millennium of conflict

Who’s a conservative?

A vigorous debate is under way about the future of the American right — and it is a mistake to question its survival