History
The broken circle
A remarkable group of intellectuals in pre-war Vienna used philosophy to explain the scientific progess of their time — until they were halted by murder and Nazism
Comfort zone
Hannah Betts chooses chic alternatives to dull sweatpants
History shows that violence is ‘as American as cherry pie’
Violence is intrinsic to America and we shouldn’t expect it to cease being so when Donald Trump leaves office
Despatch from St Moritz
Why are the international super-rich insufficiently grateful to the British?
Surviving the straits of hell
An old press cutting provided the key to a defiant tale of life after Auschwitz
High priestess of a new morality
At times Portrait of a Muse feels like a Julian Fellowes soap opera where we see this woman of extraordinary vivacity making great men go weak at the knees
Learning from the past
Much of Wisdom of the Ancients makes one appreciate how we get sidetracked by so much trivial nonsense
A lighter shade of grey
This scholarly, readable and objective book will be the standard biography of Sir Edward Grey for decades to come
My eighteenth century life
Black’s History Week, with Professor Jeremy Black and Graham Stewart
Atlases aren’t dead yet
Jeremy Black pores over the latest offerings from the scholarly literature on cartography
Most Read
The establishment is still living in an immigration fantasy land
It is influential left-wingers, not the broader public, who have deluded themselves on mass migration
American strategy in Iran is wiser than it seems
President Trump’s intervention will leave the world safer than it was
Saint Nicola
Nicola Sturgeon wants sympathy for her husband’s crimes—but after years spent avoiding awkward questions, her latest reinvention may be the hardest sell yet.
On Britain as a capitalist command economy
It is neither neoliberal nor socialist but a secret third thing
Rewatching the English
English identity has become too surreal and discomfiting to define
The government must curb its appetite for junk policy
The “junk food advertising ban” is indigestible nonsense
The Middle Kingdom and the middle powers
China’s clash with Western power shattered its civilisational self-image. Europe is heading for a similar reckoning
Mahmood music
Shabana Mahmood’s asylum reforms are a lot less tough than they sound
The Starmer strikes back
In a galaxy far, far from stable, Labour’s leadership chaos overshadows the King’s Speech
Marriage and muscular liberalism
The Fury controversy exposes the contradictions behind Britain’s new marriage laws
The great creative course illusion
How universities mistook access to courses for access to creative life
Literature amid lies
Leonardo Sciascia sought justice in the face of cynicism
Britain needs a moral core
The UK’s greatest vulnerability isn’t its weakened military but its lack of spiritual depth
Two cafes, both alike …
Our correspondent investigates the north London front of the Israel-Palestine conflict
When imitation is more then just flattery
An informative and entertaining history of plagiarism in its many forms
We’ve had enough agitslop
British TV drama has become an embarrassing display of liberal neuroses