Essays
essay
Political philosophy
In the interests of all
How Eugene V Debs turned American republicanism against the chiefs of capitalism – and became a true crusader for freedom
Tom O’Shea
essay
Knowledge
The ends of knowledge
Academics need to think harder about the purpose of their disciplines and whether some of those should come to an end
Rachael Scarborough King & Seth Rudy
essay
Biography and memoir
Flat places
Whenever I stand in a flat landscape, I feel myself becoming weightless, taken out of my childhood full of painful nothing
Noreen Masud
essay
Music
To the tune of dystonia
One day, my hand stopped speaking to my brain. As a doctor and flute player, I had to understand this strange affliction
Lynn Hallarman
essay
Economic history
Deservingness
In post-communist eastern and central Europe, history is intensely personal and economics is saturated with moral feeling
Till Hilmar
essay
Nations and empires
Dream of the Russian tropics
Imperial Russia had little access to the bountiful tropics that other empires enjoyed. So it created its own in the Caucasus
Oleksandr Polianichev
essay
Stories and literature
Vergil’s secret message
Long derided as mere coincidences, acrostics in ancient poetry are finally being taken seriously – with astonishing results
Julia Hejduk
essay
Illness and disease
More than pink
The culture around breast cancer is full of positivity and femininity. But it comes at the expense of the marginalised
Philippa Hetherington
essay
Work
Freedom at work
There is always a demand for more jobs. But what makes a job good? For that, Immanuel Kant has an answer
Tyler Re
essay
Film and visual culture
Fighting kung fu
From chopsocky films to disco earworms, Asian caricatures have proliferated since the 1970s. Can Hollywood kick the habit?
Stephanie Wong
essay
Philosophy of language
Quantum poetics
How Borges and Heisenberg converged on the notion that language both enables and interferes with our grasp of reality
William Egginton
essay
Human rights and justice
Beyond obscenity
A century after the trial against ‘Ulysses’, we must revisit the civil liberties arguments of its defender, Morris Ernst
Brett Gary