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Society

Essays and videos on social issues, history, political life and the future

Animals and humans Anthropology Archaeology Automation and robotics Cities Demography and migration Economic history Economics Education Environmental history Fairness and equality Future of technology Gender Global history History History of technology Human rights and justice Information and communication Making Nations and empires Politics and government Poverty and development Progress and modernity Public health Race and ethnicity Religion The ancient world The environment The future War and peace Work

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Painting of a historic city square with a tall clock tower, statues, carriages, and groups of people in period clothing.

essay

History

Why history is always political

In his work on republicanism as a living idea, J G A Pocock showed that contesting history is part of a robust civic life

Rosario López

Illustration of two people observing ants on a forest floor with a textured tree background.

video

Family life

One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor

10 minutes

A beach with a white S U V, chairs and a bird in the foreground, and a rocket on a launch pad in the background.

video

Fairness and equality

Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches

14 minutes

Vintage black-and-white photo of a colonial-era courtroom with seated officials and standing West African defendants in traditional attire.

essay

Human rights and justice

What’s in the rule of law?

The British Empire used a great democratic ideal to manufacture racial difference and rationalise colonial domination

Kanika Sharma

Black and white photo of British and German First World War soldiers wearing winter uniforms and hats, one with a cigarette, looking at the camera.

video

War and peace

A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914

12 minutes

Black and white photo of a large group of boys and a few adults standing on bare ground, all dressed in 1960s attire.

essay

Education

A valiant experiment

The progressive and remarkably innovative Woodmead School briefly flourished amid the viciousness of apartheid South Africa

David Dyzenhaus

A photo of a printshop workbench featuring a newspaper layout, metal type blocks, and tools.

video

History of technology

Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy

19 minutes

Hand-drawn diagram titled “Free-Form Discrete H’Texts” showing a map with two-way links and a flowchart with one-way links.

essay

Future of technology

A linkless internet

In creating anonymous summaries, AI flattens out all the fascinating architecture of thought that makes the internet hum

Collin Jennings

A man with a long beard wearing glasses holding a net against a backdrop of a grassy field and cloudy sky.

video

Animals and humans

The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net

10 minutes

Black and white photo of cars in traffic on a multi-lane motorway seen from above.

essay

Political philosophy

The order of anarchy

How San Francisco’s free rides system can help us understand anarchist theory and the work of the late, great James C Scott

Reyko Huang

A woman on a sofa injecting her abdomen surrounded by stuffed toys on a shelf.

video

Technology and the self

Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California

24 minutes

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit holding a mug, sitting next to a chimpanzee in an enclosure.

essay

Human evolution

The eugenicist of UNESCO

Why did Julian S Huxley, first director of the UN agency, think eugenics held the key to a more evolved, harmonious world?

Stefan Bernhardt-Radu

Black and white photo of three people seated at an outdoor café table.

essay

Political philosophy

The underground university

During the Cold War, Oxford philosophers worked together to aid dissidents behind the Iron Curtain. I was one of them

Cheryl Misak

Painting of Roman soldiers in red carrying shields, forming a testudo (tortoise) formation during battle, viewed from the side.

video

The ancient world

Petty squabbles and bloody battles – the life of an ancient Roman soldier

18 minutes

An adult and two children in a mall atrium, dressed in winter clothing.

essay

Biography and memoir

A grief with no name

As a child, I was torn from a culture that I never knew. It is a loss that defines me, even as I struggle to define the loss

Jelena Markovic

Illustration of a tattooed man from behind looking at a starry sky with trees silhouetted in the foreground.

video

Astronomy

The remarkable innovations inspired by our need to know the night sky

5 minutes

Photo of a protest in front of a historic building with statues. Signs read “End Racism Now!” and other messages.

essay

Nations and empires

What is decolonisation?

There’s more talk of decolonisation than ever, while true independence for former colonies has faded from view. Why?

Lydia Walker

Photo of an elderly man with a bald head and moustache wearing a suit and tie, smiling against a light-coloured, blurred background.

video

War and peace

‘She is living on in many hearts’ – Otto Frank on the legacy of his daughter’s diary

12 minutes

Illustration of a child holding a shell to their ear with a bird singing on a branch amidst abstract greenery and flowers.

essay

Bioethics

The cochlear question

As the hearing parent of a deaf baby, I’m confronted with an agonising decision: should I give her an implant to help her hear?

Abi Stephenson

A painting depicting a group of people in a room, with a man painting and a young girl in the centre, dressed in ornate clothes.

video

Art

Why Diego Velázquez needed a lifetime to paint his enigmatic masterpiece

31 minutes

Photo of a person in a winter coat and beanie looking at a snow-covered town, with mountains in the background.

video

Earth science and climate

There’s a ‘climate bomb’ ticking beneath the Arctic ice. How can we prepare?

8 minutes

A person’s hands pouring olive oil into a row of wine glasses with people blurred in the background at a tasting event.

essay

Food and drink

The flavour of mechanisation

Olive oil was revered and cherished by the ancients. But its distinctive peppery taste is really a modern invention

Massimo Mazzotti

Black-and-white photo of a man speaking into microphones held by the press outside a building, with a woman smiling at him in the background.

video

Political philosophy

The radical activist couple who fought for social change in the courtroom

21 minutes

People in a church with raised hands in worship, expressions of joy and devotion on their faces.

essay

Nations and empires

Utopia brasileira

Within less than a decade, Brazil will have as many evangelicals as Catholics, a transcendence born of the prosperity gospel

Alex Hochuli