videoHistory
In Stalin’s home city in Georgia, generations clash over his legacy
20 minutes
essayNations and empires
The rewards of ruin
Societal downfalls loom large in history and popular culture but, for the 99 per cent, collapse often had its upsides
Luke Kemp
essayPolitics and government
How to run the world
We need new forms of global diplomacy to transcend the current pathetic bargaining of national and commercial interests
David Van Reybrouck
videoNature and landscape
After independence, Mexico was in search of identity. These paintings offered a blueprint
15 minutes
essayPolitical philosophy
The allure of autarky
Liberal thinkers are shocked that nations are once again isolating from the world. The real surprise would be if they didn’t
Ben Chu
essayHuman rights and justice
Levelling the world
Gerrard Winstanley led a small band of radicals whose vision of justice encompassed the globe and continues to inspire
Rowan Wilson
essayArt
Out of the fog
It’s a ‘failed painting’ that obscures the profound power of German Romanticism. Why do we love the ‘Wanderer’ so much?
Gianluca Didino
essayGlobal history
Vikings on the Silk Roads
The Norse ravaged much of Europe for centuries. They were also cosmopolitan explorers who followed trade winds into the Far East
Neil Price
videoArt
When East met West in the images of an overlooked, original photographer
9 minutes
essayNations and empires
Shame and revolution
Vietnam’s potent and storied anticolonialism is founded upon a unique sense of national shame
Kevin D Pham
videoWar and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
essayWar and peace
Could conquest return?
It’s only a century since US diplomats first persuaded the world that it’s wrong for countries to annex their neighbours
Kerry Goettlich
essayPolitical philosophy
A right to exist?
Since states are founded on violence and expulsion, their existence is always bound up in thorny questions about justice
Andrew F March
essayNations and empires
Passion and Palestine
More than any other conflict, Israel/Palestine has provoked extraordinarily fervent emotion throughout the world. Why?
Derek Jonathan Penslar
essayHuman 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
essayNations 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
essayNations 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
essayNations and empires
Colonies of former colonies
India’s ongoing subjugation of Kashmir holds portentous lessons about the nature of contemporary colonialism
Hafsa Kanjwal
essayRace and ethnicity
The forging of countries
Two distinct and conflicting forms of nationalism – civic and ethnic – helped create the nation-states of Europe
Luka Ivan Jukić
essayPolitical philosophy
C L R James and America
The brilliant Trinidadian thinker is remembered as an admirer of the US but he also warned of its dark political future
Harvey Neptune
essayNations and empires
The paradoxes of Mikha’il Mishaqa
He was a Catholic, then a rationalist, then a Protestant. Most of all, he exemplified the rise of Arab-Ottoman modernity
Peter Hill
essayArchaeology
Beyond kingdoms and empires
A revolution in archaeology is transforming our picture of past populations and the scope of human freedoms
David Wengrow
essayGlobal history
The route to progress
Anticolonial modernity was founded upon the fight for liberation from communists, capitalists and imperialists alike
Frank Gerits
videoLanguage and linguistics
The little Peruvian guide to public speaking that conjures up a grandiose world
7 minutes