Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
"As the nation celebrates six decades of Elizabeth II’s reign, it is worth taking the long view of monarchy, by asking not what is so modern about the Crown in the new Elizabethan age, but what remains ancient"
Admiring review of "The Jews In Poland And Russia", by Antony Polonsky. "He has created the field of modern Jewish history as a subject to be considered and understood rather than simply a tragic past to be mourned"
Against Robert Kagan, and his "Copernican interpretation of contemporary history": America the sun around which all else orbits. His new book, "The World America Made", is "a slim volume of mythopoeia decked out in analytic drag"
Thought-provoking essay. "The notion that America was founded as a Christian nation is widespread. In the currency of ideas, it’s the ubiquitous penny. But like an actual penny, it doesn’t have a lot of value"
"For several hundred years many Europeans, including royalty, priests and scientists, routinely ingested remedies containing human bones, blood and fat as medicine for everything from headaches to epilepsy." Last example? 1908
On 11th May 1812 Spencer Perceval became the first, and only, British prime minister to be assassinated. John Bellingham was the killer. Who hired him remains a mystery. But one thing is certain: Perceval had no shortage of enemies
"Surgery is a profession defined by its authority to cure by means of bodily invasion. The brutality and risks of opening a living person's body have long been apparent, the benefits only slowly and haltingly worked out"
In 1846 Albert Tirrell was put on trial for the gruesome murder of his mistress. He seemed certain to be convicted. Until his lawyer Rufus Choate, “great galvanic battery of human oratory”, launched a most unusual defence
You will be familiar, from Cold War history, with the alleged "missile gap". But are you familiar too with its precursor, the pigeon gap? Oh yes, there was a time when pigeons formed a vital part of a country's military capability
Revisiting Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America provides starting-point for essay questioning the historical effect of America’s “ideology of technology” on its politics and economy
In 1791, a mass insurrection broke out among Haiti's slaves. Today it is almost forgotten, and yet it shaped history almost as deeply as the two 18th century revolutions with which we are far more familiar – those of 1776 and 1789
Remarkable essay on disturbing history and politics of the "population control movement", from US to China. Pseudoscience of Malthus led to billions of ruined lives globally. The lesson? Side with human ingenuity, not antihumanism
