John Foster / 07 Aug 2019
The Cops in Our Heads
Natasha Lennard’s Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life
Fascism is the order of the day. One might confuse it with populism, or that the two are somehow vying for supremacy. (...)
Culture
The Battleground / 05 Jun 2019
Too Much About Salvini
The Battleground Guide to Summer Books (And One Magazine)
For the last six months, populism has been the only game in town. If it’s not Salvini it’s been Salvini. Not only was the topic over-reported. Predictions of his triumph were wrong.(...)
Natalie Sarkic-Todd / 24 May 2019
Tel Aviv, North Macedonia
Rehearsing Diversity at Eurovision
The hosting of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest against the backdrop of the Israel-Palestine conflict was always going to be controversial.(...)
John Foster / 03 May 2019
Democracy in the Era of Populism
Chantal Mouffe and the Spanish Election
With the results of the snap elections held in Spain on Sunday still in the headlines, new questions have been raised about the so-called “populist moment” about which so much ink has been spilt of late.(...)
John Foster / 26 Apr 2019
The Way We Were
Britain At War
Long ago, while earning a library science degree, I worked as a manuscripts processing archivist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. I handled letters and materials from the 17th century to the present.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 05 Apr 2019
Exploding German Identity Politics
Rammstein’s Deutschland
The hysteria was predictable. Posing as both concentration camp inmates and their Nazi executioners, the video for Rammstein’s new song “Deutschland” was destined to infuriate one demographic, just as selecting a black actress, Ruby Commey, to personify Germania, was bound to piss off another.(...)