Return to Magic Mountain
Ever since I finished Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain, I have been trying to find a way of explaining why it’s worth reading that prioritises the words on the page rather than my idiosyncratic response to them. (...)
The Cruelty is the Point, by Adam Serwer
As a Black man, a Jew, and a journalist, Adam Serwer is a three-time loser to Donald Trump.(...)
Afghanistan, or How to Stay at War
On 20 January 2001, George W. Bush was inaugurated as president of the United States.(...)
Young, Banerjee and Schwartz’s Levers of Power
Proportion explains a lot in life. This has become painfully obvious in the era of COVID-19 when the underlying sociopathy of the US president and of the party he leads can most clearly be seen in their signal failure to understand what the numbers mean.(...)
The America Problem
The American Century is Finally Over
The narrative of the Atlantic world since the end of the Second World War has been one of American leadership. (...)
The View From Berlin
Moscow Takes Over From Washington
Three decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia is back. Not as an economic power. Western sanctions have seen to that. But as a military power.(...)