John Foster / 10 Jun 2022
Status Quo Apologist
Liberalism and Its Discontents, by Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama has a fraught relationship with history. In the late 1980s, he thought it was over.(...)
books
Charlie Bertsch / 08 Jun 2022
Switzerland or Bust
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. (...)
Basilio Korman / 30 May 2022
The Story of a Hardcore Band
Collezione di Attimi, by Negazione
For a brief period, Italy was home to the best punk in Europe. (...)
John Foster / 27 May 2022
The Bad Influencers
A World After Liberalism, by Matthew Rose
In the aptly titled A World After Liberalism, Matthew Rose presents a series of close readings of reactionary thinkers who helped shape today’s far-right.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 18 May 2022
The Thomas Mann Mountain
Learning to Read Again
As I made my way up the trail, the late-afternoon sun temporarily muted by clouds, I suddenly realised how strange my situation was.(...)
![Old problem, new graffiti. Via Padova, Milano. [Joel Schalit]](https://thebattleground.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Old-problem-new-graffiti.-Via-Padova-Milano-1024x683.jpg)
John Foster / 13 May 2022
Know It When We See It
George Mosse on Fascism
One of the great ironies of today's politics is that when it comes to fascism, it’s often difficult to know what one is talking about.(...)
John Foster / 01 Apr 2022
The Post-Soviet Future
Ukraine’s Revolt, Russia’s Revenge, by Christopher Smith
If the war in Ukraine has taught us anything, it’s that really good henchman are hard to find.(...)
John Foster / 25 Mar 2022
Diversity Without Nationalism
Heaven in Disorder, by Slavoj Žižek
One is always a bit apprehensive when cracking the latest publication by the eminent Slovenian curmudgeon Slavoj Žižek.(...)
The Battleground / 21 Mar 2022
Never Mind the News
The Battleground’s Spring Books List
It's easier than ever to lose sight of books. With global crises overtaking our lives every couple of years now, to read anything other than news gets harder by the day.(...)
John Foster / 11 Mar 2022
Looking for a New Left
The End of the End of History, by Hochuli, Hoare and Cunliffe
It’s fun to laugh at Francis Fukuyama. It’s even more fun to laugh at the legions of people who misinterpreted his 1992 blockbuster, The End of History and the Last Man.(...)