History
John Foster / 28 Apr 2023

Never Fully European

David Graeber’s Final Books

David Graeber’s death in September 2020 was a tragedy. Few radicals are as intellectually curious and creative as he was.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 12 Apr 2023

Fear of Fascism

Carl Dreyer’s Vampyr

Carl Dreyer’s 1932 film Vampyr is as remarkable for what it leaves out as what it puts in. Although full of shots that linger in memory like a bright light does after you close your eyes, the film’s greatest achievement is its refusal to follow the rules of its genre.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 05 Apr 2023

Turkish Future Past

Aşk, by Altin Gün

There are far worse things than sounding like a B-movie soundtrack from the 1970s. But when you combine that aesthetic with excellent musicianship and a willingness to experiment, the results are bound to bring pleasure.(...)
John Foster / 24 Mar 2023

Buried in the Past

The DUP’s Northern Ireland

“Not all people live in the same now.” Penned by Ernst Bloch to account for the rise of the Nazis, the 1935 truism could just as well apply to today’s Europe.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 23 Mar 2023

All About the Heimat

Music as Politics in 1980s Germany

Teenagers were milling about. Bright colours shot off the portable mirror ball. The DJ stepped up to his console to cue the first track.(...)
John Foster / 24 Feb 2023

The Biggest Failure Ever

R. T. Howard’s Spying on the Reich

From the vantage point of the early 21st century, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the interwar period was a preamble to catastrophe.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 16 Feb 2023

Ukraine in Hindsight

Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger’s astoundingly brutal adaptation of Eric Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel about World War I – the favourite to win this year’s Best International Film Oscar – is timely to a degree that would have been hard to imagine when the project began.(...)
Ari Paul / 13 Feb 2023

Cold War Blame Games

Seymour Hersh and Nord Stream

Seymour Hersh, the legendary investigative journalist who uncovered American war crimes in Vietnam and Iraq, has been in journalistic hibernation for some time. (...)
John Foster / 04 Feb 2023

Fake News About History

Ukraine is Not Stalingrad

Foucault once suggested that Clausewitz's famous observation, "war is not merely a political act but a real political instrument" carried out by other means, be reversed, with politics made an extension of war.(...)

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