Charlie Bertsch / 28 Sep 2022
The Work of Remembrance
Germany, Year Zero, Today
It’s hard to watch Roberto Rossellini’s 1948 film Germany, Year Zero to its conclusion. The mood is relentlessly bleak and the landscape bleaker still.(...)
War
Zhenia Perutska / 16 Sep 2022
Resisting Russia
Learning Anti-Colonialism in Ukraine
In school, we’d always have two different classes for Ukrainian and foreign literature.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 13 Jul 2022
Imagining a Different Future
Reconsidering Susan Sontag, Part II
Even as Susan Sontag’s celebrity has dimmed, the time she spent in battered Sarajevo in the 1990s, directing Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot remains a touchstone in discussions of intellectual engagement.(...)
The Battleground / 13 Jun 2022
End of An Era
The Battleground’s Summer Books List
“No more blood.” The graffiti has been there for as long as I can remember.(...)
Joel Schalit / 17 May 2022
Sharing the Tragedy
Nakba Day in Torino
No European city knows the Nakba like Berlin. At least in my part of town, Neukölln.(...)
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.(...)
Charlie Bertsch / 23 Mar 2022
Club Music at War
Sounds of Survival: From Ukrainian Underground
Sounds of Survival: From Ukrainian Underground is so consistently good that its social function almost seems extraneous. We should have been listening to this music before we felt it was our democratic duty.(...)
John Foster / 25 Feb 2022
The Country to End All Countries
Russia vs. Ukraine
No sooner had the Winter Olympics closing ceremonies ended than the invasion of Ukraine began.(...)