A combination of blood, faith, character and luck drove development in North and South America at a staggeringly different pace, resulting in today's bifurcated hemisphere. Why the two Americas diverged | Anthony DePalma engelsbergideas.com/essays/why-t...

My review of “The People’s Emperor” — a brilliant new biography of Napoleon III by @edwardshawcross.bsky.social This compulsively readable book makes a serious contribution to our understanding of one of France’s most enigmatic rulers:

Really enjoyed this conversation with @paullay.bsky.social of @engelsbergideas.bsky.social about 250 years of what Philip Roth called the American Berserk: audioboom.com/posts/892352...

🎧The EI Podcast: 250 years of the American experiment Paul Lay speaks to @philtinline.bsky.social Tinline about the variety and violence of a country built on high ideals and low conspiracies. audioboom.com/posts/892352...

My review of “The People’s Emperor” — a brilliant new biography of Napoleon III by @edwardshawcross.bsky.social This compulsively readable book makes a serious contribution to our understanding of one of France’s most enigmatic rulers:

The French emperor Napoleon III was a highly skilled politician whose audacity and breadth of imagination allowed him to perceive trends of great historical significance. The unlikely triumph of Napoleon III | @jackfdickens.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...

Once at the heart of great empires, the West African city has long loomed large in the imaginations of European explorers, both as a shining beacon of civilisation and a pitiful symbol of desolation. In search of Timbuktu | William Gourlay engelsbergideas.com/notebook/in-...

As Europe and the United States take economic security seriously, Britain remains wedded to an out-of-date 'just-in-time' attitude to supply chains and energy. How Britain lost the art of economic warfare | Oliver Harvey and Sahil Mahtani engelsbergideas.com/essays/how-b...

On the 10th anniversary of the referendum, three recent histories explore Britain's fraught relationship with the EU. Brexit and the roads not taken | Sean McGlynn engelsbergideas.com/reviews/brex...

🎧Jean Eustache: the outsider who reshaped French cinema In this audio essay, Muriel Zagha explores how the famous director differed from his Nouvelle Vague contemporaries. audioboom.com/posts/891936...

Arthur Schopenhauer's contribution to western philosophy made little impression at first, but would later influence the likes of Tolstoy, Proust and Wagner. Schopenhauer’s devoted disciples | David Coates engelsbergideas.com/notebook/sch...

Ukraine's resistance to Russian maritime coercion offers a template for how states committed to freedom of navigation can deter those who threaten it. Ukraine and the fight for freedom of navigation | Oleksii Reznikov and Dalibor Rohac engelsbergideas.com/essays/ukrai...

🎧 The EI Podcast: Christianity's debt to Rome Tim Whitmarsh speaks to EI’s @alastairbenn.bsky.social about his new book, 'Rome’s Age of Revolution: Augustus, Empire and the Making of Christianity'. audioboom.com/posts/892075...

The new craze for biblical eating has roots in two centuries of American Christian food culture. On the craze for eating God’s way | Zoe Strimpel engelsbergideas.com/notebook/on-...

Secessionists in America's South were convinced that Britain's mills could not survive without their cotton. They had not reckoned with how adaptable an economy under strain can be. Abraham Lincoln’s war on King Cotton | @duncanweldon.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/essays/abrah...

Britain’s other age of instability | Max Skjönsberg engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bri...

🎧Audio essay: Where is Russia’s place in the world? Russia is a Near Eastern country now subordinated to East Asia. But Stephen Kotkin argues that, historically, it has prospered most when tied closely to Europe. audioboom.com/posts/892203...

Through his rigorous archival work and sense of moral duty, the Austrian investigative journalist Hubertus Czernin was able to confront his country's complicity in the horrors of the Third Reich. Hubertus Czernin put Austria on trial | Katherine Simms engelsbergideas.com/notebook/hub...

Recent innovations in artificial intelligence may make it possible to train autonomous weapons systems to act with a moral compass on the battlefield, though human oversight will still be needed. Drone warfare with a moral code | David Omand engelsbergideas.com/notebook/dro...

A man in constant motion, Whistler was a painter, printmaker and provocateur who spent a lifetime reinventing both himself and his art. The restless eye of James McNeill Whistler | Alexandra Wilson (@amwilson.bsky.social) engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...

Throughout its history, Islam has been a motor of change and transformation, defined as much by its variety and adaptability to lived experience as by struggles over competing interpretations of scripture. The worlds that Islam made | Shiraz Maher engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-w...

Forster rejected the racial classifications of his age, and his capacity for forgiveness was almost inhuman. Andrea Wulf lets the reader bask in his sensitive apprehension of the world. George Forster’s dazzlingly humane vision | @mathewlyons.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/geor...

Since joining NATO, Helsinki has been forced to rethink its approach to the Baltic. The transformation of Finland’s Baltic Sea strategy | Tuomas Forsberg engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-t...

Three centuries on, Jonathan Swift's misanthropic masterpiece continues to delight new audiences. Gulliver never stopped travelling | @alecmarsh.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/essays/gulli...

The archive of 'The Dick Cavett Show' is a reminder that chat show interviews were once conducted with wit and intelligence. When chat shows were worth watching | @paullay.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/whe...

My latest interview on the EI Podcast is with the distinguished historian Margaret MacMillan on how to manage conflict and make peace:

🎧The EI Podcast: How to end a war Margaret MacMillan speaks to Jack Dickens about the realities of diplomacy in a multipolar world. audioboom.com/posts/891773...

Economic incentives can bring Iran to the table; they should not buy an agreement that falls well short of America's own objectives. The art of a bad deal | Marc Polymeropoulos (@mpolymer1.bsky.social) and Sam Worby engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

Why reviving Stalin’s Arctic canal is a strategic prize for Russia | Brigita Van den Houta engelsbergideas.com/notebook/why...

Britain's wartime leader was also a gifted amateur painter, whose oeuvre, close in style to the English impressionists, offers a striking perspective on his extraordinary life. Winston Churchill’s world in paintings | Peter Caddick-Adams engelsbergideas.com/reviews/wins...

Russia's geopolitics has been shaped by centuries of dealing with both the settled communities of the west and the nomadic peoples of the steppe to its east and south. The statecraft of the steppe | David Chaffetz engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

The Turkish president has pacified his country's political opposition, bringing about the culmination point of two decades of pragmatic authoritarianism. Erdogan’s coup is complete | Hannah Lucinda Smith engelsbergideas.com/notebook/erd...

The heritage of Tyre, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, is under threat in the latest phase of the conflict in South Lebanon. Tyre: a city in the sea | Katherine Pangonis engelsbergideas.com/notebook/tyr...

Singapore's survival in an increasingly tricky neighbourhood holds pointed lessons for Europe's smaller states. What small states can learn from Singapore | Floris van Berckel Smit and Deborah Koh engelsbergideas.com/essays/what-...

🎧The EI Podcast: Why Armenia’s elections matter Thomas de Waal joins EI’s Jack Dickens to discuss how the recent elections in Armenia could reshape geopolitics in the Caucasus and beyond. audioboom.com/posts/891534...

There are some great recommendations for summer reading here, in amongst evocative anecdotes and memories. It's in alphabetical order so you will need to read right to the end for my contribution.

Throughout the Cold War, Sweden pursued a shrewd diplomatic strategy in the Baltic, calming tensions between the superpowers while quietly aligning itself with the democratic West. Sweden’s Cold War tightrope | Magnus Petersson engelsbergideas.com/essays/swede...

'As Turkey’s descent into autocracy quickens, this is a timely and vital reminder of the impact on the people living through it' @hannahluci.bsky.social picks #FromLifeItself by Suzy Hansen as a summer read for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social.

Spufford's new novel conjures a wartime London at once enchanting and terrifying, alive with metamorphic possibility. Francis Spufford’s incorrigibly plural world | @mathewlyons.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/fran...

French attitudes to the American republic were shaped by the culture of Enlightenment and Revolution, and gave way to a sense of disillusionment as the decades took their course. The America of the French imagination | Jeremy Jennings engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-a...

Contributors to Engelsberg Ideas share the books they’ve enjoyed in the summers of their lives. engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-sum...

🎧The EI Podcast: China's bid for economic supremacy @george17.bsky.social speaks to EI's @jackfdickens.bsky.social about the geopolitical logic behind China’s economic strategy. audioboom.com/posts/891215...

🎧The EI Podcast: Muslims and Jews' shared inheritance @marcdavidbaer1.bsky.social speaks to EI’s @paullay.bsky.social about his new book 'Children of Abraham: The Story of Jewish-Muslim Relations', and the deep historical connection between two faiths. engelsbergideas.com/podcast/musl...

The encroachment of AI into literature is catastrophic for writers, not because of how bad its outputs are or how unoriginal it makes us, but because of what it does to the practice of writing. The case against AI: writing isn’t meant to be easy | Alexander Lee engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...

🎧Audio essay: A Jewish-American dream The largest Jewish community in the world is defined by its deep integration into America's national story, its liberal traditions and scepticism towards Israeli governments. audioboom.com/posts/891020...

The embattled Turkish Republican People's Party must confront a difficult lesson from their country's recent past: that the state can only be challenged successfully from the right. Why Turkey’s opposition is losing the culture war | Halil Karaveli engelsbergideas.com/notebook/why...

A study of England's greatest playwright questions received truths by taking an ahistorical approach. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The elusive mind of Shakespeare | @davidwootton.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...

A shattered economy and an unbending hostility to Israel could prove far more dangerous to the Islamic Republic's survival than the war itself. How Iran could survive the war but lose the peace | Meir Javedanfar engelsbergideas.com/essays/how-i...

After two military defeats and the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia is betting on peace with Azerbaijan and a future beyond Russia. Armenia, Azerbaijan and the unfinished peace | @tomdewaal.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/essays/armen...

President Zelensky's awarding of state honours to a Ukrainian nationalist has angered politicians across Poland, a crucial ally in the war effort. The ghosts of Ukraine’s past | Owen Matthews engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...