Latest Posts
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Two new podcasts on the uses of history in government and decision-making
Episode 63 The Lessons of History – The Burning Archive podcast explores how the past is not dead, the past is not even past. But if that is so, what are the uses and lessons of history? How can history be used for guidance in our lives, and to advise governments on the big decisions that shape […]
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Two new podcasts on America and Australian Foreign Policy
I have released two new podcasts on the crises in America and the challenges of a multipolar world for Australia.
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Two New Podcasts on Russia and Ukraine
Tonight I released my latest podcast, Please Don’t Cancel Russia, episode 60. When in early 2022 Russia decided to invade Ukraine, the Western world especially the Anglo-American World went mad kind of mad – with anger, fury and some justified rage. But it also made a strange attempt not just to restore International Peace, but […]
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The making of my podcast marathon on Civilizations
I have just released episode 55 of the Burning Archive podcast. This episode is about the concept of civilization, in both the legendary game Civ I-VI and in the traditions of history-writing. Civilization, the game, is soon to be released in its 7th edition. In this episode of The Burning Archive I respond to a […]
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The Making of My Podcast on the History of the Mafia
Does the history of the mafia have more to do with Italian Risorgimento politics, prisons and the disruptions of the nineteenth century than medieval brotherhoods?
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Who has burned cannot be set on fire.
Yesenin’s poetic celebration of rural life was itself far removed from Yesenin’s real life.
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Poet and Citizen. Struggle and Song
A new Russian writer I discovered this morning is Nikolai Nekrasov (1821-78)…
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Fragments of Fragments
In 2016 I wrote a couple of posts on lists of writers whose work survives or is best known in fragments, who could even be imagined as the precursors of bloggers.
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New Acquisitions in the Burning Archive
Over the last few weeks I have collected a fair swag of Russian world history and literature.
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Pushkin and the Trauma of the Flood
The Russians of today show no sign of pulling down the great statue of Peter the Great that overlooks the Neva. Nor do they show any signs of cancelling Pushkin.
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Strange Freedom
From this traumatised, divided old Russian Soviet poet, we learn about our own strange freedom.
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The Seminar and the Last Night
Shvarts has become for me an important poet.
The Burning Archive 