Inspirations from Roberto Calasso
I aspire to write history not like a dry professor, but more like the shimmering mysteries…
Third Rome
First there was the Latin empire, polyglot and legal, centred on Rome. Then there was the…
Thoughts on coasts
We think about history in categories that are the imprints of how generations of tradition have…
The disappearance of stories from the world
If Snorri Sturlusen had not turned his court poet ear to the old stories among his…
A new dark age
It is a dark age when learning is despised; when violence prowls our streets; when the…
Traditions beyond politics
For much of my life I have thought about questions of politics and government. How can…
Islam and false lessons from history.
Tony Abbott has provoked outrage in some circles, and proud banner raising in others, by proposing…
The return of the venal office and tax-farmer
The French Revolution was in part a revolt against a degraded court, whose profligacy in prestige…
Final millennial prediction: initiative will continue to shift
Fernandez-Armesto’s final prediction is almost too mild. It would seem like stating the obvious until you…
Political order and political decay in Australia
If there has been a single problem facing contemporary democracies, either aspiring or well established, it…