Reflections on Jeremy Paxman's book, 'Empire: What ruling the world did to the British'.
Spartacus, a monstrosity of sentimentality, only survives in annual repeats on daytime television; Full Metal Jacket is regarded as one of the great 'Nam movies. Strong thematic and structural parallels, however, bind the two films together, and the nauseous incontinence of the earlier film can he
As Britain publishes its first 'national wellbeing indicators', OurKingdom wraps up our debate on happiness. Here, the editor of the debate looks back on the series of articles inspired by the growing interest in happiness shown by politicians, economists, statisticians and psychologists.
Britain once feared the 'excessive desires' of the 'undeserving poor'. Today, the myth of a socially mobile UK is built on the promise that everyone can reach the stars: the production of irrational hope and the canny management of disappointment.
The ‘Arab revolution’ as a phenomenon backed by France and its allies is evidence of the arbitrariness of liberal democracy long ago identified by the German jurist Carl Schmitt: it is no more than rule achieved through a state of emergency.
This misguided but determined focus on the ‘continuing’ threat of Sha’ria law in Libya and other North African counterparts is obscuring the real twin issues of freedom of expression and equal rights for all.
The run up to the Tunisian elections was filled with a disruptive campaigning that appeared in parallel to electoral campaigns. At the time, a worried Tunisian called for vigilance against manipulative attempts to divert the people’s attention away from real issues. This article was first publishe
Before Soviet rule, Georgian capital Tbilisi had none of the towering blocks, highways and marble palaces that today stand as symbols to a fallen, rejected regime. Why, therefore have Georgia’s young leaders chosen to continue this imposing neo-classical language in their own buildings, asks Pawel
To mark one hundred years of aerial bombing, we publish this detailed account of the path that led us from bombing cities, forests and target boxes to putting 'warheads on foreheads' in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Derek Gregory argues that our understanding of bombing has been dominated by political
Populist movements pick up significant levels of support by presenting themselves as ordinary Joes who are honest and up-front about society’s problems. The most successful leaders are those that can embody this folksy outsider image
This article is part of a series on the #Occupy movements.
Ed Miliband yesterday posted an article in which he noticed the existence of the occupation of Saint Paul’s,
