In 1937 Jean Renoir directed a film called ‘La Grande Illusion’ about French prisoners-of-war during World War I. The title came from a book published in 1909 by Norman Angell called ‘The Great Illusion’ which argued that war is futile because of the common economic interests of all European nations. This is, of course, the […]
According to Ian Dunt, author of ‘How to be a liberal’ (Canbury Press, 2020; £25), liberalism was born the moment Decartes wrote: ‘I am a real thing, and really exist, but what thing? A thinking thing’. Liberalism then went back to its cot for a few years to re-emerge, in a different form, with the […]
An updated and expanded version of In Limbo has recently been published by Spokesman Books. The first edition covered the fears, anxieties and feelings of betrayal – by the UK, by friends and, in some cases, by families – of EU citizens living in the UK. Does the updated version tell us of a happy […]
Ed: This review is of the first edition of “In Limbo”. It will be updated shortly based on the second edition, “In Limbo too”. One of the more sickening aspects of Brexit is the impact it has had on the lives of EU citizens, resident or working in the UK. They came to this country […]
A comparison of the post-war history of Germany and the UK is revealing. And embarrassing if you are British. Germany has gone from being a pariah state with a wrecked economy to a model of democracy with a successful economy, whereas Britain … Why is this? John Kampfner provides a compelling explanation in ‘Why the […]
Anne Applebaum is the author of the prize-winning ‘Gulag: A History’, ‘Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956’ and ‘Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine’. Her latest book, ‘Twilight of Democracy – The Failure of Politics and the parting of friends’, (Allen Lane, 2020) – is not quite in the same league. As in […]