A 1987 performance by the great Russian pianist Sviatoslav Richter reveals Haydn's exquisite, often overlooked piano sonatas.

In the age of AI, aspiring writers should turn to masters of the epigram such as Luca Turin, Ian Nairn and David Thomson, whose writing relishes precision, personality and inimitable wit.

Paul Lay speaks to Phil Tinline (https://engelsbergideas.com/author/phil-tinline/) , author of Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax that Duped America and its Sinister Legacy, about the variety and viole...

A close examination of the history of statecraft reveals that grand strategy works best when competing ideas collide, and rigorous processes challenge prevailing orthodoxies.

The English painter captured an emerging world of industry and innovation, discovery and dissemination, against the background of the Industrial Revolution.

The assassination in 1995 of Yitzhak Rabin was a watershed moment in the gradual disintegration of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, paving the way for greater bloodshed in the Middle East.

The Blitz club’s influence on eighties fashion proved to be far greater than its influence on music.

The 18th-century philosopher Thomas Day, a fanatical believer in the virtues of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's educational methods, tested his theories to destruction.

Josephine Tey's early death denied her a rightful place among the pantheon of crime writers.

The West's political institutions should strive to do less, but better.

All Werner Herzog's works are mysterious; they never quite resolve into a simple idea or conclusion. His latest book explains why.

From Stalin’s 1941 May Day parade in Moscow to Xi’s Tiananmen Square display, military spectacles have long been used to project power and mask vulnerability.

A mercantilist, multipolar geopolitical system appears to be emerging from within the liberal world order, destined to replace it. The experience of Britain's imperial past suggests that this transfor...

Black Ribbon Day, which commemorates the millions of victims who suffered under Nazism and Stalinism, acts as a poignant reminder of the dangers of totalitarianism.

Eight questions about writers, books, and reading…

The industrialist Henry J. Kaiser played a pivotal role in the lightning mobilisation of American industry that took place after Pearl Harbor, a contribution that deserves wider recognition.

Syria’s Druze have often been caught between their commitment to national independence and a wariness of Sunni domination.

Reading Mein Kampf, 100 years on from its first appearance, can help us better understand a historical moment which still so profoundly structures our world, as it fades into the distance.

Unveiled 125 years ago, the Métropolitan marked Paris’s leap into modernity at the turn of the century, with Guimard’s once-controversial station entrances now enduring emblems of the city's spirit.

Is the time up for heroes and heroines on banknotes and in society in general?

History Podcast · Updated Weekly · This podcast seeks to learn what war teaches. There has been a steady decline in the study of military history and its associated theoretical discipline, strategy.Th...

Nietzsche did not write for the distracted, the hurried, or the comfortable. He believed that a book should demand effort, provoke resistance, and leave a mark.

The composer Erik Satie would have understood our era of atrophied attention spans and mass-produced music.

Despite the peace signs and pat slogans of togetherness and diversity, the rock festival, like the genre it celebrates, has, from its beginnings, had issues with ethical consistency.

William Blake, the poet-painter who created a mythology all his own, is also the central figure in biographer Philip Hoare’s private cosmos. Such a personal obsession is a major flaw of this bewilderi...

Fiona Hill, distinguished adviser to several US presidents on foreign affairs, spoke to EI’s Jack Dickens about Donald Trump’s fear of nuclear Armageddon, how this fear has shaped Trump’s worldview, a...

A subtle and profound history explores how monasticism shaped Christendom for over a millennium, providing places where heaven met earth and flawed human spirits might soar, however briefly, upwards t...

The current trade war is a consequence of successive American presidents' failure to stand up to China as it returned to hardline state control of the economy. The global economy is now paying the pri...

The rise and fall of the world's first millionaire, a swashbuckling Scottish financier who all but bankrupted 18th-century France, may offer lessons for the world's first trillionaire and those making...

Amid domestic upheaval and international tensions, South Korea's next president will have to move quickly to mend its relationship with the United States and counter threats from a resurgent North Kor...

For decades, Marine Le Pen has called for stricter laws to tackle corruption in public life. Now, the law has caught up with her, unleashing a political earthquake that could transform France's politi...

Podcast Episode · Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts · 27/03/2025 · 51m

A vivid account tells the story of Belgian colonialism in Africa with the skill of a seasoned travel writer, exposing a history of hubris and greed that has cast a long shadow.

Those who seek to divide up Syria should know that partitions never work. They are at best arbitrary and are always enforced with violence, as the history of the Middle East has shown time and time ag...

In 1948, the UN General Assembly ratified the Genocide Convention to punish and prevent one of humanity's worst crimes. Today, questions arise about whether this legal framework is able to fulfil its ...

In the early eighteenth century, a victorious but war-weary Britain sought a peace with France based on a hard-headed, unsentimental approach to its own national interests. The resulting deal disappoi...

Technology has become a convenient scapegoat for the decline of literacy. The real problem lies in our society’s approach to reading as a shallow mode of self-expression rather than as a tool of searc...

Technology has become a convenient scapegoat for the decline of literacy. The real problem lies in our society’s approach to reading as a shallow mode of self-expression rather than as a tool of searc...

The Donald Trump we know today has a lot in common with the Trump of 2000 or 1988. It is the strength and consistency of the President's core convictions that allows him to make the political weather ...

Even now, on the third anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion, Ukrainians remain valiant and defiant. But with Washington withdrawing its support for their struggle, Europe remains ill pr...

European leaders shouldn’t be surprised that the United States is reverting to its isolationist type. The Atlanticist Era has lasted for longer than anyone ever imagined, and its ‘end’ is only tempora...