1+ day, 7+ hour ago  (1284+ words) Writing the history of classical music'Engelsberg Ideas Writing the history of classical music Robin Holloway's monumental 'Music's Odyssey' and Tom Service's 'A History of the World in 50 Pieces' offer sharply contrasting visions of how the story of western classical music…...

2+ day, 8+ hour ago  (175+ words) Arthur Miller's 'Broken Glass' explores how memories of the Holocaust filter into Jewish American identity. Tim Gibbons conjures up a beguiling sound design. The cellist that introduces each of Miller's acts is replaced by background strains of jazz. Loud discordant…...

2+ day, 12+ hour ago  (148+ words) Museums now invite visitors behind the scenes. The result is a new kind of historical sublime: human creativity measured by volume. The boundaries of scientific knowledge have since expanded and museums have diversified in response, from the scientific to the…...

2+ day, 13+ hour ago  (1078+ words) Moll Flanders and the invention of modern life'Engelsberg Ideas Moll Flanders and the invention of modern life In his picaresque novel 'Moll Flanders', Daniel Defoe presents experience as the true measure of character. In 1722, as London's financial markets expanded and…...

3+ day, 7+ hour ago  (556+ words) It is half a century since Tom Wolfe coined the phrase the 'Me Decade'. Yet Me, We and You no longer capture a world increasingly shaped by 'Them' " the systems and machines that now structure human life. "If I've only…...

1+ week, 12+ hour ago  (534+ words) Set during the drama of the French and Indian War, James Fenimore Cooper's epic tale of survival, love and vengeance captures the many contradictions at the heart of America's national story. Is it a Western? Not in the sense that…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago  (233+ words) In the late playwright's masterpiece, the humanities remain indispensable to any vision of human flourishing. I've had the good fortune to see Arcadia three times " at the St Louis Repertory Theater in 1997, at the Folger Theater in Washington DC in…...

2+ week, 3+ day ago  (1329+ words) J'rgen Habermas" lost world: the coffee-house and the public sphere'Engelsberg Ideas J'rgen Habermas" lost world: the coffee-house and the public sphere J'rgen Habermas' enduring work began in the coffee-houses of Georgian London. His deepest insight was, in the end, a…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago  (1386+ words) Hitler's last days: the first draft of history'Engelsberg Ideas Hitler's last days: the first draft of history The bitter end of Hitler's life was reconstructed almost immediately by the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper. It remains a classic account. On Wednesday 8 November,…...

7+ mon, 1+ week ago  (1027+ words) Despite being the first capital of a united Italy, Turin does not feel remotely Italian. Yet the longer one wanders its streets, the more the city's powerful role in forging the modern Italian nation becomes clear. Turin, the strange heart…...