The Zhivago Affair: one of the Cold War’s most fascinating cultural skirmishes / Boris Pasternak’s refusal of The Nobel Prize. His son’s memoirs

First posted June 21, 2014 The Zhivago Affair by Peter Finn and Petra Couvee Reviewed by Adam Kirsch More than Christianity, however, life itself is Zhivago’s sacred value – his name is related to the Russian word for life – and he despises every ideology that claims to be superior to life, to be able to… Read More The Zhivago Affair: one of the Cold War’s most fascinating cultural skirmishes / Boris Pasternak’s refusal of The Nobel Prize. His son’s memoirs

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The Bolshevik Heritage. By Dilip Simeon

First posted November 3, 2017 NB: This essay has appeared in EPW’s special number commemorating the centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution, which falls on November 7. (A Word file is downloadable here). The revolution began on February 23, 1917, (March 8 according to the new calendar adopted in 1918); but for complex reasons, tended to be identified with the… Read More The Bolshevik Heritage. By Dilip Simeon

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Alfred Dreyfus revisited: Émile Zola on the run in London, 1898, by Michael Rosen

First posted December 29, 2016 The Disappearance of Emil Zola: Love, Literature and the Dreyfus Case  by Michael Rosen[Emile Zola was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment after writing “J’accuse”, an open letter to the French government accusing it of anti-semitism in the Dreyfus affair. Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army, had… Read More Alfred Dreyfus revisited: Émile Zola on the run in London, 1898, by Michael Rosen

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What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer

Of Truth, by Francis Bacon     In this essay, as associate professor of philosophy Svetozar Minkov points out, Bacon addresses the question of “whether it is worse to lie to others or to oneself–to possess truth (and lie, when necessary, to others) or to think one possesses the truth but be mistaken and hence unintentionally… Read More What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer

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Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo (1955-2017) Dead At 61, After Years Of Imprisonment. ‘Without freedom, China will always remain far from civilized ideals’

First posted July 13, 2017 NB: The Chinese Communist Party should hang its head in shame at this brutal judicial murder of one of China’s gentlest and kindest souls, whose only crime was that he wanted freedom and democracy for the Chinese people and had the temerity to demand a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. In… Read More Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo (1955-2017) Dead At 61, After Years Of Imprisonment. ‘Without freedom, China will always remain far from civilized ideals’

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The Greenland ice sheet is losing ice faster than forecast and now committed to at least 10 inches of sea level rise

Alun Hubbard I’m standing at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, mesmerized by a mind-blowing scene of natural destruction. A milewide section of glacier front has fractured and is collapsing into the ocean, calving an immense iceberg. Seracs, giant columns of ice the height of three-story houses, are being tossed around like dice. And… Read More The Greenland ice sheet is losing ice faster than forecast and now committed to at least 10 inches of sea level rise

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When fascism is female

Sophie Boulter Giorgia Meloni could become Italy’s first female prime minister after snap election on 25 September. Her political rise is no isolated case: ‘femonationalism’ is flourishing throughout Europe, disguising extremes as the next socially acceptable, mainstream choice. Recently, Giorgia Meloni, the leader of Italy’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, sent out a memo cautioning party members… Read More When fascism is female

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