24th April 2020
Perpetrating an aura of unreality may be useful, writes Owen Dudley Edwards, in conceiving of the bonds that have connected and codified these island nations... Jsfmboe, Fohmboe and Tdpumboe...
21st March 2020
The tragic slowness of our reaction to the coronavirus and the putting of systematic safety measures in place has contrasted with the relatively swift and mature reaction of the French (and other nations) to this emergency. But is it a sign of a wider conservative and sclerotic inability to act that has taken hold of our society? How could we measure these things? Clarisse Godard Desmarest sets the ball rolling with a description of the terrible fires at both Notre Dame in Paris and Glasgow School of Art, and the reaction of the authorities in each case.
19th March 2020
The introduction to Benjamin’s Arcades Project, was written in 1938 but not published until long after his death. It is an attempt to categorically reveal how, through the apparent chaos and convulsions in 19th century Parisian culture and society, great explorations and exposés of the realities of the epoch and its ramifications for later generations, are afforded us by examination of the lives and works of its inhabitants.
2nd March 2020
Taking inspiration from James Shapiro’s Contested Will Owen Dudley Edwards takes a wry look at the absurdist snobbery and the sheer daftness of the ‘who really wrote Shakespeare?’ tradition.
14th February 2020
Hailed as a significant technical achievement, Owen Dudley Edwards sees the film 1917 as a great humanising agent.
19th December 2019
Based on three in-depth conversations with the former President of the Soviet Union, Meeting Gorbachev (2019) is the latest documentary from Werner Herzog. How does ‘ecstatic truth’ fare when contending […]
13th December 2019
It seems appropriate to publish a long meditation on the nature and history of federalism on the day of a British election where Brexit is the pressing issue and the […]
27th November 2019
When Marc Augé wrote in The Future that ‘Every protest is a form of research’ he could have been describing the artwork(s) / protest / civil disobedience / celebration / sit-in that was […]
11th November 2019
The principle of self-government of provinces is at the heart of the concept of 'Federation', and ‘The grassroots’ is for many, an inherently leftist, liberal construct. Yet as Andrea Gibbons shows, the white supremacists who shaped the growth of Los Angeles force us to reassess out assumptions over the innate virtues of ‘participation’ .