When Sheila Fitzpatrick first went to Moscow in the 1960s as a young academic, the prevailing understanding of the Soviet Union in the West was governed by the ‘totalitarian hypothesis’, of a system ruled entirely from the top down. Her examination of the ministry papers of Anatoly Lunacharsky, the first Commissar of Enlightenment after the Revolution, chall ... Show More
Jun 25
The Best-Paid Woman in NYC
As J.P. Morgan's personal librarian, entrusted with building his collection, Belle da Costa Greene could ‘spend more money in an afternoon than any other young woman of 26’, as the New York Times put it in 1912. In the latest LRB, Francesca Wade reviews a new biography of Greene ... Show More
40m 2s
Dec 2024
Samuel Hodgkin, "Persianate Verse and the Poetics of Eastern Internationalism" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
At the height of literary nationalisms in the twentieth century, leftist internationalists from Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, India, and the Soviet East bonded over their shared love of the classical Persian verses of Hafiz and Khayyam. At writers' congresses and in communist litera ... Show More
1h 2m
Jun 2023
15. Tanks Riding Towards Moscow
Vladimir Putin survived the short lived revolt that saw thousands of mercenaries march towards Moscow, but at what cost?Jonny Dymond is joined by:Polina Ivanova: foreign correspondent for the Financial Times, covering Russia and Ukraine. Owen Matthews: journalist, historian and a ... Show More
28m 54s
Jun 11
From the archive: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o: three days with a giant of African literature
We are raiding the Guardian long read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors. This week, from 2023: The Kenyan novelist’s life and work has intersected with many of the biggest events of the past century. At 85, he refle ... Show More
59m 5s
Mar 2025
The philosophy of geopolitics SPECIAL | Donald Trump, Homer's Odyssey, and Korean Web Novels
What do Friedrich Nietzsche, the Korean War, and Homer's Odyssey have in common?Join the team at the IAI for four articles about the history and philosophy of geopolitics, ranging from Nietzsche's impact on Russia's imperialist strategies to the importance of Ancient Greek traged ... Show More
43m 55s
Sep 2024
Jennifer L. Lambe, "The Subject of Revolution: Between Political and Popular Culture in Cuba" (UNC Press, 2024)
From television to travel bans, geopolitics to popular dance, The Subject of Revolution: Between Political and Popular Culture in Cuba (UNC Press, 2024) explores how knowledge about the 1959 Cuban Revolution was produced and how the Revolution in turn shaped new worldviews. Drawi ... Show More
56m 44s