Erin Litteken tells the story of four generations of women of an American family. At the centre of the story is Cassie, the young widow, who struggles to come to terms with her husband’s recent death in an accident. She lives in Wisconsin with her little daughter Birdie, who has not spoken since her father… Continue reading Remembering the Holodomor
Copenhagen’s Design Museum sparkles with new ideas
Previously famed for its exhibition of Danish chairs, the Design Museum in Copenhagen reopened on Sunday sparkling with an exhibition about the design of the future influenced both by the challenges of climate change and the experiences of the pandemic. The tour winding through the newly refurbished rooms takes you from soft walls made of… Continue reading Copenhagen’s Design Museum sparkles with new ideas
Passengers
I have just finished reading Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz’ The Passenger, the story of a Jewish businessman trying to escape the Nazis in the wake of Kristallnacht. The novel opens on 9 November with a visit of Nazi officers to the Berlin flat of Otto Silbermann which sees one of his few remaining friends attacked, while the… Continue reading Passengers
Queuing for Knowledge and free Wi-Fi
The queues at the British Library are getting longer again. On this Tuesday morning just before 9.30 the line meanders across the forecourt right through to the gate on the Euston Road. Yet, not everyone understands quite what the fuss is about. A young man in a hoodie turns round to me in amazement and… Continue reading Queuing for Knowledge and free Wi-Fi
Museums are living things that evolve with us
Located at a small distance from the street markets, old factory buildings and designer shops in hipstery Shoreditch there is London’s Museum of the Home. From a distance, the complex looks a bit like an eighteenth-century hospital or a school, set in ample grounds with a well maintained lawn. As a matter of fact, the… Continue reading Museums are living things that evolve with us
Beyond the Old White Men: Women in English Republicanism
‘The history of old white men is on its way out’, a friend of mine and I agreed on a recent Zoom call. He is working on seventeenth-century English royalist thought, I’m working on republicanism. We’re both interested in gender issues and wondering how to make our research more inclusive and relevant. Old-white-men history should… Continue reading Beyond the Old White Men: Women in English Republicanism
Risk and Controversy – The Life of Mary Wortley Montagu
The story of a woman who has her children inoculated against the smallpox at a time when most people, including the medical establishment, were highly sceptical towards such foreign practices certainly makes for timely reading during a pandemic. Sometimes it is worth taking a small risk to avoid a larger one. Mary Wortley Montagu learnt… Continue reading Risk and Controversy – The Life of Mary Wortley Montagu
Working with Translations in the History of Political Thought
As part of my project on ‘English republican ideas and translation networks in early modern Germany’, I look at the ways in which ideas from the English Revolution spread and were received in the German-speaking areas of Europe through the means of translation, and what potential impact they might have had on the constitutional debates… Continue reading Working with Translations in the History of Political Thought
Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun takes on the big questions
During the pandemic I have started reading more fiction again, and any new book arriving through the post has been greeted with some excitement. Yet, I had pre-ordered Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel with a mix of both eager anticipation and an ever-so-slight fear of disappointment. I had liked Ishiguro long before anybody thought of giving… Continue reading Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun takes on the big questions
Defending the English Revolution in the German Lands
In his study of the contemporary reception of the English Revolution in the German-speaking lands of continental Europe, Günter Berghaus stresses that a large majority of pamphlets published on the subject in German were biased towards the Stuart monarchy. This is little surprising given that the majority of territories were ruled by princes who were… Continue reading Defending the English Revolution in the German Lands
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