Engelsberg Ideas

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Engelsberg Ideas is the home to great writing from the world’s leading thinkers on history, culture, and ideas, featuring essays, historical portraits and regular podcasts.

The austere beauty of Morton Feldman's settings of Samuel Beckett shows how art can escape and reshape time itself.Music...
08/01/2025

The austere beauty of Morton Feldman's settings of Samuel Beckett shows how art can escape and reshape time itself.

Music at the end of time | Benjamin Poore

The austere beauty of Morton Feldman's settings of Samuel Beckett shows how art can escape and reshape time itself.

A new book argues that our fascination with playing games is neither a luxury nor an amusement, but a necessity.A deep h...
07/01/2025

A new book argues that our fascination with playing games is neither a luxury nor an amusement, but a necessity.

A deep history of games | Caroline Eden

A new book argues that our fascination with playing games is neither a luxury nor an amusement, but a necessity.

The cosmopolitanism of the old Middle East is in terminal decline. The decimation of Syria’s Armenian community is just ...
07/01/2025

The cosmopolitanism of the old Middle East is in terminal decline. The decimation of Syria’s Armenian community is just its latest retreat.

Ghosts of the old Middle East | Hannah Lucinda Smith

The true cosmopolitanism of the old Middle East is in terminal decline. The decimation of Syria’s Armenian community is just its latest retreat.

When Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf addressed his nation at Christmas, his message was not a political one. It was about ...
06/01/2025

When Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf addressed his nation at Christmas, his message was not a political one. It was about keeping a country united and resilient in dangerous times.

A monarch’s message of unity | Elisabeth Braw

When Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf addressed his nation at Christmas, his message was not a political one. It was about keeping a country united and resilient in dangerous times.

Merchant Ivory Productions allowed a generation to dream that another world had once existed, infinitely more beautiful,...
06/01/2025

Merchant Ivory Productions allowed a generation to dream that another world had once existed, infinitely more beautiful, infinitely more civilised. Their body of work remains unrivalled.

The decline and fall of period drama | Alexandra Wilson

Merchant Ivory Productions allowed a generation to dream that another world had once existed, infinitely more beautiful, infinitely more civilised. Their body of work remains unrivalled.

Taylor Swift cultivates community through storytelling, a quality in which she far exceeds her contemporaries.The era of...
03/01/2025

Taylor Swift cultivates community through storytelling, a quality in which she far exceeds her contemporaries.

The era of Taylor Swift | Duncan Wheeler

Taylor Swift cultivates community through storytelling, a quality in which she far exceeds her contemporaries.

Three centuries on from the publication of Daniel Defoe’s A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, the English ...
30/12/2024

Three centuries on from the publication of Daniel Defoe’s A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, the English writer's travelogue remains unsurpassed.

Daniel Defoe’s journeys of the mind | Malcolm Forbes

Three centuries on from the publication of Daniel Defoe’s A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain, the English writer's travelogue remains unsurpassed.

The rise of bro-culture, all the way to the US presidency, is an unprecedented shift in America’s vision of itself and i...
27/12/2024

The rise of bro-culture, all the way to the US presidency, is an unprecedented shift in America’s vision of itself and its projection upon the world stage.

How bro-world conquered America | Jenny McCartney

The rise of bro-culture, all the way to the US presidency, is an unprecedented shift in America’s vision of itself and its projection upon the world stage.

Memory, and the need for communal memories, is at the very heart of Christmas.Remembering the true spirit of Christmas |...
24/12/2024

Memory, and the need for communal memories, is at the very heart of Christmas.

Remembering the true spirit of Christmas | Fergus Butler-Gallie

Memory, and the need for communal memories, is at the very heart of Christmas.

While this year has not been one of triumph for the liberal democracies of the West, it has been even worse for its self...
23/12/2024

While this year has not been one of triumph for the liberal democracies of the West, it has been even worse for its self-declared adversaries.

The West’s year of living anxiously | Bill Emmott

While this year has not been one of triumph for the liberal democracies of the West, it has been even worse for its self-declared adversaries.

The fall of Assad’s regime in Syria caught the world off guard, adding to a pattern of surprises in US policy toward the...
20/12/2024

The fall of Assad’s regime in Syria caught the world off guard, adding to a pattern of surprises in US policy toward the country and offering critical lessons for the future of the international order.

Why Assad’s fall took the world by surprise | Alexander Bick

The fall of Assad’s regime in Syria caught the world off guard, adding to a pattern of surprises in US policy toward the country and offering critical lessons for the future of the international order.

Sprezzatura has many meanings, and yet defies definition. It's at once a certain nonchalance, virtue in harmony, a moral...
20/12/2024

Sprezzatura has many meanings, and yet defies definition. It's at once a certain nonchalance, virtue in harmony, a moral rhythm, an ineffable quality and yet instantly recognisable.

What is sprezzatura? | Jaspreet Singh Boparai

Sprezzatura has many meanings, and yet defies definition. It's at once a certain nonchalance, virtue in harmony, a moral rhythm, an ineffable quality and yet instantly recognisable.

Impatient attempts to impose change on society have created fear and resentment. The West has become the victim of its i...
19/12/2024

Impatient attempts to impose change on society have created fear and resentment. The West has become the victim of its idealistic illusions.

The crisis of progressivism | Antony Beevor

Impatient attempts to impose change on society have created fear and resentment. The West has become the victim of its idealistic illusions.

Russia’s Cold War Redux strategy for the Middle East lies in ruins | Ibrahim Al-Marashi
18/12/2024

Russia’s Cold War Redux strategy for the Middle East lies in ruins | Ibrahim Al-Marashi

Russia's recent engagement with Syria had marked continuities with the Soviet Union's Middle East strategy.

Contributors to Engelsberg Ideas highlight the books they’ve enjoyed in 2024.Books of the Year 2024 | Engelsberg Ideas
18/12/2024

Contributors to Engelsberg Ideas highlight the books they’ve enjoyed in 2024.

Books of the Year 2024 | Engelsberg Ideas

Contributors to Engelsberg Ideas highlight the books they’ve enjoyed in 2024.

Recent developments represent a return to the intensifying great power competition in the cosmos towards the end of the ...
17/12/2024

Recent developments represent a return to the intensifying great power competition in the cosmos towards the end of the Cold War.

The new struggle for space | Aaron Bateman

Recent developments represent a return to the intensifying great power competition in the cosmos towards the end of the Cold War.

The institutions of old Europe were at the forefront of intellectual and technological innovations that still shape our ...
17/12/2024

The institutions of old Europe were at the forefront of intellectual and technological innovations that still shape our lives today.

Versailles’ splendour unbounded | Mathew Lyons

The institutions of old Europe were at the forefront of intellectual and technological innovations that still shape our lives today.

The fate of the Austro-Hungarian nobility after the fall of the Habsburg Empire raises interesting questions about what ...
16/12/2024

The fate of the Austro-Hungarian nobility after the fall of the Habsburg Empire raises interesting questions about what ‘old’ elites should do when politics changes.

In search of Mitteleuropa’s lost nobility | Anna Parker

The fate of the Austro-Hungarian nobility after the fall of the Habsburg Empire raises interesting questions about what ‘old’ elites should do when politics changes.

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Welcome to Engelsberg Ideas

Engelsberg Ideas is a new home for great writing and podcasts on history and culture, featuring leading writers and thinkers.

Although this is an exciting new publishing venture, it also has deep roots – in the Engelsberg Seminars that have taken place for more than two decades every June in Engelsberg, Sweden, at the centre owned by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation. An illustration of Engelsberg is above.

The Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation for Public Benefit is a private foundation, founded in 1947, with the primary purpose of promoting scientific and scholarly research. Its focus today is on the humanities, and on social sciences, working with leading scholars and universities around the world.

Engelsberg Ideas features essays, historical portraits and notebooks from our editorial team. There is a regular podcast – History Lessons – each featuring a leading historian, and a monthly podcast on the big themes and trends shaping geopolitics.

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    457Games

    92 the larches, Palmers Green