Quillette Narrated

In her new book, ‘Autocracy, Inc.,’ historian Anne Applebaum provides us with a distinctive and indispensable guide to one of the great challenges of our time.

The accepted view is that the scientists of the European Enlightenment got the issue of race badly wrong. In fact, some of them got more right than they are usually given credit for.

The urge to censor is based on a misunderstanding of what makes literature valuable.

Remembering Don Symons (1942–2024).

A short history of phoney peace groups and their fellow travellers.

Palestinians’ history, culture, and connection to the land are valid in their own right. We don’t need to appropriate or falsify Jewish history.

So that’s how a fatherhood ends. A few UPCs, like those you find on packs of toilet tissue, delivered via email.

Progressive anti-Zionism and the poisonous legacy of Cold War hatred.

Are we going to defend liberty, openness, and democracy, or are we going to allow radical theocrats and their ideological allies to try to crush our hard-won freedoms?

Claire Lehmann discusses the aftermath of a firebombing at the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne and the perceived leadership failures in Australia relating to antisemitism. Lehmann argues that there is a leadership vacuum as key figures like Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fail to adequately address antisemitic incidents. This institutional indifference is highlighted by several instances where Jewish Australians were intimidated, and their safety compromised, which elicits historical parallels to events like Kristallnacht. Lehmann criticizes both government and corporate sectors for their silence and calls for a more decisive response to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israeli policies and outright antisemitism. The narrative suggests that societal frameworks often fail to recognize the victimization of successful communities like the Jewish population when subjected to hate-driven violence.

Ever since, all of Europe—the East as well as the West—has carried the burden of Nazi guilt, as others would have us bear the guilt of North American slavery and Jim Crow.

As Israel and Hamas begin to implement the ceasefire deal, both the immediate and the longer term future remain unclear.

Justin Trudeau convinced me he was a sunny patriot who’d unify Canada. What I got instead was a cynical culture warrior who smeared opponents as bigots and defamed my country as a genocide state.

Automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics are set to redefine the relationship between labour, capital, and production.

In a new book, Rachel Chrastil artfully illuminates the history of the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, in all its senseless horror.

A new version of Tinto Brass and Bob Guccione’s notorious 1979 film ‘Caligula’ provides a valuable record of one of the most fascinating disasters in cinema history.

False allegations may be employed by either parent, but, given the prevailing winds of culture, the gun is far more often in the hand of a woman.

The story of William Cobbett and the American Revolutionary culture wars.

Thirty-four years after the massacre of political prisoners in Iran, the conviction of Hamid Noury in Sweden has been a victory for accountability and for the truth.

If we are to fight for liberty for everyone—including Muslims—we must be serious about being ready to stand up to Islamists like Hamas, who seek to revive Islamic imperialism.

The story of how activists and academics exchanged the struggle for universal female improvement for a politics of division and hatred.

Settling Mars isn’t just about making humanity a multi-planetary species. It is about improving life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyone on Earth.

Andrew Dominik’s much-maligned film about the life and death of a screen icon claws through the sentimental myth-making in search of terrible truths.

The spread of mass education may have exemplified the promise of liberal civilization. But, without an understanding and appreciation of what allowed it to flourish, it could also accelerate its dissolution.

The Children of the Revolution by James David Banker. Read by William Laing. Mao Zedong activated China’s youth—unblemished and uncorrupted in heart and mind—to lead the struggle for purity.

Why China Is Hiding the Horrors of its Past: While the Chinese government continues to transform Xinjiang through its cultural genocide program aimed at eliminating the distinct identity of the Uyghur population, it is also putting a high priority on controlling the history of the region and its people. By Nick Taber. Read by Iona Italia.

White Lotus, Red Dragon—China’s History of Millenarian Dissent: When one woman refused and snapped at them to “go away,” they attacked her with a chair and mop handle. By Aaron Sarin. Read by Iona Italia.

'The Death of a Deluded Man' by John Aziz. Read by John Aziz. Yahya Sinwar should be remembered above all as a failure whose fetish for Jewish—and Palestinian—blood turned Gaza into dust and rubble.

'Serfing the Future' by Joel Kotkin and Wendell Cox. Read by William Laing.

'The Fall of Beirut: Calling Hezbollah merely a terror group is too simplistic, and nothing in Lebanon is ever simple or easy to explain.' by Art Keller. Read by Iona Italia.

'America's Forgotten Crisis: A terrific new account of America’s social and political turmoil during the 1910s and ’20s provides some much-needed perspective on the problems afflicting the country today.' by Michael J. Totten. Read by Iona Italia.

Have we just lived through one of the best years in human history? As we look at 2023 through the rearview mirror, I think that’s a defensible claim. In fact, the same thing could have been said at the end of pretty much every year since the beginning of the millennium (with the exception of the disastrous pandemic years of 2020 and 2021). Never before have so many people lived in affluence, safety, and good health.

'I Blew Up My Lucrative Public-Service Career (And So Can You): A veteran of British Columbia’s public-sector workforce explains how DEI enforcers forced him to choose between keeping his job and honouring his values.' by Nick Osmond-Jones. Read by Iona Italia

"Towards a Post-Hamas Future: The events of 7 October did not benefit Palestinians in any way." Written by John Aziz. Read by John Aziz.

'The Women of 7 October' by Iona Italia. Read by Iona Italia.

For a Time, a Pit Bull Gave Me Back My Son: If I couldn’t openly love him, I would love what he loved. By Steve Salerno. Read by William Laing.

'A Conspiracy Theory of Connotations: The obsessive policing of language in the name of progress relies on magical thinking.' by Oliver Traldi. Read by William Laing.

'The Return of the Progressive Atrocity: It is the responsibility of Western activists to know who and what they support, and to separate themselves—openly and decisively—from programs and regimes that are predicated on violence and repression.' by Susie Linfield. Read by Iona Italia.

'In Defence of Stoicism' by Iona Italia. Narrated by Iona Italia. Stoicism is a workout that builds emotional strength, a caulking of the timbers to enable us to weather the coming storms—a preparation we make precisely because the ocean voyage is so rewarding.

'Remembering 9 Thermidor, the End of the Terror' by Cathy Young. Read by William Laing.

'The Totalitarian Artist: Politics vs Beauty: After Duchamp, the art world came to view the pursuit of beauty as naïve and gravitated toward political art in their search for meaning. But this is a Faustian bargain: you can have meaning, but you do not get to make it for yourself.' by Megan Gafford. Read by Iona Italia.

'Tragedy and Half-Truths: A Gaza Diary' by Benny Morris. Published in Quillette.com on 19 September 2024. Narrated by Iona Italia.

'Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments: How to effectively counter some perennial arguments against free speech.' Written by Greg Lukianoff. Narrated by Iona Italia.

Frantz Fanon, Stokely Carmichael, and the roots of the uproar over Zionism.

Race Is a Spectrum. Sex Is Pretty Damn Binary by Richard Dawkins, read by Iona Italia. Male versus female is one of surprisingly few genuine dichotomies.

The story of how a liberal college promoted and defended an Iranian Islamist and betrayed its own values.

Realists may believe international relations is all about mindless forces balancing and smashing into each other, but it’s actually about ideology, institutions, history, and the personalities of human beings.

Western civilisation has not succeeded because its liberal and secular principles are Christian; it has succeeded because Western Christians have accepted its liberal and secular values, writes Adam Wakeling.