Explore Essays and memoir
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Wagner in Africa
James Pogue
‘Many people in the country seem happy to accept mercenaries in exchange for stability.’
James Pogue on the Wagner Group in the Central African Republic.
Drone Wars for Mexico’s Gold Mountains
Anjan Sundaram
‘More than 111,000 people have gone missing in Mexico in the past six years.’
Anjan Sundaram on cartels, conflict and the rate of disappearances in Mexico.
Generation Gap
Lynne Tillman
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
Ecce Senex: Stephen James Joyce
James Scudamore
‘He was “a Joyce, not a Joycean”, yet considered himself the supreme arbiter of what constituted valuable Joyce scholarship. At the same time, he admitted that he rarely read anything in full.’
James Scudamore on trying to ghostwrite Stephen James Joyce's memoir.
Lifetimes of the Soviet Union
Yuri Slezkine
‘Bolshevism, like most millenarian movements, proved a one-generation phenomenon.’
Yuri Slezkine on Soviet history and the generational arc of revolution.
What the Germans Left Behind
Anna Parker
‘My Czech family’s house stands on a geopolitical rift: it occupies a place the political storms sweep through, uprooting everything that is settled.’
An essay by Anna Parker.
From the Planetarium
Ryan Ruby
‘For some it is an endpoint, for others a tear in the very fabric of time.’
Ryan Ruby on the fall of the Berlin wall and the Zeiss-Großplanetarium.
The Killing of a Berlin Power Broker
Peter Richter
‘Why does the centre of Berlin look like an abandoned shopping mall on the edge of Omaha?’
An essay from Peter Richter, translated by Shaun Whiteside.
In the Movie Bunker
Lutz Seiler
‘On 6 April 1981, I walked into the District Conscription Office, thereby obeying the very first command of my time as a soldier.’
Memoir from Lutz Seiler, translated by Martyn Crucefix.
The Solution is Within
Évelyne Trouillot
‘How are we living? Every morning we wake up and wonder what happened last night.’
Évelyne Trouillot on the crisis in Haiti.
Introduction
Sigrid Rausing
‘I came to the magazine in 2005 and took over the editorship in 2013.’
Sigrid Rausing introduces her last issue.
Soundscapes of Phnom Penh
Anjan Sundaram
‘From my bronze-painted balcony, I chronicled the sounds of Phnom Penh’s private industry.’
Anjan Sundaram on the sound of corruption in Cambodia.
