Reviews and News:
British spies and the Bolshevik Revolution: “Forensic evidence concluding that the fatal wound came from a British-made revolver may not have been enough evidence to convict Oswald Rayner for Rasputin’s murder in 1916, but the British spy would admit before his death that he was at the palace when the murder occurred. The Oxford graduate had studied with the main assassin, Felix Yusupov, before being stationed in Russia alongside a multitude of other British agents helping Britain’s then-ally in their war against Germany. However, as Russia tipped towards Marxist-inspired revolution determined to “liberate” the proletariat from capitalists, these Brits found that their once-partners had become their enemies. In Russian Roulette: How British Spies Thwarted Lenin’s Plot for Global Revolution, Giles Milton retells this captivating history in easy prose that makes for perfect reading in a history-lover’s summer beach-chair, preferably with a glass of Pimm’s as a Union Jack flaps nearby.”
* *
“‘There is nothing new under the sun‘. This is demonstrated in the re-emergence of ideas such as therapeutic psychedelic drugs, inherited traits that aren’t programmed into the genome, cognitive behavioural therapy, getting our protein from insects, and the multiverse.”
* *
How the Mafia almost fixed the 1932 Democratic National Convention.
* *
The Smithsonian is hiring a beer scholar.
* *
A 16th-century Spanish fort in South Carolina has been located using remote sensing technology.
* *
The enduring mystery of the human body: “In This Mortal Coil, Fay Bound Alberti argues that the study of ‘anatomy is not merely a biomedical discipline, but also a philosophical endeavour’, to which I would add that it is also crucially political. The book’s central message is that mankind’s bony scaffolding, biochemical reactivity and nervous wirings have barely changed over millennia, but appreciation of how bodies work, whose bodies matter and the interplay between physiology and feeling has changed beyond recognition. We may look similar enough to Hamlet, but we don’t experience the world like him.”
* *
Essay of the Day:
In a wide-ranging essay in First Things, Tim Holland examines the role of Christianity in integrating non-Europeans in Europe’s many conflicts with the East:
“The conceit that secular liberal democracy embodies an ideal that can transcend its origins in the specific cultural and religious traditions of Europe, and lay claim to a universal legitimacy, is one that has served the continent well. It has helped to heal the grievous wounds inflicted by the calamities of the first half of the twentieth century; to integrate large numbers of people from beyond the borders of Europe; and to provide a degree of equality for women and minorities. What do the sanguinary fantasies of either Breivik or of the jihadists who twice in 2015 brought carnage to the streets of Paris have that can compare? Only one thing, perhaps: a capacity to excite those who find the pieties of Europe’s liberal society boring. The more of these there are, the more—inevitably—the framework for behavior and governance that has prevailed in Western Europe since the end of the Second World War will come under strain. In question is whether the large numbers of migrants who have no familiarity with the norms of a secular and liberal society such as have evolved in a country like Germany will find them appealing enough to adopt; and whether native Europeans, confronted by a vast influx of people from a different cultural background, will themselves be tempted to abandon liberal values, and reach for a Holy Lance.
“Otto the Great, despite the brutality with which he trampled down the Hungarians on the plain of the Lech, never doubted that migrants from beyond the limits of Christendom could be integrated into his realm. Baptism offered any pagans who wished to take their place among the ranks of the Christian people a ready entry visa. The defeated Hungarians were not alone in accepting it. In France and England, so did Viking chieftains cornered by their adversaries, and offered lands if they would only bow their necks to Christ. The forefathers of those same Normans who conquered Sicily back from Islam had been worshippers of Odin. Today, though, in a Europe that has ceased to be Christendom, no ritual comparable to baptism exists—nor could possibly exist. The nearest equivalents may be the classes given in Norway to refugees about the principle of sexual consent, or the cards issued by the Austrian government to migrants advising them that it is perfectly permissible for two men to kiss. Whether these rituals will inspire new arrivals to do as the Hungarians and Vikings did, and abandon the convictions and conventions of their homelands, only time will tell. If ideas of freedom and tolerance fail to gain universal acceptance, it may once again become necessary to acknowledge explicitly the Christian faith that was their wellspring and may yet prove to be their mainstay.”
* *
Image of the Day: Californian wildfires
* *
Poem: Connie Post, “Advice to the Dog Sitter”
Get Prufrock in your inbox every weekday morning. Subscribe here.
