On history read for what it still has to say about power, judgement, and institutions.
23 essays
Johann Sebastian Bach’s “mediocre” appointment in Leipzig offers a sharp lesson for today’s hiring. Organisations often chase unicorns, mistaking signals for substance. True value lies in suitability—clarity of purpose, openness to varied forms of competence, and sound judgment—rather than surface c
Japanese shinise firms reveal that lasting organisations don't preserve the past—they renew it. Leaders build endurance by developing talent, stewarding identity, and sustaining purpose across generations. Forget agility theatre and hype cycles. Longevity demands structure, not slogans. When leaders
While our own short lives may lack the eternality of the Holy Spirit we can transcend events by our choices. Choices which, religious or not, have deep and long lasting moral implications.
Modernists may disagree, but if challenged by these dangerous revolutionaries, refer them to the below and the glorious roots of our language.
So long as we keep our heads while all around are loosing theirs, never dwelling too long on exaggerated threats, we are in a position to muddle through.
As late as 2015 in Great Britain, Royals who married Catholics were removed from the line of succession, and Prime Ministers avoided disclosing their Catholicism in office.
The design of the CR III cipher was produced by the College of Arms and continues a tradition of heraldry that has bound individual monarchs to the institution of monarchy for over a thousand years.
Today's Russia is pursuing the same aims as in 1946: autarchy for Russia and Russian-dominated adjacent areas by a leader, under pressure from nationalistic backers, who has miscalculated the situation.
The Queen was an ever constant in a changeable and unpredictable world. Over seven decades, she was always there for us.
One of History's lessons is that once a group is deemed unteachable they will be placed in the category of an ever present threat to the preferred social order.
I went up to the hillside and took a panorama view of the city and found the whole city on fire. - Kiyoshi Tanimoto,
As the contagion bit hard, Pepys chronicled the flight from the city, mostly of doctors, lawyers and merchants. Then as now, only those with the financial means to do so can seek refuge in seclusion.
The history of the Spanish Armada is a call to take care on our journey home. Although we may feel mauled by the day, we can salvage most of what we have.
I could not let July 14 pass without a nod to that most French of occasions: Bastille Day. A celebration which marks both the anniversary of the Storming of the
The novelist saw more clearly the differences between fact and fiction. That notions of a 'better world' tomorrow is a fallacy of the doctrine of progress.