FROM THE MAGAZINE

January 2024

Spectator Editorial

The fight ahead in 2024

The new year seems set to offer us more of the same

By Spectator Editorial

From the Magazine

Diary

Remembering January 6

A new holiday was born

By Adam ‘Lectern Guy’ Johnson

From the Magazine

Business

The gloomy future facing trade unions

Why has it been so hard to get unionizing efforts off the ground?

By Joel Kotkin

From the Magazine

Politics

The looming Lenin comeback

On the centenary of his death, it is worth pausing to remember the hideous legacy of that ice-cold totalitarian

By Roger Kimball

From the Magazine

Politics

Can Ronna McDaniel survive calls for her resignation?

Few seem to have the appetite for another public RNC chair battle so close to the 2024 presidential election

By Amber Duke

From the Magazine

International

The meaning of Javier Milei

What can we learn from his upset win in Argentina?

By Henry Olsen

From the Magazine

Politics

The 2024 regime referendum

When voters go to the polls in November, everyone will know that with Trump on the ballot the regime is on trial

By Daniel McCarthy

From the Magazine

International

War tourism is alive and well

The traditional way to see a war is to fight in one. This can be a problem if your country is not actually at war

By Paul Wood

From the Magazine

Education

Homer’s take on theology

The world Homer depicts is one which maintains a dramatic balance between man, fate and gods

By Peter Jones

From the Magazine

Science & Tech

Bowling Alone reads like a nostalgic look at the good ol’ days

However bad Robert Putnam thought it was, it has become considerably worse

By Bridget Phetasy

From the Magazine

North Korea

The Americans who defected to North Korea

With the apparently quixotic exception of Travis King last year, defection to the country has all but ended

By Oliver Jia

From the Magazine

International

How Canada discovered resistance

‘There is a renaissance of freedom’

By Teresa Mull

From the Magazine

Middle East

How the Democrats went anti-Israel

Democrats have a massive Israel problem. What’s the way out?

By Ben Domenech

From the Magazine

Sports

Is flag football the future of the game?

As fewer parents are letting their children play, many are seeking a less dangerous alternative

By Kevin Cook

From the Magazine

Politics

Zucked up: private election funding’s new form

The grant money from the Center for Tech and Civic Life wasn’t just free money for election centers to use at their own discretion

By Elaine Mallon

From the Magazine

Books + Arts

Books

The marvelous Montalbano

The translation of the Montalbano novels from page to screen ranks as an artistic triumph

By Chilton Williamson, Jr.

From the Magazine

Book Review

The heart of Maria Callas’s genius

Daisy Goodwin’s Diva is unequivocal in presenting Callas as a heroine struggling to choose between art and love

By Amanda Craig

From the Magazine

Book Review

A vigorous and persuasive defense of capitalism

Johan Norberg’s A Capitalist Manifesto has much to commend it

By Michael M. Rosen

From the Magazine

Book Review

A definitive biography of Liz and Dick, Hollywood’s most controversial and glamorous couple

Roger Lewis answers what it is about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor that still hooks us in

By Harry Mount

From the Magazine

Book Review

Wolves of Winter focuses on the brutality of the past

Dan Jones confidently evokes the whorehouses, the illnesses, the death and depravity

By Philip Womack

From the Magazine

Dance

Will ‘accessibility’ ruin ballet?

In the most exquisitely beautiful —and painful — art form, elitism is the show

By Laura Thompson

From the Magazine

Theater

The legacy of Mean Girls and the decline of pop culture

The beloved cult teen film has spawned a new musical to celebrate its twentieth anniversary

By Mitchell Jackson

From the Magazine

Music

Jerry Miller’s tale

Moby Grape could have been a contender but never quite were

By Christopher Sandford

From the Magazine

Exhibitions

The bold new vision for Edinburgh’s National Galleries of Scotland

The galleries are not only an aesthetic pleasure to visit but a fine and salutary reminder of the greatness of Scottish art

By Alexander Larman

From the Magazine

Art

Radical in the Rotunda

With a presidential election this year, it is time to contemplate the iconic work of John Trumbull afresh

By William Newton

From the Magazine

Life

Life

New York is a people pleaser’s hell

The city is a psychological assault course, an emotional minefield, for people like me who are chronically apologetic

By Josie Cox

From the Magazine

London Life

Why BDSM is innately conservative

S&M people might look like perverted children of the Sixties. But for all their weird ways this crowd is the natural ally of conservatives

By Cosmo Landesman

From the Magazine

American Life

Remembering John Gardner

The late novelist’s wound was more gaping than most

By Bill Kauffman

From the Magazine

Prejudices

A history of intellect

The Greeks had a concept of the ‘intellect’ that is the diametric opposite of our own

By Chilton Williamson, Jr.

From the Magazine

Place

Place

The wellness retreat reborn

What happens when a millennial death doula renovates a dilapidated palacio in northern Portugal?

By Estella Shardlow

From the Magazine

Place

Kihnu, Estonia’s imaginary isle of women

The media promised a matriarchal paradise — where was it?

By Dave Seminara

From the Magazine

Food and Drink

Drink

A craft beer revolution in Grand Cru Country

France is not known for its pints. And yet, much to the concern of its vineyards and winemakers, that could be changing

By Kathleen Willcox

From the Magazine

Food

Cooking for busy people

Once a week, Caro Chambers releases a new recipe to her 112,000 subscribers

By Mary Kate Skehan

From the Magazine

Food

A true Vienna experience includes the Sacher cake

The hotel, still a family affair, but a different family, puts the cake center stage

By Melanie McDonagh

From the Magazine

Food

How to plan a suitable feast for New Year’s

A celebration dinner demands competence rather than brilliance in the kitchen, and, of far greater value, the benison of guests of the right sort

By Timothy Jacobson

From the Magazine

Drink

Orwells, a place to get away from it all

On the edge of Glasgow’s West End, the posh bar scene melts away for just a moment at Elderslie Street

By Elle Nash

From the Magazine

Drink

Madeira, our onetime national drink

John Adams remarked that a few glasses made anyone feel capable of being president

By Roger Kimball

From the Magazine

And Finally

And Finally

What will the ‘Colors of the Year’ be in 2024?

The elevation of ‘Ultimate Gray,’ ‘Urbane Bronze,’ ‘Rustic Greige’ and other takes on Gulag aesthetics led to a drab plague that has hitherto appeared incurable

By Teresa Mull

From the Magazine

And Finally

How useful is precarity?

It is laughable to see how the word has become grist for the academic mil

By Dot Wordsworth

From the Magazine