Alastair Benn
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alastairbenn.bsky.social
Alastair Benn
@alastairbenn.bsky.social
140 followers 81 following 22 posts
Deputy Editor @engelsbergideas.bsky.social

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https://engelsbergideas.com/author/alastair-benn/
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alastairbenn.bsky.social
Alastair Benn @alastairbenn.bsky.social · Oct 29
In such an age as this, history is our wisest guide, and to neglect her is to take the short path to defeat.

My latest for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social:

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bri...
Britain's elite needs a history lesson
At a time of crisis at home and conflict abroad, it is vital that the UK's political and media class have an historically informed understanding of their country and its institutions.
engelsbergideas.com
Reposted by Alastair Benn
philtinline.bsky.social
Nice to be asked to pick my books of the year by @alastairbenn.bsky.social for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/book...
Books of the Year 2025
Contributors to Engelsberg Ideas highlight the books they’ve enjoyed in 2025.
engelsbergideas.com
December 23, 2025 at 8:52 PM
alastairbenn.bsky.social
In such an age as this, history is our wisest guide, and to neglect her is to take the short path to defeat.

My latest for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social:

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bri...
Britain's elite needs a history lesson
At a time of crisis at home and conflict abroad, it is vital that the UK's political and media class have an historically informed understanding of their country and its institutions.
engelsbergideas.com
October 29, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
Britain’s elite needs a history lesson | @alastairbenn.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/bri...
Britain's elite needs a history lesson
At a time of crisis at home and conflict abroad, it is vital that the UK's political and media class have an historically informed understanding of their country and its institutions.
engelsbergideas.com
October 29, 2025 at 3:26 PM
alastairbenn.bsky.social
My entry:
July 24, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
The industrialist Henry J. Kaiser played a pivotal role in the lightning mobilisation of American industry that took place after Pearl Harbor, a contribution that deserves wider recognition.

Who remembers Henry J. Kaiser? | Gordon F. Sander

engelsbergideas.com/portraits/wh...
Who remembers Henry J. Kaiser?
The industrialist Henry J. Kaiser played a pivotal role in the lightning mobilisation of American industry that took place after Pearl Harbor, a contribution that deserves wider recognition.
engelsbergideas.com
July 21, 2025 at 10:58 AM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
A paean to the Paris Métro | @agnescpoirier.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/a-p...
A paean to the Paris Métro
Unveiled 125 years ago, the Métropolitan marked Paris’s leap into modernity at the turn of the century, with Guimard’s once-controversial station entrances now enduring emblems of the city's spirit.
engelsbergideas.com
July 18, 2025 at 2:32 PM
alastairbenn.bsky.social
I very much enjoyed interviewing the excellent Karolina Watroba about Kafka's The Trial on the latest EI Podcast:

audioboom.com/posts/874688...
The Trial at 100: revisiting Kafka’s prophetic masterpiece
This year marks the centenary of the publication of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial - a seminal work that continues to captivate and unsettle its readers. EI’s Alastair Benn (https://engelsbergideas.co...
audioboom.com
July 11, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
mortenhoijensen.bsky.social
Wrote a little something for Mann’s 150th birthday, which is today. Alles Gute, Tommy!
June 6, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
One of the greatest European writers, Thomas Mann, born 150 years ago, dedicated his life to the pursuit of literary form. He left a monumental legacy.

Thomas Mann’s cathedrals in prose | @mortenhoijensen.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/tho...
Thomas Mann's cathedrals in prose
One of the greatest European writers, Thomas Mann, born 150 years ago, dedicated his life to the pursuit of literary form. He left a monumental legacy.
engelsbergideas.com
June 6, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
duncanweldon.bsky.social
For the evening crowd.
May 29, 2025 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
The times and tides of the wild River Thames | @mathewlyons.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...
The times and tides of the wild River Thames
A fascinating exhibition at the London Museum Docklands shows vividly how the River Thames has always been a wild place at the heart of urban civilisation. Its tides are constantly revealing fragments...
engelsbergideas.com
May 27, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
ideasroadshow.bsky.social
💯 Essay by @alastairbenn.bsky.social for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social

"Siena's art...is still capable, so many centuries on, of kindling a bright flame of inspiration, power, and self-knowledge in any mind receptive to its message."

🗃️ #arthistory #medievalsky

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...
The art of Siena: a question of perspective
The National Gallery's Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300 ‒1350 captures key developments, in elegantly curated snapshots, of the early textures of Western Europe’s artistic vitality.
engelsbergideas.com
May 19, 2025 at 7:11 AM
alastairbenn.bsky.social
I explore the art of Siena in my latest essay for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social:
engelsbergideas.bsky.social Engelsberg Ideas @engelsbergideas.bsky.social · May 16
The National Gallery's Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300 ‒1350 captures key developments, in elegantly curated snapshots, of the early textures of Western Europe’s artistic vitality.

The art of Siena: a question of perspective | @alastairbenn.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...
The art of Siena: a question of perspective
The National Gallery's Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300 ‒1350 captures key developments, in elegantly curated snapshots, of the early textures of Western Europe’s artistic vitality.
engelsbergideas.com
May 16, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
The National Gallery's Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300 ‒1350 captures key developments, in elegantly curated snapshots, of the early textures of Western Europe’s artistic vitality.

The art of Siena: a question of perspective | @alastairbenn.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...
The art of Siena: a question of perspective
The National Gallery's Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300 ‒1350 captures key developments, in elegantly curated snapshots, of the early textures of Western Europe’s artistic vitality.
engelsbergideas.com
May 16, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
Caught between scepticism and spiritual hunger, the ‘crypto-religious’ are seeking something to believe in outside the parameters of organised religion.

The Church of the Almost Believers | Guy Stagg

engelsbergideas.com/essays/the-c...
The Church of the Almost Believers
Caught between scepticism and spiritual hunger, the ‘crypto-religious’ are seeking something to believe in outside the parameters of organised religion.
engelsbergideas.com
May 16, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
"Until a resolution is found, Kashmir will continue to inspire and foster terrorist acts and remain one of the core grievances in the Islamist narrative."

@suzanneraine.bsky.social on how Kashmir’s forgotten war has gone global

engelsbergideas.com/essays/kashm...
Kashmir's forgotten war goes global
Indian strikes on locations in Pakistan used by Kashmiri Jihadi organisations underline the enduring nature of the conflict, which has special risks for the UK.
engelsbergideas.com
May 8, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
The art of the hedgerow | @troopersnooks.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...
The art of the hedgerow
The hedgerow is never truly permanent. The hedge in art reflects the hedge in reality, a shifting entity, a feature that is sometimes lost and sometimes replaced.
engelsbergideas.com
April 28, 2025 at 10:31 AM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
philtinline.bsky.social
I thought it was time for an upbeat piece for once - so I wrote a little love letter to America's independent bookstores for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social - with thanks to @alastairbenn.bsky.social for commissioning it, as always:

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/ame...
America's republic of bookstores
The classic bookstore is a potent if endangered symbol of what America was meant to be – a republic of small traders and independent thinking.
engelsbergideas.com
April 15, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
Mental health’s expanding empire | @tiffanyjenkins.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/reviews/ment...
Mental health's expanding empire
Greater well-being comes not from expanding medical categories but from adjusting our expectations of normal human experience, with all its inevitable discomforts, challenges, and variations.
engelsbergideas.com
April 14, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
How the Young Turks became tyrants | @jackfdickens.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/how...
How the Young Turks became tyrants
The course of a late-Ottoman revolution warns us that liberators can easily turn into tyrants, and that new political dawns can be deceptive.
engelsbergideas.com
April 9, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
mathewlyons.bsky.social
I really enjoyed the opportunity to review Paul & John: A Love Story in Songs for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/reviews/the-...
The ballad of John and Paul
An imaginative account of the unique friendship between The Beatles' two creative geniuses provides an intriguing reinterpretation of their personal bond, but too often strays into speculative psychol...
engelsbergideas.com
April 9, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
mathewlyons.bsky.social
Really enjoyed doing this for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social. Many thanks to @alastairbenn.bsky.social and @paullay.bsky.social for the invite! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/e...
EI Talks... the uses of comedy
Podcast Episode · Engelsberg Ideas Podcasts · 27/03/2025 · 51m
podcasts.apple.com
March 28, 2025 at 10:03 AM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
In an age of rising inequality and economic disaffection, Fitzgerald's slender satire of American East Coast society, with its evocation of the conflict between the old world and new money, still resonates.

Gatsby, still great at 100 | Guy Stagg

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/gat...
Gatsby, still great at 100
In an age of rising inequality and economic disaffection, Fitzgerald's slender satire of American East Coast society, with its evocation of the conflict between the old world and new money, still reso...
engelsbergideas.com
March 25, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Alastair Benn
engelsbergideas.bsky.social
A relic of the salons of 17th-century France, Mademoiselle de Scudéry's Carte de Tendre tells a universal story about the tensions between desire and civilised behaviour.

Reading the map of love | @murielzagha.bsky.social

engelsbergideas.com/notebook/rea...
Reading the map of love
A relic of the salons of 17th-century France, Mademoiselle de Scudéry's Carte de Tendre tells a universal story about the tensions between desire and civilised behaviour.
engelsbergideas.com
March 24, 2025 at 12:56 PM