Alastair Benn
@alastairbenn.bsky.social
Deputy Editor @engelsbergideas.bsky.social Send pitches to alastair@engelsbergideas.com https://engelsbergideas.com/author/alastair-benn/
Convenience is remaking urban life in its own image. But a city worth living in is one where you have to rub along with other people. My latest for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social: engelsbergideas.com/notebook/aga...
Against the convenient city
Convenience is remaking urban life in its own image. But a city worth living in is one where you have to rub along with other people.
engelsbergideas.com
Convenience is remaking urban life in its own image. But a city worth living in is one where you have to rub along with other people. Against the convenient city | @alastairbenn.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/aga...
Against the convenient city
Convenience is remaking urban life in its own image. But a city worth living in is one where you have to rub along with other people.
engelsbergideas.com
Western democracies play out their appetites for risk within the artificial confines of sport, an impulse that runs especially deep in the English national character. My latest for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social: engelsbergideas.com/notebook/spo...
Sport is adventure by other means
Western democracies play out their appetites for risk within the artificial confines of sport, an impulse that runs especially deep in the English national character.
engelsbergideas.com
Western democracies play out their appetites for risk within the artificial confines of sport, an impulse that runs especially deep in the English national character. Sport is adventure by other means | @alastairbenn.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/spo...
Sport is adventure by other means
Western democracies play out their appetites for risk within the artificial confines of sport, an impulse that runs especially deep in the English national character.
engelsbergideas.com
Alexandre Dumas' 'The Count of Monte Cristo' remains the great novel of hope, as a recent revival shows. Dumas’ philosophy of hope | @alastairbenn.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/dum...
Dumas' philosophy of hope
Essential reading, viewing, and listening from the EI editors.
engelsbergideas.com
The smartphone inherits anxieties about distraction that have haunted every new technology. My latest for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social: engelsbergideas.com/notebook/in-...
In defence of distraction
The smartphone inherits anxieties about distraction that have haunted every new technology.
engelsbergideas.com
How did Weimar, the town of Goethe and Schiller, become the crucible of Germany's moral collapse? I speak to Katja Hoyer about her new book, Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe. audioboom.com/posts/890048...
Weimar’s descent into darkness
How did Weimar, the town of Goethe and Schiller, become the crucible of Germany's moral collapse? Katja Hoyer, author of Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe (https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/45...
audioboom.com
Very pleased to see the new Engelsberg Ideas app launched! Can’t believe the journey since we went live with the site in June 2020.
Engelsberg Ideas@engelsbergideas.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe Engelsberg Ideas App is here. A new home for essays, notebooks, reviews and podcasts from leading thinkers on history, culture and geopolitics. Read, listen and explore our archive – all completely free. engelsbergideas.com/the-ei-app/
Novels may refine judgement, but they cannot make us good. My latest for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social: engelsbergideas.com/notebook/rea...
Reading is a skill
Novels may refine judgement, but they cannot make us good.
engelsbergideas.com
Novels may refine judgement, but they cannot make us good. Reading is a skill | @alastairbenn.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/rea...
Reading is a skill
Novels may refine judgement, but they cannot make us good.
engelsbergideas.com
The classical ideal of self-formation has been replaced by a sterile cult of productivity, simulating work and leisure while forfeiting both. My latest for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social: engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...
The decline of Bildung
The classical ideal of self-formation has been replaced by a sterile cult of productivity, simulating work and leisure while forfeiting both.
engelsbergideas.com
The classical ideal of self-formation has been replaced by a sterile cult of productivity, simulating work and leisure while forfeiting both. The decline of Bildung | @alastairbenn.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...
The decline of Bildung
The classical ideal of self-formation has been replaced by a sterile cult of productivity, simulating work and leisure while forfeiting both.
engelsbergideas.com
“Let’s have more pirates,” they said. Throw in how Shakespeare’s close reading of pre-Existentialist Montaigne informed “To be or not to be” (thus dragging Hamlet out of a Jonsonian Revenge Tragedy and into a colder, more modern world) & this pod becomes essential (& greatly enjoyable) listening:
Alastair Benn@alastairbenn.bsky.social · 6mo agoWe were joined by Emma Smith (@oldfortunatus.bsky.social), Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford, to explore the endless complexities of Hamlet on the latest EI Podcast. Listen here:
We were joined by Emma Smith (@oldfortunatus.bsky.social), Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford, to explore the endless complexities of Hamlet on the latest EI Podcast. Listen here:
Engelsberg Ideas@engelsbergideas.bsky.social · 6mo ago🎧The EI Podcast: Hamlet Unravelled Emma Smith (@oldfortunatus.bsky.social), Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford University, explores Hamlet and its rich critical history with EI’s @alastairbenn.bsky.social and @paullay.bsky.social audioboom.com/posts/886038...
“Real life and the people closest to him remain a mystery.” This reminds me of someone 🤔
Alastair Benn@alastairbenn.bsky.social · 6mo agoIn a post-literate world, reading is treated more like an assumed good than a skill to be actively practised. My latest for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social: engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...
In a post-literate world, reading is treated more like an assumed good than a skill to be actively practised. My latest for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social: engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...
The perils of hyper-literacy
In a post-literate world, reading is treated more like an assumed good than a skill to be actively practised.
engelsbergideas.com
In a post-literate world, reading is treated more like an assumed good than a skill to be actively practised. The perils of hyper-literacy | @alastairbenn.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...
The perils of hyper-literacy
In a post-literate world, reading is treated more like an assumed good than a skill to be actively practised.
engelsbergideas.com
For @engelsbergideas.bsky.social, I pay tribute to a Scotland of the past, whose traces can still be heard.
Engelsberg Ideas@engelsbergideas.bsky.social · 7mo agoThe habits of speech and mind that shaped the history of Scotland’s north country still echo in the present. Scotland’s north country | @alastairbenn.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/sco...
The habits of speech and mind that shaped the history of Scotland’s north country still echo in the present. Scotland’s north country | @alastairbenn.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/sco...
Scotland's north country
The habits of speech and mind that shaped the history of Scotland’s north country still echo in the present.
engelsbergideas.com
American interest in Greenland puts Denmark in a familiar bind. Joshua Treviño for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social makes the case for strategic imagination.
Engelsberg Ideas@engelsbergideas.bsky.social · 7mo agoWith strategic imagination, Denmark could engage the US to forge a mutually beneficial path for Greenland's future. Greenland shows the limits and opportunities of Danish statecraft | Joshua Trevino engelsbergideas.com/notebook/gre...
Lovely bit of micro-history: a 1926 BBC broadcast panicked Britain. Daniel Marc Janes for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social:
Engelsberg Ideas@engelsbergideas.bsky.social · 7mo agoThe first great radio hoax | Daniel Marc Janes engelsbergideas.com/notebook/the...
A fascinating snapshot from Felice Basbøll for @engelsbergideas.bsky.social on the complex bonds between Greenland and Denmark. engelsbergideas.com/portraits/kn...
Knud Rasmussen and the making of modern Greenland
The explorer Knud Rasmussen helped define Denmark’s Arctic ambitions while documenting Inuit culture at the very moment it was being transformed.
engelsbergideas.com
For your holiday weekend reading & reflection, here’s my 259th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as widely as possible, & solidarity, all! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
#ScholarSunday Thread 259 (1/18/26) – Black and White and Read All Over
For your holiday weekend reading & reflection, here’s my 259th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing, podcasts, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, share as w...
blackwhiteandread.com
@alastairbenn.bsky.social is joined by Prof Leo Damrosch – author of Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson – to explore RLS’s life & legacy, including one of his most enduring literary creations: Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde via @engelsbergideas.bsky.social #C19 💙📚 www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnJ2...
The strange case of Robert Louis Stevenson
YouTube video by Engelsberg Ideas
youtube.com
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
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
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
