Stop, Look, and Listen #6
A round-up of what I have been reading and listening to this past week.
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This post is part of the newsletter’s ‘Stop, Look, and Listen’ series, a digest of articles and podcasts (and occasionally programmes and films) that I’ve found engaging and insightful over the past week. I also maintain a regular record of all these via Substack’s ‘Notes’ feature; you can also read these via the Notes section of my site.
This week’s recommended reading and listening are on the areas of:
Divided societies.
The Cold War, globalisation, and the making of modern Russia.
The far right (and their enablement).
Popular culture and the politics of representation.
Uses of history and memory.
Divided societies
Ethnic and linguistic differences, and the extent to which political forces can overcome or exacerbate them, in Spain, Cyprus, Ethiopia, and Jerusalem.
Recommendations:
The Cold War, globalisation, and the making of modern Russia
The persistence of authoritarian politics in Russia from the late Cold War to the present, and why rapid economic liberalisation in the late 1980s and 1990s did not change this.
Recommendations:
The far right (and their enablement)
Radical right victories in Argentina and the Netherlands, the ascendancy of far right elements in the US, and the creation of conditions for democratic backsliding in the UK.
Recommendations:
Popular culture and the politics of representation
Representations of class and race in visual culture, from film to music videos to memes, and their political significances.
Recommendations:
Uses of history and memory
The ways in which we remember, narrate, and relate to the past, and the choices we take as to where to start, what to include or occlude, and which broader narratives to engage with.
Recommendations:
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