Modernising influences in Turkey tried to impose a purely Turkic language with a new alphabet in place of the rich mixture of Turkic, Arabic and Persian which had comprised the language of the Ottoman empire. This led to a few problems.
What kind of conspiracy is the European Union anyway? A Papist one, or a German one?
Some of our new fellow Europeans don’t like the government knowing their business. Sure, they’re only human.
Former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, now 94, insists that the proper attitude for his countrymen and women to adopt to Poland involves a continuing humility and patience.
Noam Chomsky is unimpressed by the great minds of European postmodernism.
Kenan Malik talks to Princeton professor of modern European history Jonathan Israel about the Enlightenment and the connections between radical religion, democratic ideas and tolerance of difference of opinion.
Terry Eagleton will have no truck with the modern world and its noise and its gadgets and its silly babbling. Fair play to him.
An institute founded by a scion of the Italian book distribution industry aims to arm the next generation of booksellers against the threat of being steamrollered by the online giants.
Some non-Anglo-Saxon cultures, and particularly the French, seem prone to national panic in the face of la globalisation. But rumours and fears of cultural extinction are greatly exaggerated.
Oliver Bernard was a poet and an acclaimed translator of Rimbaud. He got up to a few other things as well.