Johnny Schmidt

Sep 26, 2023 | quillette.com | Greg Koabel |Riley Moore |Johnny Schmidt

What follows is the twelfth instalment of The Nations of Canada, a serialized Quillette project adapted from Greg Koabel’s ongoing podcast of the same name. In 1603, after several false starts, the French finally conducted a successful exploration mission on the St. Lawrence River.

Sep 21, 2023 | quillette.com | Riley Moore |Johnny Schmidt |Herbert Bushman

Zachary Leader is an Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Roehampton. He is the author of numerous books, including Reading Blake’s Songs, Writer’s Block, Revision and Romantic Authorship, The Life of Kingsley Amis, The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune 1915–1964,and The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife 1965–2005. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and General Editor of The Oxford History of Life-Writing.

Sep 21, 2023 | quillette.com | Johnny Schmidt |Herbert Bushman |Lawrence Krauss

Classic Star Trek is not Shakespeare. It has always been the sort of show in which aliens could steal Spock’s brain, or Dr Crusher could fall in love with a Scottish space ghost. It sometimes screwed up—sometimes the plot dragged, the ending didn’t make sense, or the wacky science went too far and broke its own rules—but still, it was always primarily about trying to tell a good story. Strange New Worlds is different. There’s less emphasis on story, more on being the right kind of show.

Sep 14, 2023 | quillette.com | Joel Kotkin |Riley Moore |Johnny Schmidt

If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale. ~Polybius, The Rise of the Roman Empire History has moved to the front line of social conflict, but rarely has it been so poorly understood and sketchily taught. After decades of declining interest, only 13 percent of eighth graders achieve proficiency in the subject today.

Sep 5, 2023 | quillette.com | Brian Kaller |Johnny Schmidt |Herbert Bushman

Ancient Athens was perhaps the first state in history in which substantial numbers of citizens were literate, and ideas were able to circulate freely. Literacy eroded the gulf between rulers and ruled and made possible the creation of a radically new kind of human society. For perhaps the first time, every free man could criticise and question officials and this was often portrayed as desirable and valuable.