Thomas P. Balázs

Jul 9, 2024 | quillette.com | Kevin Mims |John Lloyd |Jonathan Kay |Thomas P. Balázs

The end of the world is back in vogue. A number of publications—including this one—have recently examined the possibility that World War III might be at hand. Literary speculation about the end of mankind dates back, at least, to the story of Noah and the Ark. Mary Shelley, famous for her 1818 novel Frankenstein, rekindled interest in end-of-mankind narratives with her second novel, The Last Man. Published in 1826, it tells the story of a pandemic that kills almost every human being on earth.

Jul 8, 2024 | quillette.com | Jonathan Kay |John Lloyd |Thomas P. Balázs |Matt Johnson

Como muchos lectores canadienses saben, no soy el único periodista en mi familia: mi madre, Bárbara, es una popular columnista semanal en un diario con sede en Toronto llamado National Post. Pero lo que nadie sabe es que en mi árbol genealógico hay otros dos periodistas, padre e hijo, ambos con carreras más interesantes que la mía o la de mi madre.

Jul 8, 2024 | quillette.com | John Lloyd |Jonathan Kay |Thomas P. Balázs |Matt Johnson

On the night of 4 July, the UK Labour Party won an unprecedented electoral landslide. Compared to 2019, it gained 211 new seats while the Conservatives lost 251, an astonishing swing that handed Labour a parliamentary majority of 174. It was, the BBC reported, “the worst Conservative result in terms of seats in history.” A sour note from the far-Left was inevitable. Labour, these critics said, had won power but betrayed socialism.

Jul 7, 2024 | quillette.com | Jonathan Kay |Thomas P. Balázs |Matt Johnson |Greg Koabel

As many Canadian readers know, I’m not the only journalist in my family: my mother Barbara is a popular weekly columnist at a Toronto-based daily newspaper called the National Post. But what no one knows is that my family tree boasts two other journalists, father and son, both of whom had more interesting careers than either me or my mother. By way of explanation, a few paragraphs of family background are in order.

Jul 4, 2024 | quillette.com | Thomas P. Balázs |Matt Johnson |Greg Koabel |Sean Welsh

In February 1980, aged fifteen, I found myself at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island watching a spectacular performance of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. I didn’t even know the band. I had to be talked into going by my friend Richie, who had scalped tickets for $75 each, which was an enormous sum for a teenager at the time.