Welcome to my new Substack newsletter. I'm looking forward to being in touch directly with readers old and new.
What is 'History of the Present'?
Following current events is like whitewater rafting: you're moving so fast you don't have time to look around and see where you are. 'History of the Present' aims to help us see where we're coming from, where we are - and maybe even make a few intelligent guesses about where we're heading.
The phrase 'History of the Present' comes from a review the American diplomat and thinker George Kennan wrote of one of my earliest books, The Uses of Adversity, in 1989. It's stuck, and I like it.
What will be in it?
I'll be writing about Europe, mainly, but also about the US (where I live part of the year), and relations with other great powers such as China, India and Russia – as well as the other enormous challenges of our time.
Free subscribers will get
a weekly round-up
links to all my essays and commentaries
links to video and audio of my talks, debates etc
quick comments on recent developments, unvarnished thoughts and questions to (and, if you like, from) you….
... all of this designed to help us jointly understand the troubled waters we are being propelled through, like whitewater rafters.
Why now?
I've just finished a book called Homelands: A Personal History of Europe, which is both a personal account and an interpretation of the history of Europe since 1945 - and particularly since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. I call it post-war Europe and post-Wall Europe. I had to stop the narrative part in September 2022, because that's when the book went to press.
This Substack aims to continue the story, for example about the war in Ukraine, nationalist populism from Italy to Hungary, the consequences of Brexit, the crisis of democracy in the United States, the future of Russia and much more. It will become a personal ( and obviously partial) record of what happened, how we reacted to it at the time, what we think might happen next - and what we should do about it.
If I can carry it on for a number of years, it may yet feed into a book that will be a sequel to Homelands, later in the decade. But it will stand for itself, as an ongoing record and conversation.
Please subscribe
By subscribing, you sign up for a free stream of content. At some point over the next few months some of this content, written specially for this Substack, may become available only to paid subscribers. This will probably include my weekly round-up, unvarnished thoughts on work in progress, some questions to (and, if you like, from) you, and the chance to take part directly in the conversation.
All best wishes
TGA