Latest Posts
-
Making Europe Miserable
Did Trump voters want to see America make Europeans suffer? Make them be on their own against Russia? Face inflation, recession and loss of American goods because of these new tariffs? I don’t remember our relationship with Europe being a… Continue reading
-
Faiths, face to face
I had turned into the wrong entryway, but helpful men in Islamic tunics waved me across the road to their mosque. A giant electronic billboard overhead probably shocked the Atlanta traffic on I-85 as much as it did me. “The… Continue reading
-
Populism vs. ‘Civilization’
Here in Atlanta, around Emory, you hear about a friend or neighbor who got a layoff notice yesterday – no April Fool’s joke – among about 2,400 being cut from the CDC. Researchers who have worked at the agency for… Continue reading
-
The Urbino Press Award
Every year, Italy honors a single American journalist as the very best of the best. Pulitzer Prizes may scatter to many journalists, but there is only one Urbino Award each year. To scholars of Italian history, this implies that a… Continue reading
-
Putting on the Ritz
Here’s a cultural contrast between a pretty Sunday in Italy and one in the United States. It’s based, unfairly, on my own unscientific impressions. In Italy, I was lucky to be on the faculty of a one-month program for five… Continue reading
-
People are talking
After a crisis, human beings begin to talk about it. The re-election of Trump felt like a crisis to many Americans, and after the Inauguration, their worst fears seemed to be ramifying. And fast. Then, they began talking. It’s happening.… Continue reading
-
Who are the real radicals?
Watching the Netflix series “The Leopard” relieved me of some of my misery over today’s politics. “The Leopard” reminded me that, in a sense, Trump’s populism is an extension of the revolutions of the 19th century. The French Commune of… Continue reading
-
A Netflix gem set in 1860s Italy
The more I learn, the more I realize how vast is my ignorance. Take, for example, a fascinating aristocratic Sicilian writer named Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, the 12th Duke of Palma (1896-1957). I’d never heard of him. But diving into… Continue reading
-
Ukrainian refugees in Italy
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Italy welcomed refugees and, within months, had absorbed more than 100,000. Among those, two sisters-in-law whose husbands were recruited into the Ukrainian army came on a cold, crowded bus with their four children… Continue reading
-
Will you follow my Italian blog?
I’ve never tried to get social media followers before now. I am an old-school journalist, a son of a journalist. Trump’s return to the White House has stirred me out of retirement. I admit it might look partisan, hardly an… Continue reading
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 