Latest Posts
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Lost in Translation
As Americans, we are twice-removed from how it feels to be in a European country. Our political consciousness is shaped by a two-party system (now more emotionally tribal than conservative-liberal) and elections set on two- and four-year cycles, rather than… Continue reading
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The universal faith — money
How earthlings think about money is strangely consistent around the world. Looking at renting an apartment in an Italian city on the Adriatic, the same system that measures market values in Decatur, Ga., is in effect there too, or in… Continue reading
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Lessons for us today, from Italians
I love old books lining bookshelves. The collection in the North Carolina home of a couple of friends held classics of Machiavelli scholarship. I gently pulled out, like sneaking a square of chocolate fudge, a vellum-bound volume. Carol Darr, the… Continue reading
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
An American journalist heads for Italy to see his country changing from afar. 