Robert Tombs

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The overthrow of the statue of Napoleon I by the Paris Commune (photo: Getty)

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

When observing the state of our academic life and public culture, I have an uneasy feeling of déjà vu. When I started life as a historian, going to France to do a PhD in the 1970s, French universities were held in a tight ideological grip. The subject I was working on — the Paris Commune of 1871 — turned out, to my naïve surprise, to be a hot topic. Two older French academics who became my mentors were both convinced (I think with reason) that their careers had been blighted because they had written things that the then mighty French Communist party disapproved of.…  Seguir leyendo »

A pro-Brexit demonstrator outside the Houses of Parliament in London. Credit Henry Nicholls/Reuters

EuropaUnión Europea,

The British do not normally have constitutional crises.

One reason is that we do not have a constitution, at least not in the normal sense. There is no single text labeled “The United Kingdom Constitution.” Instead, there is an accretion of statutes, conventions and customs — going back to Magna Carta of 1215 — which can be changed fairly easily. So we do not have the regular standoffs between executive and legislature which the United States seems to take in stride, even when (to British astonishment) it means closing down the federal government. The present conflict between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and a heterogenous majority in Parliament is new to us, exciting, even alarming.…  Seguir leyendo »