Know when to go

It’s a truism that all political careers end in failure as leaders always meet eventual disaster or cling to power too long, but the unique example of Roman emperor Diocletian suggests a graceful retreat is possible.

Laughter is the best medicine

We live in troubled times but the sense the world is heading to hell in a handbasket is as old as human civilisation and, inevitably, the Greeks (and Romans) had several words about it.

History’s made by great men

Phillips O’Brien’s “The Strategists” looks at World War 2 in Europe through the eyes of its five major players and traces how their actions were shaped by their earlier experiences in both war and peacetime.

‘I saw the horrors’

Understanding how the Australian press covered the Holocaust illuminates the role of journalism in the past and its contemporary importance today in a new era of anti-Jewish hatred and violence.

Writing in the ancient world

The art of writing may be about to wither now anyone can autogenerate empty AI slop at the touch of a button, but it flourished in the ancient world despite the primitive technology of its production.

Party like it’s 1999 BC

Australia’s summer party season is over, but however much fun you had over the holidays, it probably wasn’t a patch on the ancient Greeks.

5 ancient lessons in science

The “natural philosophers” of Greece and Rome who laid the foundations of modern science and critical thinking would be amazed at the extent of knowledge today, and appalled that these proven approaches remain under assault from so many directions.

Star of wonder

The New Testament’s accounts of Jesus’ birth are fragmentary, contradictory and unlikely to bear much resemblance to what really happened, but if “magi” really did follow a star to the east, what were they observing?

Where did all the hobbits go?

A diminutive sub-species of humans nicknamed ‘hobbits’ mysteriously disappeared 50,000 years ago but a new study has revealed that climate changes may have contributed to their extinction.

What Robert McNamara learned from the war

Relying on newly disclosed diaries and letters, and recent interviews, in McNamara at War, Philip and William Taubman paint a fresh picture of this controversial figure, disclosing his professional and personal vulnerabilities. They also provide valuable insights into the lessons that McNamara took away from Vietnam.

Whitlam in Timor

As we remember 50 years of the infamous constitutional crisis and Whitlam’s dismissal and celebrate the positive aspects of his legacy like Medibank, we need to also remember the much darker stories that are rarely told – including Whitlam’s betrayal of the Timorese people.

A twist in the tale

Dogs think treat their owners as gods because they given them food, water and shelter, while cats consider themselves gods for exactly the same reason, so how did cats come to dominate our homes?