Social history
Finding happiness in simple tactile pleasures
In our high-tech, automated world, we should cherish any gratifying sensory experience, however humble or fleeting, says Ian Bogost
Good moaning: the subversive sitcoms of the 1980s revisited
From the sophisticated satire of Yes Minister to the irreverent farce of ’Allo ’Allo!, British comedy began to show a new inventive range
Disability is becoming the new normal
Longer life expectancy means that most of us will eventually qualify as disabled. But how many of Britain’s present claimants are merely suffering from ‘anxiety’?
Do single women bother to cook for themselves?
Eli Davies and her spinster friends admit to a mostly ‘feral’ diet – of Kettle Chips and a satsuma, or a handful of grated cheese, or toast, washed down with vodka
Are good people made by good surroundings, or the other way round?
Joad Raymond Wren examines utopian schemes through the centuries, from Plato’s Republic to Womyn’s land, and concludes that we should never stop challenging the status quo
Who needs an Italian beach when we have our own lidos?
With the continent now unbearably hot, these magnificent temples of swimming are experiencing a welcome revival, says Tom Fort
Will robots simply bore us to extinction?
In an attempt to relieve the drudgery of warehouse work, technology has now eliminated all need for human decision-making, Sarah O’Connor discovers
The humiliating truth about the way we think
We overrate our capacity for rational deliberation, says Turi Munthe, when weather, soil, climate and geography are what really determine of our opinions and beliefs
How the 18th-century Panopticon inspired today’s giant distribution hubs
The Bentham brothers’ invention is strikingly reflected in the ‘precisely engineered system of surveillance and optimisation’ at Amazon’s ‘exploitative’ fulfilment centres, says Henry Snow
The nightmare of filming A Hard Day’s Night
Hours of footage were lost in the mayhem caused by teenage fans, while even adults ‘descended like flies’ to snatch as souvenirs anything the Beatles had touched
Expect toddlers and parlour games at today’s dinner parties
The cost of babysitters can make accepting dinner invitations very expensive, so a host should ensure that friends feel free to bring their children too, says Jago Rackham
When did you last see your siblings?
By the age of 18 we will have spent far more time with our brothers and sisters than we will ever spend again – suggesting that blood ties do not guarantee intimacy
Will the ‘bunny boiler’ tag continue to haunt single women?
From the femme fatale of noir to Fatal Attraction’s Alex, the unattached female has often been feared and scorned
The radical power of sentimentality
Ferdinand Mount identifies three distinct sentimental revolutions – in the 11th, 18th and 20th centuries – that transformed legal frameworks and social structures as well as hearts and minds
The gay rights movement threatens to implode
Tolerance pushed too far by LGBTQ+ demands may soon turn to intolerance, and legislation can be rolled back in the blink of an eye, warns Ronan McCrea
Dark secrets of the British housewife
Juliet Nicolson reminds us of how difficult it was, even in the 1960s, for women to admit to sexual frustration, abuse, extramarital affairs or alcoholism
Why would your dead daughter climb out of her grave to harm you?
John Blair investigates the bizarre phenomenon of ‘corpse-killing’, and the fear in 19th-century New England that children, post mortem, were under demonic control
Progress is destroying the planet: the rants of a self-hating American
Poverty is increasing and freedom contracting, says Samuel Miller McDonald – and exploitative white Americans, from Abraham Lincoln onwards, are largely to blame
The insoluble link between government and crime
Taxes and prohibition invariably lead to evasion, racketeering and corruption in an endless capitalist cycle, says Mark Galeotti
What was millennial girl power really about?
In the 1990s and early 2000s, ‘empowerment’ was a girl’s watchword. But she was empowered primarily to be pleasing to men and, above all, never grow up
The rose-tinted view of female friendship shatters
Are women’s relationships with each other today more brittle and less supportive than in the past?
Is nothing private anymore?
We all need a place away from public view – but we should also remind ourselves why our privacy has been so invaded
The fragility of the modern city reflects humanity’s vulnerability
The more complex the infrastructure, the more liable it is to break down – as was recently apparent in the blackout that brought Madrid and Lisbon to a standstill in April
Why shamanism shouldn’t be dismissed as superstitious savagery
Our need for belief in the supernatural gave rise to a demand for ‘mystical intermediaries’, or shamans, forging man’s earliest religion from which all others developed, argues Manvir Singh
The magic of early radio days
Beaty Rubens takes us inside the British home 100 years ago as the glamorous new device becomes central to family life
