This essay was first published at The Pathos of Things newsletter. Subscribe here. The design of chairs is not normally listed among the achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte, France’s famous post-revolutionary emperor, but the importance of furniture should never be underestimated. Besides redrawing the map of the Europe, establishing institutions and writing law codes, Napoleon should … Continue reading Napoleon’s Furniture

This essay was first published at The Pathos of Things newsletter. Subscribe here. Somewhere in my room (I forget where exactly) there is a box containing four smartphones I’ve cycled through in the last decade or so. Each of these phones appeared shockingly new when I first removed it from its neat cuboid packaging, though … Continue reading Designing Modernity

This essay was first published by IM1776 on 17th August 2021 A tumble-drier is dragged out into someone’s garden and filled with something heavy — a brick perhaps. After setting it spinning, a figure in a camouflage jacket and protective face visor retreats from the camera frame. Immediately the machine begins to shudder violently, and … Continue reading How the Internet Turned Sour: Jon Rafman and the Closing of the Digital Frontier

Adam Tooze is one of the most impressive public intellectuals of our time. No other writer has the Columbia historian’s skill for laying bare the political, economic and financial sinews that tie together the modern world. Tooze’s new book, Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy, provides everything his readers have come to expect: a densely … Continue reading Tooze and the Tragedy of the Left