The Quarterly

“For a long time now, the authority of knowledge has been under siege from those who march under the banner of pure belief.” —Simon Schama Welcome to the new JQ. The Return of History investigates rising global populism, and the forces propelling modern nativism and xenophobia. In wide-ranging, lively essays, Simon Schama explores the age-old tropes of Jews as both purveyors of disease and mono-polists of medical wisdom, in the wake of a global pandemic; Holly Case takes us by train to Hungary; Mikołaj Grynberg reflects on Poland’s commitment to forgetting its atrocities; and Deborah Lipstadt puts white supremacy under the microscope, examining its antisemitic DNA. Recently discovered letters about Israel from Isaiah Berlin to Robert Silvers are published here for the first time. In new sections on History and Community, Ian Black revisits a turning point in the Arab–Israeli conflict, and Elliot Perlman traces the roots of the Jewish farmers in Uganda. And in three insightful, erudite book reviews, Hadley Freeman, Benjamin Balint and Robert Manne cast light on second-generation Holocaust memoirs and the work of Paul Celan and Götz Aly. The Return of History is a truly global issue, bringing together esteemed, well-known voices and those you’ll be exhilarated to read for the first time.

New life and opportunities arise from the wreckage of a north american city urban renewal at what cost? A new mother takes us on a tour of Hamilton, a Rust Belt city born of the Industrial Revolution and dying a slow death due to globalization. This mother represents the city’s next wave of inhabitants—the artists and young parents who swarm a run-down area for its affordability, inevitably reshaping the neighborhoods they take over. Creation looks at gentrification from the inside out—an artist mother making a home and neighborhood for her family, struggling to find her place amid the existing and emerging communities. While pushing her child’s stroller around Hamilton, Sylvia Nickerson shows us the warehouse filled with open barrels of toxic sludge, the parking lot where the city’s homeless population sleeps, and the refurbished Victorian house (complete with elegant chandeliers) that is now a state-of-the-art yoga studio. Creation presents the city as a living thing—a place where many small lives intersect and where death, motherhood, pollution, poverty, and violence are all interconnected. Drawn in evocative watercolor, Creation is unafraid to leave questions open-ended as Nickerson wanders the city and ponders just where the personal and the political intersect, and where they ought to intersect.New life and opportunities arise from the wreckage of a north american city urban renewal at what cost?

In Power Shift, Hugh White considers Australia’s future between Beijing and Washington. As the power balance shifts, and China’s infl uence grows, what might this mean for our nation? Throughout our history, we have counted fi rst on British then on American primacy in Asia. Now the rise of China as an economic powerhouse challenges US dominance and raises questions for Australia that go well beyond diplomacy and trade – questions about our place in the world, our loyalties and our long-term security. Will China replace the US as regional leader? If so, we will be dealing with an undemocratic and vastly more powerful nation. Will China wield its power differently from the US? If so, should we continue to support America and so divide Asia between our biggest ally and our biggest trading partner? How to defi ne the national interest in the Asian century? This visionary essay considers the shape of the world to come and the implications for Australia as it seeks to carve out a place in the new world order. “This year China overtook Japan to become the world’s second-biggest economy. It is already bigger, relative to the US, than the Soviet Union ever was during the Cold War. A Chinese challenge to American power in Asia is no longer a future possibility but a current reality. Few issues are more important to Australia’s future than how this plays out. You would not know it to listen to our leaders.” —Hugh White, Power Shift