FROM THE MAGAZINE

December 2022

Spectator Editorial

How to survive the ‘permacrisis’

2022 was a hard year, but also a clarifying one

By Spectator Editorial

From the Magazine

Snapshots of Ukraine

It’s getting closer to victory, conserving its strength and moving at its own pace

By Bernard-Henri Lévy

From the Magazine

Business

Can Twitter still be saved?

Elon Musk will try but other meaningful options are starting to emerge

By Ashley Rindsberg

From the Magazine

Economics

What Hawaii taught me about American homelessness

A system designed to exploit will always exploit too much at its edges

By Peter Van Buren

From the Magazine

Culture

Have yourself a very basic Christmas

Normal is nice. Basic is beautiful

By Bridget Phetasy

From the Magazine

Politics

Mike Pompeo prepares for 2024

He has the energy of a politician who believes he can achieve whatever he sets his mind to

By Ben Domenech

From the Magazine

Education

How would the Romans have defined Meghan Markle?

They took the view that all human beings were personally accountable for their actions and fully responsible for the outcomes

By Peter Jones

From the Magazine

Europe

Europe’s euthanasia policies are uncivilized

There is something deeply strange, almost dystopian, in it

By Douglas Murray

From the Magazine

Politics

What conservatives lack

What the cultured right needs is what the left has: an avant-garde

By Daniel McCarthy

From the Magazine

Culture

Big Pickleball is coming for your tennis court

A casual pastime appealing to limited-mobility seniors develops big ambitions

By Rosie Gray

From the Magazine

Russia

A declaration of Cold War

Seventy-six years after Churchill’s warning, Garry Kasparov castigates a complacent West

By James Kirchick

From the Magazine

Education

The outrage fever over Critical Race Theory

It’s a strange and unwitting collusion between left- and right-wing actors

By Jesse Singal

From the Magazine

Business

How Politico’s Playbook went from must-read to spam

Spotted: a Spectator journalist realizing it was probably always irrelevant navel-gazing

By Amber Duke

From the Magazine

Campaign 2022

The Republican march on Rome

Will the Republicans fritter their wins away as Hannibal did after Cannae?

By Roger Kimball

From the Magazine

Business

How I went from woke capitalist to victim of the woke mob

Levi’s was among the wokest of the woke. And I was in on it

By Jennifer Sey

From the Magazine

Science & Tech

At war with my pearly whites

It feels good to smile again, in the American way, blinding anyone who looks at me directly

By Matt Purple

From the Magazine

Culture

The office Christmas party is back with a vengeance

There is no comparison to any other work event

By Kara Kennedy

From the Magazine

Culture

How Formula One took America by storm

One of the world’s most popular sports has begun to get a foothold in the US

By David Marcus

From the Magazine

Politics

My travels in DeSantisland

I decided to spend some time in the Tampa suburb where he grew up

By Dave Seminara

From the Magazine

Books + Arts

Theater

Ebony and ivories

The Piano Lesson puts its characters first

By Robert S. Erickson

From the Magazine

Books

The Spectator’s 2022 Books of the Year

Our writers weigh in

By The Spectator

From the Magazine

Book Review

The return of Cormac McCarthy

Arguably America’s greatest living novelist is back with two novels

By Dan Jones

From the Magazine

Books

Think autofiction is easy? Think again

There are relatively few rules beyond (perhaps) a disregard for plot

By Lisa Hilton

From the Magazine

Books

Joyce Carol Oates, a woman for all seasons

She remains one of American literature’s great survivors — and provocateurs

By Zoe Strimpel

From the Magazine

Exhibitions

Murillo the masterful

The Spaniard’s painterly skill outshines his congenital weakness for schmaltz

By Mario Naves

From the Magazine

Television

The shock value of Lena Dunham

She was the low-culture Mary Tyler Moore

By Art Tavana

From the Magazine

Film

The return of Lindsay Lohan

Falling for Christmas looks bound to be tragicomic and artless pulp, but so what?

By Ross Anderson

From the Magazine

Music

David Bowie is bigger than ever

His stature as rock music’s greatest iconoclast shows no sign of being threatened

By Alexander Larman

From the Magazine

Life

High Life

The lessons of New York’s carnage

Here I am, a Bagel bum, braving loons all day and night in a crappy city instead of being at Badminton — and for what?

By Taki

From the Magazine

Low Life

I tried a 100-year-old opiate

I lay upstairs with one of Michael’s military-grade tablets dissolving into my bloodstream

By Jeremy Clarke

From the Magazine

London Life

How to throw a book party

My book has not gotten sensational reviews. It’s gotten no reviews — at least from the national press

By Cosmo Landesman

From the Magazine

American Life

Detroit detour

We took a side trip to Sonny Bono’s hometown en route to a birthday party in Indiana

By Bill Kauffman

From the Magazine

Prejudices

The grievance games of the left

Since the French Revolution, left-wing politics have been essentially about revenge

By Chilton Williamson, Jr.

From the Magazine

Place

Place

Married in Meteora

Agios Stefanos is replete with God’s presence — despite the tourists

By Birdie Hall

From the Magazine

Place

Heart and Seoul

South Korea is rising while still maintaining the cultural hallmarks of its poorer days

By Josh Glancy

From the Magazine

Food and Drink

Food

A gingerbread house divided

In Europe, it isn’t just for Christmas

By Hannah Moore

From the Magazine

Drink

Colony Grill’s culture remains

What Colony lacks in ash it makes up for with the world’s best pizza, one designed specifically for drinkers

By Billy McMorris

From the Magazine

Drink

A nod to eggnog

Pour into goblets and grate some nutmeg over the top. Ah, I can smell it now

By Jane Stannus

From the Magazine

Food

My smorgasbord of Christmas traditions

A multicultural family is a recipe for tasty treats

By Calla Jones Corner

From the Magazine

Drink

The Chablis complex

The wine is renowned for its consistency, intricacy and near-immortality

By Roger Kimball

From the Magazine

And Finally

And Finally

The magic of Christmas caroling

It was Christmas Eve and it was snowing

By Priscilla M. Jensen

From the Magazine

And Finally

Entering crisis mode

Crisis comes from a Greek word that also gives us critical and critic

By Dot Wordsworth

From the Magazine