Author: John Foster
John Foster is a historian of European politics.

The father of reunification. Mikhail Gorbachev, East Side Gallery.

Remembrance Culture

By John Foster
Posted on
Posted in Sounds Like Now

Memory is one of the most important elements of modern societies. Nowhere has its centrality been so fully illustrated than in Germany. (More…)

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Playing for the Troops

By John Foster
Posted on
Posted in The Interrogation Room

As far as band names go, Adrestia couldn’t be better. The goddess of revolt in Greek mythology, it’s astonishing no one used it until now. Leave it to a political punk group from Sweden, with a fondness for vintage death metal, to seize the day. (More…)

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They once left for Auschwitz from here. Milano Centrale, July 2019.

Imagining a Europe Made Whole

By John Foster
Posted on
Posted in Sounds Like Now

Perhaps it is a sign of the wounds inflicted by National Socialism that so much speculative fiction has been written exploring how things might have turned out differently. (More…)

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The Loser is Britain

By John Foster
Posted on
Posted in Behind The Lines

America won the UK election. Not the Tories.  The only mandate the Conservatives were given is to put the final stamp on Britain’s merger with Washington. (More…)

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The way we were. Belfast, 2008

Drop the Guns

By John Foster
Posted on
Posted in Sounds Like Now

Britain’s decision to leave the EU has destabilised Northern Ireland. A return to sectarian conflict is one of the most feared consequences of the return of a hard border. (More…)

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I lost my memory. Torino, February 2013.

Scapegoat Politics

By John Foster
Posted on
Posted in Sounds Like Now

There is no more fraught a topic than Antisemitism. Antisemitism exposes the truths and contradictions of politics, illustrating the power of history and concepts, but also their limitations. (More…)

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Antisemitic Lega graffiti. Turin, August 2019.

Return of the Repressed

By John Foster
Posted on
Posted in Sounds Like Now

“Populism…is the buzzword of the twenty-first century,” according to Dutch sociologist Cas Mudde, its best-known analyst. But that’s largely due to our misunderstanding it, he claims. (More…)

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Portugal in the house. Paris, May Day 2018

Survival of the Leftists

By John Foster
Posted on
Posted in Critical Times

The results from the recent federal elections in Portugal give certain grounds for optimism. There, unlike elsewhere in Europe, the main social democratic party tacked to the left rather than the right. (More…)

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Civil rights marchers. Madrid, April 2019.

Keeping It Real

By John Foster
Posted on
Posted in Behind The Lines

In a development that is very much emblematic of the state of politics in Europe, Spain is spiralling toward another round of elections to be held in the second week of November. (More…)

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