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Fifteen Eighty Four

Academic perspectives from Cambridge University Press

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Resistance in the Time of Coronavirus

“I can’t breathe” is the phrase that will define 2020. It captures the fear of the coronavirus that attacks the respiratory system of those who contract it and they were the last words of George...

Gwilym David Blunt | 25 Jun 2020

Understanding Evolution: Why do ostriches have wings, anyway?

"Why do birds have wings?" "Why do eagles have wings?" "Why do penguins have wings?" "Why do ostriches have wings...?"

Kostas Kampourakis | 25 Jun 2020

Sinking Feelings: the Cause of Allied Victory in the Mediterranean during the Second World War

‘My illness has a name: convoys’ was the gloomy remark from the fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1943, as the Axis powers’ war in North Africa neared its disastrous conclusion. It is...

Richard Hammond | 24 Jun 2020

British intelligence, the IRA and the Northern Ireland Peace Process

British intelligence, the IRA and the Northern Ireland Peace Process After 29 years and over 3,700 deaths, the Good Friday Agreement ended the Northern Ireland conflict in 1998. Commentators and academics...

Thomas Leahy | 24 Jun 2020

Reform and the Structure of the Indian Economy

The Indian economy traversed a rising growth trajectory for three decades since the turn of the 1970s. It has been observed that growth came mostly from the service sector. The question that haunted economists...

Madhusudan Datta | 23 Jun 2020

Potatoes in a Pandemic

‘Baked potato saved my life’, sang Matt Lucas, in a fundraising video for the NHS that brought smiles to faces across the UK. The joyful silliness helps explain its appeal. Of course a baked potato...

Rebecca Earle | 23 Jun 2020

Harms, Benefits, and Trade-Offs in a Pandemic

A crucial topic in moral philosophy involves the aggregation and comparison of harms and benefits.  How many, for instance, minor headaches relieved is worth a single human life?  How many people...

Dale Dorsey | 22 Jun 2020

The Big Question (Statistical Analysis of Climate Extremes: The Blog about the Book. Part 4)

“Climate extremes cost human lives. They do harm to the economy. Examples are the Elbe flood in 2002, the European heatwave in 2003 or hurricane Katrina in 2005. The big question is how global climate...

Manfred Mudelsee | 20 Jun 2020

Swift in Print

Some reasons for writing a book are obvious from the start, but others emerge more slowly. With Swift in Print: Published Texts in Dublin and London, 1691-1765, I knew from the outset that I wanted to...

Valerie Rumbold | 19 Jun 2020

The Fables at the Heart of Neurodegenerative Disease Research

There are currently 77 clinical trials evaluating medications aimed at slowing the progression of Parkinson’s disease. On the surface that sounds like good reason to be optimistic that one of those...

Alberto Espay, Benjamin Stecher | 19 Jun 2020

COVID-19 and Refugee-Led Organisations

Refugees in lower- and middle-income countries are facing some of the most serious consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. In refugee camps, which have high population densities and thus present a particular...

Evan Easton-Calabria, Kate Pincock | 17 Jun 2020

Interactional Rituals: Covidiotism

Before we venture into a detailed analysis of interactional rituals and distance keeping, an interesting phenomenon worth considering is ‘covidiotism’ and its relationship with interactional rituals....

Dániel Z. Kádár, Juliane House | 17 Jun 2020