Deb Anderson

To a weary and frightened people, fatalism does offer the consolation of lethargic peace ... anger and alarm still signal life. Yi-Fu Tuan (Landscapes of Fear, 1979)   Be afraid. ‘The Uninhabitable Earth’, the viral article published in New York magazine (2017) that was both fêted and scorned for its visceral bluntness, has grown out and up. A scary, 7,000-word portrait of a near-futu ... (read more)

How do people cope with drought, not as an abstraction or singular event but as a lifelong trial? In a bid to answer this question, historian Rebecca Jones elevates an understated, if underrated, historical source for understanding human responses to drought: the humble farm diary. Publishers’ enthusiasm for diaries as authentic historical documents and works of fiction seems as strong as the sc ... (read more)