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THE ARCHIVE

All Writing

Every piece published by The Perfect European, in one place. Use the filter to navigate by pillar — or scroll through and see what finds you.

Tony Judt Postwar — the book that gives you the framework for twenty years of European political argument
Tony Judt's Postwar — The Book That Explains the Argument You've Been Having for Twenty Years
3 MINS READ
Why is Hungary doing that? Why does migration break coalitions that agree on everything else? Why does...
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European cultural distribution — translated novels on a bookshop table, the gap between what Europe produces and what crosses its internal borders
Europe Funds Its Culture and Then Loses It
4 MINS READ
A Polish novel wins the Nobel Prize and takes seven years to reach English bookshops. A Danish television...
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Danube by Claudio Magris — the book that follows the river through ten countries and teaches you how to read a European landscape
The Book That Teaches You How to Look at Europe
3 MINS READ
There is a particular kind of European book that teaches you how to look at things — not what to think...
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Young Europeans outside the EU Parliament in Brussels — the generation for whom the European project became invisible by working
The EU's Young Person Problem Is Not a Communications Problem
4 MINS READ
The EU has a persistent difficulty connecting with young Europeans under 35. This is not, as the institutions...
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Wrocław city guide — the Market Square Town Hall at evening, fourteenth-century Gothic civic architecture rebuilt from rubble after 1945
Wrocław: the City That Rebuilt Itself — and Why Europe Should Pay Attention
6 MINS READ
A Wrocław city guide for people who want to understand what they are looking at. The Town Hall is Gothic,...
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Place du Luxembourg Brussels on a Friday evening — terrace heaters, the square emptying from the parliament end, filling at the bars
The Place du Luxembourg, 6:47pm — and What Europe Actually Is
2 MINS READ
At Place du Luxembourg Brussels, by seven o'clock on a Friday in November, the square has already made...
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Mercado do Bolhão, Porto
The Bolhão, Porto — and What a Market Is Actually For
3 MINS READ
The Bolhão market Porto reopened in 2022 after a decade of restoration — and did not become a food hall....
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Brussels European quarter at morning — the Quartier Européen pavements fill at 8:30, five days a week
Recognition That Requires No Performance
2 MINS READ
In the Brussels European quarter, the highest social register available is recognition that requires...
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