Culture | Time well spent

The best memes of 2021

What distracted The Economist this year

Lost the nomination / won the internet

Discover more

Angela Merkel sets out to restore her reputation

But her new memoir is unlikely to change her critics’ minds

The best books of 2024, as chosen by The Economist

Readers will never think the same way again about games, horses and spies


What to read to understand Elon Musk

The world’s richest man was shaped by science fiction


Woodrow Wilson’s reputation continues to decline

A dispassionate new biography chronicles the former president’s hostility to suffrage

Tech and religion are very much alike

They both have gods, rich institutions and secretive cultures

The cult of Jordan Peterson

What the Canadian intellectual gets right about young men