Spectacles

Mao died. China got a little crazy.

Michael Collins helped liberate Ireland. They killed him for it.

Spectacles is a love letter to democracy, its values, its caretakers, and its ideas. Around the world, individual rights and representative government are facing unprecedented attacks from the forces of reaction and revisionism. But despite liberal democracy’s real shortcomings and today’s all-too-fashionable cynicism, we remain committed to its preservation and improvement. Join us as we explore just what liberal democracy is, how it comes about, and how it can best be maintained in a changing world.

In 1970, French-Quebec terrorists hatched a terrible plan.

In 1971, eight unlikely thieves uncovered the largest conspiracy in American history.

In 1980, South Korean citizens rose up against dictatorship, in one of the most inspiring and tragic episodes in the history of democracy.

In 1949, 20 Japanese communists went to prison for railroad sabotage. But the question of who was really responsible went to the heart of Japan's political crisis.

Trump's ballroom is the culmination of trends in presidential power.