#philosophy

In 1939, Stefan Zweig prepared a lecture on history for the PEN Congress in Stockholm, but the event got cancelled. Published shortly after Zweig’s and his wife Charlotte Altmann’s suicide in 1942, Zweig’s essay is evidence of an attempt to spread optimism in bleak times. An excerpt.

President Trump’s plans to build a wall is only the latest in a long line of attempts to close the U.S.-Mexico border. But originally, these attempts were never meant to fence out Mexicans. Instead, they targeted a completely different group of immigrants.