Series: Proceedings of the British Academy

Polish-born, Soviet-domiciled composer Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–1996) is the 21st century’s most remarkable rediscovery in the field of art music. He enjoyed considerable renown in his adopted Russia from the 1940s to the 1970s. Subsequently, however, his reputation tailed off, as he increasingly became regarded as a Shostakovich epigone. As a composer of non-orthodox background, he was never marketed for export....

Democracy and Competition sets out to reframe the role of competition in democratic theory. Competition is the defining feature of modern democratic politics. On the dominant account of competitive democracy, competition is framed as electoral competition. This framing is shared by both defenders and critics of the dominant model, who then argue whether democracy needs more or less of this...

Sustained population studies of fertility over the last two centuries have come to question the extent to which trends in low fertility may be understood as universal. Improved knowledge of variations within countries and between communities has revealed heterogeneity in reproductive behaviours at sub-national levels—whether before, during, or after the so-called ‘fertility transition’. Population studies have also come to give...

Quentin Skinner is one of the world’s leading historians. His work includes pioneering studies of Machiavelli and Hobbes, as well as important research on changing ideas of liberty and the state. His classic 1969 essay Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas was a ground-breaking challenge to prevailing ideas about how to read historical texts, and helped to found...