Essays

Prospect’s most read articles of 2016

From the outlook for growth to romance delusions—ten of our most popular pieces

December 21, 2016
Our January-June 2016 covers
Our January-June 2016 covers

Is Britain in the grip of collective, clinical narcissism? Is economic growth a thing of the past? What gives our words meaning?

During 2016, Prospect has, as always, been making sense of the big issues—and you’ve been reading about them in record numbers. Below, you can find ten of our most popular pieces of the year, in which world-class writers set out to answer the questions above and more besides.

Among the contributors are Prospect regulars like Roger Scruton, who asks what it means to be British. His answer has taken on even more significance in the wake of the suggestion that public servants should swear an oath to British values. Larry Summers, former US Secretary to the Treasury, asks whether economic growth is over, as Robert Gordon has claimed. And Will Self argues that belief in God may have been replaced, in part, by romantic longing.

Will our children really not know economic growth?

Not so fast, Robert Gordon

By Larry Summers 



Who are we?

The "Remain" side thought the EU referendum was all about economics. It was really about how we define ourselves as a nation

By Roger Scruton



Who guards the Guardian?

The newspaper has taken on hundreds more staff, but its grand digital gamble has not yet paid off and it is losing money rapidly. Can it survive?

By Stephen Glover 



The Romance delusion

Many have thrown off the God delusion, but another has us in a firmer embrace

By Will Self



How words shape our world

There is gold in Charles Taylor's new work on language—a pity it's so hard to find

By Julian Baggini



Britain: narcissist nation

The country's inflated sense of self-worth is beginning to look clinical

By Joris Luyendijk



Gender—good for nothing

Our preoccupation with gender identity is a cultural step backwards. For me, the self transcends sex

By Lionel Shriver



How John Berger taught us to see

Berger, now 90, has changed his life so radically and so often because he cannot bear idle conversation

By Colin MacCabe



Esperanto: the language that never was  

It never became the world language that many hoped, but some still keep the faith

By Edward Docx



The haunted summer of 1816

Two great horror stories were born during a few wet days in Switzerland. Kevin Jackson retells the story of what happened

By Kevin Jackson