---
title: "Best of 2019: long reads"
date: "2019-12-23T10:20:54+00:00"
modified: "2019-12-23T10:20:54+00:00"
url: "https://newhumanist.org.uk/2019/12/23/best-of-2019-long-reads/"
post_id: 6958
categories: ["Uncategorised"]
---

# Best of 2019: long reads

 ![temple mount](https://newhumanist.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/images/temple-mount1.jpg "Jerusalem’s golden Dome of the Rock, and the Temple Mount, from Shira Rubin's spring 2019 piece ")Jerusalem’s golden Dome of the Rock, and the Temple Mount, from Shira Rubin[With religious fervour](/articles/5468/with-religious-fervour)

The New Atheists thought they stood for truth and reason – but did they help usher in an age of conspiracist thinking and prejudice? Giovanni Tiso explores.

[The empire strikes back](/articles/5535/the-empire-strikes-back)

Many pundits connect Brexit to imperial nostalgia – but, writes Charlotte Lydia Riley, its relationship with national identity is complex.

[New battles in an ancient city ](/articles/5432/new-battles-in-an-ancient-city)

How a mix of secular nationalists and religious zealots have turned Jerusalem’s Temple Mount into a site of conflict. Shira Rubin reports from Israel.

[The complex picture of religion and atheism today](/articles/5501/the-complex-picture-of-religion-and-atheism-today)

What people in Britain believe – or don’t – has changed dramatically in recent years. The results are likely to surprise you, as Jeremy Rodell explains.

[Willing servants ](/articles/5516/willing-servants)

The social industry was invented to capture social life and turn it to profit – and, as Richard Seymour warns, we are all slaving away as its unpaid “digital serfs”.

[Feminism’s history wars](/articles/5506/feminisms-history-wars)

Millicent Fawcett is now honoured in Westminster, writes Vron Ware, but what about the women who saw their fight as part of a wider struggle?

[The rise of Brazil’s Santo Daime religion](/articles/5509/the-rise-of-brazils-santo-daime-religion)

Ayahuasca and shamanic tourism were already controversial in Brazil, and now face an uncertain future under Bolsonaro. Lucinda Elliott reports.

[Turning the phage: a new front in the war on antibiotic resistance](/articles/5434/turning-the-phage-a-new-front-in-the-war-on-antibiotic-resistance)

Long overlooked in the West, could bacteriophages be the secret weapon in tackling our growing resistance to antibiotics? Peter Forbes explores.

[Who belongs and who doesn’t?](/articles/5431/who-belongs-and-who-doesnt)

The resurgence of nationalist politics around the world is threatening to turn into something far worse. Peter Salmon looks at the work of the French philosopher Étienne Balibar.





[A 21st-century schism ](/articles/5460/a-21st-century-schism)

Madeline Roache reports on the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which has provoked a split in the Russian Orthodox church, with up to 30 million followers at stake.

[*Read our top 10 culture pieces*](/articles/5546/best-of-2019-culture)

[*Read our top 10 interviews and columns*](/articles/5544/best-of-2019-interviews-and-columns)