In this lively collection of essays, review articles and vers de société, Nicholas T. Parsons ranges through diverse aspects of present and past cultural identity. A longtime observer of Austria and Hungary, he takes a sometimes provocative look at their respective cultures and histories. A substantial part of the book however deals with contemporary obsessions in Europe, the USA and the UK: conceptual art, immigration, national populism and issues of free speech raised by the tactics of the “woke” lobbies on social media. The component of satirical verse separates and leavens the chapters of historical and analytical studies. Many of these essays originally appeared in the Hungarian Review.