How to tell a Bagehot from a Banyan

Back Story
Our column on culture. Read the back story of Back Story. Published fortnightly since 2021.

Bagehot
The column about Britain is named after one of the finest editors of The Economist: Walter Bagehot (pronounced “Bajut”), who edited the paper between 1861 and 1877. A British Liberal politician once described him as someone who “hated dullness, apathy, pomposity, the time-worn phrase, the greasy platitude”. Published weekly since 1989.

Banyan
It was not easy finding a name for our column on Asian affairs, as a dearth of pan-Asian images speaks volumes. But the banyan tree serves better than most. In Asia it was in the tree’s shade that, variously, business was done, justice was dispensed and learning was furthered. Published weekly since 2009.

Bartleby
Our column on management is named after a short story by Herman Melville, whose protagonist, a scrivener named Bartleby, responds to requests to do his work with a simple, magnificently effective phrase: “I would prefer not to.” Published weekly since 2018.

Buttonwood
Our column on financial markets is named after the founding document of the New York Stock Exchange. The Buttonwood Agreement was drawn up by 24 stockbrokers in 1792 who, legend says, signed it under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street where their earliest trades had taken place. Published weekly since 2006.

Chaguan
For centuries a “Chaguan”, or tea house, has been a place for Chinese of diverse backgrounds to gather, pick up news or conduct business. In that spirit, the column aims to be a meeting place for ideas. Published weekly since 2018.

Charlemagne
Charlemagne (768-814) was a medieval emperor who united much of western Europe for the first time since the Romans. He mixed blood-soaked military campaigns with social and administrative reforms and gives his name to our column on European politics. Published weekly since 1998.

Free exchange
The name of our column on economics harks back to the The Economist’s origins. The newspaper was founded in 1843 to argue, among other things, for the principle of free trade. Published weekly since 2012 as “Free exchange”, and previously as “Economics Focus”.

Johnson
The fortnightly column on language is named after the lexicographer and critic Samuel Johnson, whose great literary and linguistic scholarship was matched by a gifted pen and wicked wit. The column was published for a while in the 1990s, then returned online in 2013 and in print in 2016.

Lexington
Our column on American and current affairs is named after the skirmish, in April 1775, at Lexington, Massachusetts, in which the first shots of the American revolutionary war were fired. Published weekly since 1990.

Schumpeter
This column is named after Joseph Schumpeter, a 20th-century economist who first identified the pivotal role of entrepreneurs and “creative destruction” in the business cycle. Published weekly since 2009.