This is The Guardian.

Hi, I'm Jeff Wayne, and my musical version of The War of the Worlds

is returning to arenas this March in April with the Spirit of Mantua.

For me, standing on stage, conducting world-class artists and musicians,

surrounded by breathtaking technology, is nothing short of magical. It's more than a show.

It's a battle against the Martians, and I'd love you to be part of the adventure. See you there.

The Guardian Archive Long Read.

Hi, my name is Jill Lippoor.

I'm the author of a 2021 long read called Is Society Coming Apart?

I think The Guardian was doing a roundup of stories trying to take stock of what had and had not changed during the pandemic in the U.S. and the U.K.

And I somehow got really interested in this guy, Robert Nisbet, who had written this book,

The Quest for Community, because it seemed to pop up in a lot of places when I was trying to understand the history of the idea of the social fabric.

What I wrote about in 2021 was the relationship between society and government.

I was really riffing on Margaret Thatcher's famous declaration that there is no such thing as society and trying to understand the sort of hyperalienation of the pandemic and how it did

or did not manifest that idea. I don't know that much that I described in 2021 has really changed. I think the kind of ruptures

that took place during the pandemic have not healed and maybe have only widened.

Welcome to The Guardian Long Read,

showcasing the best long-form journalism

covering culture, politics and new thinking.

For the text version of this and all our long reads,

go to the Guardian.com forward slash long read.

Is society Coming Apart?

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