Contemporary Review articles from April 2003

Contemporary Review archives from April 2003

India: back office to the world.(a discussion of the development of the Indian economy, which is focusing on office operations)
April 1, 2003... COMPETITION in industry and commerce all over the world is increasing despite, and perhaps even because of, the proliferation of mergers and acquisitions and the creation of global giants. The relentless and mounting pressure of competition in...

North Korea under Kim Jong-IL.
April 1, 2003... AFTER the collapse of the Soviet world and the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994, North Korea under his son Kim Jong-il has continued alone on the rigid communist road, in spite of its economic consequences that have led the state beyond ruin. In...

America's nuclear deterrence in the age of terrorism.(a discussion of U.S. foreign policy and nuclear policy in the present and past 20 years)
April 1, 2003... FOR the last twenty years it has been the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy to desist in using nuclear weapons unless the United States and, in some instances, its allies were attacked. The war in Iraq and the developing nuclear threat from...

Kenya's terror devils.(a discussion of three dates of major terrorist activity in Kenya)
April 1, 2003... DECEMBER 31, 1980. August 7, 1998. November 28, 2002. These three dates have something in common: terror in one African country. On these dates, terrorists inflicted on Kenya a diabolic fury that left death and destruction in its trail. The...

Islam and the West: Part II.(a discussion about Islam and how it is often a religion of the poor)
April 1, 2003... THE most important fact about Islam, often overlooked by Western commentators, is that it is, by and large, a religion of the poor. The per capita income of most of its vast congregation must be among the lowest in the world. They have gained...

Making the environment count.(it is possible for economists to do more to help protect the environment)(Column)
April 1, 2003... ECONOMISTS prefer dead trees. A tree standing in a forest has no standing in economics. It is not -- as far as conventional economics is concerned -- carrying out any 'economic' role. Of course, it provides a vital role in the earth's life...

'The most splendid city in Germany?' George Eliot and Prague.
April 1, 2003... IT was in July 1858, a decade after 'the year of revolutions', that the novelist George Eliot (Marian Evans) and her partner George Henry Lewes undertook a journey that led from London to Dresden by way of Munich. Preoccupied with German...

'Brought up by hand': a secondary education in tile 'fifties'.(Column)
April 1, 2003... MOST Dickens enthusiasts will immediately think of Mrs. Joe Gargery in Great Expectations, who brought up Pip 'by hand': that is, administered the occasional slap to keep him in line. As I write this, a storyline in the long-running soap opera...

America's greatest biographer: Douglas Southall Freeman.(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... IT IS now a half century since the death of Douglas Southall Freeman who was acclaimed by his fellow historian, Allan Nevins, as 'America's greatest biographer'. Freeman's monumental biographies, R. E. Lee (four volumes, 1934-35) and George...

Roger Scruton on terrorism and political correctness. (Reviews).(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... The West and the Rest: Globalisation and the Termrist Threat. Roger Scruton. Continuum. [pounds sterling]12.99. 187 pages. ISBN 0-8264-6496-3. The West and the Rest is about the two types of civilisation that still coexist in the world...

Tony Benn - the diarist of the left. (Reviews).(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... Free at Last! Diaries 1990-2002. Tony Benn. Ruth Winstone, editor. Hutchinson. [pounds sterling]25.00. 738 pages. ISBN 0-09-179352-1. 'I don't read diaries. I just write them' is what Tony Benn said to another Labour MP in October, 1992....

Humphrey Carpenter's angry young men. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The Angry Young Men: A Literary Comedy of the 1950s. Humphrey Carpenter. Allen Lane Penguin Pres. [pounds sterling]18.99. 256 pages. ISBN 0-713-99532-7. Did the 'Angry Young Men' actually exist? This is the question on which Humphrey...

A celebration of the British Museum. (Reviews).(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... The British Museum: A History. David M. Wilson. The British Museum Press. [pounds sterling]35.00. 416 pages. ISBN 0-7141-2764-7. The author of this monumental study, Sir David Wilson, was the Director of the British Museum from 1977 to...

The daily telegraph as seen by max hastings. (Reviews).(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... Editor: An Inside Story of Newspapers. Max Hastings. Macmillan. [pounds sterling]20.00. 396 pages. ISBN 0-333-90837-6. Max Hastings, good journalist though he is, seemed to many in Fleet Street and beyond an implausible editor of a national...

A new life of Samuel Pepys. (Reviews).(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self Claire Tomalin. Viking. [pounds sterling]20.00. 499 pages. ISBN 0-670-88568-1. In this splendid biography of the great seventeenth-century diarist the author has chosen a quote from Robert Louis Stevenson's...

Denton Welch - a life revealed. (Reviews).(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... Denton Welch, Writer and Artist. James Methuen-Campbell. Tartarus Press. [pounds sterling]30.00. 268 pages. ISBN 1-872621-60-0. A new biography of Denton Welch is, make no mistake, in many a refined and esoteric corner, quite an event. It...

Scottish history after devolution. (Reviews).(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... Scotland: A Short History. Christopher Harvie. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]8.99 (US$14.95). 265 pages. ISBN 0-19-210054-8. There are obvious difficulties in writing a 'short history' of a country and people with a long...

John Betjeman's hidden courtyards. (Reviews).(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... John Betjeman: New Fame, New Love. Bevis Hillier. John Murray. [pounds]25.00. 736 pages. ISBN 0-7195-5002-5. It has been a long wait for the second volume of this biography to appear. The first volume, Young Betjeman, came out in 1988. We...

The world of paperbacks. (Reviews).(a discussion of several new paperback books that have been released)
April 1, 2003... From VINTAGE we have three titles by W. G. Sebald, the German-born Professor of German Literature in the University of East Anglia who died in 2001. The first, Vertigo, is a book combining fiction and travelogue whilst the second, The...

Pandora's Daughters: The Secret History of Enterprising Women. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Pandora's Daughters: The Secret History of Enterprising Women. Jane Robinson. Constable. [pounds sterling]18.99. 222 pages. ISBN 0-09-480510-5. This book is devoted to 'self-employed working women, earning a rewarding living in a variety of...

Victory at Stalin grad: The Battle that Changed History. (Reviews).(Book Review)
April 1, 2003... Victory at Stalin grad: The Battle that Changed History. Geoffrey Roberts. Longman. [pounds sterling]9.99. 247 pages. ISBN 0-582-77185-4. The author gives his readers a general view of the battle and its significance. Secondly, he sets out to...

Arnhem: Operation Market Garden, September 1944. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Arnhem: Operation Market Garden, September 1944. Lloyd Clark. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]25.00. 240 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2835-2. The Allies' unsuccessful attempt to capture the important bridges in Belgium behind enemy lines and in...

The Archaeology of Medieval London. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The Archaeology of Medieval London. Christopher Thomas. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]19.99. 178 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2718-6. The author, who is a project manager at the Museum of London's Archaeology Service, has a first-hand knowledge of...

Shakespeare: For All Time. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Shakespeare: For All Time. Stanley Wells. Macmillan. [pounds sterling]30.00. 442 pages. ISBN 0-333-90499-0. Prof. Wells is widely recognised as this country's leading expert on Shakespeare as well as the general editor of the Oxford Shakespeare...

The Inferno of Dante Alighieri: A New Translation. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The Inferno of Dante Alighieri: A New Translation. Ciaran Carson. Granta Publications. [pounds sterling]14.99 p.b. ISBN 1-86207525-5. When the Belfast poet, Ciaran Carson, was invited to produce a translation of Dante's Inferno, he was 'almost...

The Unexpurgated Beaton. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The Unexpurgated Beaton. Hugo Vickers, editor. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]25.00. 418 pages. ISBN 0-297-64599-4. One of the curious features of the twentieth century was the respect, verging on reverence, paid to photographers,...

Religion and Superstition in Reformation Europe. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Religion and Superstition in Reformation Europe. Helen Parish and William G. Naphy, editors. Manchester University Press. [pounds sterling]49.99. 239 pages. ISBN 0-7190-6157-1. This exciting collection, part of M.U.P.'s series, Studies in Early...

Verdict on Vichy: Power and Prejudice in the Vichy France Regime. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Verdict on Vichy: Power and Prejudice in the Vichy France Regime. Michael Curtis. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]20.00. 419 pages. ISBN 0-297-84224-2. The controversy over France's Vichy government has divided not only Frenchmen but...

William Marshall: Knighthood, War and Chivalry, 1147-1219. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... William Marshall: Knighthood, War and Chivalry, 1147--12 19. David Crouch. Longman. [pounds sterling]19.99. 248 pages. ISBN 0-582-77222-2. In preparing this second edition of a biography first published in 1990 Prof. Crouch has taken the...

American Society Today. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... American Society Today. Edward Ashbee. Manchester University Press. [pounds sterling]45.00. 160 pages. ISBN 0-7190-6021-4. This latest volume in the Politics Today series alms to give a balanced picture of American society to offset the 'crude...

Hitler's Hitmen. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Hitler's Hitmen. Guido Knopp. Angus McGeoch, translator. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]19.99. 312 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2602-3. No political leader can accomplish anything without trusted lieutenants who both help to create his policies and...

Churchill. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Churchill. John Keegan. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]14.99. 181 pages. ISBN 0-297-60776-6. Sir John Keegan is by training and profession a military historian and in this latest title in Weidenfeld & Nicolson's 'Lives' series he gives...

The Lost King of France: Revolution, Revenge and the Search for Louis XVII. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The Lost King of France: Revolution, Revenge and the Search for Louis XVII. Deborah Cadbury. Fourth Estate. [pounds sterling]18.99. 306 pages. ISBN 1-84115-588-8. The horrors of the French Revolution can sometimes be better understood through...

Picasso's War: The Extraordinary Story of an Artist. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Picasso's War: The Extraordinary Story of an Artist, an Atrocity - and a Painting that Shook the World. Russell Martin. Scribner. [pounds]15.99. 274 pages. ISBN 0-7432-1989-9. Pablo Picasso's mural, Guernica, was based on the German bombardment...

The Cromwellian Protectorate. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The Cromwellian Protectorate. Barry Coward. Manchester University Press. [pounds sterling]14.99. 248 pages. ISBN 0-7190-4317-4. Traditionally historians have looked at the Protectorate (1653-59) as a 'retreat from revolution' in which the...

Hermit in Paris: Autobiographical Writings. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Hermit in Paris: Autobiographical Writings. Italo Calvino. Martin McLaughlin, translator. Jonathan Cape. [pounds sterling]16.99. 255 pages. ISBN 0-224-06132-1. This collection of twelve pieces includes a series of letters to his publisher...

New Worlds: The Great Voyages of Discovery 1400-1600. (Reviews).(book review)(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... New Worlds: The Great Voyages of Discovery 1400-1600. Ronald H. Fritze. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]25.00 (US$36.95). 285 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2346-6. One of the most exciting and far-reaching events in British and European history was...

Nationhood and Identity: The British State since 1800. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Nationhood and Identity: The British State since 1800. David Powell. I. B. Tautis. [pounds sterling]45.00. 314 pages. ISBN 1-86064-516-X. In this study the author carries forward the current interest amongst academic historians into the...