Contemporary Review articles from April 2004

Contemporary Review archives from April 2004

The Eastern Catholic Churches in America.
April 1, 2004... IF YOU have ever driven through the 'Rust Belt' in the northeastern and north-central United States, that territory dominated by steel mills and coal mines, you are likely to notice, especially near urban areas, the gold or silver domes topped...

Whither British politics?
April 1, 2004... THE years 2003-2004 have all the hallmarks of the beginning of a fundamental change in British politics. It can be argued that the seeds planted at the birth of New Labour have begun to bear fruit and new alignments have begun to emerge. It is,...

The book famine in Africa: a former teacher observes.(The Book Famine in Africa)
April 1, 2004... PRE-COLONIAL societies in Africa south of the Sahara had oral cultures. The folk memory and wisdom were transmitted by the elders to the younger generations by means of stories, recitations and songs, often done convivially around an evening...

The British Association for American Studies at fifty.
April 1, 2004... IN April the British Association for American Studies will hold its annual meeting in Manchester. In the course of four days about 230 presentations are scheduled on all aspects of American Studies. The speakers in Manchester will come from...

Islamic terrorists look to Moldova for dirty bombs.(Islamic Terrorists Look to Moldova)
April 1, 2004... THE BREAKAWAY Trans-Dniester region of Moldova has emerged as a thriving uncontrolled marketplace for all kinds of weapons including nuclear materials as well as other contraband. The market is the only substantial local source of foreign...

Contemporary Slovene literature.(Contemporary Slovene Literature)(Critical Essay)
April 1, 2004... IF THE name Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital sounds exotic and foreign, and if keeping Slovenia and Slovakia apart seems a somewhat formidable task, one should not get so discouraged as to disregard the literary activity of Slovenia, a country...

Patrick Thursfield: the last Tangerine.(Patrick Thursfield: The Last Tangerine)(Obituary)
April 1, 2004... PATRICK Thursfield, an occasional contributor to Contemporary Review, died in Tangier on 22 August 2003, a few months short of his 80th birthday, in the last of the many homes he had made for himself on the Vieille Montagne since his arrival in...

A common ground for Tyranny?(Brothers under the Skin: Travels in Tyranny)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Brothers under the Skin: Travels in Tyranny. Christopher Hope. Macmillan. [pounds sterling]17.99. 280 pages. ISBN 1-4050-0555-6. Christopher Hope, a witty writer, this time offers his readers naught for their comfort. In Brothers under the...

Sir Oliver Franks and the special relationship.(Oliver Franks and the Truman Administration: Anglo-American Relations, 1948-1952)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Oliver Franks and the Truman Administration: Anglo-American Relations, 1948-1952. Michael F. Hopkins. Frank Cass. [pounds sterling]42.50. 278 pages. ISBN 0-7146-5303-9. This book provides an interesting and informative account of the...

The enemies of liberal society.(Terror and Liberalism)(The Future of Freedom. Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Terror and Liberalism. Paul Berman. W. W. Norton. [pounds sterling]14.95. 214 pages. ISBN 0-393-05775-5. The Future of Freedom. Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. Fareed Zakaria. W. W. Norton. [pounds sterling]18.90. 287 pages. ISBN...

Battling Barbara: a life of Barbara Castle.(Red Queen: The Authorized Biography of Barbara Castle)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Red Queen: The Authorized Biography of Barbara Castle. Anne Perkins. Macmillan. [pounds sterling]20.00. 499 pages. ISBN 0-333-90511-3. Barbara Castle was a prominent Minister in the British Labour Governments of the 1960s and 1970s led by...

John Fowles' intemperate frankness.(The Journals: Volume 1)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... The Journals: Volume 1. John Fowles. Jonathan Cape. [pounds sterling]30.00. 600 pages. ISBN 0-224-06911-X. These edited but unrevised transcriptions may count among the most capable of John Fowles's writings. Here is something more than raw...

Thackeray year by year.(A William Makepeace Thackeray Chronology)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... A William Makepeace Thackeray Chronology. Edgar F. Harden. Palgrave Macmillan. [pounds sterling]50.00. 396 pages. ISBN 1-4039-0301-8. Since the Second World War two North American scholars have dominated the world of Thackeray research and...

Restoring Mussolini's reputation.(Mussolini: A New Life)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Mussolini: A New Life. By Nicholas Farrell. Weidenfeld and Nicholson. [pounds sterling]25.00. 531 pages. ISBN 0-297-81965-8. Mussolini has joined a small, select band of historical heavyweights whose fate is worse than perpetual infamy: he...

Art and politics in the work of Paula Rego.(Paula Rego's Map of Memory: National and Sexual Politics)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Paula Rego's Map of Memory: National and Sexual Politics. Maria Manuel Lisboa. Ashgate. [pounds sterling]52.50. 218 pages. ISBN 0-7546-0720-8. Is art a purely aesthetic phenomenon or does it contain hidden messages that can be linked to...

A realistic view of the Just War.(The Just War Revisited)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... The Just War Revisited. Oliver O'Donovan. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]35.00 (US$53.00). 139 pages. ISBN 0-521-53899-8. Oliver O'Donovan is Regius Professor of Practical and Moral Theology at Oxford and a canon of Christ...

Abrams.(The World of Paperbacks)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... ABRAMS has a justifiably high reputation as a publisher of art books and its Masters of Art series has been well received. The fact that it has been continuously in print for some twenty years is proof of that. Now the firm has redesigned the...

Abacus.(The World of Paperbacks)(The Edwardians)(Paris was Yesterday 1925-1939)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... ABACUS, as part of its Modern Classics series, has recently republished Vita Sackville-West's most famous novel, The Edwardians ([pounds sterling]8.99) which was first published in 1930 and was based on her own upbringing at Knole, the family...

Gill & Macmillan.(The World of Paperbacks)(Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... From GILL & MACMILLAN, one of Ireland's leading publishers, we have a revised and expanded paperback edition of Dr Antoinette Quinn's Patrick Kavanagh: A Biography ([pounds sterling]9.99) which was published in hardback in 2001. In this...

Longman.(The World of Paperbacks)(The New British Politics, 3rd ed.)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... LONGMAN has recently brought out a third edition of The New British Politics ([pounds sterling]24.99) edited by Ian Budge, Ivor Crewe, David McKay and Ken Newton. This now classic reference book was first published in 1998 and has been updated...

Pan books.(The World of Paperbacks)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Recently PAN BOOKS launched a new series on warfare, the Pan Grand Strategy Series, which contains six best-selling hardback titles that look at warfare from a wide range of angles. In chronological order the six are: Ian Knight's The National...

Pan books.(The World of Paperbacks)(An Anatomy of Terror: A History of Terrorism)(Imprint of the Raj: How Fingerprinting was Born in Colonial India)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Also from PAN BOOKS we have paperback editions of Andrew Sinclair's An Anatomy of Terror: A History of Terrorism ([pounds sterling]8.99), which not only traces the history of terror but examines the thinking behind its use and Chandak...

John Murray.(The World of Paperbacks)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... New releases from the venerable firm of JOHN MURRAY include four titles with a Middle-Eastern theme. The first is Zachary Karabell's Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal ([pounds sterling]8.99) which recreates the excitement and...

Pimlico.(The World of Paperbacks)(Eden: The Life and Times of Anthony Eden First Earl of Avon, 1897-1977)(Mary, Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... PIMLICO has published D. R. Thorpe's Eden: The Life and Times of Anthony Eden First Earl of Avon, 1897-1977 ([pounds sterling]12.99) which was praised in Contemporary Review as a 'magnificent biography that restores Eden's once glittering...

Constable & Robinson.(The World of Paperbacks)(The Mammoth Book of Native Americans)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... From CONSTABLE & ROBINSON we have another in their 'mammoth book' series issued under the Robinson imprint, The Mammoth Book of Native Americans ([pounds sterling]7.99) edited by Jon E. Lewis. Here in one volume, and in chronological order, is...

Granta books.(The World of Paperbacks)(New Rulers: The Secret Files)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Finally we have from GRANTA BOOKS a revised edition of Andrew J. Nathan and Bruce Gilley's China's New Rulers: The Secret Files ([pounds sterling]8.99), first published in the U.S. by New York Review Books. This new edition enlarges our...

Isaac Newton. James Gleick. Fourth Estate.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Isaac Newton. James Gleick. Fourth Estate. [pounds sterling]15.00. xii + 289 pages. ISBN 0-00-716317-7. The author is in no doubt that Newton 'discovered more of the essential core of human knowledge than anyone before or after'. He was 'the...

The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]14.99. ix + 214 pages. ISBN 0-297-84726-0. This short history, by two journalists at The Economist, argues...

Hitler's Scientists: Science, War and the Devil's Pact.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Hitler's Scientists: Science, War and the Devil's Pact. John Cornwell. Viking. [pounds sterling]20.00. xv + 535 pages. ISBN 0-670-89362-5. In this incisive study Mr Cornwell asks if, by studying the history of science in Germany in the first...

Nehru: A Political Life.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Nehru: A Political Life. Judith M. Brown. Yale University Press. [pounds sterling]25.00. xvi + 407 pages. ISBN 0-300-09279-2. The author accepts that Prof. Gopal's three-volume biography remains the best study of Independent India's first Prime...

Health & Disease in Britain: From Prehistory to the Present Day.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Health & Disease in Britain: From Prehistory to the Present Day. Charlotte Roberts and Margaret Cox. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]25.00. xix + 476 pages. ISBN 0-7509-1844-6. This important study, jointly written by an archaeologist and...

The Wright Brothers: The Remarkable Story of the Aviation Pioneers Who Changed the World.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... The Wright Brothers: The Remarkable Story of the Aviation Pioneers Who Changed the World. Ian Mackersey. Little, Brown. [pounds sterling]20.00. vi+554 pages. ISBN 0-316-86144-8. The author admits that there have been over 100 separate books...

Shalom Ireland: A Social History of Jews in Modern Ireland.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Shalom Ireland: A Social History of Jews in Modern Ireland. Ray Rivlin. Gill & Macmillan. [pounds sterling]24.99. x + 302 pages. ISBN 0-7171-3634-5. Because ninety per cent of Ireland's Jews live in Dublin, the capital city naturally gets a...

A History of Spain.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... A History of Spain. Simon Barton. Palgrave Macmillan. [pounds sterling]42.50 ([pounds sterling]13.99 p.b.). xviii+302 pages. ISBN 0-333-63258-3. This latest title in Palgrave's 'Essential History' series gives readers 'a clear and concise...

Acts of War.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Acts of War. Richard Holmes. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]20.00. xii + 436 pages. ISBN 0-297-84668-X. Because of his successful television series Prof. Holmes has emerged as everyman's guide to warfare. In this re-issue of a title...

Rising '44: 'The Battle for Warsaw'.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Rising '44: 'The Battle for Warsaw'. Norman Davies. Macmillan. [pounds sterling]25.00. xxvi + 752 pages. ISBN 0-333-90568-7. Of the many tragedies of World War II none is more tragic than the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 in which, with Allied...

Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Tea: Addiction, Exploitation and Empire. Roy Moxham. Constable. [pounds sterling]14.99. xv + 272 pages. ISBN 1-84119-569-3. Mr Moxham writes with an authority based not just on research but on his own five-year stint as the manager of a...

Freedom's Cause: Lives of the Suffragettes.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... Freedom's Cause: Lives of the Suffragettes. Fran Abrams. Profile Books. [pounds sterling]17.99. xvii + 283 pages. ISBN 1-86197-425-6. The story of the suffragists and suffragettes (the more radical wing) has been told numerous times. Here we...

The Sickly Stuarts: The Medical Downfall of a Dynasty.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
April 1, 2004... The Sickly Stuarts: The Medical Downfall of a Dynasty. Frederick Holmes. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00. xv + 224 pages. 0-7509-3296-1. The author is an American physician who, late in life, developed an interest in Stuart history....