Contemporary Review articles from February 2001

Contemporary Review archives from February 2001

MEDIA REVIEW: THE TRANSFORMATION OF LABOUR.
February 1, 2001... Editor's Note: In the opinion of almost all politicians and political commentators, Britain will almost certainly have a General Election sometime this year, most likely within the next few months. Since 1997 British politics has been...

THE FUEL TAX PROTEST AND THE CRISIS OF PARLIAMENT.
February 1, 2001... THE fuel protest of September 2000 has baffled the analysts, for there are no historical precedents or theoretical explanations for it. Initially on the continent, then, more or less suddenly, in the United Kingdom, a group of hauliers and...

POST-COLD WAR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: TRENDS AND PORTENTS.
February 1, 2001... Two world wars and the establishment of totalitarian tyrannies have shaken our faith in progress; technological civilization has shown that it possesses immense powers of destruction, for the natural world as well as for the cultural and...

INDIA'S ROYAL HOUSE OF OUDH.
February 1, 2001... 'SEND me a loaded revolver' wrote Princess Sakina of Oudh to the BBC producer who wanted to televise the history of the Royal House of Oudh. 'I will allow your cameras here but on one condition -- that you send the revolver 24 hours in...

SHAKESPEARE AT THE MIDDLE TEMPLE.
February 1, 2001... WHEN the Shakespeare Guild made its annual Golden Quill award to Kenneth Branagh this year, they chose well in staging the award ceremony at the Middle Temple. There are genuine Shakespearean associations, and the Great Hall held some 500...

A BRITISH MILITARY FAMILY.
February 1, 2001... EACH age owes a responsibility to understand the past. Strangely, with all the efforts to make the past of defeated nations from recent wars palatable, even truthful, the same concern and commitment has not been given to the British officers...

ALDOUS HUXLEY'S PHILOSOPHY.
February 1, 2001... I WAS sixteen when Aldous Huxley's Ends and Means was published, and a year older when it came my way in the public library. By that time I had romped through Crome Yellow, Antic Hay and Brave New World. Today, the young do not seem so well...

LOVE STORY.(Poem)
February 1, 2001... He trails.....She avails, He sidles....She idles, He smiles....She wiles, He charms...She disarms, He pledges...She hedges, He dares.....She ensnares.

DO NATIONS EXPRESS THEMSELVES IN THEIR FOODS?
February 1, 2001... Do nations express themselves in their foods? It is a question that I thought would be worth examining. Mulling over this interesting theory in my mind led me to examine my own experiences during more than a quarter century of travel throughout...

TROLLOPE AND THE PIOUS SLIPPERS OF CHELTENHAM.
February 1, 2001... CHELTENHAM, that cultivated spa town with its blend of elegant town houses inhabited by retired Anglo-Indian officers and officials, provided a good setting and target for Victorian novelists. To Thackeray it was a place where 'trumps and...

ROGER SCRUTON'S ENGLAND: ELEGY OR WARNING?(Review)
February 1, 2001... ENGLAND -- An Elegy. Roger Scruton. Chatto & Windus. [pound]16.99. 257 pages. ISBN 1-85619-251-2. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word 'elegy' as a song of mourning, a funeral song. We can hope England still lives, but Roger...

LATIN AMERICAN INDIANS AND NATIONALISM.(Review)
February 1, 2001... From Tribal Village to Global Village: Indian Rights and International Relations in Latin America. Alison Brysk. Stanford University Press. [pound]37.50 h.b. and [pound]15.95 p.b. 370 pages. ISBN 0-8047-3458-5 h.b. and 0-8047-3459-3 p.b....

SOUNDBITES AND SPIN.(Review)
February 1, 2001... Managing the Message. Peter Hobday. London House. [pound]16.99. 240 pages. ISBN 1-902809-18-1. For fourteen years Peter Hobday was one of the main presenters of Radio 4's flagship news programme, 'Today'. As such, his qualifications for...

ULSTER'S CATHOLICS.(Review)
February 1, 2001... The Catholics of Ulster: A History. Marianne Elliott. Allen Lane: The Penguin Press. [pound]25.00. 642 pp. ISBN 0-713-96464-9. In the 1590s Elizabeth I was nauseated by dispatches from Ireland; from the 1970s the average newspaper reader...

MOTHER OF THE SHAKERS.(Review)
February 1, 2001... Ann the Word: The Story of Ann Lee, Female Messiah, Mother of the Shakers, the Woman Clothed with the Sun. Richard Francis. Fourth Estate. [pound]14.99.388 pages. ISBN 1-85702-969-0. When I lived in Manchester that city managed to publish a...

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY.(Brief Article)(Review)(Brief Review)
February 1, 2001... Among new reference books is the latest title in THAMES AND HUDSON's 'Chronicle' series: Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queen: Deciphering the Dynasties of the Ancient Maya by Simon Martin and Nikolai Grube ([pound]19.95. 240 pages). The ruins...

Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Alexander the Great in Fact and Fiction. A. B. Bosworth and E. J. Baynham, editors. Oxford University Press. [pound]35.00. 370 pages. ISBN 0-19-815287-6. This collection of eleven essays (if one includes the introduction) originated in a...

The Reign of Richard Lionheart: Rule of the Angevin Empire, 1189-1199.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The Reign of Richard Lionheart: Rule of the Angevin Empire, 1189-1199. Ralph V. Turner and Richard R. Heiser. Longman. [pound]16.99p.b. 292 pages. ISBN 0-582-25659-3. This latest volume in Longman's 'Medieval World' series is not so much a...

Farthest North.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Farthest North. Fritjof Nansen. Duckworth. [pound]25.00. 508 pages. ISBN 0-7156-3031-8. This biography is an abridged version of the 1897 book describing the journey to the North Pole of the famous nineteenth century Norwegian explorer. It was...

Adenauer: The Father of the New German.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Adenauer: The Father of the New German. Charles Williams. Little, Brown. [pound]30.00/Can$50.00. 594 pages. ISBN 0-316-85298-8. It is perhaps fitting for the biographer of De Gaulle to turn his attention to Konrad Adenauer. He was the great...

How the English Made the Alps.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... How the English Made the Alps. Jim Ring. John Murray. [pound]19.99. 287 pages. ISBN 0-7195-5689-9. One of England's greatest achievements in the Victorian era, or one of her greatest blots, was the creation of mass tourism. A 'strong pound' and...

The Chapel is on Fire: Recollections of Growing Up.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The Chapel is on Fire: Recollections of Growing Up. Michael Levey. Jonathan Cape. [pound]16.99. 268 pages. ISBN 0-224-05156-3. The author of these memoirs, Sir Michael Levey, was for thirteen years Director of the National Gallery and also...

John Dryden: Tercentenary Essays.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... John Dryden: Tercentenary Essays. Paul Hammond and David Hopkins, editors. Clarendon Press, Oxford. [pound]65.00. 415 pages. ISBN 0-19-818644-4. This volume, published to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Dryden's death, has an introduction...

The Importance of Being Edward: King in Waiting 1841-1901.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The Importance of Being Edward: King in Waiting 1841-1901. Stanley Weintraub. John Murray. [pound]25.00. 443 pages. ISBN 0-7195-5767-4. The author is a well established and prolific writer of biographies of Victorian notables including...

The English Church, 940-1154.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The English Church, 940-1154. H. R. Loyn. Longman. [pound]15.99 p.b. 174 pages. ISBN 0-582-30303-6. This study is part of Longman's series, 'The Medieval World'. By starting this history in 940 the author brings home the point that the Norman...

The Younger Pitt.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... The Younger Pitt. Michael Duffy. Longman. [pound]14.99 p.b. 247 pages. ISBN 582-05279-3. This volume is part of Longman's Profiles in Power' series which provides readers with short introductions to the men who have shaped British history and...

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: A Critical Edition.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: A Critical Edition. Thomas L. Beauchamp, editor. Clarendon Press, Oxford. [pound]40.00. 344 pages. ISBN 0-19-825060-6. Prof Beauchamp, one of the editors of the Clarendon Edition of the Works of David...

Chaucer 1340-1400: The Life and times of the First English Poet.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Chaucer 1340-1400: The Life and times of the First English Poet. Richard West. Constable. [pound]20.00. 302 pages. ISBN 0-09479410-3. In this biography Richard West places Chaucer and his famous poem in the context of the age in which he lived...

Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings. Pietro C. Marani. Harry N. Abrams. [pound]55.00. 384 pages. ISBN 0-8109-3581-3. The author of this exhaustive study is well qualified. Signor Marani was a vice-director of the Brera Museum in Milan and...

Thomas Gray: A Life.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Thomas Gray: A Life. Robert L. Mack. Yale University Press. [pound]25.00/US$39.95. 718 pages. ISBN 0-300-08499-4. Thomas Gray is usually remembered for his moving poem, Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard and for his Eton Ode. In this large...

Cardinal Richelieu and the Making of France.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Cardinal Richelieu and the Making of France. Anthony Levi. Constable. [pound]20.00. 327 pages. ISBN 0-909-480190-8. Cardinal Richelieu remains one of the most pivotal men in French history. He exercised his greatest power as first minister...

Bellow: A Biography.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Bellow: A Biography. James Atlas. Faber and Faber. [pound]25.00. 686 pages. ISBN 0-571-14356-3. This life of the American novelist, Saul Bellow, was first published in the U.S. by Random House in 2000. In this biography the author tells us all...

Empire: The Russian Empire and Its Rivals.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Empire: The Russian Empire and Its Rivals. Dominic Lieven. John Murray. [pound]27.50. 486 pages. ISBN 0-7195-5243-5. The author has made his name primarily as an historian of the Russian Empire but here he does not give us another history of...

Start of Play: Cricket and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Start of Play: Cricket and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England. David Underdown. Allen Lane: The Penguin Press. [pound]20.00. 258 pages. ISBN 0-713-99330-8. In this study Prof Underdown has turned his historian's eye to an often neglected...

Bertrand Russell: The Ghost of Madness.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Bertrand Russell: The Ghost of Madness. Ray Monk. Jonathon Cape. [pound]25.00. 574 pages. ISBN 0-224-05172-5. To the British left wing intellectual Bertrand Russell stands as something of a god because of his crusade for 'intellectual freedom',...

Mary Shelley.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Mary Shelley. Miranda Seymour. John Murray. [pound]25.00. 655 pages. ISBN 0-7195-5711-9. The author, already famous for biographies of Ottoline Morrell, Robert Graves and Henry James, here turns her attention to the wife of Percy Bsyche...

Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val D'Orcia.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val D'Orcia. Caroline Moorehead. John Murray. [pound]22.00. 351 pages. ISBN 0-7195-5819-0. Iris Origo is famous for her books on the war in Italy which describe, in understated tones, how the Anglo-American Iris and her...

Gustav Mahler, Volume 3. Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion (1904-1907).(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Gustav Mahler, Volume 3. Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion (1904-1907). Henry-Louis de la Grange. Oxford University Press. [pound]35.00. 1000 pages. ISBN 0-19-315160-X. It is perhaps fitting that a man who wrote such long symphonies should...

Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Teresa of Avila: The Progress of a Soul. Cathleen Medwick. Duckworth. [pound]20.00. 284 pages. ISBN 0-7156-3033-4. This biography of the sixteenth century Spanish saint is the first to be published in English in fifty years. First published in...

Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain.(Review)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2001... Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain. Robert Harvey. Constable. [pound]16.99. 332 pages. ISBN 1-84119-162-0. Thomas Cochrane, the tenth Earl of Dundonald, had two lives. In his first, his real life, he was a famous admiral and...