Contemporary Review articles from January 2000

Contemporary Review archives from January 2000

MILLENNIAL THOUGHTS FROM ASSISI.
January 1, 2000... I write from the monastery of San Andrea where I inhabit a room that affords me a spectacular view of the Spoleto Valley and the Basilica of San Francesco which dates back to 1230. When describing my room to friends I have referred to it as the...

IRAN AND THE ISLAMISTS.
January 1, 2000... At the start of the twenty-first century, Iran faces important changes in its relationship to both the East and the West. A look back at the history of the country gives an insight into Iran's problems. PINE FOR LIBERTY The night's...

CROWDED OUT: AMERICAN POLITICAL CONVENTIONS: PART ONE.
January 1, 2000... AMONG the most colourful events of the year now opening will be the conventions of the two major political parties. Every four years delegates assemble from all over America to select candidates for President and Vice-President, as well as to...

GM FOODS IN PERSPECTIVE: PART ONE.
January 1, 2000... GENETICALLY modified foods, or GM foods, as they became known publicly, are foods and food products made from genetically modified organisms (GMOs) belonging to the category of crops (GM crops). During 1999, the subject of GM foods got a...

IN MEMORIAN.(Poem)
January 1, 2000... The silent voices of which we were fond, Find their echoes in the streets beyond, For the past is not a corpse to dismember - It's by moving on that we truly remember.

POLITICIANS AND SOARING CRIME RATES.
January 1, 2000... DURING the last General Election campaign, which unofficially dragged on for months, the then Home Secretary Michael Howard and Jack Straw his opposition 'shadow' spent much time and energy vying with each other as to which Party would be the...

SYRIA'S CRUSADER CASTLES.
January 1, 2000... A LEPPO, Syria's second largest city with its massive citadel which had withstood the fiercest onslaughts of the Crusaders, was behind us as we made our way through man-planted forests edging the four-lane highway. A few years back, I had...

DIANA HAS NOT GONE GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT.
January 1, 2000... ALTHOUGH Diana, Princess of Wales, died over two years ago, she has not gone quietly. Opinions on Diana continue to be deeply divided varying from the those who consider her a saint in heaven to the savage critiques of A. N. Wilson: 'a young...

MONSIEUR FERRAND AND THE DECLINE OF THE FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE.
January 1, 2000... MONSIEUR Ferrand will celebrate his eightieth birthday at the start of the new millennium. He lives with his wife in two rooms of a very small cottage, heated by an old-fashioned wood burning stove. The furnishing is spartan but includes an...

THE CROWN IN BRITISH POLITICS.(Review)
January 1, 2000... The Nature of the Crown: A Legal and Political Analysis. Maurice Sunkin and Sebastian Payne, editors. Oxford University Press. [pounds]50.00. 368 pages. ISBN 0-19-826273-6. The Nation, the State, the Government, the People, the Public -- we...

IN THE FIRING LINE.(Review)
January 1, 2000... In the Firing Line. Brian Mawhinney. HarperCollins. [pounds]16.99. 270 pages. ISBN 0-00-274062-1. Sir Brian Mawhinney was the victim of his dependability and occasional pugnacity in Government posts under Margaret Thatcher and his friend,...

THE NATIONAL FRONT IN FRANCE.(Review)
January 1, 2000... The National Front in France: Ideology, Discourse, and Power. Peter Davies. Routledge. [pounds]55.00. 278 pages. ISBN 0-415-15866-4. The National Front has been a thorn in the side of France's dominant political parties for more than twenty...

OCCUPATION THAT SHAPED PEACE WITH JAPAN.(Review)
January 1, 2000... Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Aftermath of World War II. John Dower. Allen Lane: The Penguin Press. [pounds]25.00. 676 pages. ISBN 0-713-99372-3. On 28 August 1945,just thirteen days after Showa Emperor Hirohito broadcast his famous...

HOW EUROPEANS SEE ENGLAND.(Review)
January 1, 2000... Voltaire's Coconuts, or Anglomania in Europe. Ian Buruma. Weidenfeld and Nicholson. [pounds]18.99. 326 pages. ISBN 0-297-64321-6. I opened this book with a sinking heart. The title is fashionably silly, in the manner of Flaubert's Parrot,...

MAKING SENSE OF THE BIBLE.(Review)
January 1, 2000... The Bible in History: How Writers Create a Past. Thomas L. Thompson. Jonathan Cape. [pounds]25.00. 412 pages. ISBN 0-224-03977-6. The Word According to Eve: Women and the Bible in Ancient Times and Our Own. Cullen Murphy. Allen Lane: The...

LEARNING FROM ALZHEIMER'S.(Review)
January 1, 2000... Iris and the Friends: A Year of Memories. John Bayley Duckworth. [pounds]16.95. 208 pages. ISBN 0-7156-2932-8. Until I read this book I had never really understood Shakespeare's line, 'Sweet are the uses of adversity'. John Bayley's...

THE WORLD OF PAPERBACKS.
January 1, 2000... VINTAGE, part of the Random House empire, recently published Lyndall Gordon's A Private Life of Henry James: Two Women and His Art ([pounds]7.99. 500 pages. ISBN 0-099-38611-9). This highly praised literary biographer, famous for her books on...

Ice Tea and Elvis: A Saunter through the Southern States.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Ice Tea and Elvis: A Saunter through the Southern States. Nick Middleton. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. [pounds]18.99.290 pages. ISBN 0-297-81794-9. Travel books about America are almost as old as America itself, certainly as old as the Republic....

The Realm of Reform: Presbyterianism and Calvinism in a Changing Scotland.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The Realm of Reform: Presbyterianism and Calvinism in a Changing Scotland. Robert D. Kernohan, editor. The Handsel Press, The Stables, Carberry, Musselburgh, EH21 8PY, Scotland. [pounds]9.95.185 pages. ISBN 1-871828-48-1. This collection of...

The Longman Companion to Britain in the Nineteenth-Century: 1815-1914.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The Longman Companion to Britain in the Nineteenth-Century 1815-1914. Chris Cook, editor. Longman. [pounds]14.99 p.b. 359 pages. ISBN 0-582-27990-9. This book will be a great help to anyone interested in nineteenth-century history. Its aim is...

Fontanka 16: The Tsars' Secret Police.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Fontanka 16: The Tsars' Secret Police. Charles A Ruud and Sergei A. Stepanov. Sutton Publishing. [pounds]20.00. 394 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2159-5. This book is a Russo-Canadian venture because Prof. Ruud teaches in the University of Western Ontario...

Blue Guide to Provence and the Cote d'Azur.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Blue Guide to Provence and the Cote d'Azur. Paul Stirton. A&C Black. [pounds]12.99 p.b. 319 pages. ISBN 0-7136-3981-4. This latest 'Blue Guide' is to a region of France beloved by Anglo-Saxon visitors for over 200 years. Provence and the Cote...

The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Essays.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century Essays. Ian Hamilton, editor. [pounds]20.00/Can$48.99. Allen Lane: The Penguin Press. 555 pages. ISBN 0-713-9268-9. As we enter a new century, publications which try to give us an understanding of the last...

Rethinking Leviathan: The Eighteenth-Century State in Britain and Germany.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Rethinking Leviathan: The Eighteenth-Century State in Britain and Germany. John Brewer and Eckhart Hellmuth, editors. Oxford University Press. [pounds]55.00. 402 pages. ISBN 0-19920189-7. Because comparative history is still, sadly, rather...

Threshold Of Terror: The Last Hours of the Monarchy in the French Revolution.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Threshold Of Terror: The Last Hours of the Monarchy in the French Revolution. Rodney Allen. Sutton Publishing. [pounds]20.00. 248 pages ISBN 0- 7509-2030-0. This is a lively well-researched account of the chaotic day -- 10 August, 1792 -- that...

The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The Oxford Guide to United States Supreme Court Decisions. Kermit L. Hall, editor. Oxford University Press. [pounds]29.99/US$35.0O. 428 pages. ISBN 0- 19-511883-9. This Guide examines 440 decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court that have affected...

Britain at Work.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... Britain at Work. Mark Gully and others. Routledge. [pounds]20.00. 341 pages. ISBN 0-415-20637-5. This book presents the results of the 1998 Employment Relations Survey. It is the fourth in a series which began in 1980 and was repeated in 1984...

George IV.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... George IV. E. A. Smith. Yale University Press. [pounds]25.00. 306 pages. ISBN 0-300-07685-1. This biography is part of Yale's 'English Monarchs' series and is a welcome contribution to our understanding of the monarchy in the early nineteenth...

The Times' Archaeology of the World.(Review)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2000... The Times' Archaeology of the World. Chris Scarre, editor. Times BooksHarperCollins. [pounds]34.99. 319 pages. ISBN 0-7230-1032-3. This somewhat aweinspiring volume began its life in 1988 as Past Worlds: The Times' Atlas of Archaeology. The...