Contemporary Review articles from July 2005

Contemporary Review archives from July 2005

The man who challenged Blair.(Reg Keys, Tony Blair)
July 1, 2005... ONE of the most dramatic moments of the recent British general election occurred in the early hours of 6th May, when Reg Keys, a retired paramedic, stood at a podium in front of an ashen-faced Tony Blair and read out the names of six British...

Third parties in the British general election.
July 1, 2005... EXACTLY fifty years before the last general election, Sir Anthony Eden was elected Prime Minister in May 1955 with an overall majority of 54 seats, a figure close to that enjoyed by Tony Blair in May 2005. The gap between the votes for the two...

The French referendum.
July 1, 2005... WHAT is this 'Europe' of which we are accustomed to speak, the latest blueprint for which has been so decisively rejected by the voters in France and the Netherlands? Is it merely the grandiose ambition of functionaries and politicians or...

Endgame or gambit in Zimbabwe?
July 1, 2005... Professor Stephen Chan's study of the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe: a Life of Power and Violence (I.B. Tauris 2003) was internationally acclaimed. His book-length collection of interviews with the opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai,...

Mercenaries in warfare.
July 1, 2005... MERCENARIES are back in the news. Sir Mark Thatcher, the son of the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in January 2005 pleaded guilty in a South African court over his involvement in an alleged coup plot in the oil-rich west...

Declining population--a worry for the young.
July 1, 2005... ECONOMICS used to be called 'the dismal science'. That title should now be held by demography, the science of population. As you can imagine, this science consists of a mass of statistics accompanied by an even larger mass of speculation on the...

Indian secularism: image and reality.
July 1, 2005... IN recent years, religious militancy and communal strife have become the biggest danger to India's secular fabric. Had the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won last year's election, power would probably have gradually shifted into the hands of...

A family's progress in Mauritius.
July 1, 2005... 'TAKE a look at this family portrait', the Indian Ocean computer scientist told me. 'It's my father, as a child, with his parents and eight brothers and sisters. Is there anything that strikes you about it?' Many things were striking me...

Henry Kissinger and U.S. foreign policy.(The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy. Jussi Hanhimaki. Oxford University Press [pounds sterling]21.50 (US$35.00). xxii + 554 pages. ISBN 0-19-517221-3. Despite leaving office almost three decades ago, Henry...

The rise of Britain's urban civilisation.(Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Building Jerusalem: The Rise and Fall of the Victorian City. Tristram Hunt. Weidenfeld & Nicholson [pounds sterling]25.00. xvi + 424 pages. ISBN 0-297-60767-7. Urbanisation is the fundamental fact about modern Britain. From being an...

Making use of philosophy.(The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century. A.C. Grayling. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]12.99. ix + 275 pages. ISBN 0-297-4819-4. 'If thought were the mere discovery of interesting facts', R.G. Collingwood...

Money, power and the Vatican.(Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850-1950)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850-1950. John F. Pollard. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]48.00 (US$85.00). xx + 265 pages. ISBN 0-521-81204-6. Vatican finances are no small matter. The...

A new perspective on Chekhov.(Chekhov: Scenes from a Life)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Chekhov: Scenes from a Life. Rosamund Bartlett. Simon and Schuster. [pounds sterling]20.00. xxxii + 395 pages. ISBN 0-7432-3074-4. Globalisation and free trade provide, for the scholar as much as the economist, new delights and new dangers....

Doris Lessing's enquiring mind at work.(Time Bites: Views and Reviews)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Time Bites: Views and Reviews. Doris Lessing. Fourth Estate. [pounds sterling]20.00. vii + 376 pages. ISBN 0-00-717985-5. When Doris Lessing gave a speech on receiving the Prince of Asturias Prize in 2002, she had a lot to say about 'the...

Popular memory and the Second World War.(We Can Take It! Britain and the Memory of the Second World War)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... We Can Take It! Britain and the Memory of the Second World War. Mark Connelly. Pearson Longman. [pounds sterling]19.99 p.b. vii + 328 pages. ISBN 0-582-50607-7. For the British as a whole--and for large groups in America, Australia and...

Benjamin Disraeli--a new biography.(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Disraeli: A Personal History. Christopher Hibbert. HarperCollins. [pounds sterling]25.00. xiii + 401 pages. ISBN 0-00-714717-1. As political biographies go, this is an unusually light, amusing, and readable confection from the practised...

World of paperbacks.
July 1, 2005... The U.S. publisher, HARRY N. ABRAMS has recently brought out two new additions to their highly praised Masters of Art series, titles first published in 1981: Jan Vermeer by Arthur K. Wheelock, Jnr. and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec by Douglas...

Russia. War, Peace and Diplomacy: Essays in Honour of John Erickson.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Russia. War, Peace and Diplomacy: Essays in Honour of John Erickson. Ljubica Erickson and Mark Erickson, editors. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]25.00. xv + 365 pages. ISBN 0-297-84913-1. John Erickson taught in the University of...

Michelangelo and the Reinvention of the Human Body.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Michelangelo and the Reinvention of the Human Body. James Hall. Chatto & Windus. [pounds sterling]25.00. xxi + 311 pages. ISBN 0-701-17270-3. The author desires 'to see Michelangelo afresh, connected in surprising ways with his own culture--and...

Churchill: The Unexpected Hero.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Churchill: The Unexpected Hero. Paul Addison. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]12.99. xi + 308 pages. ISBN 0-19-927934-9. This title, which began with the author's essay on Churchill for the new D.N.B., fills the need for a short and...

King in Exile. James II: Warrior, King and Saint, 1689-1701.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... King in Exile. James II: Warrior, King and Saint, 1689-1701. John Callow. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]25.00. x + 454 pages. ISBN 0-7509-3082-9. This is the author's second book on James II, 'that most difficult and obstinate of kings'....

The Pope's Daughter.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Pope's Daughter. Caroline P. Murphy. Faber and Faber. [pounds sterling]16.99. xvii + 359 pages. ISBN 0-571-22107-6. This is a biography of Felice della Rovere (?1483-1536), the illegitimate daughter of the notorious Pope, Julius II. It may...

The Uncrowned Kings of England: The Black Legend of the Dudleys.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Uncrowned Kings of England: The Black Legend of the Dudleys. Derek Wilson. Constable. [pounds sterling]20.00. xv + 416 pages. ISBN 1-84119-902-8. This is a good example of 'family history' which also acts as a superb introduction to the...

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death. John Kelly Fourth Estate. [pounds sterling]18.99. xix + 364 pages. ISBN 0-00-715069-5. The Black Death or bubonic plague which devastated Asia, the Middle East and Europe in the...

Holy Fire: The Battle for Christ's Tomb.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Holy Fire: The Battle for Christ's Tomb. Victoria Clark. Macmillan. [pounds sterling]20.00. xviii + 294 pages. ISBN 1-4050-0528-9. In this book the author is concerned with European and U.S. Christian involvement with the Holy Land over the...

Children of War: The Second World War through the Eyes of a Generation.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Children of War: The Second World War through the Eyes of a Generation. Susan Goodman. John Murray. [pounds sterling]20.00. xvii + 330 pages. ISBN 0-7195-6122-1. As those who lived through the Second World War leave us, historians are anxious...

A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... A Mighty Fortress: A New History of the German People. Steven Ozment. Granta Books. [pounds sterling]20.00. xiii + 400 pages. ISBN 1-86207-759-2. This title, first published in the U.S. by HarperCollins, is naturally aimed at an American...

Modern Politics and Government.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Modern Politics and Government. Alan R. Ball and B. Guy Peters. Palgrave-Macmillan. [pounds sterling]16.99. xii + 339 pages. ISBN 0-333-96161-7. This is the seventh edition of a venerable title first published in 1971. This new edition takes...

The Last Days of Henry VIII: Conspiracy, Treason, and Heresy at the Court of the Dying Tyrant.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Last Days of Henry VIII: Conspiracy, Treason and Heresy at the Court of the Dying Tyrant. Robert Hutchinson. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]20.00. 367 pages. ISBN 0-297-84611-6. This is a close study of the last five years of Henry...

Walt Whitman.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Walt Whitman. David S. Reynolds. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]10.99. xi + 159 pages. ISBN 0-19-517009-1. This is the second title in the Lives and Legacies series from O.U.P. (New York). The author draws on his earlier,...

George Sand.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... George Sand. Elizabeth Harlan. Yale University Press. [pounds sterling]25.00. xx + 376 pages. ISBN 0-300-10417-0. George Sand, born Amandine Aurore Dupin in 1804 and later married to Baron Dudevant, remains one of France's leading novelists of...

Praeterita and Dilecta.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Praeterita and Dilecta. John Ruskin. Alfred A. Knopf. [pounds sterling]10.99. xli + 564 pages. ISBN 1-85715-279-4. This new edition of what must be, apart from The Stones of Venice, Ruskin's most famous works, is introduced by his biographer,...

The Outlaw Sea: Chaos and Crime on the World's Oceans.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Outlaw Sea: Chaos and Crime on the World's Oceans. William Langewiesche. Granta Books. [pounds sterling]12.00 p.b. ix + 239 pages. ISBN 1-86207-731-2. This book, which was first published in the U.S., may be called a survey of the sea and...

The First Crusade.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The First Crusade. Sir Steven Runciman. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]35.00 (US$50.00). vi + 201 pages. ISBN 0-521-84739-7. This title is an 1980 abridgement of the first volume of Sir Steven's History of the Crusades which...

Troop Leader: A Tank Commander's Story.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Troop Leader: A Tank Commander's Story. Bill Bellamy, M.C. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]19.99. x + 214 pages. ISBN 0-7509-3979-4. A growing trend in books about the Second World War is the concentration on individuals and on smaller...

Men, Women and Property in England, 1780-1870: A Social and Economic History of Family Strategies amongst the Leeds Middle Classes.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Men, Women and Property in England, 1780-1870: A Social and Economic History of Family Strategies amongst the Leeds Middle Classes. R.J. Morris. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]55.00 (US$95.00). xiii + 445 pages. ISBN...

Greece: Splendours of Ancient Greece.(Rome: Splendours of an Ancient Civilization)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Greece: Splendours of Ancient Greece. Furio Durando. Thames & Hudson. [pounds sterling]12.95. 292 pages. ISBN 0-500-51204-3. Rome: Splendours of an Ancient Civilization. Anna Maria Liberati and Fabio Bourbon. Thames & Hudson. [pounds...

The Hollow Crown: A History of Britain in the Late Middle Ages.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Hollow Crown: A History of Britain in the Late Middle Ages. Miri Rubin. Allen Lane. [pounds sterling]25.00. xx + 380 pages. ISBN 0-713-99066-X. This latest volume in the Penguin History of Britain takes the story from the Great Famine of...

The Church of Santa Maria Donna Regina: Art, Iconography and Patronage in Fourteenth-Century Naples.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Church of Santa Maria Donna Regina: Art, Iconography and Patronage in Fourteenth-Century Naples. Janis Elliott and Cordelia Warr, editors. Ashgate. [pounds sterling]55.00. xxi + 234 pages. ISBN 0-7546-3477-9. The church of Santa Maria Donna...

The Oxford Companion to Philosophy.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Oxford Companion to Philosophy. Ted Honderich, editor. Second Edition. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]30.00. xx + 1056 pages. ISBN 0-19-926479-1. The first edition of this companion, published in 1995, was highly praised for its...

Russia in the 21st Century: The Prodigal Superpower.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Russia in the 21st Century: The Prodigal Superpower. Steven Rosefielde. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]40.00 (US$70.00). xxiii + 244 pages. ISBN 0-521-54529-3. Prof. Rosefielde's incisive study is a shot across the bows of the...

Cary Grant: A Biography.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Cary Grant: A Biography. Marc Eliot. Aurum. [pounds sterling]18.99. xi + 434 pages. ISBN 1-84513-073-1. This biography, originally published in the U.S. last year, gives the life story of one of the most popular, and perhaps, one of the best...

The Somme.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... The Somme. Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson. Yale University Press. [pounds sterling]19.95. viii + 358 pages. ISBN 0-300-10694-7. The latest study of the Great War's most famous battle is by the same two historians who have written on the...

Rome.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Rome. Elizabeth Speller. Granta Books. [pounds sterling]9.99 p.b. xxi + 266 pages. ISBN 1-86207-744-4. This is the second title in Granta's new series of City Guides by this author. For her, Rome 'basks in a certain fading, flaking, and...

Al-Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 1, 2005... Al-Jazeera: How Arab TV News Challenged the World. Hugh Miles. Abacus. [pounds sterling]10.99 p.b. x + 438 pages. ISBN 0-349-11807-8. Readers must not be put off by the 'folksy' dedication of this book to 'Mum and Dad'. The author, who studied...