Contemporary Review articles from June 2002

Contemporary Review archives from June 2002

The Legacy of the Queen Mother.
June 1, 2002... THIS month will see most of the official celebrations for the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Although the actual anniversary of her accession in 1952 fell in February, it was decided to have the ceremonies and festivities in June, when the weather...

France and the United States.
June 1, 2002... 'THE USA and Britain stood alone in three World Wars, two hot, one cold, and triumphed; there's no reason why they shouldn't do the same in a fourth'. Thus a former Director of the CIA when asked on BBC Radio 4, in the context of the 'War...

Coping with communism's grim legacy of high-rise buildings.
June 1, 2002... WITHIN a single month, fire broke out at three prefabricated residential tower blocks in Budapest, caused by leaking gas pipes, faulty electrical wiring and in one case a suicide attempt. Such tragedies occurring at the vast high-rise housing...

Hindu and Muslim strife in India.
June 1, 2002... HINDU versus Muslim is an issue big enough, bad enough and deep enough for anyone. But in India it is a sub-text to a subject which, if that is possible, is even bigger and deeper. That subject is whether secularism or religion is to form the...

Africa's leaders and the crisis in Zimbabwe.
June 1, 2002... FEW events in Africa in recent years have so excited world opinion as the downward spiral of Zimbabwe under President Robert Mugabe and the years of chaos and terror under his rule. The slide into lawlessness, the wholesale illegal confiscation...

Explaining Mugabe: much learning but not much sense.
June 1, 2002... ROBERT Mugabe, the re-elected President of Zimbabwe, is the classic example of what people mean when they describe somebody as overeducated. He is, on paper, probably the most highly qualified head of government in the world. Through obsessive...

Art notes: the Hermitage Rooms in Somerset House.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Eighteen months ago the Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, opened its London showplace in Somerset House: five boudoir-like galleries and a corridor, which are capable of holding about seventy people when pressed. With a large staff and entrance...

Nuclear technology: arms control in prespective.
June 1, 2002... LAST month George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin provided some much needed welcome news by agreeing to slash more than two thirds of America's and Russia's nuclear weapons. President Bush said that this will 'liquidate the legacy of the Cold War'....

Money laundering.
June 1, 2002... OF the six largest forms of international trade, only three are legal: the speculation in foreign exchange, the sale of oil and of coffee. A fourth has some questionable participants: the sale of weapons. Two are illegal: drug-smuggling and...

New York's Anti-rent War 1845-1846.
June 1, 2002... OCCUPYING today only a minor place in American history, the Antirent War of 1845-46 aroused bitter controversy at the time and is not without relevance as an early example of today's direct action with violent protests ranging from animal...

A curate's egg of a Companion. (Reviews).
June 1, 2002... The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Politics. John Ramsden, editor. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]35.00. 714 pages. ISBN 0-19-860134. The Editor of this 'curate's egg' of a Companion is well known for his excellent...

Politics, Tourism and Boundaries. (Reviews).
June 1, 2002... Tourism and Political Boundaries. Dallen J. Timothy. Rout]edge. [pounds sterling]60.00.219 pages. ISBN 00-415-19696-5. Tourism is not only one of the great symbols of modern industrial society but one of the world's largest money generators...

Policing the stage. (Reviews).
June 1, 2002... Politics, Prudery and Perversions. Nicholas de Jongh. Methuen. [pounds sterling]16.99. ISBN 0-413-70650-6. The impact of censorship on British theatre has often been underplayed. Certainly, if one makes the predictable comparisons with...

The Netherland's golden era. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Dutch Society 1588-1713. J.L. Price. Longman. [pounds sterling]55.00. 306 pages. ISBN 0-583-26425-1. The Gouden Eeuw (Golden Century), the period in which the Dutch state rose to the position of a major power in Europe, has been the...

A scholarly companion to christian faith. (Reviews).
June 1, 2002... The Cambridge Companion to Jesus. Markus Bockmuehl, editor. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]40.00 (US$59.95). 311 pages. ISBN 0-521-79261-4. This book belongs to a long series of 'companions to religion', the great majority of...

Paul Scofield: a disappointing biography. (Reviews).
June 1, 2002... Paul Scofield. The Biography. Garry O'Connor. Sidgwick & Jackson. [pounds sterling]20.00. 419 pages. ISBN 0-283-06349-1. As an inveterate reader of biography, one has always had a problem with those published in the lifetime of their...

New and noteworthy.
June 1, 2002... W. W. NORTON has brought out several new titles and one revised edition in its 'Norton Critical Edition' series. The first is Melville's Short Stories ([pounds sterling]8.95) p.b.) edited by Professor Daniel McCall. Herman Melville wrote three...

The world of paperbacks.(Bibliography)
June 1, 2002... VINTAGE leads the list this month with a wide range of new titles. In fiction there are two novels by Andre Gide published in one volume: Fruits of the Earth and Later Fruits of the Earth ([pounds sterling]6.99). These are his prose songs to...

The Making of the United Kingdom, 1660-1800: State, Religion and Identity in Britain and Ireland. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Making of the United Kingdom, 1660-1800: State, Religion and Identity in Britain and Ireland. James Smyth. Longman. [pounds sterling]14.99 p.b. 252 pages. ISBN 0-582-08998-0. This study is another contribution to the current debate over...

Will Europe Work? Integration, Employment and the Social Order. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Will Europe Work? Integration, Employment and the Social Order. Martin Kohli and Mojca Novak, editors. Routledge. [pounds sterling]60.00. 201 pages. ISBN 0-415-26022-1. This is the fifth title in Routledge's 'Studies in European Societies'...

Ships from Hell: Japanese War Crimes on the High Seas. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Ships from Hell: Japanese War Crimes on the High Seas. Raymond Lamont-Brown. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00. 174 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2719-4. Mr Lamont-Brown is widely recognised as a leading writer on Japan's role in the Second World...

Islam's Black Slaves: The History of Africa's other Black Diaspora. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Islam's Black Slaves: The History of Africa's other Black Diaspora. Ronald Segal. Atlantic Books. [pounds sterling]20.00. 273 pages. ISBN 1-903809-80-0. This study is in one sense a second volume to the author's earlier book, The Black...

European Integration and National Identity: The Challenge of the Nordic States. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... European Integration and National Identity: The Challenge of the Nordic States. Lene Hansen and Ole Waever, editors. Routledge. [pounds sterling]18.99 p.b. 232 pages. ISBN 0-415-26184-8. The Nordic nations -- Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway...

The Coming Collapse of China. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Coming Collapse of China. Gordon G. Chang. Century. [pounds sterling]14.99 p.b. ISBN 0-7126-1464-8. This book, first published in the U.S., argues that on the surface China 'looks powerful and dynamic' and perhaps set to dominate not only...

Stalin and the Soviet-Finnish War 1939-1940. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Stalin and the Soviet-Finnish War 1939-1940. E. N. Kulkov and O. A. Rzheshevsky, Russian editors and Harold Shukman, English editor. Tatyana Sikokina, translator. Frank Cass. [pounds sterling]55.00. 301 pages. ISBN 0-7146-5203-2. This volume,...

On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... On Cosmopolitanism and Forgiveness. Jacques Derrida. Mark Dooley and Michael Hughes, translators. Routledge. [pounds sterling]30.00. 60 pages. ISBN 0-415-22711-9. This reissue of these two famous essays by the French philosopher, which he first...

The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling. David Gilmour. John Murray. [pounds sterling]22.50. 351 pages. ISBN 0-7195-5539-6. Popularity in one era usually leads to detraction in the following and such is the case with Rudyard...

Hoo-Hahs and Passing Frenzies: Collected Journalism 1991-2001. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Hoo-Hahs and Passing Frenzies: Collected Journalism 1991-2001. Francis Wheen. Atlantic Books. [pounds sterling]9.99 p.b. 320 pages. ISBN 1-903809-42-8. Francis Wheen is one of Britain's leading left wing journalists and in this paperback...

Local Economic Development and the Environment. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Local Economic Development and the Environment. David Gibbs. Routledge. [pounds sterling]55.00. 173 pages. ISBN 0-425-16825-2. Over the years Prof. Gibbs has noted a lack of interest among economic geographers in the 'environmental consequences...

Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000. Alan M. Dershowitz. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]18.99. 275 pages. ISBN 0-19-0514827-4. This book is about the United States' Supreme Court decision to recognise George...

Eccentrics. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Eccentrics. John Joliffe. Duckworth. [pounds sterling]18.00. 184 pages. ISBN 0-7156-3050-4. Britain has long seen itself as a nation tolerant of eccentrics if not as a land which breeds them. The author excludes those who are self-consciously...

KGB Lexicon: The Soviet Intelligence Officer's Handbook. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... KGB Lexicon: The Soviet Intelligence Officer's Handbook. Vasiliy Mitrokhin, editor. Frank Cass. [pounds sterling]35.00. 451 pages. ISBN 0-7146-5257-1. The editor of this book, who now lives in England, worked for the Soviets' foreign...

Israel: Challenges to Identity, Democracy and the State. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Israel: Challenges to Identity, Democracy and the State. Clive Jones and Emma C. Murphy. Routledge. [pounds sterling]14.99 p.b. 146 pages. ISBN 0-415-27088-X. Few countries have inspired so much devotion and so much hatred as modern Israel. At...

The Oxford Guide to Ideas and Issues of the Bible. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Oxford Guide to Ideas and Issues of the Bible. Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan, editors. Oxford University Press, New York. [pounds sterling]19.99. 585 pages. ISBN 0-19-514917-3. This guide gives us some 270 mini-essays adapted from...

Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing. Margaret Atwood. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]13.50 (US$18.00). 219 pages. ISBN 0-521-66260-5. This book is based on Margaret Atwood's six Empson Lectures before the University of...

Imperial Marriage: An Edwardian War and Peace. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Imperial Marriage: An Edwardian War and Peace. Hugh and Mirabel Cecil. John Murray. [pounds sterling]25.00. 366 pages. ISBN 07195-6043-8. The 'Hotel Cecil' was a term used by Liberals to attack the preeminence of the Cecil family in Tory...

The Delicious History of the Holiday. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... The Delicious History of the Holiday. Fred Inglis. Routledge. [pounds sterling]55.00. 206 pages. ISBN 0-415-13304-1. Holidays, Prof. Inglis writes, are 'one of the local triumphs of consumer capitalism, however much its fearsome engines drive...

Art in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Wealth of Depictions. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Art in the Age of Queen Victoria: A Wealth of Depictions. Mark Bills, editor. Lund Humphries. [pounds sterling]30.00. 136 pages. ISBN 0-85331-829-8. This beautifully illustrated volume is published in association with Bournemouth's...