Contemporary Review articles from May 2003

Contemporary Review archives from May 2003

French memories of Algeria.
May 1, 2003... FOR certain generations in France the memory of Algeria has not died even after more than four decades. With the publication in spring 2001 of General Aussaresses' confessions of torture, particularly during the Battle of Algiers, that...

Islamic terrorists and the Russian Mafia.(nuclear weapons-free zone in Central Asia)
May 1, 2003... THE FIVE recently independent republics of former Soviet Central Asia have signed a treaty establishing a nuclear weapons-free zone in their countries. The instrument is of enormous interest to the West because the territories of the five -...

A dutch reversal of Fortuyn.(Netherlands politics )
May 1, 2003... WHEN my article 'The Netherlands Confronts Assassination and Election' was published in the July 2002 issue of Contemporary Review, I did not expect to have to write a sequel so soon after the last election (May 2002). I ended that article on a...

North Korea and the nuclear threat.
May 1, 2003... Following the war in Iraq, Pyongyang announced it was prepared for talks with the US in any form. This second part in our series details the developing nuclear crisis in North Korea. NORTH Korea was condemned by President Bush in his...

The failure of the New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development.
May 1, 2003... THE New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) was launched in Abuja, Nigeria, on October 23, 2001. It was received with considerable enthusiasm in some quarters of the developed world as an African-led initiative that would...

Elizabeth Longford: 'aesthetes' moll' and royal biographer.(Biography)
May 1, 2003... LADY Longford, who died late last year at the age of ninety-six, was a modest hero of social change and a celebrated biographer. From a comfortable background, with strong connections to the higher echelons of power, she belonged to a section...

Women worth their weight in gold to Sri Lankan Banks.
May 1, 2003... THE advertisement glitters. Ornate gold necklaces, heavily engraved gold bangles and gold sovereigns -- eight grams of pure 22-karat gold -- dance across the television screen. But this is no advertisement for jewellery dealers. This is how the...

Titian at the National Gallery.
May 1, 2003... THE National Gallery rightly claims that Titian, its latest exhibition, is the first sizeable British review of that master's work. In all, 276 paintings are attributed to Titian, of which eighty are lost. 196 remain, of which the National...

The bungalow: symbol of Dominican sovereignty.(Dominican Republic)
May 1, 2003... THE Dominican Republic is a tiny island nation in the Caribbean of less consequence to global geopolitics today than several centuries ago. Allegedly, when the Dominican dictator, General Trujillo, declared war on Germany in the 1940s, Hitler...

Peter Ackroyd and the Englishman's Imagination. .(Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination)(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination. Peter Ackroyd. Chatto and winous. [pounds sterling] 25.00. 516 pages. ISBN 1-85619-721-2. Hwaet! (= What! = Listen!) is the traditional opening word of an Anglo-Saxon story such as Beowulf --...

An Introduction to Terrorism. .(Terrorism: Understanding the Global Threat)(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Terrorism: Understanding the Global Threat. David J. Whittaker. Longman. [pounds sterling]14.99. 213 pages. ISBN 0-582-77223-0. The brutal attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001 has shown the world the dramatically changed...

Father and Son: The Balance Restored. .(Glimpses of the Wonderful: The Life of Philip Henry Gosse)(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... Glimpses of the Wonderful: The Life of Philip Henry Gosse. Ann Thwaite. Faber and Faber. [pounds sterling]25.00. 387 pages. ISBN 0-571-19328-5. The name of P. H. Gosse is preserved glistening for all time upon the spines of those...

Searching for Scotland. .(Stone Voices: The Search for Scotland)(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... Stone Voices: the Search for Scotland. Neal Ascherson. Granta Books. [pounds sterling]16.99. 326 pages. ISBN 1-86207-524-7. This is a very personal and at times idiosyncratic cultural, historical and emotional exploration of Scotland. It is...

Allied Pow's and the Collapse of Nazi Germany. .(The Last Escape: The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Germany 1944-45)(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... The Last Escape: The Untold Story of Allied Prisoners of War in Germany 1944-45. John Nichol and Tony Rennell. Viking. [pounds sterling]20.00. 471 pages. ISBN 0-670-91094-5. Among the horrors that the Second World War produced, the plight...

Rain, Rain and more Rain.(Rain by Brian Cathcart)(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... Rain. Brian Cathcart. Granta Books. [pounds sterling]5.99. 100 pages. ISBN 1-86207-534-4. This is a small, pocket-sized paperback about a big subject, an extraordinary compendium of facts, figures, and fascinating detail on the most...

Wilfred Owen Without the Myths. .(Wilfred Owen: A New Biography)(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... Wilfred Owen. A New Biography. Dominic Hibberd. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]25.00. 424 pages. ISBN 0-297-82945-9. In the late afterrnoon of 1 October 1918 Acting Captain Wilfred Owen found himself in the very heat of battle as...

The World of Paperbacks. .(Book Review)
May 1, 2003... OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS has brought out a paperback edition of Julian Jackson's highly praised France: The Dark Years 1940-1944 ([pounds sterling]12.99) which makes a valuable addition to the continuing debate over France's collapse in 1940 and...

Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War. T. J. Stiles. Alfred A. Knopf. [pounds sterling]20.00. 510 pages. ISBN 0-3754-0583-6. This biography of America's most well-known murderer was first published last year in the U.S. The author's purpose...

Special Relationships: Anglo-American Affinities and Antagonisms 1854-1936.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Special Relationships: Anglo-American Affinities and Antagonisms 1854-1936. Janet Beer and Bridget Bennett, editors. Manchester University Press. [pounds sterling]47.50. 266 pages. ISBN 0-7190-5818-X. This collection of eleven essays by a team...

Byron: Life and Legend. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Byron: Life and Legend. Fiona MacCarthy. John Murray. [pounds sterling]25.00. 674 pages. ISBN 0-7195-5621-X. It is rather appropriate that this masterful biography of the greatest - or at least, the most famous - of the Romantic poets should be...

In Search of the Red Slave: Shipwreck and Captivity in Madagascar. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... In Search of the Red Slave: Shipwreck and Captivity in Madagascar. Mike Parker Pearson and Karen Godden. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]14.99. 217 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2938-3. This book investigates the story of one Robert Drury, an English...

The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The Battle for New York: The City at the Heart of the American Revolution. Barnet Schecter. Jonathan Cape. [pounds sterling]18.99. 454 pages. ISBN 0-224-06965-9. This work, first published in the U.S. last year shows how vital the possession of...

Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the Riviera. Michael Nelson. I. B. Tauris. [pounds sterling]25.00. 204 pages. ISBN 1-86064-646-8. As Lord Briggs says in his Foreword, this is a 'delightful book'. In 1882 Queen Victoria made the first of...

Debunking History: 151 Myths Exploded. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Debunking History: 151 Myths Exploded. Ed Rayner and Ron Stapley. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]18.99. 332 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2930-8. The 151 myths herein exploded are, in many cases, not so much myths (defined as fictitious narratives)...

An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943. Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943. Volume One of the Liberation Trilogy. Rick Atkinson. Little, Brown. [pounds sterling]20.00. 681 pages. ISBN 0-31672509-9. This, the third major work on the Desert War in as many years, comes...

April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... April Blood: Florence and the Plot Against the Medici. Lauro Martines. Jonathan Cape. [pounds sterling]17.99. 302 pages. ISBN 0-224-06167-4. This is the story of one of the most dramatic events in Renaissance Italian history, the attempted...

Half the Battle: Civilian Morale in Britain during the Second World War.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Half the Battle: Civilian Morale in Britain during the Second World War. Robert Mackay. Manchester University Press. [pounds sterling]47.50. 282 pages. ISBN 0-71905 8937. Most readers' perception of civilian morale during the last war comes...

Popular Politics and the English Reformation.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Popular Politics and the English Reformation. Ethan A. Shagan. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]50.00 (US$70.00). 341 pages. ISBN 0-521-52555-1. This latest study of the English Reformation is by an American professor at...

Running with Reindeer: Encounters in Russian Lapland. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Running with Reindeer: Encounters in Russian Lapland. Roger Took. John Murray. [pounds]18.99. 365 pages. ISBN 0-71955736-4. John Murray carries on its tradition of publishing travel books of unusual places with this study of Russian Lapland,...

Jutland 1916: Death in the Grey Wastes. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Jutland 1916: Death in the Grey Wastes. Nigel Steel and Peter Hart. Cassell. [pounds sterling]25.00. 480 pages. ISBN 0-304-35892-4. Both authors of this exhaustive and definitive study of the Great War's single naval engagement work in the...

Palmerston and the Politics of Foreign Policy 1846-55. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Palmerston and the Politics of Foreign Policy 1846-55. David Brown. Manchester University Press. [pounds sterling]42.50. 239 pages. ISBN 0-7190-6392-2. Palmerston, the Canningite Tory who passed as a Whig and posed as the people's champion,...

The Empress Theodora: Partner of Justinian.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The Empress Theodora: Partner of Justinian. James Allan Evans. University of Texas Press, Austin. [pounds sterling]22.99 (US$29.95). 146 pages. ISBN 0-292-72105-6. This book, by the Professor Emeritus of Classics in the University of British...

Rossini.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Rossini. Gaia Servadio. Constable. [pounds sterling]20.00. 244 pages. ISBN 1-84119-478-6. Gioachino Rossini remains one of the most popular opera composers of nineteenth century Italy and one of the greatest names in the Romantic period. His...

The Tower Menagerie being the Amazing True Story of the Royal Collection of Wild and Ferocious Beasts.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The Tower Menagerie being the Amazing True Story of the Royal Collection of Wild and Ferocious Beasts. Daniel Hahn. Simon & Schuster. [pounds sterling]15.99. 260 pages. ISBN 0-7432-2081-1. This is a history of the zoo that was kept for many...

Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey. .(Book Review)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey. Janet Malcolm. Granta Books. [pounds sterling]13.99. 210 pages. ISBN 1-86207-586-7. This small book, originally published in the U.S. in 2001 by Random House, is a mixture of three separate approaches. The...