Contemporary Review articles from November 2002

Contemporary Review archives from November 2002

The European Union fails on financial accountability.
November 1, 2002... THE Eastern Region, comprising the six Counties in the East of England (Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire), has a population of about 5 million -- larger than some Member States of the EU -- and is...

September 11 and the war against terrorism: The Greek reaction.
November 1, 2002... THE events of last September caught the world unprepared, as the images of the collapsing twin towers travelled through the media around the globe. Initially all countries -- except Iraq -- condemned the attacks and offered condolences to the...

The AIDS orphans of South Africa.
November 1, 2002... IN the ancient Middle East stood a towering metal statue of the god Molech, the abomination of Ammon. A fire glowed in its belly, its greedy red hot arms and hands outstretched to receive the innocent children being sacrificed to it by ignorant...

The Baltic ports prepare for increasing business.
November 1, 2002... THE great, formerly Soviet-controlled, ports along the Baltic coastline will bear enormous strain as they gear up to handle substantially increased cargo traffic. The European Union (EU) has just given the Russian economy an unprecedented boost...

Mexico City's battle for cleaner air.
November 1, 2002... THE heavily populated capital of Mexico, whose air is one of the smoggiest in the world, is set to become the first city with its own climate action programme. The ambitious 2002-2010 Valley of Mexico Metropolitan Area Air Quality Improvement...

Fifty years of British popular culture.
November 1, 2002... QUEEN Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee celebrations in June this year began with a nostalgic rendition of The Beatles' All You Need Is Love. The song recalled its recording exactly 35 years earlier as part of the first worldwide satellite...

India and the buildings of the Raj.
November 1, 2002... THERE are plenty of examples of where improvements in the physical environment of towns and cities become the precursor of improvements in the lifestyle and well-being of their citizens. The decline or exodus of old industries has been reversed...

Evelyn Waugh's neglected masterpiece.(Put Out More Flags)
November 1, 2002... THIS year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of one of the last century's most underrated novels, Evelyn Waugh's Put Out More Flags. Written in June 1941 while Waugh was returning home after Britain's disastrous defeat at the...

Carl Czerny: composer of the Biedermeier age.(Biography)
November 1, 2002... WITH the deaths of Beethoven and Schubert in 1827 and 1828 respectively, Vienna's golden age of music came to an abrupt end. What followed was a period of sustained mediocrity in which all aspects of artistic and creative life were dictated by...

Morality in a Borderless Europe. (Reviews).(Markets and Moral Regulation: Cultural Change in the European Union)(Book Review)
November 1, 2002... Markets and Moral Regulation: Cultural Change in the European Union. Paulette Kurzer. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]37.50 (US$ 54.95). 210 pages. ISBN 0-521-80289-X. The impact of European integration on nation states is...

War and Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War Era. (Reviews).(Asymmetries of Conflict: War Without Death)(Book Review)
November 1, 2002... Asymmetries of Conflict: War Without Death. John Leech. Frank Cass. [pounds sterling]45.00. ISBN 0-7146-8260-8. This book is an energetic attempt at discussing conflict at a time when perceptions of political violence and security have been...

Perspectives on the Bible. (Reviews).(The Biblical World)(Book Review)
November 1, 2002... The Biblical World. John Barton, editor. Routledge. [pounds sterling]130.00. Two volumes. Vol. I. 525 pages. Vol. II. 539 pages. ISBN Vol. I. 0415-27573-3. Vol. II. 0415-27574-1. The editor of this impressive new reference work is the Oriel...

The Japanese Way of Thinking. (Reviews).(Japanese Frames of Mind: Cultural Perspectives on Human Development)(Book Review)
November 1, 2002... Japanese Frames of Mind: Cultural Perspectives on Human Development. Hidetada Shimizu and Robert A. LeVine, editors. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]45.00 (US $65.00). 277 pages. ISBN 0-521-78159-0. Following the attack on...

Bomber Harris Sixty Years On. (Reviews).(Reaching For The Stars: A New History of Bomber Command in World War II)(Book Review)
November 1, 2002... Reaching For The Stars: A New History of Bomber Command in World War II. Mark Connelly. I. B. Tauris. [pounds sterling]25.00. 206 pages. ISBN 1-86064-591-7. It is hard to believe, sixty years on, that 'Bomber' Harris and the aircrews of...

Inspired by Shakespeare. (Reviews).(After Shakespeare: Writing Inspired by the World's Greatest Author)(Book Review)
November 1, 2002... After Shakespeare: Writing inspired by the World's Greatest Author. John Gross, Editor. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]17.99. 360 pages. ISBN 0-19-214268-2. Shakespeareans are a large but not glorious host. They include the...

New and Noteworthy. (Reviews).(7 books)(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... WEIDENFELD AND NICOLSON's 'Lives' series is now well established and we have two new titles to examine. The first is Jane Smiley's Charles Dickens ([pounds sterling]12.99). The author admits that biographies of Dickens abound and that scholars'...

The World of Paperbacks. (Reviews).
November 1, 2002... SUTTON PUBLISHING has always had an interest in local history and, with this in mind, has reissued as part of its History Handbooks series a second edition of Kate Tiller's English Local History: An Introduction ([pounds sterling]14.99). As the...

Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaissance Convent. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Virgins of Venice: Enclosed Lives and Broken Vows in the Renaisance Convent. Mary Laven. Viking. [pounds sterling]20.00. 284 pages. ISBN 0-670-89635-7. In the early sixteenth century, after the Republic of Venice lost virtually all her mainland...

Euroscepticism in Contemporary British Politics: Opposition to Europe in the British Conservative and Labour Parties since 1945. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Euroscepticism in Contemporary British Politics: Opposition to Europe in the British Conservative and Labour Parties since 1945. Anthony Forster. Routledge. [pounds sterling]65.00. 157 pages. ISBN 0-415-28731-6. The author's aim in this study...

If God Spare My Life: William Tyndale; the English Bible and Sir Thomas More -- A Story of Martyrdom and Betrayal. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... If God Spare My Life: William Tyndale; the English Bible and Sir Thomas More -- A Story of Martyrdom and Betrayal. Brian Moynahan. Little, Brown. [pounds sterling]17.99 (Can. $ 34.95). 422 pages. ISBN 0-316-86092-1. The author of this biography...

Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography. Rudiger Safranski. Shelley Frisch, translator. Granta Books. [pounds sterling]25.00. 412 pages. ISBN 1-86207-506-9. This book was first published in Germany and its German title, Nietzsche: Biographie...

The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The Man Who Deciphered Linear B: The Story of Michael Ventris. Andrew Robinson. Thames & Hudson. [pounds sterling]12.95. 168 pages. ISBN 0-0500-51077-6. One of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the nineteenth century was Arthur Evans'...

Volcanoes. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Volcanoes. Philippe Bourseiller and Jacques Durieux. David Baker, translator. Harry N. Abrams. [pounds sterling]34.00.413 pages. ISBN 0-8109-1699-1. The world's 1500 volcanoes have always fascinated and terrified mankind in more or less equal...

Silvertown: An East End Family Memoir. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Silvertown: An East End Family Memoir. Melanie McGrath. Fourth Estate. [pounds sterling]16.99. 235 pages. ISBN 1-84115-142-4. This story of East End life begins with the author's grandparents in the early years of the twentieth century. It is...

Mapping Lives: The Uses of Biography. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Mapping Lives: The Uses of Biography. Peter France and William St Clair, editors. The British Academy (Oxford University Press). [pounds sterling]35.00. 350 pages. ISBN 0-19-726269-4. This collection of eighteen essays offers readers 'an...

The Future of the Past: Big Questions in History. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The Future of the Past: Big Questions in History. Peter Martland, editor. Pimlico Original. [pounds sterling]12.50 p.b. 164 pages. ISBN 0-7126-6856-X. This collection began life as a series of lectures in Cambridge's History Faculty in...

Janacek: A Composer's Life. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Janacek: A Composer's Life. Mirka Zemanova. John Murray. [pounds sterling]25.00. 352 pages. ISBN 0-7195-4923-X. This biography has three aims: to give listeners to Janacek's music 'something of his life and background'; to inform those who...

The Lost Houses of Ireland. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The Lost Houses of Ireland. Randal MacDonnell. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]25.00. 232 pages. ISBN 0-297-84301-X. The author of this book is an architectural historian who has also been involved in the restoration of historic houses...

Gentleman Spies: Intelligence Agents in the British Empire and Beyond. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Gentleman Spies: Intelligence Agents in the British Empire and Beyond. John Fisher. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00 (US$29.95). 209 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2698-8. As an historian working in the Public Record Office the author not...

Napoleon and Europe. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Napoleon and Europe. Philip G. Dwyer, editor. Longman. [pounds sterling]16.99 p.b. 328 pages. ISBN 0-582-31837-8. As the editor points out, Napoleon's Empire was not just a post-script to the Revolution but 'a conflict over the future shape of...

The Most Beautiful Villages of Normandy. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The Most Beautiful Villages of Normandy. Hugh Palmer. Thames & Hudson. [pounds sterling]24.95. 208 pages. ISBN 0-500-51072-5. For Englishmen, Normandy is that part of France most closely connected to their own country through almost 1000 years...

Aquinas. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Aquinas. Brian Davies, O.P. Continuum. [pounds sterling]35.00. 200 pages. ISBN 0-8264-5084-9. This new biography is part of Continuum's 'Outstanding Christian Thinkers' series and is written by the Professor of Philosophy at New York's Fordham...

A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable. John Steele Gordon. Simon & Schuster. [pounds sterling]17.99. 239 pages. ISBN 0-7432-0809-9. This engaging book, first published in the United States, is concerned with one...

The Buildings of Scotland: Stirling and Central Scotland. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The Buildings of Scotland: Stirling and Central Scotland. John Gifford and Frank Arneil Walker with Richard Fawcett. Yale University Press. [pounds sterling]29.95. 852 pages. ISBN 0-300-09594-5. This is the first of the Pevsner Architectural...

The Making of the Poets: Byron and Shelley in Their Time. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The Making of the Poets: Byron and Shelley in Their Time. Ian Gilmour. Chatto & Windus. [pounds sterling]20.00. 402 pages. ISBN 0-701-17110-3. As the author of this joint biography states in his introduction, the two poets' lives 'were full of...

The Roman Philosophers: From the Time of Cato the Censor to the Death of Marcus Aurelius. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The Roman Philosophers: From the Time of Cato the Censor to the Death of Marcus Aurelius. Mark Morford. Roufledge. [pounds sterling]45.00. 292 pages. ISBN 0-415-18851-2. Prof. Morford writes 'as a classicist and historian of ideas' and not as a...

A Controversial Spirit: Evangelical Awakenings in the South. (Reviews).(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... A Controversial Spirit: Evangelical Awakenings in the South. Philip N. Mulder. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]32.50. 233 pages. ISBN 0-19-513163-0. In this study the author looks at 'elements of piety and ideals among Presbyterians,...