Contemporary Review articles from October 2004

Contemporary Review archives from October 2004

Standardised testing in American schools: lessons from Matthew Arnold's Britain.
October 1, 2004... IN the US most states and school districts mandate testing programmes in order to assess pupils' academic attainment at both the primary and secondary levels. Since the signing into law by President Bush in 2002 of the No Child Left Behind Act,...

The mystery of the Caspian oil boom part two.
October 1, 2004... THE construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan main export pipeline was launched near Baku in 2002 after many years of deliberation. Apart from far cheaper oil export alternatives, discussed in Part One of this article last month, a new threat to...

Japan's changing security posture and its implications.
October 1, 2004... JAPAN has long centred its foreign policy on its bilateral relationship with the United States, a stance supported by the majority of the Japanese. This relationship took its present shape during the decades of the Cold War, and discussions of...

Brazil under a Labour government part two.
October 1, 2004... FOR reasons that can only be speculated upon, the usual truce that the media tends to give to new incumbents, seemed to have extended beyond the first three months of Brazil's new government. By the middle of 2003, however, two distinct...

Searching for normality in Central Europe.
October 1, 2004... THE author who writes in the first person risks provoking readers, and takes further risks when he ventures into fields where he is more enthusiast than expert. But I came to an enthusiasm for Central Europe by such a curious route, at so bleak...

Africa calls for more cyber-rights.
October 1, 2004... THE INTERNET, developed as an instrument of US military defence, has long been controlled by the United States. But as the Internet evolves into a global commercial and information resource and a potential tool for development, a growing number...

Down with football.
October 1, 2004... FOOTBALL has had a bad press through most of the ages, only recently being elevated to 'the beautiful game', the continuation of aesthetics by other means. The old view was well put by Sir Thomas Elyot, who in his The Book named the Governor...

Archbishop Carey speaks.(Know the Truth: A Memoir by George Carey)(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... OCCASIONALLY, a book appears which has an importance not only in what it says but in the circumstances surrounding it. If modern Royalty ever wrote memoirs they would be interesting (or not) in themselves, but also for their origin. Similarly,...

The great euro deception.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... The Great Deception: A Secret History of the European Union. Christopher Booker and Richard North. Continuum. [pounds sterling]20.00. xiii + 474 pages. ISBN 0-8264-7105-6. 'A slow-motion coup d'etat'. That, say Messrs Booker and North, is...

Fundamentalism--Islamic and otherwise.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Fundamentalism: The Search for Meaning. Malise Ruthven. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]12.99. vii + 246 pages. ISBN 0-19-284091-6. The Trouble with Islam: A Wake-Up Call for Honesty and Change. Irshad Manji. Mainstream Publishing....

British consumerism examined.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Consumerism in Twentieth-Century Britain. Matthew Hilton. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]45.00. 362 pages. ISBN 0-521-83129-6. 'Consumerism' goes back a long way--to assizes of bread and ale, laws of weights and measures, and...

The war crime trials at The Hague.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... They Would Never Hurt a Fly: War Criminals on Trial in the Hague. Slavenka Drakulic. Abacus. [pounds sterling]8.99 p.b. vii + 183 pages. ISBN 0-349-11775-6. People in the Balkans will continue to reject the war crimes tribunal for as long...

Martin Bell: from national service to Malawi.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Through Gates of Fire: A Journey into World Disorder. Martin Bell. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]16.99. 360 pages. ISBN 0-297-84748-1. Reading this third instalment in a trilogy of memoir and comment, I experienced the unpleasant...

New and noteworthy.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... This month's column will be concerned with literary topics. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN has brought out two new titles in their Critical Issues series, Darryl Jones' Jane Austen and Carl Plasa's Charlotte Bronte each priced at [pounds sterling]16.99...

The world of paperbacks.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Among new releases from PHOENIX is the highly praised Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore ([pounds sterling]9.99) which exposes not just the horrors of Stalin the dictator but those of the ruling elite under him. A...

International Relations Since 1945: A Global History.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... International Relations Since 1945: A Global History John W. Young and John Kent. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]21.99. 743 pages. ISBN 0-19-878164-4. This study is arranged in six parts. The first two, written by John Kent,...

Political Choice in Britain.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Political Choice in Britain. Harold D. Clarke, David Sanders, Marianne C. Stewart and Paul Whiteley. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]55.00. xix + 371 pages. ISBN 0-19-924488-X. This psephological study, by two U.S. and two U.K....

The Cambridge Guide to English Usage.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Pam Peters. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]25.00 (US$35.00). xi + 608 pages. ISBN 0-521-62181-X. This authoritative guide to the Queen's English as it is spoken round the world has over 4000...

London 1945: Life in the Debris of War.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... London 1945: Life in the Debris of War. Maureen Waller. John Murray. [pounds sterling]20.00. xv + 512 pages. ISBN 0-7195-6600-2. The author of this impressive book has delved deeply into various archival sources and also made copious use of...

The Crimean War: The Truth Behind the Myth.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... The Crimean War: The Truth Behind the Myth. Clive Ponting. Chatto & Windus. [pounds sterling]20.00. xvi + 379 pages. ISBN 0-7011-7390-4. The terms 'truth' and 'myth', especially when combined, are now very fashionable amongst a certain class...

United We Stand: A History of Britain's Trade Unions.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... United We Stand: A History of Britain's Trade Unions. Alastair J. Reid. Allen Lane. [pounds sterling]25.00. xvii + 471 pages. ISBN 0-713-99758-3. The argument of this book is that trade unionism grew out of the plight of individual people...

Chasing the Molecule.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Chasing the Molecule. John Buckingham. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00. xi + 259 pages. ISBN 0-7509-3345-3. Mr Buckingham, a retired lecturer in organic chemistry in London University, is to be heartily congratulated for allowing...

London: A Short History.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... London: A Short History. A. N. Wilson. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]14.99. x + 166. ISBN 0-297-60715-4. This book lives up to its title. The author, a biographer and novelist turned historian, writes with a flourish: 'London history,...

Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas and the Heart of a New Nation.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas and the Heart of a New Nation. David A. Price. Faber and Faber. [pounds sterling]20.00. vii + 305 pages. ISBN 0-571-22098-3. This title, first published in the U.S. last year by Knopf, traces...

The Mould in Dr Florey's Coat: The Remarkable True Story of the Penicillin Miracle.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... The Mould in Dr Florey's Coat: The Remarkable True Story of the Penicillin Miracle. Eric Lax. Little, Brown. [pounds sterling]16.99. viii + 389 pages. ISBN 0-316-85925-7. This book, first published in the U.S., looks at the Oxford medical team...

The Legendary Past: World of Myths Volume Two.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... The Legendary Past: World of Myths Volume Two. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto et al. The British Museum Press. [pounds sterling]16.99. xiv + 410 pages. ISBN 0-7141-5018-5. This second volume is, like the first, a compilation of the titles originally...

Flourishing: Letters 1928-1946.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Flourishing: Letters 1928-1946. Isaiah Berlin. Henry Hardy, editor. Chatto & Windus. [pounds sterling]30.00. xxxv + 755 pages. ISBN 0-701-17420-X. This is the fifteenth volume of works by Sir Isaiah Berlin to have been edited by Henry Hardy,...

Robert Louis Stevenson: A Literary Life.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Robert Louis Stevenson: A Literary Life. William Gray. Palgrave. [pounds sterling]16.99 p.b. xvi + 190 pages. ISBN 0-333-98401-3. This new title in Palgrave's 'Literary Lives' series argues that 'perhaps more than most writers... Stevenson may...

Queen Victoria and the Theatre of Her Age.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Queen Victoria and the Theatre of Her Age. Richard W. Schoch. Palgrave Macmillan. [pounds sterling]45.00. xx + 235 pages. ISBN 1-4039-3297-2. In this stimulating, well researched and equally well written book the author investigates an aspect...

A Modern History of Hong Kong.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... A Modern History of Hong Kong. Steve Tsang. I.B. Tauris. [pounds sterling]35.00 (US$59.50). xii + 340 pages. ISBN 1-86064-184-9. As the author points out, the history of Hong Kong fascinates not just because of its phenomenal economic growth...

A New History of Ireland.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... A New History of Ireland. Christine Kinealy. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00. viii + 312 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2819-0. To Prof. Kinealy, Irish history is one of 'conquest and settlement' and the British conquest remains the most...

Religion, Politics, and Society in Sixteenth-Century England: Camden Fifth Series. Volume 22.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Religion, Politics, and Society in Sixteenth-Century England: Camden Fifth Series. Volume 22. Ian W. Archer et al., editors. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]45.00 (US$70.00). xi +282 pages. ISBN 0-521-81867-2. This latest volume in...

What Might Have Been: Leading Historians on Twelve 'What Ifs' of History.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... What Might Have Been: Leading Historians on Twelve 'What Ifs' of History. Andrew Roberts, editor. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]12.99. xv + 188 pages. ISBN 0-297-84877-1. This latest example of the intellectual parlour game of...

White Devil: An Epic Story of Revenge from the Savage War that Inspired The Last of the Mohicans.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... White Devil: An Epic Story of Revenge from the Savage War that Inspired The Last of the Mohicans. Stephen Brumwell. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]20.00. 335 pages. ISBN 0-297-84677-9. As the author writes, 'violence was the mainspring...

1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... 1812: Napoleon's Fatal March on Moscow. Adam Zamoyski. HarperCollins. [pounds sterling]25.00. 644 pages. ISBN 0-00-7122375-2. Napoleon's Russian campaign cost about one million lives according to the scholarly researches of the author. There...

The Rainhill Trials: The Greatest Contest of Industrial Britain and the Birth of Commercial Rail.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... The Rainhill Trials: The Greatest Contest of Industrial Britain and the Birth of Commercial Rail. Christopher McGowan. Little, Brown. [pounds sterling]16.99. xiii + 380 pages. ISBN 0-316-72480-7. Prof. McGowan is concerned with the competition...

Bolt of Fate: Benjamin Franklin and His Electric Kite Hoax.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Bolt of Fate: Benjamin Franklin and His Electric Kite Hoax. Tom Tucker. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00. xx + 297 pages. ISBN 0-7509-3680-0. This study, first published in the United States, takes a new look at 'arguably the most...

Eleanor: April Queen of Aquitaine.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Eleanor: April Queen of Aquitaine. Douglas Boyd. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]20.00. viii + 376 pages. ISBN 0-7509-3289-9. The author of this book is a healthy reminder that one may write a learned and well researched biography without...

Literary Canons and Religious Identity.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Literary Canons and Religious Identity. Erik Borgman, Bart Philipsen and Lea Verstricht, editors. Ashgate. [pounds sterling]47.50. xi + 222 pages. ISBN 0-7546-3512-0. This collection is sponsored by the Theology and Humanities section of the...

The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople. Jonathan Phillips. Jonathan Cape. [pounds sterling]20.00. xxvi + 374 pages. ISBN 0-224-06986-1. Mr Phillips takes a new look at the most notorious of the Crusades which was called to free...

Britain in the European Union: Law, Policy and Parliament.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Britain in the European Union: Law, Policy and Parliament. Philip Giddings and Gavin Drewry, editors. Palgrave Macmillan. [pounds sterling]18.99 p.b. xi + 277 pages. ISBN 1-4039-0452-9. This collection of eleven essays is a follow-up to...

Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator.(Book Review)
October 1, 2004... Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator. Solomon Volkov. Antonina W. Bouis, translator. Little, Brown. [pounds sterling]14.99. xiv + 370 pages. ISBN 0-316-86141-3. This study,...