Contemporary Review articles from September 2006

Contemporary Review archives from September 2006

Is diplomacy dead?
September 22, 2006... EVERY man is a diplomat, painful though it might be for professional diplomats to acknowledge the fact. Ever since he--homo sapiens--emerged from the primeval slime and learned to stand upon two legs and profit from the gift of an opposable...

From revolution to revolution: Hungary in 1956 and 2006.
September 22, 2006... FROM revolution to revolution, I have watched Hungary evolve for the past half century. The more dramatic of the two revolutions took place in the autumn of 1956 when a beaten, starved and humiliated subject people of fewer than 10 million...

Momentous shifts in the ideology of the Chechen resistance.
September 22, 2006... AFTER many of the prominent figures of the resistance movement, generally in their thirties and older, had died in the course of the operations of the Second Russo-Chechen War (1994-1996), a serious problem developed with finding leaders. A...

India in the world.
September 22, 2006... I remember visiting India in the 1980s and being asked to take in a TV set because, although the country had a TV broadcasting service, it had no TV manufacture or retailing, and imports were banned or suffered tariffs beyond reach. They were...

From Knightsbridge to the nations: the Alpha movement and the future of Christendom.
September 22, 2006... WESTERN Christianity is in a bad way. Congregations are getting older, pews are empty and churches are racked with dry rot and doubt. Christianity is losing ground to Buddhism, pick-and-mix New Age Mysticism and shopping. Christianity is...

Islam in the Netherlands--and Indonesia: what kind of a 'pillar of society'?
September 22, 2006... THE Netherlands of 1954 is 'a far country', but the memories of my first visit there, 52 years ago, are still vivid. Could it be that the interest in Dutch politics which took root at that time has helped to keep the whole experience fresh? I...

Do we need intellectuals?
September 22, 2006... IF we are honest, most of us would probably agree that we find intellectuals absolutely insufferable. The only exceptions to this general rule are those who consider themselves to be intellectuals and also perhaps Stefan Collini, Professor of...

Modernity and Western Values in the Clutches of Islamization.
September 22, 2006... THE Danish cartoons that greatly offended the Muslim world earlier this year have probably sparked an even greater debate about how the Muslims interact with the contemporary world. Muslim reformers of the past century--such as Mohammed Abdu,...

Modigliani at the Royal Academy.(Amedeo Modigliani)
September 22, 2006... MODIGLIANI and his Models, an exhibition of over fifty of his works at the Royal Academy (8 July 2006-15 October 2006), is the first full register of his achievement to be displayed in Britain since the Edinburgh Modigliani of 1963. In most...

The roman ideal of rural retirement in seventeenth and eighteenth century England.
September 22, 2006... A favourite theme of English writers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was that of escape from the bustle and back-stabbing of court or city life, and the more solid satisfaction of life in the countryside, on a small, self-sufficient...

Cruising down the rivers of the world.
September 22, 2006... ONCE upon a time the great rivers of Europe were also great passenger waterways, and those whose business let them sail on the Danube, the Rhine, or other navigable rivers, had an easier time than those on Alpine passes who had to bump over the...

America's strategy for the twenty-first century.(The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century. Robert J. Lieber. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]18.99 (US$28.00). xi + 255 pages. ISBN 0-521-85737-6. Robert J. Lieber, a leading scholar of international relations...

Patten--the tory internationalist.(Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths about World Affairs)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Not Quite the Diplomat: Home Truths about World Affairs. Chris Patten. Allen Lane. [pounds sterling]20.00. xi + 323 pages. ISBN 0-713-99855-5. A feline participant sometimes sees more of the game than any observer. Lord Patten (ne...

The campus novel and its writers.(Faculty Towers)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Faculty Towers. Elaine Showalter. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]12.99. 166 pages. ISBN 0-19-928332-X. At first sight, the reader may tend to ponder on why anyone would want to write a study of the campus novel. Yes, there have...

A fine account of Shakespeare.(Shakespeare: The Biography)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Shakespeare: The Biography. Peter Ackroyd. Chatto & Windus. [pounds sterling]25.00. xiii + 546 pages. ISBN 1-85619-726-3. This biography has many excellences. Mr Ackroyd is strong on London, as we would expect, and is intimately familiar...

The fall of Constantinople and the end of empire.(Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Constantinople: The Last Great Siege, 1453. Roger Crowley. Faber. [pounds sterling]16.99. 304 pages. ISBN 0-571-22185-8. On Tuesday, 29 May 1453, Constantinople fell to the besieging army of Sultan Mehmet II. Constantine XI, the last...

The Real Life Anthony Burgess.(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Real Life of Anthony Burgess. Andrew Biswell. Picador. [pounds sterling]20.00. ix + 435 pages. ISBN 0-330-48170-3. Anthony Burgess is a writer who presents a particularly difficult conundrum to the literary biographer. Of course all...

The British army in India.(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Sahib: The British Soldier in India. Richard Holmes. HarperCollins. [pounds sterling]20.00. xxxiii + 572 pages. ISBN 0-00-713753-2. It was, writes Richard Holmes, undeniably a bloody business. The British conquest of India, Burma and Ceylon...

Persia and the Greeks.(Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West. Tom Holland. Little, Brown. [pounds sterling]20.00. xxx + 418 pages. ISBN 0-316-72664-8. Tom Holland's second book is a bold attempt to put one of the most significant...

Two Vanderbilt women.(Consuelo and Alva: Love and Power in the Gilded Age)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Consuelo and Alva: Love and Power in the Gilded Age. Amanda Mackenzie Stuart. HarperCollins. [pounds sterling]25.00. xix + 579 pages. ISBN 0-00-712730-8. The Vanderbilts, celebrated in song and story, holders of a fortune of 200 million...

In search of Homer's Odysseus.(Odysseus Unbound)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Odysseus Unbound. Robert Bittlestone et al. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]25.00. 450 pages. ISBN 0-521-85357-5. In a single afternoon recently I noted the references to Homer I came upon casually; the Odyssey cafe, a Samuel...

The marriages of George III's siblings.(A Royal Affair: George III and His Troublesome Siblings)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... A Royal Affair: George III and his Troublesome Siblings. Stella Tillyard. Chatto & Windus. [pounds sterling]20.00. xiii + 386 pages. ISBN 0-701-17306-8. The author of Aristocrats has now branched out into royal biography. Her concern here...

The world of paperbacks.
September 22, 2006... CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS has long been famous for its 'Cambridge Histories' which bring together experts to contribute individual essays centred on one field of study or historical period. The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political...

Othello, the Moor of Venice.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Othello, the Moor of Venice. William Shakespeare. Michael Neill, editor. Clarendon Press, Oxford. [pounds sterling]55.00. x + 491 pages. ISBN 0-19-812920-3. This latest publication in The Oxford Shakespeare fully meets the high standards...

Ivan's War: The Red Army 1939-1945.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Ivan's War: The Red Army 1939-1945. Catherine Merridale. Faber and Faber. [pounds sterling]25.00. xvii + 352 pages. ISBN 0-571-21808-3. As Prof. Merridale points out, the war between Nazi Germany and the USSR 'defied the human sense of scale'...

Political Economy and the Labour Party: The Economies of Democratic Socialism, 1884-2005.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Political Economy and the Labour Party: The Economies of Democratic Socialism, 1884-2005. Noel Thompson. Routledge. [pounds sterling]85.00. xi + 340 pages. ISBN 0-415-32880-2. This study of the Labour party's off and on relationship with...

Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Context, 4th ed..(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Heart of Darkness. Joseoph Conrad. Paul B. Armstrong, editor. W.W. Norton. [pounds sterling]8.99 p.b. xix + 514 pages. ISBN 0-393-92636-2. This is a fourth edition of Conrad's short 1899 novel published as a 'Norton Critical Edition' and...

The History of The Times: Volume VII 1981-2002. The Murdoch Years.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The History of The Times: Volume VII 1981-2002. The Murdoch Years. Graham Stewart. HarperCollins. [pounds sterling]30.00. viii + 727 pages. ISBN 0-00-718438-7. The first volume in this history was published in 1935 and this latest number begins...

Alfred the Great: The Man Who Made England.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Alfred the Great: The Man Who Made England. Justin Pollard. John Murray. [pounds sterling]20.00. xv + 350 pages. ISBN 0-7195-6665-7. As Mr Pollard writes, Alfred is the only English king to be called 'the Great' because it was through his...

The Pineapple: King of Fruits.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Pineapple: King of Fruits. Fran Beauman. Chatto & Windus. [pounds sterling]16.99. xiii + 315 pages. ISBN 0-701-17699-7. If the apple is (without foundation) associated with man's fall from grace, the pineapple has the distinction of being...

Barbarism and Religion: Barbarians, Savages and Empires, vol. 4.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Barbarism and Religion. Volume Four: Barbarians, Savages and Empires. J.G.A. Pocock. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]45.00 (US$70.00). xii + 372 pages. ISBN 0-521-85625-6. In the fourth volume in this series, Prof. Pocock continues...

The Google Story.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Google Story. David A. Vise with Mark Malseed. Macmillan. [pounds sterling]14.99. xiv + 326 pages. ISBN 1-4050-5371-2. This history, which was first published by Bantam Dell in the US, tells the story of one of the most extraordinary...

Last Post.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Last Post. Max Arthur. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]16.99. 272 pages. ISBN 0-297-84644-2. For many decades now the reminiscences, sometimes strong in content, sometimes feeble, of those survivors of the Great War, have been a part of...

Living Islam: Muslim Religious-Experience in Pakistan's North-West Frontier.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Living Islam: Muslim Religious-Experience in Pakistan's North-West Frontier. Magnus Marsden. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]45.00 (US$75.00). xvi + 297 pages. ISBN 0-521-61765-0. The author, whose fields are the anthropology of...

The Cambridge History of Christianity: World Christianities c.1815-c.1914, vol. 8.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Cambridge History of Christianity: World Christianities c.1815-c.1914. Volume 8. Sheridan Gilley and Brian Stanley, editors. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]100.00 (US$180.00). xvi + 683 pages. ISBN 0-521-81456-1. This latest...

The River of Doubt: Into the Unknown Amazon.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The River of Doubt: Into the Unknown Amazon. Candice Millard. Little, Brown. [pounds sterling]18.99. xi + 431 pages. ISBN 0-316-72475-0. This title, which was first published in the US, is about one of the country's most colourful presidents,...

Medieval Genealogy: How to Find Your Medieval Ancestors.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Medieval Genealogy: How to Find Your Medieval Ancestors. Paul Chambers. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]25.00. xii + 275 pages. ISBN 0-7509-93687-8. The aim of this reference work is to help people who have traced their family's history to...

The Return of the Native.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Return of the Native. Thomas Hardy. Phillip Mallet, editor. W.W. Norton. [pounds sterling]8.99 p.b. xx + 552 pages. ISBN 0-393-92787-3. This new edition of Hardy's famous novel replaces the first, published in 1969. The editor, who has...

Mick: The Real Michael Collins.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Mick: The Real Michael Collins. Peter Hart. Macmillan. [pounds sterling]25.00. xxi + 485 pages. ISBN 1-4050-5263-5. Mr Hart's purpose is 'to place examination of Collins's life on a new factual basis and in a more critical perspective' because...

The Elgin Marbles: The Story of Archaeology's Greatest Controversy.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Elgin Marbles. Dorothy King. Hutchinson. [pounds sterling]18.99. xii + 340 pages. ISBN 0-09-180013-7. Before describing the building of the Parthenon, Miss King outlines Athenian history and the place of the acropolis in Greek life. Begun...

The Cold War, 1945-1991.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Cold War, 1945-1991. Michael L. Dockrill and Michael F. Hopkins. Palgrave-Macmillan. [pounds sterling]13.99 p.b. xvi + 188 pages. ISBN 1-4039-3338-3. This is a second edition of a title first published in 1988 in Palgrave's 'Studies in...

Lawrence of Arabia: The Life, the Legend.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Lawrence of Arabia: The Life, The Legend. Malcolm Brown. Thames & Hudson. [pounds sterling]24.95. 208 pages. ISBN 0-500-51238-8. T.E. Lawrence remains one of the most appealing characters or 'personalities' in twentieth-century British history...

The Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756-1833.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Business of Empire: The East India Company and Imperial Britain, 1756-1833. H.V. Bowen. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]50.00 (US$90.00). xiv + 304 pages. ISBN 0-521-84477-0. The unique role of the East India Company in Indian...

Artist of Wonderland: The Life, Political Cartoons, and Illustrations of Tenniel.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Artist of Wonderland: The Life, Political Cartoons, and Illustrations of Tenniel. Frankie Morris. The Lutterworth Press. [pounds sterling]35.00 (US$70.00) xvii + 406 pages. ISBN 0-7188-3056-3. Today John Tenniel is famous, of course, for his...

The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Buildings of Ireland: Dublin. Christine Casey. Yale University Press. [pounds sterling]29.95. xx + 756 pages. ISBN 0-300-10923-7. The sub-title of this newest addition to the Buildings of Ireland series gives its remit: 'The City Within the...

One Christmas in Washington: Churchill and Roosevelt Forge the Grand Alliance.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... One Christmas in Washington: Churchill and Roosevelt Forge the Grand Alliance. David J. Bercuson and Holger H. Herwig. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. [pounds sterling]20.00. 320 pages. ISBN 0-297-84631-0. This detailed and well-written examination of...

Making the Novel: Fiction and Society in Britain, 1660-1789.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Making the Novel: Fiction and Society in Britain, 1660-1789. Brean Hammond and Shaun Regan. Palgrave Macmillan. [pounds sterling]45.00. xii + 268 pages. ISBN 0-333-62853-5. This study is concerned with the origins of the most modern and most...

The Cambridge History of Christianity: World Christianities c. 1914-c. 2000, vol. 9.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 9 World Christianities c. 1914-c. 2000. Hugh McLeod, editor. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]100.00 (US$180.00) xviii + 717 pages. ISBN 0-521-81500-2. In this latest volume of the...

Blitz: The Story of 29th December 1940.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Blitz: The Story of 29th December 1940. M.J. Gaskin. Faber and Faber. [pounds sterling]16.99. xvi + 416 pages. ISBN 0-571-21794-X. Some readers of the book's preface may be slightly put off by the trite opening sentences--'Once, upon a time...

Islamic Imperialism: A History.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Islamic Imperialism: A History. Efraim Karsh. Yale University Press. [pounds sterling]19.99. ix + 276 pages. ISBN 0-300-10603-3. This is Prof. Karsh's third book on Middle Eastern affairs and in it he challenges the fashionable view that the...

The Complete Plays: Anton Chekhov.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Complete Plays: Anton Chekhov. Laurence Senelick, editor and translator. W.W. Norton. [pounds sterling]25.00. lx + 1060 pages. ISBN 0-393-04885-3. This impressive volume has been prepared by a leading expert not only in matters Chekhovian...

Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide. Patricia Waugh, editor. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]65.00. xx + 598 pages. ISBN 0-19-929133-0. This collection of thirty-seven essays, by an international team of experts, is...

The Augustan Art of Poetry: Augustan Translation of the Classics.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Augustan Art of Poetry: Augustan Translation of the Classics. Robin Sowerby. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]50.00. x + 368 pages. ISBN 0-19-928612-4. There is a growing awareness of the role translation has played in the history...

The Buildings of Scotland: Borders.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Buildings of Scotland: Borders. Kitty Cruft, John Dunbar and Richard Fawcett. Yale University Press. [pounds sterling]29.95. xviii + 841 pages. ISBN 0-300-10702-1. This is the ninth volume in the Buildings of Scotland series and surveys the...

The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and The Holocaust.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and The Holocaust. Heather Pringle. Fourth Estate. [pounds sterling]20.00. xiii + 463 pages. ISBN 0-00-714812-7. One of the more bizarre aspects of the Nazi regime was its desire to be taken seriously both by...

My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... My Dear Mr. Stalin: The Complete Correspondence Between Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph V. Stalin. Susan Butler, editor. Yale University Press. [pounds sterling]17.50. xix + 361 pages. ISBN 0-300-10854-0. While the relationship between...

Three Lives and Q.E.D.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Three Lives and Q.E.D. Gertrude Stein. W.W. Norton. [pounds sterling]7.99 p.b. xi + 542 pages. ISBN 0-393-97903-2. This new addition to Norton's Critical Edition series, edited by Prof. Marianne DeKoven, gives readers two of the author's most...

The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, 1790-1900, vol. 4.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English. Volume 4. 1790-1900. Peter France and Kenneth Haynes, editors. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]85.99. xv + 595 pages. ISBN 0-19-924623-8. This penultimate volume in the...

Politics and Culture in Victorian Britain: Essays in Memory of Colin Matthew.(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Politics and Culture in Victorian Britain: Essays in Memory of Colin Matthew. Peter Ghosh and Lawrence Goldman, editors. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]60.00. vi + 267 pages. ISBN 0-19-925345-5. Colin Matthew was the first man...

Siegfried Sassoon: A Biography.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Siegfried Sassoon: A Biography. Max Egremont. Picador. [pounds sterling]25.00. xv + 639 pages. ISBN 0-330-37526-1. This is not the first biography of the poet but it is the first that has had unlimited access to Sassoon's papers, now scattered...

The Palgrave Literary Dictionary of Chaucer.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Palgrave Literary Dictionary of Chaucer. Malcolm Andrew. Palgrave-Macmillan. [pounds sterling]65.00. xvi + 313 pages. ISBN 0-333-99808-1. This latest number in Palgrave's Literary Dictionaries series is by that series' editor, an...

A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People?: England, 1783-1846.(Book review)
September 22, 2006... A Mad, Bad, and Dangerous People? England 1783-1846. Boyd Hilton. Clarendon Press. [pounds sterling]30.00. xxv + 757 pages. ISBN 0-19-822830-9. This volume in the New Oxford History of England begins and ends with interesting dates: the loss of...

The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963-1965: Genocide, History, and the Limits of the Law.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, 1963-1965: Genocide, History, and the Limits of the Law. Devin O. Pendas. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]40.00. xx + 340 pages. ISBN 0-521-84406-1. This book is a detailed examination of 'the...

The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The New Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes. John Gross, editor. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]16.99. xiii + 385 pages. ISBN 0-19-280468-5. This new collection, edited by a man of letters, is a successor to James Sutherland's Oxford...

Twice a Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... Stranger: How Mass Expulsion Forged Modern Greece and Turkey. Bruce Clark. Granta Books. [pounds sterling]20.00. xxx + 274 pages. ISBN 1-86207-752-5. When the Ottoman Empire began to crumble in the nineteenth century through the loss of its...

The Cambridge Companion to John Donne.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 22, 2006... The Cambridge Companion to John Donne. Achsah Guibbory, editor. Cambridge University Press. [pounds sterling]45.00. xviii + 288 pages. ISBN 0-521-83237-3. As the editor points out, John Donne's verse 'matters to students as much as ever' whilst...