Issue 148
July 2008
Contents
History's new pessimists
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Popular history used to be confident and optimistic. Now it is full of violence and warfare. Is this simply because once-marginalised stories are now being told, or is there a broader cultural turn towards pessimism?
How to stop the next bubble
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
The financial crisis has shown that markets are bubble-prone and that laissez-faire regulation doesn't work. The authorities need to get a grip if we are to avoid a mega-bubble. But we may need an even deeper crisis for that to happen
The sacred mystery of capital
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
We have a need for a mysterious power greater than us. That need was once met by religion—but now it is supplied by "Incredible Hulk" financial capitalism
Nicholas Stern
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Stern's report was attacked for being alarmist when it came out in 2006. But now he is going for a new global environment deal in Copenhagen next year. What are its chances?
Yellow river blues
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
The Yellow river has always symbolised China's dream of greatness. But can this unnavigable waterway survive China's transformation into an economic superpower?
My Stockholm syndrome
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
I went to Sweden in 1977 to live the modern socialist dream. But things did not turn out quite the way I—or the Social Democrats—would have wanted
A modern Ottoman
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
The Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, winner of our intellectuals poll, is the modern face of the Sufi Ottoman tradition. At home with globalisation and PR, and fascinated by science, he also influences Turkish politics through links to the ruling AK party
Comment (12)George Osborne
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
The shadow chancellor's last conference speech set the course for a dramatic Tory revival and turned him into a "big beast." But what will he do with power if and when he gets it?
Writing against himself
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
He may deny it, but Orhan Pamuk is Turkey's most important political voice. Even Dostoevsky would have agreed
England arise
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
If the Conservatives win the next election, the Scots may end up leaving the union. How can England take a political form without hastening the Scots to the exit?
Dispatches from Zimbabwe
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Our correspondent in Harare reports on the latest developments in the aftermath of Morgan Tsvangirai's election withdrawal. Latest entries at the top
Sympathy for the devil
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Heidi Holland's biography of Robert Mugabe does something deeply unsettling—it makes me feel the dictator's pain
Women on film
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
In the 1920s, women were the pioneers of cinema criticism. So why are there so few female film critics in Britain today?
A viscous circle of subsidy
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Subsidies in poorer countries have helped to push oil prices to record levels. But there's not much the west can do about them
The high life
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Seneca may have disapproved of them, but roof gardens are part of the poetry of urban life
The real Fethullah Gülen
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Fethullah Gülen and his beliefs represent nothing new in Islamic thought. Instead, as the hijacking of the Prospect poll shows, Gülenism is essentially a cult
The Nigerian tiger
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Its economy may be booming, but Nigeria is convulsed by a personality clash between its old president and his successor
They stood by their man
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
The Bush administration prized loyalty over competence. The next White House team will do the opposite
On liberty
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Philip Collins and Richard Reeves have told Labour to "liberalise." But their notion of liberty is confused
Don't know? Vote no!
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Ireland's "no" vote had little to do with the EU. But one way or another, the treaty will be enacted
Is Bin Laden losing?
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Al Qaeda has not experienced a sudden slump in support. It has been in decline for many years
Salmond has far to leap
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
The Scottish route to independence is more complicated than the SNP would have you believe
The last literary traveller
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Many of the greats have laid down their pens. But Rory MacLean keeps the travel writing torch aflame
The voice of Tiananmen
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
China is booming, yet deafening silences remain in its official history. Now, Ma Jian has produced an account of the 1989 Tiananmen protests which offers a model of how a modern Chinese literature alive to history might be written. I read the novel and talked to its author
Help me to help myself
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Economists have come to understand that we don't always act in our own interests. Now politicians are starting to take note
The mind creates ghosts
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Patrick McGrath's new novel isn't his best. But it's another example of his extraordinary talent for dissecting our inner lives, and for blurring the fine line between sanity and sickness
3,000 years of dreaming
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Iran's history is an astonishing tale of conflict and discontinuity. Parts of Michael Axworthy's account are more gripping than a novel
Mapping the Asian century
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Two books on the rise of Asia—one of them also a shrill attack on the west—agree on economics but disagree about the politics
Private view
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
While the world lurches deeper into financial crisis, the art market goes from strength to strength. Will there be any end to its current boom?
Widescreen
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Imagine a boxing match between the two giants of 20th-century imagery: Hitchcock and Picasso. Who would win?
Performance notes
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Margaret Hodge's anti-Proms speech was inept and stupid. The Proms are cheap, diverse and popular. Plus, London's new recital hall
Smallscreen
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Good sitcoms are rare these days because broadcasters are too quick to axe new shows. Comedy needs time to grow roots—consider C4's Peep Show
The starving millions
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Nick's brother is a saint. And Nick can't help hating him for it
Common law
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
My client is a repeat offender who stole to fund his crack habit. But he's willing to confess to 50 burglaries. Can I keep him out of prison and get him counselling instead?
This sporting life
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
US baseball is being taken over by players from the Dominican Republic. And what does the success of the Indian Premier League mean for the future of cricket?
Washington watch
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
It's time for the candidates to choose their running mates. Could Obama pick a Republican? And McCain an Indian-American? And is the job worth having anyway?
China café
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
The villagers assemble for a health check in the local brothel. The nurse asks me to pull my trousers down and bend over. But she doesn't know I speak Chinese…
Lab report
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
Cutting carbon emissions may not involve more nuclear power. But there's a new plan for our waste anyway. Plus, things are cooling down at the Large Hadron Collider
Brussels diary
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
The EU reels after the Irish vote "no" to the Lisbon treaty. Britain worries that the vote could pave the way to a two-speed Europe. Plus, Nato's sex symbol
The prisoner
26th July 2008 — Issue 148
This new prison prides itself on its kind atmosphere. But I am intolerably bored, and I miss the community of suffering in Belmarsh. Still, only 13 months to go