Issue 78
September 2002
Contents
Immigration in Germany
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
In Germany's upcoming election, the red-green coalition is on the ropes. But it has bequeathed modern citizenship, immigration and asylum laws
Atta in Hamburg
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
Mohammed Atta cultivated an academic life, German friends and a terrorist network. How did this sterile city become the launch pad for 9/11?
Memphis black'n'blues
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
I was a Muslim in Tennessee. Then I was jumped and handcuffed and thought I was destined for the bed of the Mississippi
Where we live now
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
Britain's biggest cities enjoyed a revival in the 1990s but people with money and choice continue fleeing to the suburbs and beyond
The end of the west?
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
The inflammation of US nationalism since 9/11 has blinded it to the potential strategic disaster of a split with Europe
Israel lobby (part II)
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
The idea that the Israel lobby has undue influence over US foreign policy, as argued by Michael Lind in April, is historically and politically illiterate. The US supports Israel because it is in its own interests to do so
Pop goes rock'n'roll
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
With the band Gay Dad, I was a recipient of the last big deal of the Britrock era and a cause of its silliest hype. The industry was losing the plot, the US was losing interest and British pop was dying
Death of an idea
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
Postmodernism is finished in philosophy. After 9/11 the denial of objective reality looks neither daring nor clever
Prison is a bargain
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
100,000 regular offenders cause half of all crime. Lock 'em up
Electro-paranoia
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
Cynical predictions of a cyberterrorist threat have generated the hysteria which frightens companies into paying for redundant security
Briefly, cruelly, Trevorly
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
Not quite Irish, not quite British; William Trevor has commanded transatlantic literary reverence for 30 years
Over-precautionary tales
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
The precautionary principle represents the cowardice of a pampered society
Lives of the mind
20th September 2002 — Issue 78
What explains the recent fashion for biographies of philosophers? Why do so few of them combine both good philosophy and vivid writing?