Philosophy
Michael Sandel interview: the marketization of everything is undermining democracy
Michael Sandel is a political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University. He is best known for his ‘Justice’ course, which he has taught for over two decades. Sandel first… Continue reading
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The Glorious Revolution and small ‘c’ conservatism
From a dialogue between a non-juring clergyman and his wife by Edward ‘Ned’ Ward Wife: Why will you prove so obstinate, my dear, And rather choose to starve, than yield to… Continue reading
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Interview: Jared Cohen and The New Digital Age
Jared Cohen is Director of Google Ideas, a think tank set up by Google dedicated to understanding global challenges by applying technological solutions. Cohen is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow… Continue reading
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Interview: David Graeber, leading figure of Occupy
The anarchist movement in the United States has had the support of leading libertarian intellectuals, such as Noam Chomsky; but it has lacked a figure who could transform its guiding… Continue reading
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Schroder – one man’s journey into night
Erik Schroder is an East German who last saw his mother when he was five years old. In 1975 only his unspeaking father crossed the Wall with him into West… Continue reading
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Interview with a writer: Evgeny Morozov
Evgeny Morozov is an iconoclast. He believes that technology, if abused or misused, has the potential to make society less free. His latest book, To Save Everything , Click Here,… Continue reading
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Douglas Adams’s big idea
Had he not died 12 years ago, Douglas Adams would have been 61 yesterday. Google produced a doodle in his memory, and the Guardian published an interesting piece which declared… Continue reading
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Interview with a writer: Lars Iyer
People call Lars Iyer a ‘cult author,’ which is odd, because almost every paper to have reviewed him from here to Los Angeles has praised him endlessly. The ‘cult’ thing… Continue reading
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Discovering poetry: Samuel Daniel and the art of outliving death
from Delia When winter snows upon thy golden hairs, And frost of age hath nipped thy flowers near; When dark shall seem thy day that never clears, And all lies… Continue reading
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Interview with a writer: John Gray
In his new book The Silence of Animals, the philosopher John Gray explores why human beings continue to use myth to give purpose to their lives. Drawing from the material… Continue reading
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Life of Pi asks questions of man, not God
I’m conducting an experiment: Life of Pi concerns a basic metaphor about faith, how is that metaphor rendered in print and on screen? I’ve re-read the book. I’ve deliberately (at this stage)… Continue reading
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The Way the World Works by Nicholson Baker – an ideal Christmas present
Nicholson Baker is intensely interested. He looks at the world like he has never seen it before, fixating on the mundane and capitalizing upon the strange lacunae which exist between… Continue reading
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Governing the world – an interview with Mark Mazower
‘People begin to feel that… there are bonds of international duty binding all the nations of the earth together.’ This quotation, which resonates so clearly as yet more blood is shed in… Continue reading
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Should literature be political?
‘Should literature be political?’ Njabulo S Ndebele asked Open Book Cape Town the other day. Ndebele, a renowned academic in South Africa, has written a précis of his speech for… Continue reading
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Review – Sebastian Faulks’s A Possible Life
In a promotional video clip, Sebastian Faulks describes his new novel, A Possible Life, as like ‘a symphony in five movements… or an album in which the tracks are separate… Continue reading
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Freedom undermined by termites
I have been reading a new book by Theodore Dalrymple which I highly recommend. Readers of the Spectator will need no introduction to the good doctor, his fresh prose or… Continue reading
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Booker Prize shortlist announced
The 2012 Booker Prize shortlist has been announced. The runners and riders are: Tan Twan Eng, The Garden of Evening Mists (Myrmidon Books) Deborah Levy, Swimming Home (And Other Stories/Faber &… Continue reading
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Henry Kissinger’s education
Only America, a friend of mine once insisted, could produce the New Criterion. This friend happened to be American, but his point stands nonetheless. America alone is sufficiently large, wealthy and… Continue reading
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Similar, but very different
Richard Ford published his debut novel A Piece of My Heart in 1976. But it was The Sportswriter — which introduced the world to Frank Bascombe, and other marginalised characters… Continue reading
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Shelf Life special: The Skidelskys
Robert and Edward Skidelsky have written a new book for our times, How Much Is Enough? The Love of Money, and the Case for the Good Life, which is published… Continue reading
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