Cover: Peter Campbell

CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

• Neal Ascherson
• Eleanor Birne
• Ciaran Carson
• Jenny Diski
• Jerry Fodor
• Jeremy Harding
• Rosemary Hill
• Jim Holt
• August Kleinzahler
• Joshua Kurlantzick
• John Lanchester
• Diarmaid MacCulloch
• Tom Nairn
• Robin Robertson
• Daniel Soar
• T.P. Wiseman
• Michael Wood
• Natalie Zemon Davis

Contents

• Jim Holt
  It’s the Oil: Iraq’s Lucrative Mess

• Letters
  Robert Horwood, Chris Purnell, Kenneth Hunter, Brian Lee, Inigo Thomas, Dinah Birch, Tom Phillips, Neil Ramsay

• Tom Nairn

  • What Should the Left Propose? by Roberto Mangabeira Unger
  • The Self Awakened: Pragmatism Unbound by Roberto Mangabeira Unger
  • Une brève histoire de l’avenir by Jacques Attali

• August Kleinzahler

  • Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
  • The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama
  • Obama: From Promise to Power by David Mendell

• John Lanchester

  • Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman, translated by Robert Chandler

• Joshua Kurlantzick

  • Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi by Justin Wintle

• Diarmaid MacCulloch

  • Mary Tudor: The Tragical History of the First Queen of England by David Loades

• Robin Robertson
  Poem: ‘Signs on a White Field’

• Natalie Zemon Davis

  • Who Are You? Identification, Deception and Surveillance in Early Modern Europe by Valentin Groebner, translated by Mark Kyburz and John Peck

• Jerry Fodor
  Why Pigs Don’t Have Wings: The Case against Natural Selection

• Jenny Diski
  Short Cuts: Internet Misfit

• Michael Wood
  At the Movies: ‘3.10 to Yuma’

  • 3.10 to Yuma directed by James Mangold
  • 3.10 to Yuma directed by Delmer Daves

• Jeremy Harding

  • The Original Rules of Rugby edited by Jed Smith

• T.P. Wiseman

  • Caesar’s Calendar: Ancient Time and the Beginnings of History by Denis Feeney

• Rosemary Hill
  At the Royal Academy: The Treasures of the Society of Antiquaries

• Eleanor Birne

  • The Gathering by Anne Enright

• Daniel Soar

  • The Rain before It Falls by Jonathan Coe

• Ciaran Carson
  Poem: ‘The Story of Alouette’

• Neal Ascherson
  Diary: among the icebergs