Links tagged with “lrb”
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George Duoblys · One, Two, Three, Eyes on Me! · LRB 5 October 2017
On the “efficient” teaching and disciplinary methods used in some London secondary schools. Sounds grim.
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Merely an Empire - London Review of Books
Good on Ken Burns’ ‘The Vietnam War’. “We cannot make a movie that will save us.”
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London Review of Books - You Are the Product
John Lanchester on Facebook.
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Owen Hatherley reviews ‘Eyes on the Street’ by Robert Kanigel and ‘Vital Little Plans’ edited by Samuel Zipp and Nathan Storring · LRB 27 July 2017
Good on Jane Jacobs’ good and bad, and all that in relation to British cities. (Subscribers only)
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James Wolcott reviews ‘Making It’ by Norman Podhoretz · LRB 18 May 2017
A very fun, lively-written read, even though most of the people mentioned mean little to me. Reminded me of reading The Modern Review, how I enjoyed it without understanding so many of the references.
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Tom Crewe · What will be left?: Labour’s Prospects · LRB 18 May 2017
Slightly out of date opinion poll-wise, but I liked this as a summary of where Labour is and how we, as a country, got here.
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The Last London - London Review of Books
I usually find Iain Sinclair a bit much, too grouchy, but the start of this is very good on modern London, around Shoreditch, Spitalfields and Liverpool Street.
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The Strange Death of Municipal England (London Review of Books)
A good read, especially if you’re feeling all full of optimism about a new year and need to be brought crashing back to earth.
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Snob Cuts (London Review of Books)
A fun, brief piece about snobbery and class.
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They Could Have Picked… (London Review of Books)
Eliot Weinberger on all the Republican presidential candidates other than Trump. At this point it’s become easy to forget that they were *all* nutjobs. Still, makes me thankful to live in the UK.
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The Satoshi Affair (London Review of Books)
An entertaining long read by Andrew O’Hagan about Craig Wright proving that he’s Satoshi Nakamoto.
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Nigel’s Against the World (London Review of Books)
I’ve mostly been ignoring EU referendum stuff but this is quite good on the things we don’t really know about what happens if we leave.
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Stefan Collini · Who are the spongers now? · LRB 21 January 2016
It’s probably only because I’m not involved in higher education, and don’t have children heading towards it, that I find reading things like this, about the government’s current and future plans, enjoyable, like dystopian fiction.
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Corbyn in the Media - Paul Myerscough (London Review of Books)
This is good on the Guardian being out of touch, in denial, with all those who voted for Corbyn, and on the “impartiality” of the BBC.
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Rosemary Hill reviews ‘Princes at War’ by Deborah Cadbury · LRB 30 July 2015
The Duke of Windsor, who’s always used on classic menswear forums as the ultimate in style… a bit of a dick.
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Steven Mithen reviews ‘Earth’s Deep History’ by Martin Rudwick · LRB 30 July 2015
On the history of how we’ve explained the history of Earth and life on it. (Also subscribers only)
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Colin Kidd reviews ‘The Formation of the English Kingdom in the Tenth Century’ [and more] · LRB 30 July 2015
On the history of describing English history, and how “England”, and what makes it English, has changed. (Subscribers only)
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Steven Shapin reviews ‘Empire of Tea’ by Markman Ellis, Richard Coulton and Matthew Mauger · LRB 30 July 2015
Interesting history of tea, and the changes around it over the centuries. “By the 1910s, eight thousand [tea leaf] rolling machines had replaced the hand-labour of 1.5 million workers.” (Subscribers only)
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Jackson Lears reviews ‘The Age of Acquiescence’ by Steve Fraser · LRB 16 July 2015
How left-leaning beliefs have disappeared in the US, mostly over the first half of the 20th century. (Subscribers only)
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James Meek · Why are you still here?: Who owns Grimsby? · LRB 23 April 2015
A long, good piece from Grimsby on its history, its industries and its general election candidates. Lots of things relevant to the rest of the country too of course.
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James Meek · The Shock of the Pretty: Seventy Hours with Don Draper · LRB 9 April 2015
Good on ‘Mad Men’. A bunch of these criticisms are why I’ve failed to make it through the first season twice.
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Frances Stonor Saunders · Stuck on the Flypaper: The Hobsbawm File · LRB 9 April 2015
Fascinating. For the spycraft, the jargon, the very quiet British hysteria over communism, MI5, the weird changing attitudes to the various factions before and after WWII, the BBC. Scarily bonkers.
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Adam Shatz reviews ‘Congo’ by David Van Reybrouck · LRB 23 October 2014
This stopped me… After a long account of decades of central African bloodshed, “the profits from ‘conflict minerals’ peaked [in 2000], fed by increased demand for mobile phones and the release of the Sony PlayStation 2.”David Van Reybrouck
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Francis FitzGibbon · Short Cuts · LRB 23 October 2014
Interesting about exactly how much or little the Human Rights Act, which the Tories want to repeal, constrains the British government.
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Owen Hatherley reviews ‘Guide to the Architecture of London’ by Edward Jones and Christopher Woodward · LRB 21 August 2014
I’m not sure this makes me want to read the book under review, but the review itself is a good read if you’re into London and/or architecture.
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Perry Anderson · The Italian Disaster · LRB 22 May 2014
Not for most of the article, but for the first 7+ paragraphs outlining the, er, legal difficulties, of those in political power across Europe. We are terrible.
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Andrew O’Hagan · Ghosting: Julian Assange · LRB 6 March 2014
This very long piece about failing to ghost-write Julian Assange’s biography is as good as everyone said it was.
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Where will we live? by James Meek (LRB)
Linked to by everyone, for good reason. A good, long piece about the UK’s history of council and social housing, the architecture and planning, and where we are now. As with so many policy areas, I wish one of the main parties wanted to do something bold, different and good.
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Diary by Peter Pomerantsev (London Review of Books)
Starts as a fascinating brief description of sistema, the pervasive Russian corruption, ends up starting to show how London is now a place where this is legitimised. Laundering crookedness.
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Diary by Lynn Visson (London Review of Books)
A shortish piece on being an interpreter at the UN.
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Success by Benjamin Markovits (London Review of Books)
I’m not into sport but love articles like this, which ponders why England/GB has been successful in recent years at some sports. Business, statistics, culture, etc.
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The Logic of Nuremberg by Mahmood Mamdani (London Review of Books)
On the differences between the Nuremberg Trials and the Convention for a Democratic South Africa, and how they compare to the International Criminal Court. Which isn’t really selling it, but I hadn’t thought about these fundamental differences. (Subscribers only)
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Sold Out by Stefan Collini (London Review of Books)
On how the UK’s universities have changed over recent decades, becoming bigger, more beholden to private interests, more expensive for students… the LRB’s best current affairs articles are all so depressing.
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Counter-Counter-Revolution by David Runciman (London Review of Books)
On whether 1979 was the most significant year of the 20th century. Either way, an interesting look at a handful of people and occasions that had a profound effect. Suggests we don’t know yet who our current era’s most impactful people will be.
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Forms of Delirium by Peter Pomerantsev (London Review of Books)
Russia’s an odd place. Nationalist, Christian biker gangs etc.
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Richard J. Evans reviews ‘The People’s Car’ by Bernhard Rieger · LRB 12 September 2013
Lots of interesting nuggets in this history of the Volkswagen Beetle. (Subscribers only)
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Ian Penman reviews ‘Mod’ by Richard Weight · LRB 29 August 2013
This is packed with good stuff. The differences between the fans of trad and modern jazz. Mods as continental modernists, aesthetes. Mods compared to other subcultures. “Tellyology”: shaping history with both eyes on a potential TV series. Ray Davies. Miles Davis. Blur. Noel Gallagaher. Today’s Mod revival as a ploddy “dad rock” conservatism. The British Music Experience.
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Jonathan Coe reviews ‘The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson’ edited by Harry Mount · LRB 18 July 2013
Very good on the futility, even dangerousness, of political satire and dismissing politicians as corrupt buffoons.
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John Lanchester · Are we having fun yet?: The Biggest Scandal of All · LRB 4 July 2013
This and the second part are so worth a read. Banks are mind-boggling.
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Slavoj Žižek · Trouble in Paradise: The Global Protest · LRB 18 July 2013
“To demand consistency at strategically selected points where the system cannot afford to be consistent is to put pressure on the entire system.”
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Owen Hatherley reviews ‘Museum without Walls’ by Jonathan Meades · LRB 7 March 2013
Exactly what it says. Praise and criticism.
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Malcolm Bull reviews ‘On Global Justice’ by Mathias Risse · LRB 21 February 2013
I love reading things like this, here about Risse’s Rawls-influenced theories, but also I find them very, very hard to concentrate on. (Subscribers only)
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Short Cuts (London Review of Books)
Paul Myerscough on Pret a Manger. 91% of employees are immigrants. Social security as a subsidy to companies whose products would otherwise be too expensive for their non-social-security-receiving customers.
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Let’s Call it Failure (London Review of Books)
John Lanchester on good, if depressing, form on the state of the UK economy and “austerity”.
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Light Entertainment (London Review of Books)
Andrew O’Hagan on Jimmy Savile etc. Quite good on the general difference in TV and radio culture in the 50s/60s/70s, although it still feels like a very brief skim over the hard-to-grasp era/topic/atmosphere. (A bit late to this, catching up.)
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Diary (London Review of Books)
Lovely article by Emily Witt about online dating in New York and San Franciso. “The mind contains very few truths that the body withholds. There is little of import in an encounter between two bodies that would fail to be revealed rather quickly. Until the bodies are introduced, seduction is only provisional.”
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At Hyde Park Corner (London Review of Books)
Jonathan Meades on fine form, on the newish Bomber Command Memorial. “The failure of British modernism and of today’s synthetic modernism to devise a memorious idiom provides an ample justification for the mongers of easy-viewin’ classicism to dump their stuff indiscriminately.”
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James Meek · How We Happened to Sell Off Our Electricity · LRB 13 September 2012
Plenty of people linked to this at the time, but I forgot. Now I am. A good read on who now owns the UK’s power.
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Iain Sinclair · Diary: My Olympics · LRB 30 August 2012
He’s usually an entertaining read, despite his relentless talking-down of even incidental things (I’m not sure Zara Phillips’ Olympic horse can be described as a “sore-hoofed nag”). But, more and more, I wonder, “What does Iain Sinclair *want*? I know what he’s against, but what is he *for*?”
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David Conn · Follow the Money · LRB 30 August 2012
Not following football — the sport or the business — I enjoyed this article about how the leagues have changed, and the effect of vast sums of money flowing in and out of the clubs.