CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

ALUN ANDERSON is a former editor-inchief of New Scientist

PHILIP BALL ’s most recent book is The Devil’s Doctor (Heinemann)

PAUL BARKER ’s Arts in Society has been reissued by Five Leaves Publications

DEREK BROWER is a writer on energy geopolitics

MARK COUSINS is the author of The Story of Film (Pavilion Books)

JASON COWLEY is a senior editor at the Observer

JAMES CRABTREE was a senior policy adviser at the New Democrat Network

IAN CRAWFORD is a lecturer in planetary science at Birkbeck College

RICHARD DOWDEN is director of the Royal African Society

ROBERT DRUMMOND is a psychiatrist

CHARLOTTE EAGAR writes for the Evening Standard

DAVID EDGERTON is a professor at Imperial College

FRANCIS FUKUYAMA is the author of After the Neocons (Profile)

TIMOTHY GARTON ASH is the author of Free World (Penguin)

DEAN GODSON is research director of the think tank Policy Exchange

SUSAN GREENBERG is a senior lecturer at Roehampton University

DAVID HERMAN is a television producer

CHRISTOPHER HIRD is joint managing director of Fulcrum Productions

NIBRAS KAZIMI is a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, Washington DC

ETGAR KERET ’s book Missing Kissinger (Chatto & Windus) is out in March

TIM KING is a writer living in France

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

ALEXANDER LINKLATER is associate editor of Prospect

MATTHEW LOCKWOOD is a senior research fellow at the IPPR

KAMRAN NAZEER is the author of Send in the Idiots (Bloomsbury)

JONATHAN RÉE is a freelance historian and philosopher

WILLIAM SKIDELSKY is deputy editor of Prospect

IAN STEWART is a professor of mathematics at Warwick University

4PROSPECT February 2007

contents Issue one hundred and thirty-one February 2007

OPINIONS 12Rise ofthe gripe site

DEREK BROWER How two men and a website humbled one of the oil industry giants.

14Being Frank

DEAN GODSON Frank Johnson and the class system.

14Swords to spaceships

IAN CRAWFORD A plan for the arms industry.

15Slow journalism

SUSAN GREENBERG We need to value the literature of fact.

16Slower technology

DAVID EDGERTON Technology means corrugated iron and wood as well as nanoengineering.

INTERVIEW 20Michael Rawlins

ALUN ANDERSON The chairman of Nice on the Herceptin row, how Nice calculates the value of a human life and what’s wrong with the drugs industry.

COVER STORY 26Identity and migration

FRANCIS FUKUYAMA Modern liberal societies have weak collective identities. Postmodern elites, especially in Europe, feel that they have evolved beyond identities defined by religion and nation. But if our societies cannot assert positive liberal values, they may be challenged by migrants who are more sure of who they are.

ESSAYS 32The library ofGoogle

JONATHAN RÉE Is Google Book Search an advance for scholarship or a victory for AngloSaxon bias and trivialisation?

36Europe’s true stories

TIMOTHY GARTON ASH The EU urgently needs to give a new account of itself. How about a true and self-critical story woven around six goals?

PORTRAIT 42Barack Obama

JAMES CRABTREE Barack Obama’s ability to articulate a hopeful version ofthe American dream has made him a political star. But is the US ready for a black president?

SPECIAL REPORT 48A rough guide to carbon trading

MATTHEW LOCKWOOD Are carbon trading schemes the best way to tackle climate change? Trading is central to meeting Kyoto targets, but questions remain about it. www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

WITNESS 54Feminists in burkhas

CHARLOTTE EAGAR Many liberals backed the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, believing it would end women’s servitude. I met dozens of Afghan women to find out whether things are better now.

COLUMNS 10Out ofmind

ROBERT DRUMMOND The diagnosis no one wants.

18Washington watch

TUMBLER Cheney versus the realists.

19By the rivers ofBabylon

NIBRAS KAZIMI The man who would be caliph.

24Matters oftaste

WILLIAM SKIDELSKY Eating a lamb’s penis in China.

40France profonde

TIM KING The corrupt and the cynical.

46Lab report

PHILIP BALL The forgetful computer.

52Out ofAfrica

RICHARD DOWDEN What’s wrong with African education.

59Brussels diary

MANNEKEN PIS Merkel mania.

REGULARS 6Letters 8News & Curiosities plus Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 13Numbers game THE CRUNCHER 73Classifieds 78The generalist DIDYMUS 79The list

arts&books

70The skull beneath the skin

PAUL BARKER Mixing high-flown philosophy with sickening violence, Derek Raymond’s crime novels have long been neglected. Finally they are being republished.

FICTION 60Magic & children

ETGAR KERET Three tales of innocence from Israel.

REVIEWS 66Cultural consumption

DAVID HERMAN Hugely erudite and packed with information, Donald Sassoon’s book is let down only by its lack of curiosity about the nature of cultural value.

67Bombast as art

ALEXANDER LINKLATER In portraying Hitler as the product of a diabolical incest, Norman Mailer has taken fictional ambition to a remote peak of implausibility.

68Prophetic fallacies

KAMRAN NAZEER Two works by progressive Muslims —a life of the Prophet and an analysis of Arab identity—reveal contrasting approaches to the history of Islam.

COLUMNS 64Widescreen

MARK COUSINS Should British films get tax breaks?

72Private view

BEN LEWIS Art advisers take over the world.

77Smallscreen

CHRISTOPHER HIRD Lessons from What not to Wear .

80Between the lines

JASON COWLEY Too much girl power?

WEB EXCLUSIVES

Max Nathan on the green belt

Tom Chatfield on Kingsley Amis

PLUS Tim King’s new French election blog

www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

FORTHCOMING

Norman Lebrecht on the decline of classical music recording

Steve Ealeson Pluto’s demotion

David Soskice on Gordon Brown’s room for manoeuvre

THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 22NDFEBRUARY

PROSPECT February 2007 5