ISSUE 143 FEBRUARY 2008

Contributors to this issue

ARAVIND ADIGA ’s novel The White Tiger (Atlantic Books) will be out in March

DAVID ANDERSON is professor of African politics at Oxford University

PHILIP BALL ’s novel The Sun and Moon Corrupted is forthcoming from Portobello

CHRISTOPHER DE BELLAIGUE is the author of The Struggle for Iran (NYRB)

DON BERRY was a journalist for 35 years

DEREK BROWER is a journalist who covers oil, gas and energy politics

TOM CHATFIELD is assistant editor of Prospect

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

EMMA CRICHTON-MILLER is a writer and journalist specialising in the arts

KISHWER FALKNER is Liberal Democrat spokesman on home affairs in the Lords

CATHERINE FIESCHI is director of Demos

DAVID FLUSFEDER is a novelist and writer

AC GRAYLING ’s latest book is Towards the Light (Bloomsbury)

CHARLES GOODHART is a professor emeritus at the LSE

CHRISTOPHER HIRD has just established Dartmouth Films

TERENCE KEALEY is the author of Sex, Science and Profits (Heinemann)

MARTIN KETTLE is a Guardian columnist

MARK KITTO is a former entrepreneur. He runs a small business near Shanghai

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

MICHAEL LIND is the author of The American Way of Strategy (OUP)

JOHN LLOYD is a writer for the FT

LINDA MELVERN is a honorary professor at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth

PHILIP OLTERMANN is co-editor of How I Write: The Secret Lives of Authors (Rizzoli)

JONATHAN POWER writes for the International Herald Tribune

BEN ROGERS is a visiting fellow of the IPPR. He writes in a personal capacity

WILLIAM SKIDELSKY is deputy editor of Prospect

PAUL SKIDMORE is a fellow at Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University

IAN STEWART is the author of Why Beauty Is Truth: The History of Symmetry (Basic)

GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT is the author of Le Tour (Pocket)

JON E WILSON ’s book The Domination of Strangers (Palgrave) is forthcoming

contents

Coverstory 26America still works The US economy is slowing down,but the long-term outlook for the country is more favourable than many think,says Michael Lind.There has also been a sharp improvement in many of America’s social pathologies,such as violent crime and drug abuse,write Peter Wehner and Yuval Levin,p30

Opinions

14Who do we think we are? The attempt to find a British national story by rummaging through history is bound to fail. JON E WILSON

15A warning from Kenya Other African countries may go the same way as Kenya. DAVID ANDERSON

17Cash for culture Despite Arts Council cuts, it’s still boomtime for the arts. EMMA CRICHTON-MILLER

18Why Pakistan fails Why has Pakistan failed while India hasn’t? KISHWER FALKNER

19Perchance to dream The purpose of life is to sleep. DAVID FLUSFEDER

Interview

22Zbigniew Brzezinski The national security adviser to Jimmy Carter discusses the cold war, the urgency of ensuring a swift exit from Iraq, and why the US always gets it wrong on Iran. JONATHAN POWER

Essays

32Critical condition Book reviewing’s authority is being undermined by blogging and an increasingly commercial publishing industry. Literary journalism needs to get better if it is to survive. WILLIAM SKIDELSKY

38The perfect crime? The Rwandan genocide was triggered by the killing of the country’s president in April 1994. The identity of the assassins remains a mystery. Now a witness has emerged with a new story. LINDA MELVERN

46Shopping in Tehran Normal domestic politics has resumed in Iran. Ahmadinejad’s political opponents will now try to make him pay for economic failures. CHRISTOPHER DE BELLAIGUE

50Disenchanted democracies Citizens in all rich democracies are both more sceptical ofgovernment and more demanding ofit. PAUL SKIDMORE

Witness

54Alberta’s oil rush The “tar sands”of northern Canada are home to the world’s largest oil reserve. The oil is bringing massive wealth to the region, but what about the social and environmental costs? DEREK BROWER

Portrait

58Charles Taylor Taylor may be the most important philosopher writing in English today. He is drawn to big issues, and his latest book defends religion from its critics. BEN ROGERS

4 Prospect FEBRUARY2008 Special report

62Explaining the financial crisis The credit crunch was an accident waiting to happen, thanks to a long period of benign market conditions which encouraged riskier behaviour by financiers. But how did problems in the US mortgage market spread so far? CHARLES GOODHART

Columns

12China café é My Chinese firewood crimes. MARK KITTO

21Washington watch Bring on the super-delegates. TUMBLER

37Sporting life The problem with the Paralympics. GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT

53These islands The most English place in England. TERENCE KEALEY

57Lab report Where did we get syphilis from? PHILIP BALL

67Brussels diary Is Gordon starting to get Europe? MANNEKEN PIS

88Confessions I’m a liberal and a Daily Mail reader. DON BERRY

Regulars

6Letters 8News & curiosities 10Grayling’s question AC GRAYLING 10Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 86The generalist 87The list

Forthcoming

JG BALLARD & JOHN GRAY in conversation

ROBERT REICH on the US election

ADAM PHILLIPS asks if happiness can be taught

The next issue of Prospect will be published on 28th February

www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

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Fiction

Archives Every article from every issue of Prospect .

68The half-baked entrepreneur Dear Premier Wen, allow me—a servant, philosopher and successful businessman —to offer you the truth about Bangalore, free of charge. ARAVIND ADIGA

Reviews

74A desperate fascination Martin Amis has written obsessively about 9/11, but his political imagination looks increasingly barren. TOM CHATFIELD

76Re-readings Bernhard Schlink’s new novel covers many of the same themes as his last, the controversial The Reader . PHILIP OLTERMANN

77Dropping the pilot The broadcasting media no longer provides society with moral guidance—and people miss it. JOHN LLOYD

78BHL is back Bernard-Henri Léévy’s new book is typically immodest, yet brilliantly argued. CATHERINE FIESCHI

Arts columns

72Widescreen Wim Wenders and me. MARK COUSINS

80Private view The Russian paintings affair. BEN LEWIS

81Performance notes Barenboim and Beethoven. MARTIN KETTLE

85Smallscreen My television company went belly-up.

CHRISTOPHER HIRD

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Web exclusives

Coverage of the expected Kosovo declaration of independence

JONATHAN HILL on how football can create a European public space

AYESHA SIDDIQA on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons

Online archive Revisit our past coverage of some of the topics covered in this issue.

America

ERIC KAUFMANN assesses the impact of Hispanic immigration

MICHAE LIND on the Texas nexus

ANATOL LIEVEN worries about American nationalism

ALAN WOLFE on the evangelicals

Oil

DANIEL LITVIN on the problems with the oil in Iraq

JEREMY LEGGETT & DAVID JENKINS debate when the oil will run out

PAUL SAMPSON on pipeline politics

British identity

LINDA COLLEY,DAVID LAMMY,BILLY BRAGG

& OTHERS on national identity

ERIC HOBSBAWM,MAGGIE GEE,ED HUSAIN

& OTHERS search for British values

BHIKHU PAREKH on multiculturalism and citizenship

DAVID GOODHART on the conflict between diversity and solidarity

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