CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

PHILIP BALL is a science writer

IAN BENSON is a working mathematician and computer scientist

HUGH BROGAN is a research professor of history at the University of Essex

MARK COUSINS is a film critic

JASON COWLEY is a senior editor at the Observer

JONATHAN DERBYSHIRE is a writer and critic based in London

MEGHNAD DESAI is an economist

THOMAS DE WAAL works for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting

TREVOR DOLBY was until recently MD and publisher of HarperEntertainment

ROBERT DRUMMOND is a psychiatrist

STEPHEN EVERSON is writing a book on metaphysics and the mind

CHRISTOPHER HIRD is joint managing director of Fulcrum Productions

PHILIP HUNTER is a science writer

WILL HUTTON is chief executive of the Work Foundation

TIM KING is a writer living in France

GERALD KNAUS is the founding director of ESI, a Berlin-based think tank

DAN KUPER is a writer

JOSHUA KURLANTZICK is a special correspondent for the New Republic

CHARLES LEADBEATER is the author of We-think (Profile, forthcoming)

BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari

ALEXANDER LINKLATER is associate editor of Prospect

BENJAMIN MARKOVITS ’s novel Imposture (Faber) will be published in January

FERDINAND MOUNT is the author of Mind the Gap (Short Books)

FINTAN O’TOOLE is the author of White Savage (Faber)

JONATHAN POWER is a journalist

MICHAEL PREST is a freelance writer

ALEX RENTON won the 2006 Glenfiddich award for best food writer

IAN STEWART is a professor of mathematics at Warwick University

ERIK TARLOFF is a writer and journalist

PETER SHAWN TAYLOR is an editorial writer at Maclean’s magazine

JACK THURSTON is a fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the US

ROSE TREMAIN is a writer and novelist

4PROSPECT January 2007

contents Issue one hundred and thirty January 2007

OPINIONS 12A good Grade

CHRISTOPHER HIRD Michael Grade’s defection could be good for British television.

13Islamic Calvinists

GERALD KNAUS Can Islamic states foster an entrepreneurial ethic?

14Canada’s comeback

PETER SHAWN TAYLOR The country that once embraced soft power is becoming more muscular.

16Ditching Piaget

IAN BENSON The US is changing the way it teaches kids maths. So should Britain.

17Anna and Alexander

THOMAS DE WAAL The killings of Litvinenko and Politkovskaya are vastly different.

18Exceptional America

JOSHUA KURLANTZICK The Democrats need a new approach to foreign policy.

22Books ofthe year The most over and underrated of2006.

COVER STORY

26Does the future really belong to China?

WILL HUTTON VS MEGHNAD DESAI

If China does not abandon one party rule will it stumble under the stresses of state capitalism? Or will it show that there can be a successful authoritarian road to modernity?

ESSAYS 32Lost legitimacy

FERDINAND MOUNT The end of the cold war removed the moral justification for US military intervention. As the Iraq war shows, a new source of legitimacy has yet to be found.

38The DIY state

CHARLES LEADBEATER When it comes to public service reform, extra money and top-down rules can only achieve so much. A new ethos of self-help is needed—and its prophet is Ivan Illich.

42Exporting Englishness

BENJAMIN MARKOVITS English writers have achieved success in the US by selling an elite image of the country based on Oxbridge and public schools. Can any other vision of English life strike a chord with Americans?

PORTRAIT 48Alexis de Tocqueville

HUGH BROGAN The French aristocrat wrote the first great account of American democracy. We should see him as a travel writer and historian, not a philosopher. www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

SPECIAL REPORT 54Can ageing be stopped?

PHILIP HUNTER Can the human lifespan be expanded beyond 120 years?

COLUMNS 10Out ofmind

ROBERT DRUMMOND &

ALEXANDER LINKLATER Should I release my patient?

20Washington watch

TUMBLER Condi keeps losing her men.

25These islands

FINTAN O’TOOLE The cure for Anglophobia.

31Matters oftaste

ALEX RENTON Why you should tip in secret.

37Inefficient markets

MICHAEL PREST The decline of the stock exchange.

46France profonde

TIM KING The Porto Alegre approach to lycées.

52Lab report

PHILIP BALL Why use polonium?

57Brussels diary

MANNEKEN PIS Farewell Javier Solana.

80Notes from underground

DAN KUPER They finally sacked me.

REGULARS 6Letters 8News & Curiosities plus Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 13Mini interview JONATHAN POWER 15Numbers game THE CRUNCHER 78The generalist DIDYMUS 79The list

arts&books

FICTION 5821st century Juliet

ROSE TREMAIN If I marry Perry Paris, the family estate will be saved—but I love a builder boy.

REVIEWS 66Publishing confessions

TREVOR DOLBY After some spectacular flops in 2006, the celebrity memoir has been declared dead. The man who helped to create the genre reckons we shouldn’t write it off yet.

68The executioner’s voice

JONATHAN DERBYSHIRE Jonathan Littell’s Goncourt-winning novel raises questions about history, morality and luck.

69The fat ofthe land

JACK THURSTON Individuals may not own countries any more, but land and how it is taxed still matters.

70A kind ofgenius

ERIK TARLOFF Pynchon’s new novel is full of great jokes and gorgeous writing—but it is also incoherent and emotionally distancing. Is the journey worth it?

COLUMNS 63Widescreen

MARK COUSINS Mainstream cinema goes dark.

64Private view

BEN LEWIS The Chinese contemporary art boom.

72Between the lines

JASON COWLEY Word-of-mouth successes.

77Musical notes

STEPHEN EVERSON Saving Brahms.

WEB EXCLUSIVES

Harvey Cole responds to Adair Turner on climate economics

Ben Rogers on the school burden

www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

FORTHCOMING

Nick Crowe on background music

Charlotte Eagar on women in Afghanistan

David Soskiceon PR and the left

John Kay on tampering with national statistics

THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 25TH JANUARY

PROSPECT January 2007 5