www.prospect-magazine.co.uk

PORTRAIT

48 John Stuart Mill
RICHARD REEVES

Mill left no systematic legacy—there is no “Millism.” But 200 years after his birth, his liberalism is still relevant. And Britain’s greatest ever public intellectual was often surprisingly contrarian.

arts&books
68 Can you get Lost?
JONATHAN HEAWOOD

Enlightenment philosophers, polar bears and pirate ships all feature in Lost—but it’s really about America.

COLUMNS

69 A taste of the Wigmore
STEPHEN EVERSON

10 Tillyard’s tales
STELLA TILLYARD

Ailing in Italy.

John Gilhooly’s first season as artistic director of the Wigmore Hall will be a test of judgement, not personality.

20 Out of mind
ROBERT DRUMMOND & ALEXANDER LINKLATER

COLUMNS

Phantom paralysis.

62 Widescreen
MARK COUSINS

21 Washington watch
TUMBLER

Time to rethink the 100-minute film.

Can the Dems sweep the midterms? FICTION

71 Private view
BEN LEWIS

43 Lab report
PHILIP BALL

56 The American brick problem
TASH AW

The Serpentine supercurator.

What can we learn from the catastrophic Northwick drug trials?

My father learned about Malaysian rubber from me, and began burning it to make bricks.

72 Cultural tourist
An unknown heads up the Edinburgh festival. Plus Under the radar.

47 Inefficient markets
PHILIPPE LEGRAIN

77 Smallscreen
REVIEWS
DAVID HERMAN

Pascal Lamy must save Doha.

64 The science of belief 54 Brussels diary
MANNEKEN PIS AS BYATT

What went wrong with Green Wing?

How Eurosceptic is Gordon Brown?

80 Common law
ALEX MCBRIDE

Sceptics increasingly seek to explain faith as a product of nature. Lewis Wolpert’s new book suggests it is down to tool-making.

FORTHCOMING Yvonne Ndege on land reform in South Africa Steve Kelly on US soccer International symposium on Iran and the west Michael Lind on Richard Rodriguez
THE NEXT ISSUE OF PROSPECT IS PUBLISHED ON 25TH MAY

Mitigating circumstances.

65 Global Shakespeare
ROBERT GORE-LANGTON

REGULARS

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

Critics of the Globe Theatre have been proved wrong—it has some of the best Shakespeare in the country.

66 Learning to be ordinary
SIMON BARON-COHEN

There are many books about autism, but few as original as Kamran Nazeer’s account.

PROSPECT May 2006 5