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Results 51 to 60 of 126
Guides in the Dead-Hole
- E W Hornung
- 12 July 2007
From The New Statesman 30 June 1917
In 1914, the medieval town of Ypres in Flanders was a quiet backwater admired for its Gothic Cloth Hall, Grand’ Place and cathedral. Then in the 1914-1918 Great War, Ypres was turned into a mass killing field. Despite state censorship, this vivid report, published on the eve of the July 1917 Passchendaele offensive (in which more than half a million soldiers were killed or seriously injured in less than four months), hints at the relentless barbarism.
Selected by Robert Taylor
Iraq Flexes Arab Muscle
- Christopher Hitchens
- 05 July 2007
- 9 comments
In 1976 Christopher Hitchens saw Saddam as an up-and-coming secular socialist who would transform Iraq into a progressive model for the rest of the Middle East
Beatles and before
- Eric Hobsbawm
- 28 June 2007
How the Beatles peaked in 1963 according to New Statesman music columnist Francis Newton
Codes today, law tomorrow?
- Anthony Blair
- 21 June 2007
From The New Statesman 29 August 1980
Tony Blair claims that one of his many achievements in office was not to repeal the employment laws passed by Margaret Thatcher's government to weaken trade union power. But Blair, as a young and politically ambitious barrister, was a staunch supporter of trade union rights. In this article, published in 1980, he even backed the use of mass picketing in strikes, something he later condemned as part of the unacceptable face of trade union power.
Selected by Robert Taylor
Youth and age
- John Betjeman
- 14 June 2007
John Betjeman: poems from the Forties
The future poet laureate was a surprising contributor to the New Statesman and Nation in the 1940s. His poems were neither political nor left-wing, but they reflected the eclectic mix of the review pages at that time.
Selected by Robert Taylor
The politician and the intellectual
- Leonard Woolf
- 07 June 2007
Taken from The New Statesman 20 July 1940
The writer Leonard Woolf was a regular contributor to the New Statesman. In this article, published soon after the evacuation of Dunkirk, he argued that war against Germany could not be won unless intellectuals administered the country. His dislike of instinctiveness and improvisation reads rather strangely today. After all, Winston Churchill had been prime minister for only two months when Woolf wrote the piece, and he was already enjoying his finest hour.
Selected by Robert Taylor
The wake of conquest
- Gerda L Cohen
- 04 June 2007
- 1 comment
Taken from the New Statesman 16 June 1967
The twisted legacy of Israel's victory over hostile neighbouring Arab states in the Six Day War 40 years ago this month continues to block any Middle East road to peace. This vivid report, published in the New Statesman in the immediate aftermath, shows the heated opinions and prejudices of that time among triumphant Israelis. Such emotions still resonate strongly, especially in occupied Palestine's West Bank, where an estimated 400,000 Jews have been illegally settled since June 1967.
Selected by Robert Taylor
The cinema as a moral leveller
- George Bernard Shaw
- 28 May 2007
George Bernard Shaw on the role of the cinema
Dachau
- Anonymous
- 21 May 2007
A November 1937 article left our readers without any doubts about the nature of the new Germany.
Return to sweated labour
- Anthony Blair
- 14 May 2007
A young Tony Blair argues for the repeal of Margaret Thatcher's anti-union laws
