15 October 2001
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From the Editor…
Welcome to the New Statesman website. Whether you are a new reader or an existing one - online or via the magazine - I hope you'll enjoy the great writing, fresh ideas and provocative debate that make the New Statesman Britain's award-winning current affairs weekly
Features
A nation in panic
War on Terror: Washington - Stockpiles of bottled water, bomb-proof seals on windows, gas masks: the world's superpower is in the throes of hypochondria
We all swim together
War on Terror: Islam and the West - Beware of simple labels and vast generalisations: there is no clash of cultures. Bin Laden's followers are best compared to such cults as the Branch Davidians, argues Edward Said
The strange return of the ethical dimension
War on Terror: Tony Blair - The PM seems to have adopted a vision for which Robin Cook was once derided
When David took on Goliath
War on Terror: Afghanistan - The mujahedin were hailed by the west when they fought, and beat, the Soviet invaders. Sandy Gall, who reported on their ten-year battle, revisits Afghanistan
How Sellafield may help the terrorists
War on Terror: The Nuclear Threat - Did anybody explain to Tony Blair about the dangers of allowing a new nuclear fuel plant? Geoffrey Leanreports
Christian values? Humbug!
Francis Beckett, educated by Jesuits but now a deplorable pagan, argues that church schools, despite their denials, really are bent on indoctrination
Already, the plotters are after IDS
Amanda Platell finds that even the most obscure Tories harbour hopes of becoming leader
When the anarchy has to stop
The internet was hailed as a technology beyond state control; but so, once, was radio. Now we are ready for rules and regulation, writes Debora Spar
Essay
The New Statesman Essay - Forward, to the union of humanity
War on Terror - Two centuries ago, the great philosopher Immanuel Kant also envisaged a world community. Jason Cowley welcomes a neo-Kantian in Downing Street
Interview
The New Statesman Interview - Gore Vidal
War on Terror - The exile who despairs of his "ignorant" homeland denounces the war and its hawks. Gore Vidal interviewed
Regulars
One rule for Americans, one rule for the rest
War on Terror: America - Mark Thomas reveals that the US administration is doing everything it can to sabotage an international criminal court
A war in the American tradition
War on Terror: The Big Picture - The ultimate goal of the attacks on Afghanistan is not the capture of a fanatic, but the acceleration of western power, argues John Pilger
Culture
Dream team
Surrealism was not just an art movement, but a philosophy of living that aimed to transform society. Moreover, it taught us that sex is more than just athletics, argues Ned Denny
Television
Welcome, Big Brother
Television - Andrew Billen on a timely drama of racist assault and germ warfare
Books
Mods versus rockers. Ann Widdecombe reveals how personality clashes and sterile policy debates bedevilled the Conservative Party in the run-up to the last general election
Tory Wars Simon Walters Politico's, 256pp, £18.99 ISBN 1842750267
It must be magic
J K Rowling: a biography Sean Smith Michael O'Mara, 224pp, £16.99 ISBN 1854798200
Only connect. A S Byatt admires a novel that explores the simultaneous memory and forgetting of modern Germany
Austerlitz W G Sebald Hamish Hamilton, 432pp, £16.99 ISBN 0241141257
A long way from Oz
Show and Tell: New Yorker profiles John Lahr Bloomsbury, 335pp, £20
A reputation of merit
Michael Young: social entrepreneur Asa Briggs Palgrave, 432pp, £52.50 ISBN 0333750233
Novel of the week
The Bulgari Connection Fay Weldon Flamingo, 220pp, £16.99 ISBN 0007121261
Paperback reader
The Bay of Angels Anita Brookner Penguin, 217pp, £6.99 ISBN 0670896624
Merciless merriment
The Complete Short Stories Muriel Spark Viking, 407pp, £20 ISBN 0670911720
Here comes Charlie
Letters from England Karel Capek, translated by Geoffrey Newsome Claridge Press, 192pp, £12.99 ISBN 1870626575
