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John Gray

John Gray is the New Statesman's lead book reviewer. His latest book is "The Immortalisation Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death (Penguin, £9.99).

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Books
The death of meaning. Over the past 15 years, the world has been ravaged by a new kind of purposeless war. on why unending conflict may be what really defines our times
01 November 2004

War, Evil and the End of History

Bernard-Henri Levy; translated by Charlotte Mandell Duckworth

Books
History bites back Francis Fukuyama believes the key to making failing states successful is to remodel them on western lines. Not so, says John Gray. It is through reforms consistent with their own traditions that countries such as China and Russia hav
05 July 2004

State Building: governance and world order in the 21st century

Francis Fukuyama Profile Books,

Books
Beyond reasonable doubt. Nostalgia for Enlightenment values such as rationality and progress has become a rallying cry for sections of both right and left. But it was in the name of these principles that some of the worst crimes of the 20th century were c
31 May 2004

The Seduction of Unreason: the intellectual romance with fascism from Nietzsche to postmodernism

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International Politics
Appeasement: Should we strike a deal?
26 April 2004

When Spain announced it would pull its troops out of Iraq, it was accused of rewarding terrorism. Bu

Ideas
NS Essay - The best hope for animal liberation is that humans kill each other in wars
09 February 2004

The big threat to the welfare of other species is the unchecked expansion of "homo rapiens". Those w

Ideas
Icons of evil
02 February 2004

We do not know why people commit terrible crimes. While contemporary artists have responded with a m

Ideas
NS Essay 2 - New science, old myth
15 December 2003

From the Middle Ages through Marx to the free market, humankind has clung desperately to the idea of

UK Politics
NS Essay - Michael Howard may turn out to be the Tory leader who lays Thatcher's ghost
10 November 2003

It is an ugly prospect, but a strong state, old Labour on public services and right-wing on immigran

Books
The end of endism. Terry Eagleton (left) has decided that cultural theory is passe. He is angry that most of its practitioners have renounced Marxism. But his arguments are both misguided and outmoded, writes John Gray
13 October 2003

After Theory

Terry Eagleton

Allen Lane, the Penguin Press, 240pp, £18.99

ISBN 0713997

UK Politics
NS Essay - Labour can renew itself only by recognising that Blair has become a dangerous liability
06 October 2003

Though the PM likes to compare himself with Thatcher, he looks like ending up as another Major. He,

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