Reading for Battle
Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.
Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.
Arts & Culture
Libraries begin uncertain new chapter
'Plans for new virtual libraries provide the public with the opportunity to debate, join dialogue, to disagree... it's a place of debate and democracy'
Chris Alden, , 1 October 2007
'Plans for new virtual libraries provide the public with the opportunity to debate, join dialogue, to disagree... it's a place of debate and democracy'
Chris Alden, , 1 October 2007
We need creative critics and critical creators
'Creativity' is a word much prostituted. 'Criticism' is a word much maligned. Put the two together and what have you got?
Shirley Dent, Guardian, 27 September 2007
'Creativity' is a word much prostituted. 'Criticism' is a word much maligned. Put the two together and what have you got?
Shirley Dent, Guardian, 27 September 2007
Andrew Motion explains why Bob Dylan's lyrics should be studied in schools
Bob Dylan's debut on the schools curriculum could be just what's needed to turn pupils who listen to rock music on to the full range of poetry
Andrew Motion, The Times, 22 September 2007
Bob Dylan's debut on the schools curriculum could be just what's needed to turn pupils who listen to rock music on to the full range of poetry
Andrew Motion, The Times, 22 September 2007
Make up your own mine
Documentary-activism finds two very different interpretations of the campaign to prevent the opening of an opencast gold mine in the village of Rosia Montana in the Transylvanian mountains
John Fund, Wall Street Journal, 20 August 2007
Documentary-activism finds two very different interpretations of the campaign to prevent the opening of an opencast gold mine in the village of Rosia Montana in the Transylvanian mountains
John Fund, Wall Street Journal, 20 August 2007
Just a pretty face will do
The iconic face is radiant with the incorporation of the ideal. Its owner can be as dumb as they come and have no acting talent at all, yet somehow the fearful symmetry comes shining out
Clive James, BBC Magazine, 16 August 2007
The iconic face is radiant with the incorporation of the ideal. Its owner can be as dumb as they come and have no acting talent at all, yet somehow the fearful symmetry comes shining out
Clive James, BBC Magazine, 16 August 2007
Don’t steal this article - but please do discuss it
In the battle between stopping copyright theft online and promoting the free exchange of ideas and images, there is more at stake than 'business models'.
Tessa Mayes, spiked, 6 August 2007
In the battle between stopping copyright theft online and promoting the free exchange of ideas and images, there is more at stake than 'business models'.
Tessa Mayes, spiked, 6 August 2007
The downside of diversity
A Harvard political scientist finds that diversity hurts civic life. What happens when a liberal scholar unearths an inconvenient truth?
Michael Jonas, Boston Globe, 5 August 2007
A Harvard political scientist finds that diversity hurts civic life. What happens when a liberal scholar unearths an inconvenient truth?
Michael Jonas, Boston Globe, 5 August 2007
Athens: The Truth about Democracy
Bettany Hughes searches for the truth about the 'Golden Age' of Ancient Athens, investigating how a barren rock wedged between the East and West became the first democracy 2,500 years ago.
Bettany Hughes, Channel 4, 21 July 2007
Bettany Hughes searches for the truth about the 'Golden Age' of Ancient Athens, investigating how a barren rock wedged between the East and West became the first democracy 2,500 years ago.
Bettany Hughes, Channel 4, 21 July 2007
What is China Thinking? - Duncan Hewitt
"In few places does the free exchange of views take place on so wide a range of issues as at the Battle of Ideas. Whatever the headlines of 2011 prove to be, the Battle of Ideas is where they will be most robustly debated."
Andrew Copson, chief executive, British Humanist Association
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