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
The Making of Music
A 60-part Radio 3 and Radio 4 series telling the story of how composers and their work reveal our own history
Various, BBC Radio 3 & 4, 3 June 2007
A 60-part Radio 3 and Radio 4 series telling the story of how composers and their work reveal our own history
Various, BBC Radio 3 & 4, 3 June 2007
Wake up and smell the coffee
The advent of Black Gold chimes with a significant shift in cinema-going habits. Never before have feature films had such a compulsion to 'tell' rather than 'show' when it comes to their pet concerns
Jeff Dawson, The Times, 2 June 2007
The advent of Black Gold chimes with a significant shift in cinema-going habits. Never before have feature films had such a compulsion to 'tell' rather than 'show' when it comes to their pet concerns
Jeff Dawson, The Times, 2 June 2007
Words Without Borders
'When rhetoric has played such a key role in establishing the political reality (of modern Israel), to challenge that rhetoric is to unravel political conviction at its source'
Jacqueline Rose, Guardian, 1 June 2007
'When rhetoric has played such a key role in establishing the political reality (of modern Israel), to challenge that rhetoric is to unravel political conviction at its source'
Jacqueline Rose, Guardian, 1 June 2007
The Vandalism Vandal
Who’s been splashing the city’s most prized graffiti? The hunt for the radical, young—and possibly lovelorn—conceptual-Marxist street-art supervillain.
Sam Anderson, New York Magazine, 28 May 2007
Who’s been splashing the city’s most prized graffiti? The hunt for the radical, young—and possibly lovelorn—conceptual-Marxist street-art supervillain.
Sam Anderson, New York Magazine, 28 May 2007
Politics v the arts
If it has the ability to change people’s attitudes and behaviour, should art therefore serve political ends?
various, Guardian, 21 May 2007
If it has the ability to change people’s attitudes and behaviour, should art therefore serve political ends?
various, Guardian, 21 May 2007
The Web Giveth, The Web Stealeth Away
It’s no secret that Web 2.0 has provided a launch pad to success for people who previously would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to achieve their aims. And nowhere is that more true than in the photo business.
Sqweegee's Blog, Editorial Photographers UK, 16 May 2007
It’s no secret that Web 2.0 has provided a launch pad to success for people who previously would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to achieve their aims. And nowhere is that more true than in the photo business.
Sqweegee's Blog, Editorial Photographers UK, 16 May 2007
An Amputee Sprinter: Is He Disabled or Too-Abled?
Do prosthetic legs simply level the playing field for Pistorius, compensating for his disability, or do they give him an inequitable edge via what some call techno-doping?
Jeré Longman, New York Times, 15 May 2007
Do prosthetic legs simply level the playing field for Pistorius, compensating for his disability, or do they give him an inequitable edge via what some call techno-doping?
Jeré Longman, New York Times, 15 May 2007
Reading between the lines
In laying down ever more stringent guidelines about what fiction should contain, and measuring titles old and new by the morals of the day, we may be worrying too much about what adults want from children’s books, and not enough about what children might need.
Olivia Skinner, Catalyst, 15 May 2007
In laying down ever more stringent guidelines about what fiction should contain, and measuring titles old and new by the morals of the day, we may be worrying too much about what adults want from children’s books, and not enough about what children might need.
Olivia Skinner, Catalyst, 15 May 2007
'Dead white men in the critic's chair scorning work of women directors'
Plays directed by women suffer misogynistic treatment from the “dead white men” in the critics’ seats, the director of the National Theatre has claimed.
Ben Hoyle, The Times, 14 May 2007
Plays directed by women suffer misogynistic treatment from the “dead white men” in the critics’ seats, the director of the National Theatre has claimed.
Ben Hoyle, The Times, 14 May 2007
Worth three tenors? The value of opera
"If you have not tried it, you miss the best annual collective thought provoking opportunities in Britain."
Vijaya Madhavan, business consultant and part time doctor
follow the Academy of Ideas
