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

It's time to boost ethnic minority representation in the media
Samantha Asumadu, Guardian, 8 July 2013

Slaves to the algorithm
Computers could take some tough choices out of our hands, if we let them. Is there still a place for human judgement?
Steven Poole, Aeon, 13 May 2013

Wired for Culture: The Natural History of Human Cooperation
What explains the staggering diversity of cultures in the world? Why are there so many languages, even within small areas? Why do we rejoice in rituals and wrap ourselves in flags?

Mark Pagel, Penguin, 28 March 2013

Ice Age art: arrival of the modern mind
This compelling narrative is also illustrated with a wealth of contextual images, from classical sculpture to twentieth‐century painting and even contemporary advertising campaigns, which demonstrate surprising aesthetic parallels between these ancient works and familiar modern pieces. In this way, Ice Age Art will bring home the point that the minds that created these objects in all their diversity and inventiveness were modern minds like our own, capable of highly sophisticated thought and expression.

Jill Cook, British Museum Press, 18 February 2013

A manifesto for urban rehabilitation
Located in one of the city's historical neighbourhoods, Artéria's Manifesto Building proposes a model for an integrated urban rehabilitation, encompassing social, cultural and economical interventions: a holistic approach that involves the local community.
Inês Revés, Domus, 8 February 2013

The worst thing about 'Birth of a Nation' is how good it is
The merits of its grand and enduring aesthetic make it impossible to ignore and, despite its disgusting content, also make it hard not to love.
Richard Brody, New Yorker, 1 February 2013

Frieze: 10 tips for dealing with (or in) contemporary art
It’s hard to deny that in its quest for instant accessibility, contemporary art has lost something of the sense of purpose that it enjoyed when it was genuinely pushing at the boundaries of moral and social consensus. It is no surprise that art is so popular these days, when it is so easily consumed and digested.
Peter Aspden, Financial Times, 4 January 2013

A braindead view of free will
As Wired for Culture demonstrates, the greatest intellectual threats posed to freedom and autonomy today are those put up by evolutionary biologists and psychologists
Angus Kennedy, spiked, 27 December 2012

The ‘Dark Ages’ were a lot brighter than we give them credit for
We still view European history as taking off with the Renaissance and Enlightenment, but this position gets more out-of-date the more we learn
Richard Swan, Independent, 17 October 2012

Forget the Booker, the prize every author really wants is academic validation
There's so many prizes today's writers aren't bothered about who wins. The purpose awards serve now is to tell readers what to read.
Miguel Ceia, Independent, 16 October 2012


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Capitalism – What Is it Good For?

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