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 Republic of Poetry
Poetry has often had to fight for its integrity against two forms of misunderstanding – as either effete, a form of luxury in idleness; or as a kind of weapon of identity, closely aligned to a political statement.
Hongbin Liu, openDemocracy, 4 March 2004
Poetry has often had to fight for its integrity against two forms of misunderstanding – as either effete, a form of luxury in idleness; or as a kind of weapon of identity, closely aligned to a political statement.
Hongbin Liu, openDemocracy, 4 March 2004
Discomfort of strangers
David Goodhart's essay challenging liberals to rethink their attitudes to diversity and the welfare state has provoked a bitter debate among progressive thinkers.
David Goodheart, The Guardian, 24 February 2004
David Goodhart's essay challenging liberals to rethink their attitudes to diversity and the welfare state has provoked a bitter debate among progressive thinkers.
David Goodheart, The Guardian, 24 February 2004
Tribal Britons should live and let live
Culture, not race, is becoming the main barrier for modern migrants
Diran Adebayo, Guardian, 20 January 2004
Culture, not race, is becoming the main barrier for modern migrants
Diran Adebayo, Guardian, 20 January 2004
Picking over the Parthenon
The cooling of national passions reveals the real reason why the Elgin Marbles belong in Bloomsbury.
Josie Appleton, spiked, 13 January 2004
The cooling of national passions reveals the real reason why the Elgin Marbles belong in Bloomsbury.
Josie Appleton, spiked, 13 January 2004
Making Marx in the Music: A HyperHistory of New Music and Politics
'One of the largest fissures, plaguing politically conscious composers for the last eight or nine decades, is that musical progressivism and political progressivism do not go hand in hand, and often are felt to be diametrically opposed.'
Kyle Gann, New Music Box, 2 November 2003
'One of the largest fissures, plaguing politically conscious composers for the last eight or nine decades, is that musical progressivism and political progressivism do not go hand in hand, and often are felt to be diametrically opposed.'
Kyle Gann, New Music Box, 2 November 2003
Art and beauty
The revival of ‘beauty’ in aesthetic discourse draws on the exhaustion of its political impetus
JJ Charlesworth, Art Monthly, 31 August 2003
The revival of ‘beauty’ in aesthetic discourse draws on the exhaustion of its political impetus
JJ Charlesworth, Art Monthly, 31 August 2003
Interview: Ramesh Meyyappan
In appealing to both deaf and mainstream audiences, Ramesh wishes to situate his work within a broader milieu, but the current climate militates against this. It becomes a vicious circle, as hearing audiences stay away because he does ‘deaf art’; he relies increasingly on funding and attracting financial support on the basis of being deaf.
Munira Mirza, Culture Wars, 1 August 2003
In appealing to both deaf and mainstream audiences, Ramesh wishes to situate his work within a broader milieu, but the current climate militates against this. It becomes a vicious circle, as hearing audiences stay away because he does ‘deaf art’; he relies increasingly on funding and attracting financial support on the basis of being deaf.
Munira Mirza, Culture Wars, 1 August 2003
Pickling the Nineties
The new Saatchi Gallery preserves the near past in formaldehyde.
Josie Appleton, spiked, 17 June 2003
The new Saatchi Gallery preserves the near past in formaldehyde.
Josie Appleton, spiked, 17 June 2003
Are Videogames Art?
The debate of whether or not games are an art form is a lively one, but it's not unique. The same debate has raged from the early to late 20th century with the Ready-made art objects of Marcel Duchamp to the controversial photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe.
Chi Kong Lui, Gamecritics.com, 27 May 2003
The debate of whether or not games are an art form is a lively one, but it's not unique. The same debate has raged from the early to late 20th century with the Ready-made art objects of Marcel Duchamp to the controversial photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe.
Chi Kong Lui, Gamecritics.com, 27 May 2003
Adopting Orthodoxies
"The energy, verve and enthusiasm at The Battle of Ideas filled me with hope. Coming from India where so many people still lack the basic necessities that make human life worth living, it was heartening to see basic issues of equity and justice debated with such passion and fervour."
George Thomas, orthopaedic surgeon; editor, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics
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