Academia
Concerning Frank Kermode
Britain’s most distinguished literary critic, who turned 90 last year, has many achievements to be proud of. But does the indefatigable grand old man of EngLit ever regret his role in promoting Deconstructivism, thereby unleashing a tide that he couldn’t stem?
We Must Set Our Universities Free
If the state were to support students rather than dons, Britain could have its own Ivy League
The New Sophistry
‘Entertaining the reader is now the main goal of criticism’
Right Teaching
‘A future Conservative government should be concerned about the hegemony of the Left in higher education’
Worsted by Wikipedia
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations edited by Elizabeth Knowles and the Oxford Companion to English Literature edited by Dinah Birch
Unsound Science
Government plans to allocate scientific research funding according to “economic and social impact” will stifle creativity and prevent basic advances
Eliot versus Hardy
Thomas Hardy and T.S. Eliot are the two greatest 20th-century poets in the English language, despite what they may have thought of one another. It is remarkable that the readers of Hardy’s fiction remain unaware that his poems are far more affecting than any of his novels
University Challenged
Our Mole wonders whether it was worth the effort to embark on a life in academia
What Would Keynes Say?
The most inflential economist of the 20th century still dominates debate about the financial crisis. His biographer Robert Skidelsky and Britain’s leading monetarist Tim Congdon discuss the relevance of Keynes
Historiography in Action
‘The Storm of War reminds us that Roberts is a first-rate writer’
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal