Issue No.
15
July 2008
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| Welcome to July’s Review of Books |
 Tim Black
We’re often told that American politics is too divisive, too ‘hyper-partisan’. One reason why Barack Obama is currently being lauded during his JFK-style trip across Europe is because he is envisioned as a new kind of politician: open, inclusive and not too bitchy (and also because there are precious few politicos in Europe to get excited about). Yet as Sean Collins reveals in this month’s spiked review of books, the idea of America as politically super-divided is misleading; rather, it is the decline of serious political debate, and its replacement by petty lifestyle issues, that makes America’s ‘political landscape’ seem shrill and combative. Collins asks why Americans are forming ‘lifestyle tribes’, and what can be done to challenge it. We also have Mick Hume celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Alan Sillitoe’s still-exhilarating Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Dolan Cummings on scary corporate shills, Francis Phillips on Julian Barnes’ empty godlessness, and much more. Enjoy! [Cover illustration by Jan Bowman.] |
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