Charles Grant
State Of The Union
The New Old World
By Perry Anderson
Verso 561pp £24.99
Most of the essays in this book cover the period of European history that Perry Anderson describes as the ‘neo-liberal ascendancy’ – roughly the past thirty years. The writing is lively but the essays on particular countries are stronger than those on the EU itself. Perhaps surprisingly for someone who writes in the Marxist tradition, Anderson, who teaches history at UCLA, takes much more interest in Europe’s intellectual history than in its economy. Indeed, there are many more pages on Merkur, a German journal of ideas, than on the euro.
Anderson analyses some of the EU’s weaknesses, such as its lack of legitimacy and the absence of democratic participation in its institutions, but has little to say on how to remedy either problem. And he ignores some of the other factors contributing to the mess the EU is
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
London's East End was long synonymous with poverty and sweatshops, while its West End was associated with glamour and high society. But when it came to the fashion industry, were the differences really so profound?
Sharman Kadish - Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers
Sharman Kadish: Winkle-pickers & Bum Freezers - Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners Shaped Global Style; Fashion City: ...
literaryreview.co.uk
In 1982, Donald Rumsfeld presented Saddam Hussein with a pair of golden spurs. Two decades later he was dropping bunker-busting bombs on his palaces.
Where did the US-Iraqi relationship go wrong?
Rory Mccarthy - The Case of the Vanishing Missiles
Rory Mccarthy: The Case of the Vanishing Missiles - The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Barbara Comyns was a dog breeder, a house painter, a piano restorer, a landlady... And a novelist.
@nclarke14 on the lengths 20th-century women writers had to go to make ends meet:
Norma Clarke - Her Family & Other Animals
Norma Clarke: Her Family & Other Animals - Barbara Comyns: A Savage Innocence by Avril Horner
literaryreview.co.uk