FROM THE MAGAZINE

April 2020

‘We’ve dedicated this issue to the much-discussed but sometimes nebulous subject of “post-liberalism”. The Spectator has always supported liberty and will continue to, but, as Tim Stanley suggests, liberalism may now need saving from itself.’

Film

The bloody decade: think America’s divided now? Try the 1970s

In 1974 alone, there were 2,044 bombings in America, with 24 people killed

By William Rosenau

From the Magazine

Books

Dirty diving

Red Sea Spies: The True Story of Mossad’s Fake Diving Resort by Raffi Berg reviewed

By Stephen Daisley

From the Magazine

Books

It’s different for girls

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo reviewed

By Claire Kohda Hazelton

From the Magazine

Books

Magus of mass production

Warhol by Blake Gopnik reviewed

By Michael Millner

From the Magazine

Books

Austen’s power

Miss Austen by Gill Hornby reviewed

By Brian Martin

From the Magazine

Books

Bluestockings of Bloomsbury

Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars by Francesca Wade reviewed

By Ariane Bankes

From the Magazine

Books

Cosmopolis

Migrant City: A New History of London by Panikos Panayi reviewed

By James Evans

From the Magazine

Art

The Irish question

Sebastian Barry talks about his new play, On Blueberry Hill

By Robert Jackman

From the Magazine

Books

On the road again

The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad by Emily Thomas reviewed

By Philip Marsden

From the Magazine

Books

Death in the Cape

Something of Themselves: Kipling, Kingsley, Conan Doyle and the Boer War by Sarah LeFanu reviewed

By Andrew Lycett

From the Magazine

Books

Rake’s progress

Threshold by Rob Doyle reviewed

By Lee Langley

From the Magazine

Art

The universal cartoon

Is there a single image that fits any caption? Perhaps there is…

By Nick Newman

From the Magazine

Art

Conscious coupling

Sex therapy with Anna Karenina

By Emily Ferguson

From the Magazine

Art

Tenor badness

Benny Golson, last legend of bebop

By Jacob Heilbrunn

From the Magazine

Art

Finger pickin’ good

Banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck has reinvented his instrument and retraced its roots

By Dominic Green

From the Magazine

Books

Apocalypse soon

The Decadent Society: How We Became the Victims of Our Own Success by Ross Douthat reviewed

By Emina Melonic

From the Magazine

Books

Prince of Europe’s long peace

Metternich: Strategist and Visionary by Wolfram Siemann reviewed

By Conrad Black

From the Magazine

Art

Some of the best Austen adaptations are the most unfaithful

Undoubtedly the freshest version of Emma was the one that looks least like it: Clueless

By Claire Harman

From the Magazine