June 2013 | Standpoint Magazine

Laureate of the Trenches

David Jones’s service at the front inspired an epic poem about World War I, “In Parenthesis”. Long neglected, it is ripe for rediscovery

June 26, 2013

Drawing Board·History·Literature·Military

The Zombie Argument that Refuses to Die

While it gives more credence to the naysayers than it should, Shakespeare Beyond Doubt excellently marshalls the evidence over the authorship of the bard's plays

June 25, 2013

Books·Literature

The Tide Turns in East Sussex

The grand old towns of the south coast have certainly lost some of their former glory, but there is no reason why their best days should not be ahead of them

June 25, 2013

Architecture·Culture & Anarchy

The Man in the Middle

Lothar Schmid was a great referee and a remarkable man: a former lawyer and grandmaster himself, he had the respect of even the respect of even the most temperamental of players

June 25, 2013

Chess

Play It Again, Jan

Music is integral to the National Gallery’s Vermeer show, perfectly representing the arc of life itself

June 25, 2013

Art·Music

All the World’s Royal Stage

Robert Whelan’s history of the Theatre Royal indulges in a bit of frippery, but otherwise artfully and humorously tells the 350-year long story of West-End drama

June 25, 2013

Books·Theatre

How Seminal Was Burke?

In his biography of the statesman, Jesse Norman presents Burke as of seminal importance to today’s conservatism, and to Cameron’s government. He isn’t.

June 25, 2013

Books·History·UK Politics·Westminster

Motivation of a Masterpiece

Why did Alexis de Tocqueville write Democracy in America? Lucien Jaume’s excellent work of scholarship helps elucidate the answer by investigating the man

June 25, 2013

Books·History

The Birth of the Affluent Society

David Kynaston’s Modernity Britain, the fifth of his series of histories of Britain since 1945, reveals the late Fifties to be not a time of illiberalism and repression, but of a generosity

June 25, 2013

Books·History·Modern Life·TV·UK Politics

How Jesuitical is the Pope?

Mealy-mouthed and equivocal or just shy? Two new books help us to understand the motives and beliefs of the enigmatic Pope Francis

June 25, 2013

Books·The Catholic Church

Salad Days and Egyptian Nights

Peter Stothard’s lifelong ambition was to write a biography of Cleopatra. The charming result says as much about the author as it does about the Egyptian queen

June 25, 2013

Books·Classics·History

Treacherous Path to Safety

Cruel Crossing charts the history of the escape routes in the Pyrenees used by Spanish republican, then French Jewish refugees. It is a thoughtful memorial to these brave and desperate people

June 25, 2013

Books·France·History