Prospect's "overrated and underrated" events of the year are divided alphabetically, by author surname, into four parts: click here to read parts one, two, three and four.
To comment on this article visit First Drafts,Prospect's blog
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichienovelist
Lisa Appignanesinovelist & president of English PEN
Overrated The hullabaloo over Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand. I kept asking myself why the fuss? I think it must be a new instance of trying to find the elusive dividing lines between the public and the private. We've been negotiating this in these last decades—ever since reality television blurred the lines between what goes on at home and in front of the cameras.
Underrated The repeal in March of the antiquated Christian blasphemy laws was all but passed by. Yet it rid us of legislation which had no place in our plural society and had, ever since the failed blasphemy case against The Satanic Verses, provided Muslim groups with a ready grievance.
Anne Applebaumjournalist
Overrated Hillary Clinton. I still don't get it: she's a wooden speaker, a cynical operator and an uninteresting policy thinker. Also, she got to where she is today by marrying the right person. Why is she still held up as the great hope for the future of feminism?
Underrated The "Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It is one of those rare exhibitions which makes you look differently at things—espresso machines, Picasso—you thought you knew all about already.
Julian Bagginiphilosopher
Underrated Liberal Democrat stagnation. In 2005, they secured 22 per cent of the vote and won 62 seats. They have been nowhere near this popular in polls for a long time now, gravitating closer to 15 per cent. This is significant, because for the last two elections, a hung parliament was the most likely alternative to Labour victory. Now it looks as though two-party politics could be reasserting itself.
Overrated Happy-Go-Lucky by Mike Leigh. This multiple-award winning film left me not just cold, but irritated. The central character Poppy (Sally Hawkins) was insufferably annoying and the whole film was infused with cod psychology. A little Freud is a dangerous thing.
Lionel BarberFT editor
Underrated 1. The G20 summit in Washington featuring the leading industrialised nations as well as Brazil, China, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Barack Obama was a no-show and the leaders failed to produce a new Bretton Woods agreement reforming the world's financial system. But that was always far-fetched. The meeting did, however, lay bare the new political constellation in the world, with power shifting to east of the Euphrates.
2. The Miami Dolphins' match against the New York Giants at Wembley. Purists pooh-poohed the first big American football encounter to be staged in Britain, especially because it was played on Wembley's hallowed turf. But all the signs are that American football is coming to Britain, just as rugby is looking to stage big games in the US next year. The trend toward the branding and marketing of sports (and teams) on an international scale looks unstoppable.
Anthony Barnettfounder of openDemocracy.net
Underrated One huge policy process and one book. Our old empire state is being transformed into a database state through a process officially known as the transformational government programme which has never been debated in parliament. It trades on a modernisation of subjecthood that transforms traditional deference into electronic tagging. How can this be stopped? David Marquand's history of Britain's democracy since 1918 is an excellent account of how we got here and points to the way out: democratic republicanism.
Richard Barrywriter & engineer
Overrated & underrated Nukes: Iran is overrated and Pakistan underrated. We have become irrationally terrified of Iran's move to enrich uranium, while being irrationally relaxed about Pakistan's possession of at least 65 nuclear weapons. Natural (unenriched) uranium, when its naturally emitted neutrons are slowed down by graphite or heavy water, produces plutonium. The chemical separation of this plutonium from the uranium is a lot easier than enriching uranium by the physical separation of its isotopes. That's why all the rest of us bomb-owners chose plutonium for our first nuclear weapon. For electricity generation, though, enriched uranium is preferable to plutonium.
If Iran is going for enrichment rather than plutonium production, it may indicate that its primary goal really is electricity. It seems to me that we'd have a lot more cause for worry if we learned that Iran had stopped enrichment and started importing large quantities of pure graphite. Compared with its feudal neighbour Pakistan, Iran looks like a sober and rock-solid state. Pakistan is high on anyone's list of candidates for the next failed state, notwithstanding the courageous efforts of President Zardari to get a grip on the country before it all craters. A failed state of Islamic extremists with 65 nukes—now, that's something that really would be hard to overrate.
Peter Bazalgetteformer television producer
Underrated Not nearly enough time was spent debating John Sargeant's departure from Strictly Come Dancing. Obviously a world event like this merits a bespoke House of Commons debate and maybe a general election fought specifically on the issue.
Overrated Instead of devoting proper attention to Sargeantgate we had to endure 12 months of wall-to-wall financial meltdown. Have we no sense of priority? After all, these great depressions come along every 75 years or so anyway—nothing to get excited about.
Don Berryjournalist
Underrated In Our Time, Radio Four's long-running series on the "history of ideas" in which Melvyn Bragg consistently persuades leading academics to share their knowledge with us in straightforward English and at a pace that covers as much ground in 45 minutes as any multi-part "culture" series on television.
Paul Broksneuropsychologist
Overrated 1. Usain Bolt aside, the Beijing Olympics set new standards of sporting tedium. Team GB's over-hyped minority sport achievements were a constant irritation and the BBC's television coverage was terminally self-satisfied.
2. I've tried all of Malcolm Gladwell's books, and failed. The latest, Outliers is about success. The Beatles were phenomenally successful, for example, because they had extraordinary musical talent, honed their performance skills to perfection through hard graft in the clubs of Hamburg, and had the occasional stroke of luck. Have I missed something here? Gladwell was recently described by the Observer as "one of the most brilliant and influential writers of his generation." My arse.
Underrated On a more positive note, I turn to death. Julian Barnes's under-hyped extended meditation on mortality, Nothing to be Frightened of, was a joy.
Andrew Brownjournalist
Underrated Chris Hedges's book, "I don't believe in atheists" which is an angry and well-informed takedown of Christopher Hitchens and the ludicrous Sam Harris and their utopian, genocidal atheism. From the author of "American Fascists: the Christian right and the war on America," a very experienced foreign correspondent.
Kathleen Burkhistorian
Underrated The resignation of David Davies. Honest men and women can differ on the desirability of the range and density of CCTV cameras in Britain, which makes us the most photographed country in Europe—and probably in the world—but the increasing use of counter-terrorism laws in areas which parliament did not intend that they be used, such as going after Icelandic banks, must raise alarm bells.
Stephen Castlejournalist
Underrated The French presidency of the EU. When Ireland voted against the Lisbon treaty, France's carefully-laid plans for its six-month EU presidency went up in smoke. Even before the Irish had spoken there were doubts about the ability of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, to speak for Europe. He was hyperactive, unpredictable, undiplomatic and often dismissive of the views of smaller European nations. But when Russia invaded Georgia, Sarko brokered a ceasefire. When the global economy went into meltdown, Sarkozy got Gordon Brown and leaders of the eurozone nations to sound as if they agreed. Naturally Sarko promoted himself shamelessly and sometimes spoke for the EU when he had no authority to do so. But, while the US was in transition, he gave Europe something it hasn't had for years: leadership.
Lesley Chamberlainwriter & novelist
Overrated Zoe Heller's The Believers, has been overpraised. The texture was strained, the fictional pitch not quite right. She's good though, her previous Notes on a Scandal (and this year's film) was an achievement, and I'll cross my fingers her next novel works better.
Underrated To find a homegrown, completely absorbing contemporary novel of a high literary standard seems pretty impossible these days. Gregory Normington's Serious Things which came out in paperback this year got fine reviews but still not the attention a work of such quality merits. Here's a writer who relishes every sentence, and gives it moral weight, and yet still manages to come up with a page-turner.
Stephen Chanwriter
Overrated Carla Bruni. She is the most beautiful first lady on earth, but she detracts from the obvious female talent in her husband's cabinet and makes all French political life seem no more than a competition in elegance—whereas some of the female ministers are considerable political figures. She also detracts from the sheer nastiness of her husband.
Underrated Until he died and was given respectful but cursory obituaries in the British newspapers: Levy Mwanawasa, the late president of Zambia. Clumsy and plain lucky in some ways—but he was the man who stood up to Robert Mugabe, stabilised his country's economy, kept a nation with free speech afloat on that free speech, and who showed great magnanimity to his political rivals. Totally unlike the French president.
Ian Christiewriter & policymaker
Overrated Economic and political gurus and forecasters—most failed to see the systemic debt crisis coming or to keep Gordon Brown's travails and the Conservatives' poll lead in perspective. There are splendid exceptions—Larry Elliott and Will Hutton among others. But it has been a bad year for the well-paid commentariat and an even worse one for the credibility of financial sector gurus.
Underrated The US television drama Mad Men is one of the finest works of art ever made for television, and despite being showered with awards in the US has had merely cult exposure on BBC4. This toweringly great piece of writing, acting and design deserves to be made available to a much bigger audience in Britain, and perhaps then we might see demand for a British series of comparable ambition.
Paul Colliereconomist
Underrated As part of his strategy of retaining power Robert Mugabe ordered a consignment of armaments from China. Since these weapons were obviously not needed against his internal opponents, who unlike him were non-violent, their only possible purpose was to intimidate neighbouring governments. Almost unbelievably, the South African government was prepared to tolerate this behaviour. Mugabe was stopped by South African dock workers who refused to unload the cargo. Much of African civil society is an offshoot of western NGOs, but the South African trades unions are the real thing: the authentic voice of ordinary Africans. Emboldened by this action, neighbouring governments came to their senses. This incident neatly brings into focus the reality that African misgovernance is being propped up by China and resisted from within, while we stand and watch.
Robert Collshistorian
Overrated Peter Flannery's The Devil's Whore (C4) was complete rubbish that carried rave features and reviews in the broadsheets. It was history for those who don't know any by those who know only a little. Our Friends in the North was the same: spectacularly overrated, spectacularly ineffectual. When you think, as Flannery does, that history is reducible to your own life and times, then you miss why it is important. I expected the wild eyed Levellers to lean back and start playing air guitar at any moment .
Underrated In an age of celebrity it is difficult to think of underhyped national events. So instead of events let's hear it for institutions. The British used to believe in them but somewhere between modernism and the rise of social science, institutions got replaced by aggregative concepts. "Society" and "economy" and other words rendered lifeless in order to denote a spurious objectivity became our language of record. As the current financial crisis is teaching us, we don't need to know more about "society" or the "economy"; we do need to know how to build the right banks and businesses, in the right places, at the right time.
Mark Cousinsfilm critic
Overrated The most overrated event of the year, though it was a process rather than an event, was the spread of wireless internet. Everywhere's a hot spot now. I want far far more cool spots, where I can feel the bracing reality of a place. Offline is a brilliant, endangered species. Similarly, online identity is overrated. So many people went on Facebook this year, half heartedly, as if it's an obligation. It's no longer fun to have a digital self.
Underrated 1. Iranian President Ahmadinejad's letter of congratulations to Obama. This was a big step for the Islamic Republic. More should have been made of it in the international media. Obama's reply was a bit too muted.
2. Serious film critics around the world underrated the movie Mamma Mia! It was far more aesthetically daring than they said.
Tyler Coweneconomist
Overrated It may turn out to be the financial crisis. Right now the economy is very bad, but very often there is later "catch-up" growth. And the decline in stock prices is nothing compared to the suffering of the world's poor that goes on every day.
Underrated Twitter. Micro-blogging is a neat way to tie human beings together and give them ongoing connections. Every day you type in your 140-characters-or-less status report and your friends read it on the web and know what is going on in your life. It forces us to think about how we are truly living.
David Coxwriter & television producer
Overrated 1. The impending recession. There is a business cycle. Get over it.
2. The election of a glib and conventionally-minded lawyer to the presidency of the US.
Underrated Eden Lake. A British film that breathed new life into the horror genre, showing threat can be derived from the familiar.
Amanda Craignovelist
Overrated No Country For Old Men has one of the worst endings ever. Javier Bardem as an unstoppable psychopath was amusing as a male Anna Wintour, with similar hairstyling, but I don't go to the movies for lack of closure.
Underrated I was amazed that David Lodge was once again overlooked for the Booker, as Deaf Sentence was a profoundly funny novel about not just deaf people but the human condition. Will Self's two pretentious Amis wannabe offerings received yards of respectful coverage from reviewers who have not seen Ratatouille, and enraged me almost as much as AL Kennedy's Day. Why do two brilliant satirists become so arse-numbingly dull the moment they write fiction?
Alastair Crookedirector of Conflicts Forum
Underrated That the middle east stands at the cusp of huge social and political change which will alter the landscape over the coming years. This was signalled by the eruptions of food protests and the onset of the western financial crisis. A very substantial portion of the region's 400m inhabitants already were in absolute poverty before the crisis. Expect the erosion of social, economic and political structures under this stress—and, ultimately, political unrest. This social disintegration, coupled with western drawback as a result of its economic constraints, marks a new era: not one of foreign intervention on this occasion—as in the 1920s—but one of internal struggle over the vision and ideological leadership of this region.
William Daviessociologist & policy analyst
Overrated 1. The Russell Brand & Jonathan Ross "scandal." The BBC should brace itself, because this may be a glimpse of the future. For many people, complaining about the BBC is evidently becoming a low-effort pastime. In years to come, the Daily Mail may dedicate a portion of its website to collecting YouTube clips of "offensive" content, alongside links to the complaint section of Ofcom's website, to serve this new band of hobbyists. But by that stage, the fact that 30,000 people across the country were bored enough to click through a couple of links won't register as a social movement. It shouldn't have done on this occasion either.
2. Nudging. You know it's been a bad year for big policy ideas when Downing Street becomes interested in how Schiphol airport managed to "nudge" men into urinating more accurately (painting fake flies in the urinals, apparently). The hype surrounding behavioural economics, following the publication of Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein's Nudge, raises a number of questions. Who exactly is being confounded by the evidence that human beings are prone to "irrational" psychological tendencies? No intelligent economist would be, especially given this field has existed for over 20 years. More to the point, capitalism already depends on industries that seek to influence people at a subconscious, irrational level. Whether government "nudging" can ever become more than a collection of seminar-room anecdotes remains to be seen.
Jonathan Derbyshirewriter
Underrated Pilcrow by Adam Mars-Jones. Adam Mars-Jones's first novel in 15 years received inexplicably scant attention. It is a singular and deeply peculiar book. And it's also the most verbally inventive novel written in English this year.
Overrated The Logic of Life by Tim Harford. Harford is one of those economists—Steven "Freakonomics" Levitt is another—who are less interested in explaining how the economy works than in fashioning a general theory of human behaviour. However, the frequently banal insights yielded by the application of rational choice theory to teenage sex, say, or to poker don't really justify the imperial designs of Harford et al on the territory of the other human sciences.
Alex de Waalwriter & activist
Underrated The takeover of Reuters by Thomson International in May. Almost unnoticed, the world's largest independent news agency, many of whose reporters are the only foreign correspondents in neglected places, became a small part of a much larger conglomerate that has no intrinsic commitment to independent news reporting. At a time when the quality and quantity of news reporting from around the world is in decline, the disappearance of Reuters as an independent entity is an underrated event of real significance.
To comment on this article visit First Drafts,Prospect's blog
Prospect's "overrated and underrated" events of the year are divided alphabetically, by author surname, into four parts: click here to read parts one, two, three and four.
