March 2020

March 2020 issue

Why George Eliot is one of our greatest philosophers, Anne Case and Angus Deaton on what we get wrong about inequality—plus, can architects fight global warming?

Past issues

Essays

George Eliot's philosophy is central to her fiction. Image: CSU archives/ Everett Collection/Bridgeman Images

The philosophy of George Eliot

Angela Merkel: the Arthur Dent of Europe? Illustration: Tim McDonagh

The paradox of Merkelism

Philip Oltermann

The BBC provides a "Reality Check" service. Photo: Ian West/PA Wire/PA Images

Can fact-checking help save politics?

Robbie Gibb and Roger Mosey

Corrado Gini (pictured) was a creative and wide-ranging sociologist, demographer and statisti- cian—but not the sort of human being who is remem- bered fondly. Photo: Prospect composite

Rebottling the Gini: why this headline measure of inequality misses everything that matters

Angus Deaton and Anne Case

Homes for the future: how architects are responding to the climate crisis

What can history teach us about how to be an effective leader of the opposition? Photo: Prospect composite

I’ll tell you, and you’ll listen: the one thing successful opposition leaders all have in common

Months after humiliating the prime minister, the judiciary is now on trial itself

Judges in the dock: the inside story of the battle for Britain’s courts

Tom Clark and Alex Dean

Photo: It's a decade since the UK's top judges took a short walk across Parliament Square. Photo: PA

A Supreme Court hit parade: the six cases that stole the headlines

Raphael Hogarth

Regulars

The Prospect editorial: Balances and checkmates

The 2020 Winter Special

Letters: March 2020

Click to enlarge

Stephen Collins's cartoon: Silenced by woke culture

Stephen Collins

Hannah Berry's cartoon: A surprise gift

Prospect puzzle and crossword: March 2020

Paul Krugman: "I’m considerably less of a believer in the invisible hand"

Turf Moor, home of Burnley FC. Photo: Simon Bellis/Sportimage/PA Images

How football grounds explain the election result

Philip Cowley and Matthew Bailey

Opinions

Margarete Kraus, a Czech Roma, photographed after the war by Reimar Gilsenbach. Photo: Wienar Holocaust Library Collections

Forgotten by whom? Why it’s more important than ever to remember the Roma Holocaust

The funeral of Qassem Soleimani in Tehran. Photo: Mehrnews.com (Creative Commons)

The utter pointlessness of America's strategy in the Middle East

John Goodenough, 97, collecting his Nobel Prize in Stockholm. Photo: © IBL/SHUTTERSTOCK; U S AIR FORCE/ZUMA WIRE/SHUTTERSTOCK; KEVIN DIETSCH/POOL/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK; ANDREW HARNIK/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK

Why I'm skeptical about the unique power of the "scientific method"

Photo: SOPA Images/SIPA USA/PA Images

Brexit is happening, but the constitution is saved

A Silicon Valley-style disruptor?

Will Dominic Cummings triumph in his war on Whitehall?

Investment report: preparation for the New Tax Year

Investment report: betting on bonds

“More than two-thirds of drivers think removing the hard shoulder puts those who break down at greater risk”

Investment in roads: prioritise the environment—and driver safety

To connect the north improve its roads

Arts & Books

"Can women conduct?": World-famous conductor Marin Alsop is taking her battle to Vienna

The best podcasts in March 2020—Alie Ward's Ologies and explaining Trump's impeachment process

Charlotte Runcie

Lake Ohrid in Macedonia Source: Charlie Marchant, Wikimedia Commons

How the tale of two lakes reveals the hidden history of the Balkans

Zoe Apostolides

A game of two halves: Source: Creative Commons

What chess can teach us about life

In Dark Waters, a muted Mark Ruffalo stars as a corporate lawyer who finds himself drawn into a web of global malfeasance.

The best films in March 2020—Dark Waters and Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Virginia Woolf in 1927

Subversion in Bloomsbury—and why Woolf's grappling with freedom still resonates today

Unreliable comrades: writers and the Cold War

Two languages are better than one: a sign in Ottawa, Canada Source: Flickr

Why bilingualism is best for children

The best television in March 2020—James Fox's The Age of the Image and Last Tango in Halifax

Under Pressure: Aung San Suu Kyi Source: Yonhap/Yonhap News Agency/PA Images

How Aung San Suu Kyi betrayed the world's hopes

The aftermath of the Dresden bombing Source: Wikimedia Commons

Was bombing Dresden a war crime?

The curious religiosity of Martin Hägglund's secularism

The best theatre in March 2020—Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt and Tartuffe at the Birmingham Rep

Michael Coveney

The best classical and opera for March 2020—the Royal Opera House's Jenufa and Philip Venables's Denis & Katya

Alexandra Coghlan

Scientists at The Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. Photos: ERIK DINNEL/ALLEN INSTITUTE

The AI delusion: why humans trump machines

His seductive nudes and bold portraits won Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) admiration all over Europe. Photo: Lucas Cranach the Elder (about 1525) Cupid complaining to Venus, oil on wood, the National Gallery

The best art exhibitions in March 2020—Aubrey Beardsley at Tate Britain and Cranach at Compton Verney

Emma Crichton-Miller

Society and Culture

Illustration: Kate Hazell

Wilson's gravy: the curious history of brown sauce tells you all you need to know about the English

Caroline O'Donoghue

Frost Fair on the River Thames near the Temple Stairs. Thomas Wyke. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

The way we were: extreme weather

The Super Bowl remains a highlight in the American sporting calendar. But for how much longer? Photo: Wikimedia Commons

How America fell out of love with American football

Benjamin Markovits

Illustration: Kate Hazell

Forget Boris Johnson—the classics are for the working classes too

Charlotte Higgins

Illustration: Kate Hazell

Insomnia and the joy of night-walking

Illustration: Kate Hazell

Is it OK to still have children? How climate change is challenging parents

Hephzibah Anderson