November 2020

November 2020 issue

Is a new civil war brewing in the US regardless of the result of November's election? Can Tim Davie save the BBC from government attacks? Plus: How can museums acknowledge the sins of the past while keeping faith with trusted institutions?

Past issues

Essays

Revisiting John Rawls's A Theory of Justice

Jesse Norman MP

What Germaine Greer saw

Demonstrators in Yemen parade with images of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. Photo: MOHAMMED HUWAIS/AFP via Getty Images)

How the Arab world turned against Hezbollah

The care conundrum

Nicholas Timmins

History wars on a plate: a 17th-century ceramic basin from Puebla, Mexico, borrows the Habsburg double-headed eagle motif. Is it cultural appropriation or supplication to an imperial power? © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

How museums can help end the culture wars

Can Tim Davie save the BBC?

Left Out: the Inside Story of Labour Under Corbyn by Gabriel Pogrund and Patrick Maguire (Vintage, £18.99)

A world awash with debt: can governments learn to rule while drowning in the red?

Barry Eichengreen

Armed members of the far-right Proud Boys groups stand guard during a memorial for Patriot Prayer member Aaron Jay Danielson on September 5, 2020 in Vancouver, Washington. © Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images

The new American Civil War

Regulars

Prospect puzzle and crossword—November 2020

The Prospect editorial: Fog of war

Letters: November 2020

Hannah Berry's cartoon: The joke-splainer

The Secret Barrister: "I would make legal aid universally available for anybody charged with a criminal offence"

Stephen Collins's cartoon: Mr. Fact

Stephen Collins

The duel: Is the UK overpopulated?

Robin Hodgson and Norma Cohen

In data: America's creaking Electoral College

Opinions

Policy report: A sustainable recovery

Coming up short: as bans on polluting vehicles become more widespread, so charging points for electric cars must rise in number. Photo: Gill Allen / Shutterstock

The road to a greener future

Why investors should diversify differently

What investors need to know when the dollar falls

Hitler's Reichstag speech promoting the bill was delivered at the Kroll Opera House

An enabling act could happen here

Beachgoers in Lomma, Sweden, this August. Was the country’s lax lockdown inspired or foolhardy? Photo: IBL/Shutterstock

The twisty tale of Dr Tegnell

Rootes, maker of the Hillman Imp, couldn’t be saved by state bribery. Photo: © Magic Car Pics/Shutterstock

Brexit and state aid: Britain will soon rediscover that it is disastrous to back lame ducks

Frances Cairncross

The Oxford Union school of governance—Boris Johnson at Prime Minister’s Questions. Photo: © JESSICA TAYLOR/UK PARLIAMENT HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

We will not understand Covid until we give up debating it

Is modular construction the way forward? Photo: TNS/SIPA USA/PA Images

A new era of sustainable housebuilding

Christopher Pincher

Arts & Books

The best theatre this November 2020—Adam Kay at the Apollo and the Death of England at the National

Michael Coveney

Alma Fielding's Thorton Heath house was apparently haunted Credit: Creative Commons

An engrossing tale of malevolent spirits

Zoe Apostolides

What Germaine Greer saw

A medieval equitorium Credit: Wikimedia commons

Why the Dark ages were anything but dark

An IRA mural in west Belfast Paul Faith/PA

Why an IRA man reads Tolstoy

Photo: biodiversity heritage library/public domain

The magic of mushrooms forces us to rethink what intelligence means

Angela Merkel, Germany's leader Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa/PAImages

Why the Germans do it better

Matthew Qvortrup

The best television this winter—Netflix's Rebecca and Steve McQueen's Small Axe

A grieving American soldier is comforted by another soldier during the Korean War. Credit: Flickr

How war brings out the best and the bestial in humanity

On our way out: David Cameron with the EU's Jean-Claude Junker a week after the Brexit vote in June 2016 Credit: THIERRY ROGE/Belga/PA Images

A deft and witty account of Britain's relationship with the EU

Robert Saunders

The best podcasts this November 2020—BBC's Americast and Lockdown Parenting Hell

Charlotte Runcie

© WENN Rights Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

Why Jeremy Corbyn lost

The best films this November—Relic and Another Round

A true philosopher: Derrida questioned his own peculiar methods as much as the things he was questioning. Photo: ©Ulf Andersen/Getty Images

Think Jacques Derrida was a charlatan? Look again

History wars on a plate: a 17th-century ceramic basin from Puebla, Mexico, borrows the Habsburg double-headed eagle motif. Is it cultural appropriation or supplication to an imperial power? © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

How museums can help end the culture wars

The best classical and opera this November 2020

Alexandra Coghlan

The best art exhibitions in the UK this November 2020—Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at Tate Britain and Paloma Varga Weisz at Henry Moore Institute

Emma Crichton-Miller

The intelligence delusion

Madeleine Bunting

Society and Culture

Pets throughout history: Dickens's crow and Michel de Montaigne's on cats

A love letter to Irish trad, the music of my childhood I thought I'd always hate

Caroline O'Donoghue

The Secret Barrister: "I would make legal aid universally available for anybody charged with a criminal offence"

Life lessons from jellyfish

When Latin goes wrong

Charlotte Higgins

The dark side of the natural food craze

The duel: Is the UK overpopulated?

Robin Hodgson and Norma Cohen

The duel: Is the UK overpopulated?

Robin Hodgson and Norma Cohen

Can Tim Davie save the BBC?

The rise of the rage mum

Hephzibah Anderson