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The New Criterion

November 2009

This November The New Criterion marks the twentieth anniversary of the demise of the Berlin Wall in a special section:

The Berlin Wall: 20 years after (a symposium)

A foreword by Henry A. Kissinger, page 4

Tyranny set in stone by Roger Kimball, page 6

Weak will, high wall by Donald Kagan, page 10

Russia before the mirror by Jonathan Brent, page 15

The costs of abstraction by Anthony Daniels, page 19

Also in this issue:

Notes & Comments, page 1

New poems by Karl Kirchwey & Dick Allen, page 29

Fiction Chronicle: Margin walkers by Stefan Beck, page 27

Theater:

Kevin D. Williamson on Jude Law as Hamlet, Two Unrelated Plays, The House of Yes & The Retributionists, page 33

Art:

Karen Wilking on “Wateau, Music, and Theather” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, page 38

Carl Scarbrough on “In Pursuit of Knowledge: 600 Years of Leipzig University” at The Grolier Club, New York, page 42

Marco Grassi on “The Art of Devotion: Panel Painting in Early Renaissance Italy” at the Yale Museum of Art, New Haven, page 44

Mario Naves on “Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstraction” at The Whitney Museum, New York, page 45

James Panero on Sam Francis, Jay Milder, Abby Leigh & “ Silver Anniversary: 25 Photographs, 1835 to 1914” at Hans P. Kraus, Jr. Fine Photographs, page 47

Music:

Jay Nordlinger on the Europeanization of the Metropolitan Opera, page 50

The Media:

James Bowman on the denial of the past, page 55

Books:

Brooke Allen on Emile Zola’s The Belly of Paris, translated by Mark Kurlansky, page 59

David Pryce-Jones on The Anti-Communist Manifestos, by John V. Fleming, page 63

Barton Swaim on Beg, Borrow, Steal, by Michael Greenberg, page 67

Costin Alamariu on The Only Super Power, by Paul Hollander, page 68

Alec Solomita on It’s Beginning to Hurt, by James Lasdun, page 70

Denis Donoghue on Such Deliberate Disguised: The Art of Philip Larkin, by Richard Palmer, page 72

Notebook: Bartok, Parry & Lord: A flawed legacy by Steven Schwartz, page 76