Once more unto the breach

The Battle of Ideas 2009 begins at last with two London events looking at different aspects of the Culture Wars. Going back to our roots? on Tuesday 6 October explores the battle over history and identity, while Don and dusted on Wednesday 7 October looks at competing notions of scholarship in the shadow of both philistinism and spending cuts.

This week on CW, Kathryn Ecclestone reviews an historical biopic of Charles Darwin which reveals more about the intellectual, and emotional, climate of 2009 than the discovery of evolution, while Sean Bell reports on Ecclestone’s talk on therapeutic education at the Brighton Salon. Robin Walsh admires the allegorical and unpreachy approach to the history and legacy of apartheid in District 9, and Sam Peczek reviews Sally Potter’s experiment in form, RAGE. Meanwhile, Luke Gittos asks, ‘What is a radical lawyer?’.

2 October 2009