Sunday, March 02, 2014

Six of the Best 424

Lynne Featherstone writes in praise of civil servants - and on how to be a minister.

The historical background to the current crisis in Crimea is given by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

"Yes, one must risk the nasty comments from trolls and the doubts of colleagues about the importance of public engagement. But how else can we demonstrate the deep and necessary relationship among specialized knowledge, critical thinking, and the world in which we live?" On The Chronicle of Higher Education, David M. Perry explains why more academics should use the web to write for a general audience.

Cosy Moments discusses the early history of the National Council for Civil Liberties.

Peace Day was celebrated on 28 June 1919. (The Armistice on 11 November 1918, which is still commemorated, was merely a ceasefire to allow the business of negotiating peace with a defeated Germany.) In Swindon the occasion was marked with three nights of rioting, looting and burning the Union Jack. The BBC World War One at Home pages tell us why.

"W.H. Auden had a secret life that his closest friends knew little or nothing about. Everything about it was generous and honorable. He kept it secret because he would have been ashamed to have been praised for it." Edward Mendelson gives some important insights into the character of Britain's greatest 20th-century poet in the New York Review of Books.

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