Ian Stubbs is National Adult Learning Adviser, Church of England Board of Education. dot.comma Denis Gildea of London recommends Adam Curle's new book TO TAME THE HYDRA: Undermining the culture of violence, Jon Carpenter Press, Charlbury. The backblurb tells us: "The many-headed monster of classical myth was impossible to destroy. As soon as one vicious head was cut off, another grew in its place. Rooted in the unscrupulous morass of global political and economic interdependency, the modern Hydra is proving just as invulnerable...The catch that Adam Curle so vividly describes is that we cannot destroy this modern Hydra, because we are part of it. Yet there is another model, an alternative reality, and by showing us examples from all over the world of this other reality at work, he shows that it is possible to tame the Hydra and use its skills and energy to build a safer, happier, future." Peter Cadogan writes of Jonathan Freedland's BRING HOME THE REVOLUTION: "In England we abolished the monarchy, the Lords and the bishops - and then, in 1660, got cold feet and brought them back! The BritishAmericans made no such mistake. Instead they agreed a constitution that began with the words 'We the people...’ Alas, we in Britain have no such constitution, and more's the pity. The Americans are citizens, we are mere ‘subjects’ of the Crown... enmeshed in feudal vestigia." Freedland, says Cadogan, argues that it is time we brought the American revolution home. He quotes Matthew Paris: "The twentieth century never found a voice.
There has been much noise but in the end no concert; much movement, unbelievable change, but in the end no map, no transfiguration".
Recommending To Tame the Hydra: Undermining the Culture of Violence by Adam Curle (Jon Carpenter Press) and Bring Home the Revolution by Jonathan Freedland.