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Ian Garrick Mason is a Toronto-based writer; his work has appeared in The Spectator, the Times Literary Supplement, the New Statesman, the Boston Globe, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Walrus, and the Globe & Mail, among other publications. From 1994 to 1998, he was the editor of Gravitas, a Canadian magazine of politics, culture, economics, and science; from 1998 to 2004, he was a consultant and executive at Accenture, a global management and technology consulting firm. Ian also writes Archipelagoes, a miscellany on politics and culture, and contributes to sans everything, a blog co-written with John Haffner, Jeet Heer, and A.M. Lamey. |
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Contact: iangmason@canada.com
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The Spectator | May 14, 2008 | Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West Anthony Pagden provides a rich and detailed intellectual history of Western attitudes towards the East. The only trouble is that is not quite what he set out to do. |
San Francisco Chronicle | Jan 13, 2008 | This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War The U.S. Civil War was unprecedented in its ferocity and in the scale of its carnage, and in changing the nature of death the war also ended up transforming the relationship of Americans with their government. |
The Spectator | Aug 25, 2007 | Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power In Robert Dallek's political picaresque of high achievement and high crimes, President Nixon and Henry Kissinger are depicted in all of their vanity, paranoia, rashness, and occassional brilliance. |
San Francisco Chronicle | Apr 8, 2007 | George Kennan: A Study of Character Historian John Lukacs's personal and affecting introduction to George F. Kennan's life and work takes the focus off the few short Cold War years for which Kennan is solely remembered today, emphasizing instead the totality and evolution of the diplomat's thought. |
San Francisco Chronicle | Dec 31, 2006 | America's Kingdom: Mythmaking on the Saudi Oil Frontier Although the combined ability of press and government to obscure truth seems particularly of our moment, political scientist Robert Vitalis demonstrates in his study of ARAMCO that even banal corporate history plays a role in this game of images. |
The Spectator | Oct 28, 2006 | The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of a Universe
Playwright Michael Frayn contemplates the nature of the cosmos, and wonders if the patterns we see out there are really just our own reflections. |
San Francisco Chronicle | Aug 14, 2006 | An Iliad Best-selling author of Silk, Alessandro Baricco has reworked the greatest of epics into a stylish summertime read -- a worthy achievement, though not a flawless one. |
Times Literary Supplement | Apr 28, 2006 | Among the Dead Cities & Firestorm: The Bombing of Dresden 1945 The morality of the Allied strategic bombing campaign in World War II, including the infamous firebombing of Dresden, has rarely been a topic for writers in the English-speaking world. Given the pressing moral dilemmas of today's War on Terror, however, it's time this changed. |
The Spectator | Jan 28, 2006 | A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War Historian Victor Davis Hanson describes in convincing detail how the no-holds-barred Peloponnesian War must have been fought. But he's too eager to use ancient brutality in order to justify the modern kind. |
Culture & Ideas |
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New Statesman | Feb 21, 2005 | “It's all in the presentation” With Chris Rock, the Oscars has a new host and a new format to boost the ratings. And if they don't go up...? |
New Statesman | Jan 10, 2005 | “Death of glory” Epic films triumphed in 1950s America and made a comeback in the past decade. But their appeal never lasts |
New Statesman | Nov 22, 2004 | “Gaijin takeaway” Hollywood may remain dominant in the world's film industry, but it has long sought inspiration from overseas -- particularly from Japan |
National Post | Oct 30, 2004 | “Hamilton's currency rising” Why American conservatives are re-embracing Alexander Hamilton's legacy |
National Post | Oct 23, 2004 | “Every word takes blood” The writer's writer revealed by Truman Capote's letters |
New Statesman | Oct 11, 2004 | “When Harvey Met Mickey” Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein is renegotiating his contract with Disney -- but his own success may be boxing him in |
Boston Globe | Aug 22, 2004 | “The general in his library” On what the U.S. Army now wants its colonels and generals reading |
National Post | Aug 14, 2004 | “How to get into a pantheon” How pantheons have evolved from houses of the gods to wax museums and movie vaults |
The Walrus | June 2004 | “The Ends of History” What today's "big" and "little" histories teach us about history itself |
National Post | May 29, 2004 | “The power of art as propaganda” On Evonne Levy’s Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque |
National Post | May 8, 2004 | “New blood for vampires” On vampires in gothic and modern literature |
National Post | Feb 28, 2004 | “The rise of Seussism” On Dr. Seuss and the avant-garde |
The Walrus | Feb/Mar 2004 | “Stop Making Sense” On Dr. Seuss and the role of nonsense in children's literature |
National Post | Nov 15, 2003 | “Don of a new era” Why we translate classics like Don Quixote -- again and again |
Politics & Policy |
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Globe & Mail | Dec 4, 2004 | “Will Europe ever stop?” With the impending accession of Romania, Bulgaria, and possibly even Turkey, where will the European Union find its ultimate limits? |
SF Chronicle | Oct 31, 2004 | “Kerry needn't settle for honorable defeat” What Britain's "khaki election" of 1900 can teach the presidential contenders today |
Philadelphia Inquirer | Sept 26, 2004 | “Superpower? Not for the EU” Why the European Union will require a much deeper level of integration if it is ever to become a superpower |
San Francisco Chronicle | Sept 19, 2004 | “A growing source for oil is also a target” West Africa faces twin challenges in coping with oil wealth and becoming a new front in America's war on terror |
Philadelphia Inquirer | July 18, 2004 | “Next challenge: Capitalist competition” On the rising economic & military power of China and India |
Boston Globe | June 20, 2004 | “Off to the $pace races” On the use of prizes (like the X Prize) for stimulating R&D |
Boston Globe | April 25, 2004 | “Supply and command” On the increasing overlap between military and civilian logistics |
Literary Review of Canada | December 2003 | “Matrix Mickey Mouse Madonna” The unintended consequences of the globalization of American culture |
Literary Review of Canada | Jan/Feb 2003 | “Rags and Riches: Wealth Inequality in Canada” Why "wealth inequality" is an inappropriate and counterproductive target for social reformers |
Book Reviews |
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The Spectator | Aug 27, 2005 | The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, Bryan Ward-Perkins
The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History, Peter Heather |
National Post | Jun 4, 2005 | The Devil in Babylon: Fear of Progress and the Birth of Modern Life, Allan Levine |
The Spectator | May 7, 2005 | DisneyWar, James Stewart |
SF Chronicle | Apr 24, 2005 | What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, John Markoff |
Times Literary Supplement | Apr 1, 2005 | On Clausewitz: A Study of Military and Political Ideas, Hugh Smith |
The Spectator | Mar 19, 2005 | England’s Lost Eden, Philip Hoare |
SF Chronicle | Jan 23, 2005 | Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire |
The Spectator | Nov 20, 2004 | On Beauty, Umberto Eco A History of Human Beauty, Arthur Marwick |
SF Chronicle | Oct 31, 2004 | The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution, Richard Dawkins |
The Spectator | Oct 9, 2004 | Zulu: the Heroism and Tragedy of the Zulu War, Saul David |
National Post | Oct 9, 2004 | Artistic License: Three Centuries of Good Writing and Bad Behavior, Brooke Allen |
San Francisco Chronicle | Aug 1, 2004 | Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, Graham Allison |
Times Literary Supplement | July 30, 2004 | Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque, Evonne Levy |
National Post | July 17, 2004 | I Am Alive and You Are Dead, Emmanuel Carrère |
San Francisco Chronicle | June 27, 2004 | Critical Mass, Philip Ball |
The Spectator | June 26, 2004 | The Broken String, Neil Bennun |
National Post | June 5, 2004 | Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs |
The Spectator | May 22, 2004 | The Anatomy of Fascism, Robert O. Paxton |
San Francisco Chronicle | April 18, 2004 | The Whale and the Supercomputer, Charles Wohlforth |
National Post | March 6, 2004 | The Science of Good and Evil, Michael Shermer |
San Francisco Chronicle | Feb 1, 2004 | Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, David Christian |
The Spectator | Jan 31, 2004 | A Brief History of the Human Race, Michael Cook |
Christian Science Monitor | Jan 13, 2004 | Sir Walter Raleigh, Raleigh Trevelyan |
The Spectator | Jan 10, 2004 | Operation Heartbreak and The Man Who Never Was, Duff Cooper and Ewen Montagu |
National Post | Dec 20, 2003 | Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, Patrick McGilligan |
San Francisco Chronicle | Nov 2, 2003 | Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy From Napoleon to Al-Qaeda, John Keegan |
Christian Science Monitor | Oct 23, 2003 | Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music and Why We Should, Like, Care, John McWhorter |
The Spectator | Oct 18, 2003 | Rifles: Six Years with Wellington's Legendary Sharpshooters, Mark Urban |
National Post | July 12, 2003 | As of This Writing, Clive James |
National Post | May 17, 2003 | Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood, Marjane Satrapi |
Ottawa Citizen | Feb 23, 2003 | On the Natural History of Destruction, W.G. Sebald |
National Post | Jan 18, 2003 | American Studies, Louis Menand |
National Post | Jan 27, 2001 | The Virtue of Prosperity: Finding Values in an Age of Techno-Affluence, Dinesh D'Souza |