ontents Spring 2015

Regulars p. 5 Letters p. 6 Editor’s Note p. 10 The Q&A Writer Azar Nafisi on freedom and imagination p. 13 Witness Dispatches on science,

culture and politics p. 70 The Big Question

How would you define humanism?

p. 71 Quiz Set by Chris Maslanka p. 72 New! Crossword columns p. 12 Politics In election year, politics is lacklustre By Suzanne Moore p. 20 Film Selma and the history of black British activism By Reni Eddo-Lodge

Öm lÖfstr

: ema v er p. 69 In a word What does it mean to talk about the “economy”?

By Michael Rosen p. 73 Endgame The power of chance

By Laurie Taylor

Television, page 52

Ideas, page 48

‘For some of us, the short word for that is “hoax”’ Michael Rosen, page 69

Features p. 22 Reportage The rise of faith healers and sorcerers in Russia

By Marc Bennetts p. 36 Cover story

In search of a fictional character for the social media age

By Paul Mason p. 26 Cosmos How the afterglow of the Big Bang was discovered

By Marcus Chown p. 30 Knowledge The greatest accidental scientific discoveries By Samira Shackle p. 32 Rights Are people dehumanised by immigration systems?

By Lara Pawson p. 44 Interview Historian Diarmaid MacCulloch discusses his new television series on sex and Christianity

By Ralph Jones Culture p. 48 Ideas Have world religions been the cause of violence through the ages? By Jonathan Rée p. 52 Television Broadchurch, The Leftovers, The Missing: on-screen exploration of loss

By Mark Fisher p. 56 Literature The thrillers of the enigmatic Italian writer

Elena Ferrante By Fatema Ahmed p. 60 Photography Today, is there still a role for the war photographer?

By Alice Bloch p. 74 The last word A visual response to the attack on Charlie Hebdo

By Martin Rowson

Books p. 64 Reviews Rory Fenton on the search for meaning in a humanist life; Dawn Foster on poverty and rising inequality; Owen Hatherley on architecture and democracy in postwar Europe; Lee Rourke rounds up the best new fiction poetry p. 55 The Pelts of Animals

By Pascale Petit p. 59 Leopolis (Lviv)

By Yuri Burjak p. 63 Missing Out By Alan Brownjohn

New Humanist | Spring 2015

3