Political Journeys: The openDemocracy Essays by Fred Halliday – review

This collection of essays shows Fred Halliday's depth, drive and wisdom, writes Nick Cohen

What do you want? Libraries all over the bloody place?

Poor Glonk could barely swallow a mouthful of dinner. She was too busy rattling on, distraught, that the council now calls library members 'customers'

Leo Steinberg obituary

Art historian and critic known for his elegant investigations of Renaissance paintings

Computer gamers less likely to go to university, research shows

Report by Oxford University also reveals that reading enhances the likelihood that teenagers will go on to study for a degree

Michael Gove is right about reading – so fund humanities

Sarah Churchwell: Yes, English literature students have often read just three books. But Gove must stop blaming schools and look to Whitehall

Niall Ferguson: school history lessons ‘lack all cohesion’

Historian says too few pupils are spending too little time studying history, particularly in state schools

Leonora Rustamova: I taught my pupils to enjoy books – and got fired

Dedicated teacher Leonora Rustamova wrote a book to engage five teenage rebels in her class. But after it went up on a website she was dismissed, a decision that was upheld at a tribunal

Paul Kriwaczek obituary

Television education producer and writer on the ancient world

Legal battles against cuts are worth fighting

Jon Robins: From tuition fees to library closures, charities and individuals are challenging in court the coalition's attempts to roll back the state

Working-class lives, in writing

Meredith Tax: The voices of ordinary working people in the US once had their own media. But writing classes can reinvent that empowerment

Cheesy poems get a new audience

McGonagall and McIntyre, two of Scotland's 'persistent bad poets', are remembered with new public recitals

Feminism: What does the F-word mean today?

When the Observer asked Annie Lennox to chair a discussion for Women's Day, the singer and social activist gathered five other high-flying women to find out what equality means to them – and how feminism can galvanise the next generation