Small is beautiful – an economic idea that has sadly been forgotten
Madeleine Bunting: The Big Ideas: It is chilling that so many thinkers, politicians and academics have signed up to the deadening consensus of globalisation
Peter Goldie obituary
A former financier, he became a philosopher of emotions and art
Written on the Heart – review
In Written on the Heart, David Edgar has come up with a learned, information-packed and engrossing play that sees the King James Bible in its historical context, writes Michael Billington
Steven Pinker’s book is a comfort blanket for the smug
Andrew Brown: Reading room: The factual errors in The Better Angels of Our Nature destroy Pinker's thesis, rendering it no more than a bedtime story
Tintin in the Congo should not be sold to children
David Enright: Children should learn the grotesque history of racism and colonialism, but in the proper context of a school curriculum
Occupy’s V for Vendetta protest mask is a symbol of festive citizenship
Jonathan Jones: Framing the debate: The real meaning of the Guy Fawkes mask seen around the world is sophisticated, self-knowing and carnivalesque
Do you agree with Steven Pinker – is violence in decline?
Madeleine Bunting: Reading Room: Join me as I read Pinker's new book on the history of violence, and examine some of the claims of this 'astonishing' book
If it bleeds, it misleads: on violence and misery the Cassandras are wrong
Steven Pinker: The discovery that fewer people are dying in wars all over the world gives the lie to the bipartisan consensus about misery
1Q84 is proof that literature matters
Douglas Haddow: Haruki Murakami's new book, a global event in itself, passionately defends the power of the novel
Keep smiling… the world is doing fine, say American authors
A series of new books argues that all the essential statistics show the world is making progress, materially and ethically
When Dad goes to war
Trying to explain to his son and daughter why he was going far away to a place called Iraq inspired one officer to write a children's book. Riazat Butt reports
Carol Ann Duffy – the newest of the bee poets
Alison Benjamin: The poet laureate has joined Virgil and Sylvia Plath and plenty inbetween by celebrating the 'winged saviours' in verse
Steve Jobs v Julian Assange: what makes a good biography?
Anne Perkins: That sales of Jobs's life story are soaring yet few are tempted by Assange shows the bagginess of biography as a form
Is it OK for a film to rewrite history?
Open thread: Anonymous has angered Shakespeare fans by suggesting he didn't write his plays. Tell us if a film's accuracy matters to you
Art Spiegelman: ‘Auschwitz became for us a safe place’
Art Spiegelman's Maus was first published 25 years ago, and to celebrate the anniversary he has created a companion volume. He tells Rachel Cooke about his struggle to get published and his difficult relationship with his father, the hero of the book