The latest Times Educational Supplement cites Waugh’s Black Mischief in its “What Are You Reading? ” column. This has an entry by Peter Catterall, Reader in History at University of Westminister and author of several books on British history and politics, who writes:
This 1932 satire is replete with examples of well-meaning but culturally ill-informed attempts at modernisation of the kind still encountered in aid policy. Waugh satirises Westerners and non-Westerners alike with well-directed barbs, while implying that modernising political institutions without changing political culture simply gives unaccountable elites new means to power. Unfortunately the importance of political culture all too often remains overlooked.
