My Week In Media: Niall Ferguson

Last week I read...

The world has too many columnists; I am one of them. The column I most enjoy reading is Charles Moore's in The Daily Telegraph, which is unfailingly original. The American columnist I like most is David Brooks, the nearest thing The New York Times has to a contrarian conservative voice. He had a strong piece the other day about the escalating violence in Iraq and its demoralising effect on US forces, but I generally prefer him on domestic issues.

Thanks to the internet, I can read selectively from a wide range of papers without disappearing under piles of newsprint. I'm very interested in Iraq, so I was struck by The Independent's scoop of the memorandum from the US Ambassador to Baghdad to Condoleezza Rice, about sectarian dissension within the US embassy as an indicator of the nascent civil war in the centre of the country. The Economist is my favourite magazine. I was delighted to see it put "Eurabia" on the cover this week, as I've been thinking and writing about the impact of Islamic immigration to Europe for some time.

It's one of the great historical transformations of our time. Talking of history, which is, of course, largely yesterday's journalism, there was a good review article in the Times Literary Supplement last week about the First World War by my old friend, Jay Winter. We British tend to think that we own that war, but Jay's piece showed how much more profound its legacy in France continues to be.

Last week I watched...

Rather like my cricket-mad son, I am struggling to sustain my interest in the World Cup, but I have watched a few games. As a Scotsman, I don't have a team to support, and the England team plays such bad football that it's painful to watch. The highlight so far has been Ghana beating the Czech Republic, which was beautiful to behold.

Last week I listened to...

BBC Radio 3, as always. It's a continuing education for the musically aspirant.

Last week I surfed...

There are a few blogs that I check out regularly. My old pal Andrew Sullivan's (www.andrewsullivan.com) is one. The medium suits him perfectly, as it's a combination of inner monologue, confessional and chatroom. No one in the media has more interesting insights into American politics.

Niall Ferguson's 'The War of the World' is published by Allen Lane, £25