Pride of place: Both Italy and America have claimed a Nobel prize winner as their own. Do the boundaries we use to define our nationalities still make sense? Farewell to arms: Recent Nobel peace prize winners don't conform to Alfred Nobel's original requirements for the award. Accounting for taste: Cultural prizes are under attack, but they serve a valuable role in bringing art to a wider market. When writing the personal was revolutionary: Doris Lessing redefined women's experiences as central to politics. In doing so, she didn't just win an important battle for feminism; she altered the way we think about relationships in the public and private sphere. Nobel laureate Doris Lessing defies convention – and confounds fans – with the breadth of her oeuvre. Christopher Hitchens on prizing Doris Lessing: The Nobel committee finally gets it right. Green Peace: Did Al Gore deserve a Nobel Prize for his work on global warming? Martin Peretz on Gore's well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize, and the two elections that got away. Al Gore as the anti-Bush: No wonder conservatives are apoplectic — Gore's fortunes rise as the president's plummets. Paul Krugman on Gore Derangement Syndrome. Gore's Nobel Prize win was a well-deserved honor for one of our finest politicians. It's also a stark reminder of how far into trivia the race to the presidency has fallen.
