From Daedalus, Daron Acemoglu on the Economic Origins of Democracy. Adam Parsons on the end of economic growth. A review of The Real Wealth of Nations by Riane Eisler. Shock of the new: The economic impact of information technology will take decades to become clear. James Surowiecki on how technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things more quickly and efficiently. But too often it seems to make things harder. Technology drives the forces of globalization. But when we replace our computers and flat-screens with the newest in high-tech cool, what happens to the hardware we throw away? Welcome to the digital dumping ground, where the poor make a living off other people’s spare parts. From Freezerbox, The Bored Whore of Kyoto: European johns line up to tap Russia's carbon reduction potential; and did lefty pundit Alexander Cockburn and corporate behemoth General Motors secretly agree to swap climate positions? A look at how the rightists want all of Earth's worth; some greens side with them. An interview with May Berenbaum on the role of cellphones, pesticides and alien abductions in the honeybee crisis.
From Think Tank, an interview with Anne Applebaum, author of The Gulag: A History. From The Moscow Times, a review of Comrades! A History of World Communism by Robert Service. Love me, I'm a liberal: A review of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: The New Liberal Menace in America by Stephen Marshall. Al Gore suggests that we cannot have both television and democracy in The Assault on Reason (and an interview). The struggle among conservatives to define their movement in the post-Bush era may be getting more attention these days, but liberal intellectuals and writers are doing some soul-searching of their own. William Vollman on The Great Exception: For hundreds of years, the rules didn't seem to apply to America the Perfect.
A review of Clean: A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity by Virginia Smith and The Cleaning Bible: Kim and Aggie’s Complete Guide to Modern Household Management by Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie (and more). Breaking Free of Suburbia's Stranglehold: Families simplify lifestyles in quest for meaning that constant hustle obscured. Outsourcing Your Life: Sending work offshore has transformed the U.S. economy. Now, some families are tapping the same approach for personal tasks, getting them done for a fraction of what they'd cost at home. Taking your to-do list global. Growing Up in Public: The conventional wisdom has it that younger people will one day regret disclosing so much personal information online. But the conventional wisdom's wrong. Volunteer Blues: What if helping people doesn’t make you feel better? From American Sexuality, Mad About You: An article on modern day stalking, and old fashion passion; and The Invisible Woman: Is acknowledging the biological divide key to achieving equality between the sexes? When everyone is offended by mere words, language’s real victims lose out.
An article on weird drinking laws of the USA. Fear of Frying: Here's brief history of trans fats. The Science of Appetite: There's a lot more to feeling hungry than you think. New research into what drives us to eat may teach us how to control the urge; and How the World Eats: In the face of Westernization, families across the globe are abandoning traditional diets and dining habits. With summer about to begin, four people artists, architects and designers — imagine playgrounds that could attract the modern adolescent. New Yorkers — as well as all Americans faced with anti-dance restrictions — should stand up and take action. A record number of Americans own pets—and they are spending a record amount of money feed, clothe and care for their wee beasts. But is all the attention actually good for the critters?
From The Intercollegiate Review, a symposium on 20 Years since The Closing of the American Mind, including R. V. Young on The University Possessed Peter Augustine Lawler on The Socratic Philosopher and the American Individual and Wilfred McClay on Recovering the Western Soul; a review of My Life Among the Deathworks: Illustrations of the Aesthetics of Authority by Phillip Rieff; a review of The Strange Death of Marxism: The European Left in the New Millennium by Paul Edward Gottfried; and a review of The Conservative Soul by Andrew Sullivan. An article on James Q. Wilson and the power of his written word: His thoughts have left an indelible impression on Los Angeles and the nation.
From The Chronicle, The Nature of Foul Matter: In a new monthly column, Rachel Toor explores the writing and publishing process in academe. From New Statesman, when politicians use their brains: Peter Wilby on telling the truth about grammar schools. A review of Exposing the Great White North: Whiteness, Privilege and Identity in Education in Canada. As a former college president, John McCardell knows all about binge drinking on campuses. What he wants to do about it might surprise you.
From Al-Ahram, who built the pyramids? The Giza Plateau Mapping Project is searching for the human hand in the construction of these powerful symbols of remote antiquity which have intrigued and fascinated people for generations. An all-inclusive field school supported by the American Research Center in Egypt with a USAID grant is heralding a new age for Egyptology and other disciplines. A review of After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire by John Darwin. Mutiny of the aristocrats: The English civil war was about defending noble power rather than democratic ideas, The Noble Revolt argues. More on A History of Modern Britain by Andrew Marr. A look at the Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map of the World from the World Values Survey.
The true mysteries of mathematics lie at the limits of our thinking - infinity. Reach beyond what you think is possible and you start to explore the wonders of maths at the extremes. The planet hunters: The search for alien life is yielding weird new worlds at a remarkable rate. Biologists always thought life required the Sun's energy, until they found an ecosystem that thrives in complete darkness. The Language of the Bees: An interview with Hugh Raffles. Macaques can do sums based on probability, if they have enough time and the promise of a drink afterwards. Kids can add and subtract without arithmetic: Knowing how to count lets kindergartners do arithmetic before they learn its rules. Smell is the most mysterious of the five senses - scientists are still not exactly sure how the nose decodes odors. Horsemen of the Esophagus: Among the super-gluttons, on the front lines of competitive eating.
From The Hindu, does the internal war in Sri Lanka between the government and the LTTE have any security implications for India? A review of Can India grow without Bharat? by Shankar Acharya and The Second Partition by Patwant Singh. An essay on The Last Mughal and the First Empress (an part 2 and part 3). A review of India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy by Ramachandra Guha. A review of Incredible India: Traditions and Rituals by Muthusamy Varadarajan. A caste of millions: India's 160m Dalits, or untouchables, have turned to the internet to combat their mistreatment at home.
Democracy, ready or not: On their king's orders, the citizens of Bhutan must now learn to vote. But in a society where only 3% of people say they are unhappy, what incentive do the people really have to change their government, and it’s democracy for some as Bhutan refuses to allow more than 100,000 Bhutanese Hindu refugees to return home. A review of Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi by Justin Wintle and The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma by Thant Myint-U. Prisoner of virtue: Aung San Suu Kyi is saintly, but is she right? Once a Muslim, always a Muslim in Malaysia: The country’s highest court rules that a Kuala Lumpur woman can’t convert to Christianity.
From Foreign Policy, Japan is on the cusp of a constitutional revolution. To an overstretched West, a newly muscular Tokyo promises stability in a rapidly shifting region. Yet, in its rush to overturn six decades of official pacifism, the Japanese government is stifling the serious national debate required in a modern democracy. Is anyone paying attention? Why are there so many suicides in Japan? Christopher Beam investigates. A review of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. by Roland Kelts. From The New Atlantis, Jeff Kueter, president of the George C. Marshall Institute, on China's space ambitions — and ours. A review of The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st century by Will Hutton (and more). Gita Aravamudan talks about how Disappearing Daughters, her book on female foeticide, happened.
In the past 30 years Agnes has had unprotected sex with up to 2,000 infected men. Yet she and a small number of her fellow sex workers are still free from Aids. Stephanie Nolen travels to Majengo, a slum in Nairobi, to meet the extraordinary women and researchers who are changing the history of HIV. After fighting neglected diseases in Africa for a quarter century, former president Jimmy Carter takes on one of the continent's biggest killers—malaria. With an annual inflation rate of 3,714 percent, Zimbabwe appears to be caught in a tailspin of hyperinflation. The introduction to Anglican Communion in Crisis: How Episcopal Dissidents and Their African Allies Are Reshaping Anglicanism. As asylum seekers from Africa drown or are abandoned at sea trying to cross to Europe, a UN official charged the governments of Mediterranean countries with turning the waters between them into a "wild west" where the lives of immigrants had little value.
From Der Spiegel, it used to be that residents of southern Spain would head to Germany as guest workers. Now, the region hosts guest workers of its own — from Morocco. The program may become a model for migrant labor across the European Union. Forced labour is widespread in Europe. But until policy makers recognize the need to manage the demand for migrant workers, there will continue to be a market for those prepared to risk exploitation. A review of The Future of Europe: Reform or Decline by Alberto Alessina and Francesco Giavazzi.
From HNN, Philip Zelikow on Legal Policy for a Twilight War. The Moment of Disillusion: The anti-war movement's outrage at congressional Democrats is understandable — but the danger of over-reaction is serious. From The Intercollegiate Review, an essay on Jihadists and the War on Terrorism; an article on Conservatism, Democracy, and Foreign Policy; an essay on Creed & Culture in the American Founding; and a look at The American Difference.
From The Economist, a review of The Supreme Court: The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America by Jeffrey Rosen. From TAP, Courting Big Business: This week's ruling against employment discrimination protections is yet another in a series of disastrous right-wing decisions by the Roberts Court. Rick Perlstein reviews Selling Free Enterprise: The Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism, 1945-60 by Nancy Fones-Wolfe. An interview with Jim Gilchrist of the Minuteman Project. Timothy Garton Ash on how the US tightening of entry requirements is understandable, but it must not be at the cost of its welcoming reputation. A review of The 50% American: Immigration and National Identity in an Age of Terror by Stanley Renshon. Guests v gatecrashers: An article on the uncomfortable economics of immigration reform. Make 'Em Vote! Thomas Geoghegan on the case for requiring new citizens to register to vote. What the heck is vote caging, and why should we care? Dahlia Lithwick wants to know. The widely acclaimed hate crimes bill is an example of the kind of feel-good legislation that will probably wind up doing more harm than good.
From American Political Science Review, Ismail K. White (UT-Austin): When Race Matters and When It Doesn’t: Racial Group Differences in Response to Racial Cues. From The Situationist, an article on shades of fairness and the marketing of prejudice. Princeton's Susan Fiske on Prejudice & the Brain. A review of Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet Washington. A review of Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice by Julie Sze and From Welfare State to Real Estate: Regime Change in New York City, 1974 to the Present by Kim Moody. The Rise of the Bottom Fifth: Rob Haskins on how to build on the gains of welfare reform. A look at how welfare recipients respond to complex incentives.
A review of Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce by Elizabeth Marquardt. Contrary to the received wisdom of Republicans and Democrats and virtually every authority in the country who views marriage as the linchpin of social and community ties, marriage actually tends to reduce community ties. Not By Spin Alone: In the battle over reproductive rights, on-the-ground organizing is far more effective than massaging the message. A review of Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman’s Guide to Why Feminism Matters by Jessica Valenti. Whither women leaders? A look at the future of female political leadership. What are the origins of the hijab? Jahanshah Rashidian investigates.
From Zeek, Jill Jacobs on The History of "Tikkun Olam"; and Yotam Hotam on Zionism and Gnosticism. Form The Humanist, an interview with Noam Chomsky on secular nationalism and the mother of all book plugs. From America, Holy Terrors: A look at saints who weren't always saintly; a review of American Fascists by Chris Hedges; and a review of Brokers of Culture: Italian Jesuits in the American West, 1848-1919 by Gerald McKevitt. Until a few weeks ago, Francis Beckwith was president of the Evangelical Theological Society, an association of 4,300 Protestant theologians. Now he has returned to the Church of his baptism. An interview with Bob Abernethy, author of The Life of Meaning: Reflections on Faith, Doubt, and Repairing the World. A review of Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence by Hector Avalos. From LA Weekly, an interview with Christopher Hitchens on the essential stupidity of religion.
From Philosophy Now, a special issue on Human Futures, including an editorial, Enhancing Humanity: Ray Tallis peers into the future, without fear; If we think carefully about our decisions, we’ll wind up living better lives, right? Jean Kazez asks this question in response to three recent books about happiness; Aristotle’s Email – Or, Friendship In The Cyber Age: Tim Madigan ponders the mysteries of friendship; a review of The Kantianism of Hegel and Nietzsche by Robert Zimmerman; a review of Moreel Esperanto by Paul Cliteur; and are there any limits to "less is more"? Death, where is thy sting? A review of Sartre: A Guide for the Perplexed by Gary Cox. A review of Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed by Steven Earnshaw. A review of Tales of Unknowing: Therapeutic Encounters from an Existential Perspective by Ernesto Spinelli.
Bruce Ackerman (Yale): The Living Constitution pdf. The introduction to What Democracy Is For: On Freedom and Moral Government by Stein Ringen. A review of A World Beyond Politics? A Defense of the Nation-State by Pierre Manent. From Shangai Daily, Confucius and Aristotle should talk governance: An interview with Michael Sandel. A review of Why Read Mill Today? by John Skorupski. Being There: Leland de la Durantaye is on the trail of Heidegger. An interview with Peter Singer on animal liberation and jailing animal activists as terrorists. Tom Nairn is one of the world’s great thinkers about nationalism and globalisation. His radical, vigorous, and incisive work continues to ignite and provoke. openDemocracy contributors reflect on what makes a friend and colleague forever young.
From Evolutionary Psychology, Daniel Farrelly, John Lazarus and Gilbert Roberts (Newcastle): Altruists Attract; Jonathan Gottschall (WJC): Greater Emphasis on Female Attractiveness in Homo sapiens: A Revised Solution to an Old Evolutionary Riddle; Steven M. Platek (Liverpool) and Jaime W. Thomson (Drexel): Facial resemblance exaggerates sex-specific jealousy-based decisions. Matthias Mahlmann (FUB): Ethics, Law and the Challenge of Cognitive Science (and part 2). A review of Cartographies of the Mind: Philosophy and Psychology in Intersection. An interview with Jill Bolte Taylor, author of My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey.
From German Law Journal, a review of The New Law and Economic Development: A Critical Appraisal. A review of The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the Thinkers Who Revolutionized Economics and Business by Johan Van Overtveldt. David Warsh on how the world of non-standard economics is a complicated place. An interview with Robert Frank, author of The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas. A review of Out of the Labyrinth: Setting Mathematics Free by Robert Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan. A review of The Volterra Chronicles: The Life and Times of an Extraordinary Mathematician 1860-1940 by Judith R. Goodstein. The introduction to Across the Board: The Mathematics of Chessboard Problems by John J. Watkins.
From NBER, a report on teacher incentives and student performance. The introduction to Does God Belong in Public Schools? by Kent Greenawalt. Publisher aims to teach kids right from left, seeing too many children's books with liberal views. His titles aim to tilt the shelves the other way. Mark Bauerlein on The Trouble with Tenure. Rich Lowry on The Rout of Military History in the Academy. In a high-tech age of instant communication, old-fashioned history is enjoying a renaissance in U.S. popular culture.
From ReadySteadyBook, an interview with Peter Robertson, Associate Editor of The Mad Hatters' Review. From The Village Voice, how a few black publishers are making a play for the Maxim man. Geek is cool. No, really—in an “I’m so uncool I’m cool” kind of way. Where is US journalism headed? A review of The Rise of the Blogosphere: American Backgrounds by Aaron Barlow. Can Murdoch pass the stink test? Assessing the mogul against the standards of the Dow Jones code of conduct.
From California Literary Review, suppose one’s made a viable, literate translation that succeeds in conveying the narrative or expository sense of an original. What if it turns out that one’s own culture resists it, and refuses to receive it? Form Cabinet, Joshua Foer on a Minor History of Miniature Writing. Into the Fold: Physicist Robert Lang has taken the ancient art of origami to new dimensions. The introduction to Priests and Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali by J. Stephen Lansing. Furniture that came in from the cold: Garden chairs and artifacts are the new antiques, and they are migrating indoors. What's so bad about replicas? The Cutty Sark is to undergo yet more restoration work after being ravaged by fire. At what point does it cease to be the original ship?
From FT, culture leaves home: Art forms are breaking out of their traditional domains and London’s Tate Modern is leading the way. A review of The Aesthetics of Disengagement: Contemporary Art and Depression by Christine Ross. Their glossy and frequently rather smug “postmodernism”, which refuses to acknowledge any authority other than previous horror movies, masks a fear that such authority is all too real, and is probably furious with them. A review of Freedom to Offend: How New York Remade Movie Culture by Raymond J. Haberski Jr. From Mute, as the scarcity essential to the cultural commodity is undermined by digital abundance and social networking, social relations and the unique "live" performance are all that's left to sell. Mass market music increasingly resembles relational art with its dream of waking the ‘zombies’ of consumer culture, but are the citizens of Web 2.0 society born again or undead? Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar: An article on BDSM in popular music.
The Royal Me: Not that long ago, only the aristocratic or famous felt entitled to special privileges, but nowadays we seem to be living in an age of excessive exceptionalism. A look at how your name can reveal your status. A Hobby That’s Part Party, Part Debate, All Intellect: Robert Rosenkranz is leveraging his standing — and a small percentage of his wealth — in search of the ultimate dinner party conversation. Here’s great thinking: wine makes you philosophical. She'll Drink to That: In her books, Barbara Holland praises old-time social pleasures.
A review of Love, Life, Goethe: How to be Happy in an Imperfect World by John Armstrong. MySpace vs. Workplace: During the day you're all business; at night you like to let loose and have some fun. No problem with that — unless you share your adventures with others on the Internet. Don't work too hard; it's bad for you: An excerpt from Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success. A review of The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World's Largest Private Company by Charles G. Koch. A review of The Power of Business en Espanol: 7 Fundamental Keys to Unlocking the Potential of the Spanish-Language Hispanic Market. The status of Spanish as America's second language has been confirmed by the 2006 census, which showed the nation's minority population topped 100 million for the first time. Of those more than 44 million were Hispanic.
From Prospect, the democracy of Don Quixote: Novelists have always turned their hands to essays, and the essay-writing novelist remains a literary force to be reckoned with. The two forms share an inherent pluralism and scepticism that makes them natural allies of democracy. The introduction to The Shadow of Death: Literature, Romanticism, and the Subject of Punishment by Mark Canuel.
From L'Espill, Catalan cultural products are seen as a political instrument rather than a response to genuine demand. As a result, it is easier for a Catalan author to get published in German or Dutch than in Castilian Spanish. Libraries in the desert: An article on preserving ancient literature in Mali. Are British public libraries ok? It depends on who you talk to, and what you read into statistics.
From TLS, Clive Wilmer reviews Selected Translations by Ted Hughes; and the new earnestness: A review of Granta 97: Best of Young American Novelists, 2. From Bromsgrove to Trinity: Paul Johnson reviews The Letters of A E Housman. More on Edith Wharton by Hermione Lee.
Lissa Warren on The Decline and Fall of the Book Review Section...and What It Means to Publishers. From Britannica, an article on reading and its well-contents; and a look at the book critics’ war on bloggers. Greece or Rome? Jordin or Blake? Star Wars or Lord of the Rings? It’s hard to resist comparing two obvious rivals, and Internet-based publications Salon and Slate are no exception. The return of the media queen: For more than a decade, as the British editor of the city's most influential magazines, Tina Brown was New York royalty. Now after a high-profile debacle she's back in style. Cashing in on the 60s: John Harris writes that before we idolise the generation that gave us the summer of love, we shouldn't forget how very easy it turned out to be for so many of them to go from hippie to yuppie.
Harry First (NYU): Microsoft and the Evolution of the Intellectual Property Concept; Nicholas Economides (NYU): "Net Neutrality", Non-Discrimination and Digital Distribution of Content Through the Internet; and Mary-Rose Papandrea (Boston College): Citizen Journalism and the Reporter’s Privilege. Burnt By The Man: How copyrighting, capitalism, and lawsuit chaos disturbed the radical utopia of Burning Man. More on The Little Book of Plagiarism. My Favorite Font: Anne Fadiman, Jonathan Lethem, Richard Posner, and others reveal what font they compose in and why. The inaugural issue of the International Journal of Design is out.
From The San Francisco Chronicle, an article on painting a picture of the creative mind and a look at what happens to us when art connects to the unconscious. From LRB, Boudoir Politics: A review of Lola Montez: Her Life and Conquests by James Morton; and a review of Walt Disney: The Biography by Neal Gabler; The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney by Michael Barrier; and Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson by Tom Sito. Whether it be opera or a lead role in a major motion picture, kids who pursue the arts often find themselves embracing two very different worlds. A review of Self-Help, Inc.: Makeover Culture in American Life by Micki McGee. And a review of A Practical Handbook for the Boyfriend by Felicity Huffman and Patricia Wolff
From PUP, the introduction to After Anarchy: Legitimacy and Power in the United Nations Security Council. Dilemmas of justice: Phil Clark on how the challenges faced by the International Criminal Court are about more than "peace vs justice", but Tim Allen remains broadly confident about the International Criminal Court. Here's why. You can measure peace with a rating, but can you understand it? Pro and anti-whaling nations are circling each other at the International Whaling Commission meeting. Andrew Darby reports on the manoeuvres, deals and compromises threatening the endangered humpbacks.
From The Economist, a look at how business is starting to tackle climate change, and how governments need to help; and a series of articles on how business is getting down to cutting carbon, but needs more incentives to make much difference to climate change. Bush kills off hopes for G8 climate plan: US recognises global warming danger but wants to lead response outside UN, as Bush plays for time as the planet begins to burn.
Form The Nation, The Case for Shared Sovereignty: Let's give up the illusion of a two-state solution—Israel's already a binational state; and For a Secular Democratic State: Zionism has run its course, and in doing so has killed any possibility of a two-state solution; and a review of The Tragedy of Zionism: How Its Revolutionary Past Haunts Israeli Democracy by Bernard Avishai; The Question of Zion by Jacqueline Rose; A Threat From Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism; and Booking Passage: Exile and Homecoming in the Modern Jewish Imagination by Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi. A history of the hapless: Palestinians in Lebanon are long the unluckiest of the lot.
From Daedalus, a special issue on violence, including William McNeill (Chicago): Violence & Submission in the Human Past; Steven LeBlanc (Harvard): Why Warfare? Lessons from the Past; Mark Juergensmeyer (UCSB): Gandhi vs. Terrorism; Neil Whitehead (Wisconsin): Violence & the Cultural Order; Tzvetan Todorov (CNRS): Avant-gardes & Totalitarianism; Adam Michnik on the Ultras of Moral Revolution; Cindy Ness (John Jay): The Rise in Female Violence; Mia Bloom (Georgia): Female Suicide Bombers: A Global Trend; and James Blight (Brown): Robert McNamara: Then & Now. From Prospect, my brother the bomber: What turned Mohammad Sidique Khan, a softly spoken youth worker, into the mastermind of 7/7? Shiv Malik spent months in a Leeds suburb getting to know Khan's brother. A complex and disturbing story of the bomber's radicalisation emerged. John Gray explores Ed Husain's The Islamist, his candid, riveting story of how as a young man he joined and then left a radical British Muslim group.
Tony Blair reflects on the lessons of his decade as Britain's prime minister. Are the Tories under David Cameron a genuinely new party? Anthony Giddens David Willetts debate. 50 ideas for Brown's Britain: New Statesman asks the five leading think tanks of the left to suggest ten-point plans for the Brown premiership. The 1960s was a mythical period in British history in which the way the country was run fundamentally changed. Lectures about Heaven: Thomas Laqueur reviews Five Germanys I Have Known by Fritz Stern. She goes West, he goes Right: A study finds a lack of women in eastern Germany feeds Neo-Nazis. And Jerry Falwell lives ... in Poland: The Poles are now investigating whether the Teletubbies are gay as US religious-right style politics spreads through Europe
From the Journal of Political and Military Sociology, a series of articles on the White Separation Movement, including an introduction; Betty Dobratz (ISU) and Stephanie Shanks-Melie (IUN): The Strategy of White Separatism; and Sine Anahita (Alaska): Blogging the Borders: Virtual Skinheads, Hypermasculinity and Heteronormativity. In the days since Jerry Falwell died, much has been written about his influence on politics, but relatively little has been written about his hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (and more on Falwell and Savage Christians).
From Truthdig, Chris Hedges on why he doesn't believe in atheists, and Sam Harris strikes back. The polemical journalist Christopher Hitchens is more read in America than in his native UK – but that is about to change. Religion, claims Christopher Hitchens, is bigoted, irrational and evil. But his moral certitude makes him no better than the fundamentalists he opposes (and more on God Is Not Great). Nicolas Sarkozy debates belief, freedom and work with the atheist philosopher Michel Onfray.
From Rolling Stone, he's cashing in on 9/11, working with Karl Rove's henchmen and in cahoots with a Swift Boat-style attack on Hillary. Will Rudy Giuliani be Bush III? Matt Taibbi investigates. The Democratic presidential candidates tout their ideas for health care reform. Obama's cautious health care plan: When it comes to achieving universal health care, Obama wants to wade in, not to jump. And that says a lot about him as a candidate. A lack of audacity: How Obama's health care plan resembles the candidate himself — a proposal filled with "almosts" from a politician who still hasn't quite fulfilled the promise of his appeal. A review of The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care by David Gratzer; Crisis of Abundance: Rethinking How We Pay for Health Care by Arnold Kling; and Medicine and the Market: Equity v. Choice by Daniel Callahan and Angela A. Wasunna. A review of Never Shower in a Thunderstorm: Surprising Facts and Misleading Myths About Our Health and the World We Live In by Anahad O'Connor. From TLS, a review of Birth: A history by Tina Cassidy; Born in the USA: How a broken maternity system must be fixed to put women and children first by Marsden Wagner; and Bioethics and Women: Across the life span by Mary Briody Mahowald.
From TNR, intellectual celebrity deathmatch: Alan Dershowitz & Noam Chomsky debate. An acerbic look at the Holocaust industry: A review of My Holocaust by Tova Reich. From Jewcy, a look at why Unitarianism is a pre-teen crypto-Jew's best friend. A Nation of Wimps: Parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the bumps out of life for their children. However, parental hyperconcern has the net effect of making kids more fragile; that may be why they're breaking down in record numbers.
From RCCS, living and loving beyond the heteronorm: A queer analysis of personal relationships in the twenty-first century. Investigating the rise of highbrow porn—from the inside: How a modest lady editor from good New England stock wound up in an erotic film. Welcome to the Age of Un-Innocence: There’s still plenty of sex to be had in Manhattan, but the kind of sex that results in friendship and business deals, not romance.
The poisonous legacy of 9/11: New Yorkers were told their air was safe to breathe after 9/11. It wasn't. A report on the lies and the cover-up. Stony Brook's Malcolm Bowman had a message for the City of New York: Prepare, because the flood is coming. Eric Alterman on how The New York Sun's alleged success is a figment of its conservative owners' imaginations. And from CJR, Before Jon Stewart: Fake news is back, but our tolerance for it isn't what it was before journalism donned the mantle of authority
From Abstracta, Michael Esfeld (Lausanne): The Impact of Science on Metaphysics and its Limits; Patrick Spät (Freiburg): A Pill Against Epiphenomenalism; and Daniel O’Brien (Birmingham): Gullible Yet Intelligible pdf. A review of Plato: Political Philosophy by Malcolm Schofield. The anthropologist Mary Douglas, who has died aged 86, produced a framework for understanding society that should be part of the mental furniture of every educated adult.
From Qualitative Social Research, a special issue on "From Michel Foucault's Theory of Discourse to Empirical Discourse Research", including an interview with Ruth Wodak: "What is Critical Discourse Analysis?" A review of The Shadow of the Antichrist: Nietzsche's Critique of Christianity by Stephen N. Williams. From Cross Currents, a series of articles on theology, democracy, and the project of liberalism. Is Levinas' challenge to the Western philosophical tradition philosophically tenable? More on Emmanuel Levinas' challenge to the modern European identity. The prologue to Enlightenment in the Colony: The Jewish Question and the Crisis of Postcolonial Culture.
From Wired, in the event of global disaster, the ultimate crop backup system. North America is fine for rewilding but Europe may be a better candidate thanks to close living relatives of its extinct megafauna. From Discover, an article on Science’s Family Tree: A visualization showing the structure of scientific knowledge. Scientists should form a closer alliance with mainstream religion in order to better fight extremism, says Martin Rees, the president of the Royal Society—Richard Dawkins warns against "buying into fiction". Talk to foreigners and we will view you as a spy, Iran warns academics.
From Dissent, Britain's 120,000-strong University and College Union votes to endorse a call to boycott Israeli universities. Martha Nussbaum argues against all forms of the academic boycott ( and more on the academic fallout from the Middle East). Michael Yudkin and Denis Noble on why an academic boycott of Israel would be selective, disciminatory and counterproductive, or will the boycott of Israel give voice to a people whose freedoms have long been repressed?
From The Guardian, cash for clichés: Graduation speeches in US universities are expensively short on substance. More schools are ditching final exams: A number of campuses use oral presentations to determine if students have earned promotion. Move Over, Ann Coulter: Meet Emily Mitchell, the woman behind ASU's Caucasian American Men's Club. Too sexy for my students: She was fired from her teaching job after expanding her students' sexual vocabulary. The Abstinence Gluttons: Meet the religious conservatives at the faith-based feeding trough who are getting rich controlling sex education in America.
From The Weekly Standard, a world without public schools: If the consensus underlying American public education has disappeared, why shouldn't the institution? A review of Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation by Beverly Daniel Tatum. A review of The Kings of New York: A Year Among the Oddballs, Geeks and Geniuses Who Make Up America’s Top High School Chess Team. Margaret Soltan of University Diaries joins Inside Higher Ed.