5:00PM
AUG 28 2008
Beautiful minds on the shelf
A new issue of Politikon is out. From Mother Jones, here are five good things Bush has done. From TNR, here's the surprising inside story of how Obama scored the DNC keynote speech that made his career; and diplomacy for Barack Obama is more than an instrument, it is a mentality. The introduction to Philosophy and Real Politics by Raymond Geuss. The first chapter from The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity by Russell Roberts. A review of Republicans and the Black Vote by Michael K Fauntroy. The first chapter from What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality by Theda Skocpol, Ariane Liazos and Marshall Ganz. An excerpt from Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era by Houston A. Baker Jr. Beautiful minds on the shelf: A review of Great Ideas: Series Three. It’s a Maddow, Maddow World: MSNBC’s fresh-faced host glows under the hot lights in Denver. From Prospect, flirting with Stalin: Little wonder that Putin has been able to exploit nostalgia for Soviet "greatness"; is behavioural economics such a big deal? Pete Lunn and Tim Harford debate; and why Hamlet's heirs are happy: Shakespeare's prince was a gloomy sort, but a trusting society makes today's Danes rather jolly. From Jewcy, an article on Zizek for Jews.
1:00PM
AUG 28 2008
What they wear
From Social Policy, an essay on Building Organiziations in a Movement Moment; a look at the struggle over voting rights and the future of progressive politics; an article on living wage policies and Wal-Mart; an excerpt from Transforming the City: Community Organizing the the Challenge of Political Change; and a review of books on grassroots community organizing. From Foreign Affairs, Richard Holbrooke on The Next President: Mastering a Daunting Agenda; Robert Kagan on The September 12 Paradigm: America, the World, and George W. Bush; Stephen Biddle, Michael E. O'Hanlon, and Kenneth M. Pollack on How to Leave a Stable Iraq: Building on Progress; a review of 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War by Benny Morris (and more and more and more); and a review of Freedom's Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention by Gary J. Bass. A review of A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East by Kenneth M. Pollack. From The Philosopher's Annual, here are the ten best articles published in philosophy this past year. From TLS, a review of Artists in Exile: How Refugees from Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts by Joseph Horowitz. What they say may not be as important as what they wear: Convention fashion, explained.
9:00AM
AUG 28 2008
What’s the big idea
From Critical Mass, Mark Athitakis on the state of alt - weeklies. The road to Wikipedia: A review of Reinventing Knowledge: From Alexandria to the Internet by Ian McNeely and Lisa Wolverton. From THES, Encyclopaedia Idiotica: Wikipedia is created mostly by teenage male computer nerds, so Martin Cohen worries about its growing clout among scholars; a manifesto to discard elitism: A review of Uses of Literature by Rita Felsk; a review of Punctuation: Art, Politics and Play by Jennifer DeVere Brody. From CQ, now, just where are those Clintonites who won’t vote for Obama? David Greenberg on why the Democrats should fix the nominating system. Rogue State: Jonathan Chait the case against Delaware. From Boston Review, Elaine Scarry on presidential crimes: Moving on is not an option. More and more and more on Vincent Bugliosi's The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. Robert Solow reviews Bad Money by Kevin Phillips. From Dissent, a review of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse (and more and more) and Love the Work, Hate the Job: Why America’s Best Workers Are Unhappier Than Ever by David Kusnet; and is "The Wire" too cynical? The End of the End of the End of History? The conflict between Russia and Georgia was a turning point of some kind; Scott McLemee wonders what’s the big idea.
5:00PM
AUG 27 2008
Everything is connected
From the International Journal of the Commons, Derek Armitage (WLU): Governance and the Commons in a Multi-Level World. From Monthly Review, an article on the myth of the tragedy of the commons. A review of The Prisoners' Dilemma: Political Economy and Punishment in Contemporary Democracies by Nicola Lacey. From n+1, take it to the street: Class clash on Seventh Avenue. A profile of LP presidential candidate Bob Barr, the master of a curious universe. A review of Everything is Connected: The Power of Music by Daniel Barenboim and Music at the Limits by Edward Said. Feeding the Beast: In order to weaken federal agencies, the Bush administration has expanded them to the point of collapse. Is it so outlandish to suggest that we sell the right to live in the United States? Gary Becker wants to know. A review of Let Them In: The Case for Open Borders by Jason Riley. Bent Flyvbjerg promotes a cure for billion-dollar cost overruns in government megaprojects: Use past boondoggles as a baseline. A review of Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb. A review of High Wire: The Precarious Financial Lives of American Families by Peter Gosselin. Scientists sequence Neanderthal DNA and find no evidence of ancestral interbreeding with our long-lost cousins.
1:00PM
AUG 27 2008
The case of beauty
From Evolutionary Psychology, Menelaos Apostolou (Warwick): Parent-Offspring Conflict over Mating: The Case of Beauty; David M. Buss (UT- Austin) and Todd K. Shackelford (FAU): Attractive Women Want it All: Good Genes, Economic Investment, Parenting Proclivities, and Emotional Commitment; and a review of Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters by Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa. Krzysztof Koscinski (AMU): Facial attractiveness: General patterns of facial preferences. Una Gustafsson and Fredrik Bjorklund (Lund): Women Self-Stereotype with Feminine Stereotypical Traits Under Stereotype Threats. Betsey A. Stevenson and Justin Wolfers (Penn): Paradox of Declining Female Happiness. Daniel L. Chen (Harvard): Does Forbidding Sexual Harassment Exacerbate Gender Inequality? From Islamica, an interview with Samuel Huntington; a review of books on political Islam; and an article on the American Muslim community's "Obama" problem: How do you root for a candidate who doesn't want you to root for him? Jonathan Chait on the right's silly obsession with the Obama "cult". A review of Christianity and American Democracy by Hugh Heclo. A review of Muscular Christianity in Colonial and Post-Colonial Worlds. A review of Nietzsche: A Guide for the Perplexed by R. Kevin Hill. More on Victor Stenger's God: The Failed Hypothesis.
9:00AM
AUG 27 2008
Judging a book by its cover
From TNR, Paul Berman on the death of 1989: The vast, frightening fallout of Russia's invasion of Georgia; and the Kosovo Card: Ruth Wedgwood on the moral and legal fallacies of Russia's pretense for invading Georgia. From PUP, the introduction to Because of Race: How Americans Debate Harm and Opportunity in Our Schools by Mica Pollock; the introduction to Why We Vote: How Schools and Communities Shape Our Civic Life by David E. Campbell; and the introduction to The Welfare State Nobody Knows: Debunking Myths about U.S. Social Policy by Christopher Howard. From Rolling Stone, Sean Wilentz on How Bush Destroyed the Republican Party (and a video). Lifehacking for candidates: The pros give productivity advice to the presidential hopefuls. From Mute, Giovanni Arrighi invokes the political economy of Adam Smith to claim that China's labour intensive mode of production is the future of capitalism — it's also the past, argues Daniel Berchenko. A review of Judging a Book by Its Cover: Fans, Publishers, Designers, and the Marketing of Fiction. More on John Allen Paulos' Irreligion. A blueprint for good: A new movement aims to change the world through free architecture. They mean business. A review of Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality by Charles Murray (and more and more from Inside Higher Ed).
5:00PM
AUG 26 2008
Street art is dead
From Strategic Studies Quarterly, Douglas Peifer (AWC): Genocide and Airpower. From Human Rights and Human Welfare, Eric A. Heinze (Oklahoma): Who Intervenes and Why it Matters: The Problem of Agency in Humanitarian Intervention; exploring universal rights: A symposium on Which Rights Should Be Universal? by William J. Talbott; a review of Democracy as Human Rights: Freedom and Equality in the Age of Globalization by Michael Goodhart; and a review essay on economic rights and the welfare state. Andrew Bacevich on how the next president will disappoint you. In politics, what's fair game and what works? Veteran strategists from both sides of the partisan divide report. How America's favorite tabloid landed one of the biggest political scandals of the year. From The Village Voice, life is short: Have an affair, New York. Radar goes inside the world of high-class hipster hookers; and here's a semiscientific guide to the worst colleges in America. Here are 6 absurd classes taught at actual colleges. From The Philosophers' Magazine, Brian Leiter on the state of the vocation. From Contexts, Dave Zirin on calling sports sociology off the bench. A review of The Book is Dead (Long Live the Book) by Sherman Young. Street Art is Dead: Revolutionary creativity does not shock or entertain the bourgeoisie, read communiques posted at the scene, it destroys them.
1:00PM
AUG 26 2008
The utopian as sadist
The Summer 2008 issue of Contemporary Review is now online. An interview with Michael Kimmel, author of Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men. A review of The Rape of Troy: Evolution, Violence and the World of Homer by Jonathan Gottschall. From Humanitas, Robert H. Bell (Williams): Homer’s Humor: Laughter in The Iliad; Gabriel R. Ricci (Elizabethtown): Goethe’s Faust: Poetry and Philosophy at the Crossroads; Gorman Beauchamp (Michigan): "The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor": The Utopian as Sadist; and James Seaton (MSU): Lyric Poetry, the Novel, and Revolution: Milan Kundera’s Life is Elsewhere. From Anthurium, a special issue on V.S. Naipaul. From The New Yorker, a review of Max Factor: The Man Who Changed the Faces of the World by Fred E. Basten. A review of The Age of Impeachment: American Constitutional Culture Since 1960 by David E. Kyvig. The Orator: Meet Robert Brown Elliot, the Obama of the 1870s. An article on New England's wealth of literary magazines. Handcrafted data: Why many great reference works still rely on paintbrush and pencil, not the digital camera. From PC Magazine, a look at the top 100 undiscovered Web sites. Tiny talents: Instruction, especially in trivial skills, is one of the Web’s great giveaways. From Scientific American, a special section on technology, privacy and security.
9:00AM
AUG 26 2008
A question of balance
From Human Affairs, Hubert Dreyfus (UC-Berkely): Detachment, Involvement, and Rationality: Are We Essentially Rational Animals?; Bart Engelen (Leuven): Rationality, Norms and Institutions: In Search of a Realistic Utopia; and Iris Mendel (Vienna): Myth, Utopia, and Political Action. Andrew Savchenko (URI): Constructing a World Fit for Marxism: Utopia and Utopistics of Professor Wallerstein. Christian Barry (ANU) and Laura Valentini (Oxford): Egalitarian Challenges to Global Egalitarianism. Zofia Stemplowska (Manchester): What's Ideal About Ideal Theory? From City Journal, Steven Malanga on the professional panhandling plague. David Warsh reviews A Question of Balance: Weighing the Options on Global Warming Policies by William D. Nordhaus. In search of world justice: The burden of climate change solutions can only be equitably shared via an international court. Identity politics in climate change hell: Do you want to save the biosphere or boost your own brand of politics? (and more) An interview with Jane Mayer, author of The Dark Side. Sex and the Olympic city: Young men and women with the most fit, toned bodies in the world mingle for the last time — what might they get up to? What's up with black names, anyway? From Tayshaun to Rau'shee, Olympic athletes have been a reminder of distinctive African-American names.
5:00PM
AUG 25 2008
The case for cool
From GJSS, Lee Wing Hin (York): Centering the Center: Finding the "Hetero" in Heteronormativity. From The Gay and Lesbian Review, an interview with Edward Albee: "I’m just too busy to look back"; the search for signs of gay life in occupied Afghanistan and Iraq; an article on the science of gaydar; a look at some of the stranger “cures” for homosexuality, 1892–2004; and Bette at the bathhouse: A hand for the Divine Miss M! Which breakaway state will be the next South Ossetia? Do white people really come from the Caucasus? If Obama loses: Jacob Weisberg on why racism is the only reason McCain might beat him. In defense of race-based rooting: At the Olympics, you sometimes find yourself rooting for athletes because of their race — and that's OK. Happiness on the medal stand: It's as simple as 1-3-2. From Discover, an article on how to teach science to the Pope. An interview with Mary Beard, the classical world's most provocative figure. A review of An End to Poverty? A Historical Debate by Gareth Stedman Jones. An excerpt from Reading the OED by Ammon Shea. Peter Singer on the hidden costs of money. They are drops in an ocean of dominant norms, but some men also do question the roles thrust on them by society. Timothy Mercer on 5 reasons to be skeptical of charities. The case for cool: What, exactly, is wrong with a celebrity candidate?
