online archive
12:00PM
JUN 26 2007
Theology and politics, philosophy and science
From the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, Peyman Vahabzadeh (Victoria): Measure and Democracy in the Age of Politics of Fright; Matthew Abraham ( DePaul): Confronting the Politics of Evasion in an Age of Fright: Democracy, Religious Enthusiasm, and the State; Mario Costa ( Drew): "A Love as Strong as Death": Reconstructing a Politics of Christian Love; Daniel M. Bell, Jr. (LTSS): The Politics of Fear and the Gospel of Life: Jason C. Bivins (NC State): The Religion of Fear: Conservative Evangelicals, Identity, and Antiliberal Pop; William Little (Victoria): The Return of the Sacred Man: Politics, Fundamentalism and Fright; Simon Wood (Nebraska): Islamic Fundamentalism Revised: Ruhollah Khomeini, Mawlana Mawdudi, and the Fundamentalist Paradigm; Rubina Ramji (Ottawa): Women’s Bodies and Islam: Individual Freedoms in a World of Fundamentalisms; and a review of Theology and the Political: The New Debate, ed. Creston Davis, John Milbank, and Slavoj Zizek.
From Dissent, pragmatist hope: A review of Democratic Hope: Pragmatism and the Politics of Truth by Robert B. Westbrook and Take Care of Freedom and Truth Will Take Care of Itself: Interviews with Richard Rorty, ed. by Eduardo Mendieta. Richard Rorty tried to rescue analytic philosophy from essentialist abstraction. In doing so, he alienated many peers but won readers across the intellectual world, writes Carlin Romano. A review of Truth and Realism, ed. Patrick Greenough and Michael P. Lynch. Big ideas: A review of The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century by AC Grayling; Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein; The Meaning of Life by Terry Eagleton; and A Guide to Philosophy in Six Hours and Fifteen Minutes by Witold Gombrowicz.
A review of Balance: In Search of the Lost Sense by Scott McCredie (and more). When does your brain stop making new neurons? A. Infant; B. 42 Years Old; C. 53 Years Old. According to a controversial theory, electricity is just a side effect of how nerves really operate: by conducting high-density waves of pressure that resemble sound reverberating through a pipe. Unwanted Thoughts: Trying hard not to think about something almost guarantees that it will pop up in your consciousness. A review of I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter. A review of Faust in Copenhagen: A Struggle for the Soul of Physics by Gino Segre (and more). Stephen Hawking, whose brilliant mind and robotic voice inspired millions of people to buy his hit book, A Brief History of Time, plans to do it again - but this time for children.
12:00PM
JUN 26 2007
Iarq and the war on terror, American landscapes, the environment and more
From Newsweek, a series of articles on What You Need to Know Now, including Fareed Zakaria on the War Against Radical Islam; Robert Samuelson on the biggest threat to the US economy; Steven Levy on Broadband Penetration; and Howard Fineman on Election 2008.
From Dissent, a symposium on exporting democracy: What have we learned from Iraq? Daniele Archibugi, Seyla Benhabib, Paul Berman and others respond. This is not a 1938 encore: The idea that liberals are appeasing Islamism as once they did Hitler is a dangerous delusion. As the Romans: An interview with Cullen Murphy, author of Are We Rome? More on The Pentagon: A History by Steve Vogel. The Specialist: An article on Robert Gates and the tortured world of American intelligence (and part 2).
Bye, Bye, Miss American Empire: Which way out of the current mess? Turn left (or is it right?) toward the Green Mountains and explore the patriotic territory of succession. A review of Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics by Rebecca Solnit (and more). A review of Way Off the Road: Discovering the Peculiar Charms of Small-Town America by Bill Geist.
The coal, hard truth: Written almost 90 years apart, a pair of muckraking books neatly frames the messy debate over the consequences of the "dirty rock" – and its stubbornly prominent role in our future. Tim Flannery fears global warming will reach a tipping point beyond which recovery will be impossible. Nicholas Lezard urges us to start acting on the recommendations of Heat (and an interview with George Monbiot). On the eve of his Live Earth global concerts, an exclusive interview with Al Gore on climate change, George Bush and whether he'll run for president in 2008.
Anxiety in the Land of the Anti-Immigration Crusader: Economic worries and cultural differences fuel anger over immigration in Colorado. Benjamin Barber's Consumed makes Chris Petit ponder the perils of consumerism. A review of Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich by Robert Frank. Hedge Clipping: John Cassidy on trying to get rich on the cheap. The Man Who Sells the Moon: Dennis Hope has made $9 million selling space "property".
12:00PM
JUN 26 2007
Global issues, economics, Europe, American foreign policy and the Middle East
From the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, a roundtable on globalization, with Gianni Vattimo, Charles Taylor, and Richard Rorty; and a conversation with Michael Hardt; who's afraid of atomic bombs? A review of Glimmer of a New Leviathan: Total War in the Realism of Niebuhr, Morgenthau, and Waltz by Campbell Craig; a review of Globalization and Its Enemies by Daniel Cohen; a review of September 11: Religious Perspectives on the Causes and Consequences; and a review of Religion, Politics, and the Christian Right: Post-9/11 Powers and American Empire.
From CT, a review of Imperial Nature, The World Bank and Struggles for Social Justice in the Age of Globalization by Michael Goldman and The World's Banker, A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations. Poverty Reconsidered: Most everyone has a theory about why the poor stay poor. Most everyone is wrong. A review of Connected: 24 Hours In The Global Economy by Daniel Altman.
Form Dissent, an essay on the Russian conundrum: Growing economy, failing society. Wait till the Kremlin starts buying our stocks: Sebastian Mallaby on the next globalization backlash. For Christa Wolf, the socialist dream still flickers: A review of One Day a Year: 1960–2000. Oliver Kamm on how Gordon Brown will change Britain's foreign policy. Fantasy Island by Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson takes a broadside shot at the economics of New Labour.
Form Asia Times, how to project soft power: A review of The First Resort of Kings: American Cultural Diplomacy in the Twentieth Century by Richard T. Arndt. Hard Realities of Soft Power: The United States has dedicated tens of millions of dollars to promoting democracy in Iran. But for Iranian democrats and America alike, the effort may be more trouble than it’s worth. Piece Process: Our mission in the Middle East is not to make things better; it’s to keep them from getting worse. When Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft all start saying the same thing, it's time to pay attention.
A review of The Good Fight by Peter Beinart. Fleeing our responsibility: An article on why the United States owes succor to Iraqi refugees. An interview with Ted Galen Carpenter of the Cato Institute on engaging Iran. An interview with Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Zahar: "We will try to form an Islamic society", and an article on how to deal with Hamas. Arcadi Gaydamak — billionaire, philanthropist, arms dealer — may be the most popular man in Israel. And the most troubling.
12:00PM
JUN 26 2007
Global literature, authorship, British lit, media and more
Resemblance of things past: Günter Grass's shadowy account of his long and eventful life, Peeling the Onion, is far less convincing than his fiction (and more and more and more and more). Gullible’s travels: What happens when an author writes about a country they have never been to? The quixotic don: The cultural pull of Cervantes' creation runs dark and deep, influencing Latin American literature, music and art. Writer Jorge Luis Borges saw mazes as a metaphor for life. Two decades after his death, a real one is helping to keep his name alive.
JT LeRoy, the authorial “other” whom the writer Laura Albert employed as her alter ego and self-protective proxy in the world, was found to be not just a fictional creation, but a fraud, and more on the tension between art and commerce. No bad authors: Reasonableness is one of the first things to go when we toil to put our hearts and minds on the printed page. Manga Shakespeare. You hear the words and you think, Manga Shakespeare? Really?
A Comic Kingdom Made of Words: Know-it-all butlers, doddering earls and flighty young ladies—all were P. G. Wodehouse’s elaborate cover for his lifelong love affair with the language. A review of Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910-1939 by Katie Roiphe (and an interview). True or False: Jane Austen outsells Alice Walker and Ann Coulter.
A review of Songs of Ourselves: The Uses of Poetry in America by Joan Shelley Rubin. From The New Yorker, an article on Harold Bloom and Barack Obama's poetry. From Dissent, art meets politics: Gail Levin on how Judy Chicago’s _Dinner Party_ came to Brooklyn; and an article on Tony's Last Supper: On The Sopranos and politics.
A new issue of Open Letters Monthly is out, including Running Toward the Truck: Newspaper book pages are under threat. John Cotter assesses the reviews of Jonathan Lethem’s novel You Don’t Love Me Yet to learn what (if anything) in our print reviews is worth saving. What might the Wall Street Journal become if Rupert Murdoch owned it? Ken Auletta investigates.
Can the Internet be saved? Citing spam, viruses, and unreliable connections, scientists plan a moon shot: reinventing the whole thing. When Computers Attack: Governments are readying themselves for the Big One, a long-announced, long-awaited cyberwar of global proportions. I just want to be friends with you It used to be the old boys' network that kept the powerful connected, and the riff-raff out. Now politicians and princes go cyber-schmoozing on Facebook. Since when did it become OK to sign off work emails with kisses? Stuart Jeffries laments the rise of bogus email intimacy.
