online archive
12:00PM
JUL 2 2007
Legal theory, philosophy, economics and science
Louis J. Sirico Jr. (Villanova): Original Intent in the First Congress. Michael Cahill (Brooklyn): Retributive Justice in the Real World. A new study shows how often juries get it wrong. A review of Forgiveness, Mercy, and Clemency; a review of The Migration of Constitutional Ideas; a review of Law in Times of Crisis: Emergency Powers in Theory and Practice by Oren Gross and Fionnuala Ní Aoláin; and a review of Judge and Jury: American Tort Law on Trial by Eric Helland and Alexander Tabarrok.
From Salon, an interview with Simon Blackburn, author of Plato's Republic: A Biography. A look at how Bertrand Russell's interpretation of Rousseau in The History of Western Philosophy is both unfair and inaccurate and misrepresents Rousseau's historical legacy. From Harvard Magazine, an anti-utopian, old-school scholar of international relations, Stanley Hoffmann grasps “the foreignness of foreigners”; a review of Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction by Thomas K. McCraw; and Debtor Nation: The rising risks of the American Dream, on a borrowed dime. Are the wrong people voting? Louis Menand reviews The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Politics by Bryan Caplan.
From Zeek, an essay on free will and the last gasp of the unenlightened mind; and a look inside the German brain: An English neurosurgeon abroad. Master of creation? Nobel prize-winning scientist Gerald Edelman says he has discovered how human souls are made. It is an epic story of struggle and triumph in the womb - and it could end the worldwide rift over human-embryo experiments. A review of Everything Conceivable: How Assisted Reproduction is Changing Men, Women and the World by Liza Mundy. Why can't you buy a kidney to save your life? A growing legal movement to recognize a new fundamental right — medical self-defense — could bring jarring social changes. A Challenge to Gene Theory, a Tougher Look at Biotech: The $73.5 billion global biotech business may soon have to grapple with a discovery that calls into question the scientific principles on which it was founded.
From Commentary, Leon Kass on Science, Religion, and the Human Future, with responses by Steven Pinker and others. Richard Dawkins reviews The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism by Michael J. Behe. The Final Days: A growing community of amateur scholars believe that the world as we know it will come to an end in 2012, as prophesied by the ancient Maya. Is the New Age apocalypse coming round at last? The new age of ignorance: We take our young children to science museums, then as they get older we stop. In spite of threats like global warming and avian flu, most adults have very little understanding of how the world works. So, 50 years on from CP Snow's famous "Two Cultures" essay, is the old divide between arts and sciences deeper than ever? And a celebrity panel answers some basic scientific questions.
12:00PM
JUL 2 2007
American history and politics
Wrapped in the Star-Spangled Toga: Recently, it has seemed that ancient Rome is everywhere — especially in comparisons to modern America. A review of Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America by Cullen Murphy; The Idea That is America: Keeping Faith with Our Values in a Dangerous World by Anne-Marie Slaughter; and Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion by David Gelernter (and more).
Georgian America: Geoffrey Wheatcroft on why George III would have felt right at home in George W. Bush's Washington. Loyal to a Fault: In 1776, one out of five Americans most certainly did not hold those truths to be self-evident. A review of Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence by John Ferling. A review of Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr by Nancy Isenberg. A review of The Fabric of America: How Our Borders and Boundaries Shaped the Country and Forged Our National Identity by Andro Linklater. A review of Passion and Principle: John and Jessie Frémont, the Couple Whose Power, Politics, and Love Shaped Nineteenth-Century America by Sally Denton. A review of Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life by Beverly Lowry. A review of The Road to Disunion: Volume II: Secessionists Triumphant, 1854-1861 by William W. Freehling. A review of Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe’s America by Andrew Ferguson. The Real Deal: Amity Shlaes on reconsidering our reverence for FDR. A review of Fateful Choices: Ten Decisions that Changed the World, 1940-1941 by Ian Kershaw (and more).
Why Winston Wouldn't Stand For W: George W. Bush always wanted to be like a wartime British prime minister. He is. But it's not the one he had in mind. The Darksider: Hendrik Hertzberg on Cheney’s hubris. There's a lot of talk — and wishful thinking — about removing Dick Cheney from office. But Cheney isn't the real problem, says Sanford Levinson. The vice presidency itself, enshrined in the Constitution, is the problem. The country would be better off without it. Bush's Loyal Mess: How the Bush years have showed us the dark side of a grand virtue. If President Bush is a fascist, then the fact is that the beloved first black president, B.J. Clinton, is a Hitler incarnate.
From HNN, Freedom! Liberty! A look at how presidents exploit words. The Stars and Stripes, the Liberty Bell, the Fourth of July: all come under fire from the tough myth-buster The Fourth of July by Peter de Bolla. A review of The Culture of Calamity: Disaster and the Making of Modern America by Kevin Rozario. From Renew America, Alan Keyes on The Crisis of the Republic and more on electoral politics, elections, media and money, the moral basis for the war on terror, the key to American statesmanship, and sovereignty and submission (with more to come); and Fred Hutchison on a brief history of the five kinds of conservatism from 800 B.C. - 1300 A.D.; from Dante to Shakespeare, 800 B.C. - 1300 A.D.; from the King James Bible to Samuel Johnson, 1600 - 1750; and on the bad seeds sowed from Bacon to Kant, 1600-1800 A.D. (with more to come).
12:00PM
JUL 2 2007
Global issues, Islam and the Middle East
From the International Peace Academy, a series of papers on Coping with Crisis, including essays on Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Central Asia and the Caucasus, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean. A review of The Bottom Billion: Why the poorest countries are failing and what can be done about it by Paul Collier (and more). Weapon of choice for children, rebels and soldiers: A review of AK47: the Story of the People's Gun by Michael Hodges (and more). A review of How to Kill: The Definitive History of the Assassin by Kris Hollington. When Africa ignores the youth, its warlords celebrate. Some justice, at last: The first war criminals are convicted in Sierra Leone.
From The Ghanaian Chronicle, an article on capitalism and the developing world. Africa's Green Revolution on Shaky Ground: A new African aid project may be in danger of becoming yet another boon for Big Agra. In a world on the move, Cape Verde strains to cope. Poor little brother: Why Lesotho is still unstable. Can drag queens and hired guns save Darfur? Sarah Stillman investigates.
From Ode, a review of On Islamism by Fouad Laroui. The Muslim faithless: Ridiculing and questioning Islam, Muhammad, the Qur'an and religion in general is an ancient tradition in Muslim countries. Can one agree on a principle that can serve as the basis for the establishment of genuine peace and harmony in the world? Ishtiaq Ahmed on reason, sympathy and human relations. The many sides of Allah: From NPQ, an interview with Amartya Sen on Turkey and the clash between religion and secularism.
From The New Yorker, an article on The Taliban’s Opium War: The difficulties and dangers of the eradication program. A review of Reading Legitimation Crisis in Tehran by Danny Postel. A key Iranian minister calls "temporary marriages" a pragmatic way to deal with young people’s sexual needs and to prevent prostitution, but a wide range of critics lambasts them as little more than ways to give religious sanction to practices that degrade women. A review of The Prince: the Secret Story of the World's Most Intriguing Royal, Prince Bandar bin Sultan by William Simpson. A review of The Truth About Syria by Barry Rubin. Immanuel Wallerstein on winners and losers in Palestine. A review of Walled: Israeli Society at an Impasse by Sylvain Cypel.
An op-ed on why the Iraq war won't engulf the Mideast. A review of The Mess They Made: The Middle East after Iraq by Gwynne Dyer. Dennis Ross on Tony Blair's daunting challenge as Middle East envoy. Were the US and UK governments complicit in framing an innocent man for the Lockerbie bombing? The truth has yet to be told.
12:00PM
JUL 2 2007
Literature, publishing and music
From NYRB, Joyce Carol Oates reviews The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall; Remainder by Tom McCarthy; Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald; and The Vintage Book of Amnesia: An Anthology; a review of A Tranquil Star: Unpublished Stories by Primo Levi; a review of Greed; Women as Lovers; Wonderful, Wonderful Times; The Piano Teacher; and Lust by Elfriede Jelinek; and a review of The Savage Detectives; Distant Star; Last Evenings on Earth; and 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. A review of The Temptation of the Impossible: Victor Hugo and Les Miserables by Mario Vargas Llosa.
As his autobiography makes clear, Mahatma Gandhi was too concerned with sex, diet and politics to be the otherworldly saint many took him to be. Pankaj Mishra on a classic of the confessional genre. Sex and the Saudi: A story of love, lust and shopping in the lives of four privileged young women is nothing new... but set in the conservative Islamic bastion of Riyadh it becomes a recipe for sensation and scandal. Sally Williams meets the taboo-breaking author Rajaa Alsanea. Prize-winning author Rajiv Chandrasekaran finds that four long-haul flights in a row leave him less than coherent, reflects on his wedding and a rabbi with a palm computer and finds a like mind on Iraq's bloody problems.
From CRB, a review essay on Larry McMurtry and the American West: A novelist who chronicles strong lives, despite himself. Writers Like Me: For most black authors, the writing life rarely unfolds the way it does for so many white writers you could name. The worst novel of the year: A review of The Average American Male: A Novel by Chad Kultgen. Return trip: The 50th anniversary of On the Road sees increased interest in Jack Kerouac and his Beat Generation classic.
The news that Antioch College would close in 2008 brings the question: Would the Antioch Review, an independent literary magazine founded in 1941, be shut down too? Where do the books go when a college closes? An interview with Andre Schiffrin, author of A Political Education, on his life and the world of publishing. A review of The Iron Whim: A Fragmented History of Typewriting by Darren Wershler-Henry. The greatest letters ever written: When the Swiss lawyer Albin Schram died in 2005, he left behind an extraordinary collection of letters by some of Western civilisation's greatest minds. They will soon go under the hammer - but here are the highlights of the collection.
A review of The House That George Built: With a Little Help from Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty by Wilfrid Sheed. A review of Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music by Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor. From Rolling Stone, an article on The Record Industry's Decline: Record sales are tanking, and there's no hope in sight: How it all went wrong (and What Next?). For anyone who cares about music and its current chaotic state, the summer of 1997 was the beginning of the end of the music business as we knew it. So, Steve Jobs, what’s next? The iPhone, after all, is already two days old.
