online archive
5:00PM
FEB 21 2008
A monumental turning point in history
From TLS, Zion story: A review of books on the most contentious communal struggle on earth today. The introduction to A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel by Gudrun Kramer. A review of Churchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft by Michael Makovsky. An interview with Randall Collins, author of Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory. Terry Teachout puts forward Teachout's First Law of Artistic Dynamics: "The best way to make a bad work of art is to try to make a great one". Eve Fairbanks on the strange passivity of Howard Dean. In politics, like everywhere else, generations have a natural fluidity — it can be hard to say where one group ends and the next begins. The good news from America: Most environmentalists are indeed leftists who support the redistribution of wealth and believe in a simpler lifestyle. A review of Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors from 1800 to the Present by Lisa Appignanes (and more and more and more and more and more and more). The End of History: The Atlantic recently asked a group of foreign-policy authorities about the prospects for democracy around the world. Research suggests the settlement of the Americas was a 3-act play. Has The Remnant gone soft, or has it merely recognized a monumental turning point in history?
1:00PM
FEB 21 2008
The anonymity experiment
Karen Sihra (Toronto): Philosophical Contributions of Gandhi’s Ideas on Non-Violence. From The Atlantic, Bay of Capitalist Pigs: A look at how Havana might change after Castro. Cannibalism and human depravity? An interview with Kim Paffenroth, author of Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero’s Visions of Hell on Earth. A review of Accident: A Philosophical and Literary History by Ross Hamilton. A review of Army 101: Inside ROTC in a Time of War by David Axe. Druids belong to the realm of myth, but now researchers in England have uncovered the grave of a powerful, ancient healer. From Mute, Elizabeth Povinelli locates the latest state of exception in a wider neoliberal project to impose work and austerity. From n+1, "what have we who are slaves and black to do with art?" An interview with Robert Bryce, author of Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of "Energy Independence". Feminism 2.0: From patriarchy to pop culture, the blogosphere has it covered. As newspapers recruit "citizen journalists" to fill their pages, flacks and hacks find an opening. From PopSci, The Anonymity Experiment: During a week of attempting to cloak every aspect of daily life, you find that in an information age, leaving no trace is nearly impossible. Writers in academe come together in New York, but is it still a city of literary dreams? asks Michael Dirda. A review of Brooklyn Was Mine.
9:00AM
FEB 21 2008
Globalisation is good for you
From Red Pepper, Nigel Harris on why globalisation is good for you (and Robin Blackburn responds on how the corporations that run the world can be made to pay for a new system of global welfare). How business can save the world: A provocative study suggests that enlightened management philosophies can spread from the office, and change societies. Does time heal all wounds? Here is new evidence on how major events – good and bad – impact people’s long-run life satisfaction. From PopMatters, an article on America’s most policed art form: Subway graffiti, NYC’s visual criminal; and Grant Wood's "American Gothic" is an elegant representation of the American nightmare: the horrors and monsters that constantly lurk behind the face of normality. A review of Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang (and more). The Bush family's slaveholding past: Was their dynasty built on slavery? Good ideas can have drawbacks: When information is freely shared, good ideas can stunt innovation by distracting others from pursuing even better ideas. More and more and more on How Fiction Works. From The Chronicle, Mearsheimer and Walt have been criticized for their narrowly empirical approach, but political science over all is vulnerable to that same critique; and a study finds conservatives just aren't into academe.
