From Cosmos and History, a special issue on The Spirit of the Age: Hegel and the Fate of Thinking. From In-Spire, a special issue on The Paradox of Cosmopolitan Right and the Modern State. From Alternatives, Bettina Dahl Soendergaard (Aarhus): The Political Realism of Augustine and Morgenthau: Issues of Man, God, and Just War. A review of White King and Red Queen: How the Cold War Was Fought on the Chessboard by Daniel Johnson. From the International Journal of Conflict and Violence, David J. Harding (Michigan): Neighborhood Violence and Adolescent Friendships. Shamanism, schmamanism: These days, it seems like you can’t throw a rune without it bouncing off the turban-wrapped skull of some bead-draped, hemp-swaddled seeker billing himself a shaman. A review of The Novels of Erich Maria Remarque: Sparks of Life by Brian Murdoch. From LRB, Mahmood Mamdani on the lessons of Zimbabwe; and a review of The Bin Ladens: The Story of a Family and Its Fortune by Steve Coll (and more from Bookforum). Learning to smoke: It's not permitted, it pisses people off, it makes you puke, it confuses you, and it brings clarity, it makes you an outcast, and it helps you meet wonderful strangers — lessons from a man who did the unthinkable. A look at a wave of radical presentations of the Bible, including a manga version and a Lego gospel.
