Since the ‘Carter Doctrine’ of the late seventies, and particularly since September 11, the Middle East has been an area of ‘special interest’ to the U.S., featuring the invasion of Iraq (Afghanistan isn’t exactly a part of the Middle East, and won’t be dealt with in this post), support for Israel even in the face [...]
There is a study getting some attention, suggesting that Harvard University Press leans strongly to the left: David Gordon, a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute, and Per Nilsson, a Swedish consultant, scrutinized—but did not always actually read—494 titles Harvard published between 2000 and 2010 in economics, history, philosophy, political science, and sociology. [...]
I skipped this one when putting together Today’s New Books post, and I’m starting to regret it. Economics is today among the most influential of all professions. Economists alter the course of economic affairs and deeply affect the lives of current and future generations. Yet, virtually alone among the major professions, economics lacks a body [...]
The nominating committee for the Academy Award’s Best Documentary shows excellent taste. Waiting for Superman is snubbed, Inside Job and Exit Through the Gift Shop get nods (Washington Post) On the other hand. The Academy Awards is an almost all-white affair this year (the Indypendent). “I think the solution is not reforming the existing system, [...]
This editorial from the New York Times represents a fairly typical way of thinking about the digital transition. Can publishing and bookstores survive? Like discussions of the music industry, the presumption seems to be that if the corporations that monopolized market share before the transition can remain profitable, it is a good thing, and it [...]
Bad News: How America’s Business Press Missed the Story of the Century ed Anya Schiffrin (Powells) Beyond Duty: Life on the Frontline in Iraq by Shannon Meehan (Powells) Television and Presidential Power in Putins Russia by Tina Burrett (Powells) Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign Affairs by Laura A. Dickinson (Powells) The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and the Struggle for Iran’s Future ed Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel (Powells) Insurgent Sepoys: Europe Views the Revolt of 1857 ed Shaswati Mazumdar (Powells) Sedition: Everyday Resistance in the Soviet Union under Khrushchev and Brezhnev ed. Kozlov, Fitzpatrick, et al (Powells)
The journal N+1 has a big statement, ‘by the editors’, about the question of why anti-elitism in the U.S. takes the shape of anti-cultural elitism. Immediately there is confusion about what exactly is meant by cultural elitism. They refer to three quite different phenomenon. One is disdain for those feted as cultural achievers–here they refer [...]
Bad for Democracy: How the Presidency Undermines the Power of the People was written during the Bush administration, when author Dana Nelson, like so many somewhere on the left of the political spectrum, was alarmed by the expansion of executive power and its arbitrary exercise. Yet as a new preface written just after the election [...]
Responsibility for Justice by Iris Marion Young The Foie Gras Wars: How a 5,000-Year-Old Delicacy Inspired the World’ by Mark Caro
John Ross, Presente! (Counterpunch). Roots Action. A new internet thingy that looks to be a bit to the left of Moveon (RootsAction). Capitalism does that to people. In Romania, nostalgia for Communism (Yahoo News!). The debate triggered by Amy Chua barely scratches the surface. Middle Class Child Abuse is not an Asian Thing (Tenured Radical). [...]
The Politics of Equality: An Introduction by Jason C. Meyers Brown Skin, White Masks (The Islamic Mediterranean) by Hamid Dabashi New Trade Union Activism: Class Consciousness or Social Identity? by Sian Moore Ages of Reform: Dawns and Downfalls of the British Left by Kenneth O. Morgan Alter-Globalization by Geoffrey Pleyers @ Is For Activism: Dissent, [...]
Ever since it was announced in October of last year that Mohammed was the most popular name for baby boys in Britain, this fact has become the source of much hand-wringing about the ostensible Islamization of Europe. ’Liberal’ Bill Maher openly declared his fear that ‘the Western World (would) be taken over by Islam’. Now [...]
One more time, MLK DENOUNCED the US as the main exporter of violence in the world today. Someone tell the Pentagon. (Department of Defense) A new hybrid massacre: the assassination/shooting spree. Mark Ames historicizes the US’ spurts of social violence. (Vanity Fair) Good news from the UK. Austerity doesn’t seem to be helping the Coalition’s [...]
Just one today. Power and Transnational Activism ed. by Thomas Olesen (Powells)
Maybe she should have taken a closer look at the US before getting on her jet? Hillary Clinton said Arab countries risk ”“sinking into the sand” of unrest and extremism unless they liberalized their political systems and cleaned up their economies.” (New York Times h/t Joe Smith on Facebook) And, Hillary, before you get back [...]
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