
lundi, 25 novembre 2013
Konservative Revolution in Europa?
Konservative Revolution in Europa?
Erik Lehnert
Ex: http://www.sezession.de
Die „Konservative Revolution“ gehört zu den „erfolgreichsten Wortschöpfungen des neueren Ideengeschichtsschreibung“ (Stefan Breuer) und ist dennoch umstritten wie kaum ein zweiter Begriff. Das mag seinen Grund in den programmstischen Aussagen dieser Denkrichtung haben, die seine Gegner gern anderen Ideologien zuschlagen würden. Es kann aber auch daran liegen, daß die KR als ein spezifisch deutsches Phänomen angesehen wird und deshalb den Großideologien des 20. Jahrhunderts zugerechnet werden soll.
Der neue Band aus der Reihe „Berliner Schriften zur Ideologienkunde“ [2] widerlegt diese Auffassungen. Bereits Armin Mohler hatte in seiner grundlegenden Arbeit zum Thema darauf hingewiesen, daß es nicht nur eine europäische, sondern auch eine universale Dimension der konservativ-revolutionären Strömung gebe.
Tatsächlich entdeckt man bei genauerer Betrachtung eine lange Reihe von Persönlichkeiten, die seit dem Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts Ideen vertraten, die man als „jungkonservativ“, „völkisch“ oder „nationalrevolutionär“ bezeichnen könnte, und es gab auch Bewegungen, die bestimmte „bündische“ Züge aufwiesen oder Ähnlichkeit mit dem Landvolk hatten. Von Fjodor M. Dostojewski und Charles Maurras bis zu Julius Evola, T.S. Eliot und Sven Hedin reicht ein erstaunlich weites Spektrum, das bisher noch nie unter dem Gesichtspunkt betrachtet wurde, daß man es mit Repräsentanten einer großen, die Geistesgeschichte unseres Kontinents nachhaltig beeinflußenden ideologischen Richtung zu tun hatte.
Der Band versammelt Aufsätze zu folgenden Ländern: England, Italien, Niederlande, Belgien und Frankreich. Am Beispiel von Julius Evola wird zudem die europäische Dimension deutlich, die auf einzelne Vertreter zurückzuführen ist. Mit Hans Thomas Hakl, Alain de Benoist und Luc Pauwels sind ausgesprochene Kenner der jeweiligen Länder als Autoren vertreten. Der Herausgeber, Karlheinz Weißmann, ist sicher der beste Kenner der Materie in Deutschland, was er nicht zuletzt mit der Neufassung von Mohlers Klassiker unter Beweis gestellt hat. In seinem Vorwort wirft Weißmann einen Blick auf die restlichen Länder Europas und kommt zu folgendem Fazit:
Es dürfte […] unmittelbar deutlich geworden sein, daß keine einfache Antwort auf die Frage nach der europäischen Dimension der Konservativen Revolution möglich ist. Der Hinweis auf eine „Welle des antidemokratischen Denkens“ , die Anfang der dreißiger Jahre den Kontinent erfaßte, genügt jedenfalls nicht, um zu erklären, warum sich in bestimmten Ländern konservativ-revolutionäre Vorstellungen ausbreiteten, in anderen nicht; vielmehr ergibt sich folgende Bilanz:
• Die kulturelle und politische Nähe zu Deutschland konnte förderlich wirken (Niederlande, Belgien, Schweden, mit Vorbehalt Dänemark), aber von Zwangsläufigkeit ist keine Rede (Österreich, Schweiz),
• die Erfahrung der nationalen Demütigung und Schwäche spielte sicher eine Rolle (Italien, Belgien), war aber nicht ausschlaggebend (Frankreich, Großbritannien),
• was zuletzt bedeutete, daß die Krise des liberalen Systems, das als dysfunktional betrachtet wurde (Frankreich, Italien, Belgien, in gewissem Sinn auch die Niederlande und Großbritannien), den Ausschlag gab und jene Impulse freisetzte, die darauf abzielten, eine Konservative Revolution in Gang zu bringen,
• jedenfalls den Versuch zu unternehmen eine „vierte Front“ aufzubauen: gegen Kapitalismus, Kommunismus, Nationalsozialismus.
• Unbeschadet davon gilt aber, daß nur in Deutschland die Konservative Revolution zur „dominanten Ideologie“ werden konnte, weil bestimmte geistige Dispositionen und die kollektive Demütigung durch Niederlage und Versailler Vertrag die Entwicklung unerbittlich vorantrieben.
Die Untersuchung der europäischen Aspekte der Konservativen Revolution gilt schon lange als Desiderat der Forschung zur Geschichte des Konservatismus. Mit dem Erscheinen des Bandes ist ein großer Schritt in dieser Richtung getan. Er bringt nebenbei einige Antworten auf die Frage, warum sich die KR trotz ihrer Erfolglosigkeit als so zäh erwiesen hat, daß ihr auch heute noch ein gewisses Faszinosum nicht abgesprochen werden kann. Er bringt in uns etwas zum Klingen und verweist damit auf die Antinomien, die für den Menschen unüberwindlich sind: „Konservative Revolution nennen wir die Wiedereinsetzung aller jener elementaren Gesetze und Werte, ohne welche der Mensch den Zusammenhang mit der Natur und mit Gott verliert und keine wahre Ordnung aufbauen kann.“ (Edgar Julius Jung)
Der Band umfaßt 244 Seiten, kostet 15 Euro und kann hier bestellt werden [2].
Article printed from Sezession im Netz: http://www.sezession.de
URL to article: http://www.sezession.de/41893/konservative-revolution-in-europa.html
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.sezession.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/9783939869634.jpg
[2] Der neue Band aus der Reihe „Berliner Schriften zur Ideologienkunde“: http://antaios.de/buecher-anderer-verlage/institut-fuer-staatspolitik-/berliner-schriften-zur-ideologienkunde/363/die-konservative-revolution-in-europa?c=18
00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Révolution conservatrice | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : allemagne, europe, affaires européennes, révolution conservatrice, livre | |
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samedi, 23 novembre 2013
Le règne de la totalité et la fin de l'humain

00:03 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Philosophie, Théorie politique | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : philosophie, totalitarisme, théorie politique, sciences politiques, politologie, logique totalitaire | |
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dimanche, 17 novembre 2013
L'uomo che cavalcava la tigre
L'uomo che cavalcava la tigre. Il viaggio esoterico del barone Julius
di Andrea Scarabelli
Quello che presentiamo è un autentico viaggio, realizzato attraverso le opere pittoriche evoliane, che ripercorre le tappe fondamentali della vita di quello che è uno dei protagonisti della cultura novecentesca. Un viaggio nel quale Evola non è una semplice comparsa ma autentico medium delle sue opere, trascinando il lettore all'interno del suo mondo, biografico ma soprattutto metabiografico.
Un passo per volta, però. Lo sfondo di queste pagine è il vernissage di un'ipotetica esposizione: “Ea, Jagla, Julius Evola (1898-1974), poeta, pittore, filosofo. Il barone magico. Attraverso questa Mostra, promossa dalla Fondazione Julius Evola, conosceremo l'Evola pittore futurista e dadaista. È questa la prima retrospettiva a lui dedicata nel XXI secolo” (p. 13). Henriet ci invita a questa esposizione immaginaria, all'interno della quale ogni dipinto prende vita, inaugura una dimensione metatemporale e ci conduce attraverso le sillabe alchemiche dell'universo pittorico evoliano. Senza però fermarsi alle tele, a futurismo e dadaismo ma estendendosi all'interezza della “tavolozza dai molti colori dell'Irrazionalismo evoliano” (p. 13), momento altresì fondamentale per accedere alla cultura continentale novecentesca. E chi conosce il pensiero di Evola sa bene che tipo di valenza conferire al termine “irrazionale”...
Ad accompagnare il lettore altri non è che Evola stesso, a volte sostituito dal suo doppio Ea (uno degli pseudonimi con cui questi firmava taluni dei suoi contributi su Ur e Krur, alla fine degli anni Venti). Ogni dipinto “esposto” in quella che può considerarsi una galleria anzitutto interiore ridesta nel filosofo ricordi, universi, dimensioni – realtà. In ognuno dei ventisei capitoli che costituiscono il volumetto – molti dei quali recano, non casualmente, i titoli di opere evoliane, come Five o' clock tea, Nel bosco e Truppe di rincalzo sotto la pioggia – il lettore percorre i labirinti di Evola, ognuno dei quali avente una via d'accesso differente ma tutti diretti verso il cuore della sua Weltanschauung.
In questa dimensione, a metà tra la realtà fisica ed una onirico-allucinatoria, personaggi reali interagiscono con figure fantastiche – questo l'intreccio, abilmente restituito dalle pagine di Henriet. Non è difficile così scorgere un Evola intento a leggere recensioni dei suoi dipinti sulle colonne di riviste intemporali, intrattenere conversazioni con personaggi fantastici, percorrere dimensioni ontologiche ultraterrene. Ma, al contempo, a questi itinerari sono accostati momenti storici ben precisi, con il loro corollario umano - appaiono allora Arturo Reghini, Sibilla Aleramo, Arturo Onofri, Giulio Parise e gli iniziati del Gruppo di Ur.
Ed ecco evocati, come d'incanto, gli anni Venti, delle avanguardie e dei cenacoli esoterici. Ecco le feste organizzate dagli aristocratici, frequentate dal giovane Evola, nella fattispecie una, tenutasi per festeggiare la fine della Prima Guerra Mondiale: “Julius è vestito di nero, ed ha il volto coperto da una maschera aurea, provvista di un lungo naso conico” (p. 16). È l'unico, in Italia, tra i futuristi, ad apprezzare l'arte astratta. Il futurismo non è che una maschera, gli rivela la duchessa de Andri, organizzatrice della festa, liberatevene. E, tra le boutade di Marinetti e gli abiti disegnati da Depero, “egli andò oltre” (p. 22).
Non è che l'inizio: la realtà onirica diviene visione “vera” e simboli percorrono le trame dei vari capitoli, rendendoli interdipendenti tra loro: l'ape austriaca che, muovendosi a scatti con un ritmo metallico, si posa sulla tela appena conclusa di Truppe di rincalzo sotto la pioggia è la stessa che accompagna il giovane poeta Arturo Onofri tra i colpi delle granate della Grande Guerra, nella quale “la voce di Evola è a favore degli Imperi Centrali: l'Austria e la Germania” (p. 26).
Attraversati gli scandalismi e i manifesti futuristi, percorso il nichilismo dadaistico, il cammino del cinabro evoliano procede: “In un dorato pomeriggio autunnale, in Roma, nel 1921, alle ore 17, infine Evola capì. Aveva da poco smesso di dipingere. Quell'esperienza artistica era giunta alla fine, nel senso che le sue potenzialità creative si erano esaurite: tutto quel che poteva fare attraverso i quadri per procedere nella sua ricerca interiore, ebbene, lo aveva fatto” (p. 28). Alle 17.15, Evola si libera del suo doppio dadaista per procedere oltre, dopo l'abisso delle avanguardie per poi risalire, senza incappare nell'impasse dell'inconscio freudiano surrealista e della scrittura automatica. Via, verso Ur e Krur, La Torre e la sua rivolta contro la tirannia della modernità.
Come già detto, il percorso tracciato da Henriet non si arresta all'esaurimento della fase artistica, ma procede, percorrendo tutte le sue fasi fondamentali. Un altro frammento di realtà, trasfigurato e sublimato nelle serpentine dell'ermetismo pittorico del futuro filosofo: il XXI aprile 1927, dies natalis Romae, coglie il Nostro affacciato alla finestra di una torre – non d'avorio ma “di nera ossidiana” – mentre assiste da lontano ad una parata. “Tutta l'Urbe è in festa, ma Ea preferisce restarsene da solo, nel proprio salone. Per lui, in fondo, il fascismo è troppo plebeo” (p. 41). Ed ecco comparire, a cavallo di farfalle che sorvolano la Città Eterna, gli altri membri del Gruppo di Ur, quasi a formare una delle loro catene nei cieli liberi sopra la città, sopra il mondo intero, al di sopra della storia. Henriet rievoca qui le vicende legate alla celebre Grande Orma (episodio con retroscena ancora da scoprire, come testimonia il recente ottimo libro di Fabrizio Giorgio, Roma Renovata Resurgat, Settimo Sigillo, Roma 2012): “Nel 1923 hanno donato al capo del Governo un fascio formato da un'ascia di bronzo che proviene da una misteriosa e antica tomba etrusca, e dodici verghe di betulla, legate con strisce di cuoio rosso” (p. 42). La Tradizione porge la mano alla Storia, aspettando una risposta. Sono anni cruciali, questi, nei quali in poche ore possono decidersi non solo i destini di un decennio ma le sorti di un'intera civiltà. Riuscirà il fascismo a farsi depositario del proprio destino romano? Sono in molti a chiederselo. Attonito, Evola assiste al Concordato, al vanificarsi di un sogno, “ancora una volta è solo”, “uno spirito libero e aristocratico, fuori tempo e fuori luogo” (p. 42): in una parola, inattuale, in senso nietzschiano. Così, mentre le piazze gorgogliano dei singhiozzi gioiosi di quegli stessi che all'indomani del fallimento del fascismo prepareranno le forche e accenderanno i roghi, Evola se ne rimane in disparte. Alla fine della scena, una camicia nera emerge dal buio della notte, gli si avvicina, pronunciando, con una voce d'acciaio, queste parole: Il Natale romano è finito, barone. Da ora in poi, il destino degli eventi a venire è già scritto.
Ed ecco la Seconda Guerra Mondiale, la guerra civile europea, l'inizio di un nuovo ciclo, sul quale già pesa il presagio dell'ipoteca. Il viaggio nella prima mostra evoliana del XXI secolo continua, tra anticipazioni e retrospettive. Nella camera magica, Evola vede quello che sarà il suo destino: “In piedi, tra le rovine fumanti d'Europa, al termine della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, si aggira per Vienna. 1945. Una visione di morte. La tigre diventa metallo: la carne si solidifica” (p. 47). Sbalzato contro un muro dallo spostamento d'aria causato da una bomba, trascorrerà il resto della sua esistenza affetto da una semiparalisi degli arti inferiori.
Il Barone è costretto su una carrozzella, novella tigre d'acciaio. Il secondo dopoguerra. Con una certa ironia (che non sarebbe dispiaciuta al Barone ma che forse non piacerà a certi “evolomani”, come scrive Gianfranco de Turris nella sua Introduzione) l'autore immagina che proprio a cavallo di questa nuova tigre il Nostro continui la sua battaglia. Inizia a dipingere copie dei suoi dipinti degli anni Venti, dispersi (ossia venduti) durante la celebre retrospettiva del 1963. Eppure, anche in questa nuova situazione, si profilano nuovi attacchi, nuove situazioni da superare, come i Rivoluzionari del Sesso (evidente richiamo alle dottrine di Wilhelm Reich). Ed ecco gli Anti-Veglianti, Signori dell'Occhio, che tentano di impiantare un Occhio televisivo al posto di quelli biologici, teso ad uniformare Evola al mondo moderno, alla tirannia dell'homo oeconomicus e dei Mezzi di Comunicazione di Massa, che al terzo occhio ne sostituiscono uno artefatto e anestetizzante, che riduce l'uomo a Uomo Banale e Mediocre. Ma Evola riesce a fuggire.
Ennesima anticipazione: questa volta in alta montagna, molti passi sul mare, ancora di più sull'uomo, come aveva scritto Nietzsche. Eccolo assistere in anteprima alla deposizione delle sue ceneri sul ghiacciaio del Lys. Allucinato da uno dei suoi quadri, Evola ha una visione di quel che sarà: “Il vento spira freddo, la luce del sole è netta, brillante. Il silenzio domina tutto. I ghiacci eterni scintillano. V'è una gran quiete, tesa, nervosamente carica di energia in potenza” (p. 36). Per disposizione testamentaria, il suo corpo viene cremato, le ceneri disperse sulle Alpi. Così vive la propria morte Ea, Jagla, il Barone – nel libro non la conoscerà mai più, fisicamente. Si addormenterà, sognando un'intervista realizzata per la televisione svizzera nei primi anni Ottanta. Il “diamante pazzo” che scaglia bagliori qua e là, illuminando ora l'uno ora l'altro frammento del firmamento occidentale, è seduto “sulla sua tigre a dondolo, in legno aromatico e dai colori smaltati in vernice brillante” (p. 67). Certo, pensa Evola beffardamente, parlare di certe cose nel mondo moderno, servendosi dei media (chissà che avrebbe pensato oggi, nell'epoca della Rete...), non è certo ottimale. Comincia a dubitare della sua decisione di concedere l'intervista. Questa posizione a cavallo della tigre comincia ad apparirgli un po' scomoda. Risponde alle domande, ribadendo le proprie posizioni di fronte al neospiritualismo, alle censure di certe cricche intellettuali e via dicendo. Ma la realtà del suo sogno inizia a sfaldarsi. Il suo pellegrinaggio nel kali-yuga lo ha prosciugato: “Evola non immaginava che sarebbe stato così difficile. Il sogno della realtà è diventato un caos indistinto di colori acidi” (p. 71). Abbandonandosi al disfacimento dell'architettura onirica nella quale si vive morente, si spegne, “gli occhi accecati da una radianza aurea intensissima” (Ibid.). Il confine tra sogno e realtà è disciolto per sempre: Evola, che aveva visto la propria fine vivente in uno dei suoi quadri, ora vive la propria morte in un sogno.
Scritto con un registro stilistico iperbolico ed evocativo, il libro di Henriet, come messo a fuoco da de Turris nella già citata introduzione, non è però solo una rassegna di queste esperienze, quanto piuttosto una ricognizione sul senso dell'interezza del sentiero del cinabro, portato a stadio mercuriale durante il corso della vita del Nostro. Come è noto, a partire peraltro dalla sua biografia spirituale, il Cammino del cinabro, Evola diede pochissimo spazio a dettagli di ordine personale, preferendo ad essi un'impersonalità attiva fatta di testimonianze ed opere. In uno degli ultimi capitoli, Henriet scrive: “Della vita privata di Ea si sapeva poco, era come se non gli fosse accaduto nulla di personale. Egli era semplicemente il mezzo, uno dei possibili, attraverso i quali l'Io originario – la Genitrice dell'Universo, una delle Madri di Goethe – operava su quel piano della realtà, governato dalle regole del tempo e dello spazio” (p. 62). In questo può risolversi l'esercizio della prassi tradizionale, per come interpretata dal filosofo romano. Una azione nella quale l'essere un mezzo di istanze sovraindididuali non annichilisce l'Io, come vorrebbero invece talune spiritualità fideistiche sempre avversate da Evola, ma lo potenzia, finanche a realizzarlo in tutti i suoi molteplici stati. Un monito, questo, quanto mai attuale, tanto per accedere all'universo evoliano quanto per attraversare illesi il mondo moderno, sopravvivendo alle sue chimere e fascinazioni.
Alberto Henriet, L'uomo che cavalcava la tigre. Il viaggio esoterico del barone Julius. Presentazione di Gianfranco de Turris, Gruppo Editoriale Tabula Fati, Chieti 2012, pp. 80, Euro 8,00.

titolo: L'uomo che cavalcava la tigre. Il viaggio esoterico del barone Julius
autore/curatore: Andrea Scarabelli
fonte: Fondazione Julius Evola
tratto da: http://www.fondazionejuliusevola.it/Documenti/recensioneScarabelli_Sito.doc
lingua: italiano
data di pubblicazione su juliusevola.it: 10/06/2013
00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Traditions | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : julius evola, evola, traditionalisme, tradition, italie, livre, philosophie | |
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samedi, 16 novembre 2013
Géopolitique de l’Arctique
Géopolitique de l’Arctique (Th. Garcin)
Géopolitique de l’Arctique. Thierry Garcin, éditions Economica, 2013 , 186 pages
Cet ouvrage était nécessaire : en effet, depuis 2007 ou 2008, l’Arctique avait connu une certaine vogue médiatique (année polaire internationale, fantasme sur la route du nord-ouest qui serait dégagée avec le réchauffement climatique – ce qui apparaissait comme la seule bonne nouvelle dudit réchauffement–, drapeau en titane planté par les Russes sous le pôle Nord, …). Depuis, même si l’intérêt s’émoussait, l’Arctique demeurait la source d’un certain intérêt géopolitique mais aussi l’exemple d’une méconnaissance certaine.
Cette lacune est comblée par l’ouvrage très pédagogique de Thierry Garcin, HDR et producteur à France Culture d’une bonne chronique de géopolitique.
Le livre est divisé en trois parties : la première nous explique ce qu’est l’Arctique, sa géographie et son histoire, mais aussi la question du réchauffement climatique et les enjeux scientifiques. La deuxième nous décrit les enjeux contemporains (géopolitiques au sens étroit) qui sont juridiques, économiques et stratégiques. La troisième aborde quelques points particuliers : l’indépendance programmée du Groenland, le rôle des acteurs secondaires, le rôle des organisations régionales.
De la lecture, aisée et pédagogique, agrémentée de quelques encadrés et d’un cahier de cartes couleurs, on retient que l’Arctique est une zone des extrêmes, qui est plus un « enjeu » qu’un acteur, pour reprendre une formule de la conclusion. Il est à l’équilibre entre les actions des puissances riveraines, qui s’entendent pour ne pas s’entendre et surtout exclure les non riverains de leurs conversations. Surtout, cet équilibre est marqué par le déséquilibre des ambitions et des moyens, et de façon sous-jacente par le déséquilibre de puissance entre les acteurs : Russie et Etats-Unis d’un côté, Danemark (et bientôt Groenland peuplé de 58 000 habitants) de l’autre, puissances moyennes comme le Canada ou la Norvège entre les deux.
Ces disparités géographiques, humaines, stratégiques, économiques expliquent les contrastes et les chocs, mais aussi, de façon paradoxale, les accords, rendus nécessaire par la dureté des conditions géographiques. Car voici le grand enseignement du livre : malgré tous les fantasmes (navigation rendue plus facile ou exploitation des ressources devenant plus intense), les conditions sont très adverses et éloignent la perspective d’une vie « normale » en Arctique. De ce point de vue, l’Arctique demeure une région durablement exceptionnelle et non intégrée. Le deuxième enseignement réside dans la négligence avec laquelle beaucoup (Danemark mais aussi Europe) accueillent l’indépendance programmée du Groenland.
Au final, le livre réussit à être à la fois agréable à lire et informatif en proposant un bel appareil documentaire (bibliographie fournie, index). On regrette l’apparence des cartes qui auraient pu être redessinées par un professionnel. Le défaut est mineur comparé à l’ensemble des atouts offerts.
O. Kempf
00:05 Publié dans Géopolitique, Livre, Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : politique internationale, livre, géopolitique, arctique, océans | |
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lundi, 04 novembre 2013
LIBIA: El descrédito de la democracia
Maquetación: Manuel Q.
Colección: Helénica
Papel blanco 90gr.
10:19 Publié dans Actualité, Livre, Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : livre, libye, khadafi, afrique du nord, afrique, affaires africaines, monde arabe, monde arabo-musulman, méditerranée, politique internationale | |
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jeudi, 31 octobre 2013
Nietzsche fenomenologo del quotidiano
Scolari, Paolo, Nietzsche fenomenologo del quotidiano
Ex: http://recensionifilosofiche.info
00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Philosophie | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : nietzsche, philosophie, livre, allemagne | |
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samedi, 26 octobre 2013
Reviews Ex: http://atimes.com
Reviews
Ex: http://atimes.com
Crushed by the Chinese dream Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw As this tale of five new arrivals in Shanghai unfolds, the narrative that gradually draws them together builds a picture of the city as a glittering, ruthless devourer of their cash - and fame-fueled dreams. While the book succeeds in showing how the modern "Chinese dream" is as illusory as its American counterpart, an overplaying of coincidences sees it descend into heavy-handed plot manipulation. - Kent Ewing (Oct 11, '13) |
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How the West denied China's law Legal Orientalism: China, the US and Modern Law by Teemu Ruskola This important book traces the remarkable hold Orientalist views demonizing China as lawless still have on political and cultural narratives about China's laws and legal institutions. It argues that at a time the word needs more accurate knowledge of Chinese legal concepts, present-day reforms equating to a "self-Orientalism" make that unlikely. - Dinesh Sharma (Sep 27, '13) |
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Military matters in Myanmar Soldiers and Diplomacy in Burma by Renaud Egreteau and Larry Jagan. Strong Soldiers, Failed Revolution by Yoshihiro Nakanishi Outside focus on Myanmar's new civilian authorities and recent economic changes has helped the military, still the country's most powerful institution, to retreat into the shadows and to evade similar scrutiny. These two books help to shed light on that space, though both fall short of their objectives. - Bertil Lintner (Sep 20, '13) |
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How oil poisoned Gulf governance Collaborative Colonialism: The Political Economy of Oil in the Persian Gulf by Hossein Askari Given the "collaborative colonialism" relationship between Western powers and Arab countries, with callous, often corrupt, regimes backed militarily in return for secure oil supplies, Askari sees little motivation for Gulf countries to improve governance despite increasingly restive populations. His suggestion of intergenerational oil funds as an alternative reflects a compassion for the region that runs throughout the book - Robert E Looney (Sep 13, '13) |
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The dark heart of West's Iran obsession A Dangerous Delusion: Why the West Is Wrong About Nuclear Iran by Peter Oborne and David Morrison Using concise research, this work argues that Iran's readiness to accept monitoring and lack of weapons-grade uranium enrichment make a mockery of Western hype over a supposed nuclear program threatening the security of Israel and Gulf states. Its only questionable conclusion is that the US wants to prevent Iran from becoming a major Middle East power - bitter memories is one more likely explanation. - Peter Jenkins (Sep 6, '13) |
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How colonial Britain divided to rule Define and Rule: Native as Political Identity by Mahmood Mamdani Following a series of revolts, the British Empire was forced to recalibrate its style of indirect rule. Instead of merely differentiating between conquerors and the conquered, it now drew lines between distinct political identities and between natives according to tribe. This work argues that this not only led to local administrations becoming racialized, it also helped create our modern preoccupation with defining and managing difference. - Piyush Mathur (Aug 2, '13) |
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What China really wants Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the Twenty-First Century by Orville Schell and John Delur Tracing Chinese history through the eyes of its most influential leaders, this work proposes that all but one were motivated by the simple pursuit of wealth, power or both. It was these objectives that led China to dabble in republicanism, anarchism or "whatever ism of the time", writes the authors. Now that the country is wealthy and powerful, they conclude, a constitutional society may just be possible. - George Gao (Jul 26, '13) |
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How Jews navigated Bolshevik currents Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917-1920 by Oleg Budnitskii Western historians approaching the subject of Russian Jews during the Civil War are too often influenced by ideology - conservatives paint the Bolsheviks as anti-Semitic fascists, while leftists sketch out a pro-Jewish, progressive regime. This book succeeds in portraying a more accurate central path. Neither the Reds nor Whites favored ethnic-religious pogroms - but only because it was a politically expedient stance. - Dmitry Shlapentokh (Jul 12, '13) |
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When will the dirty wars end? Dirty Wars: The World Is a Battlefield by Rick Rowley and Jeremy Scahill ![]() Using investigative reports, this film argues that from cover-ups of Afghan night-raid atrocities to extrajudicial assassinations, a globally extended US militarism is being used to prevent anything undermining the US image of dominance being projected overseas. If it weren't for journalism exposing dirty wars, knowledge of such abuses might never escape the affected hotspots. - Steve Fake (Jun 14, '13) |
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Orphan of the collective The Elimination by Rithy Panh Cambodian-born filmmaker Rithy Panh's brave account of life stripped bare by the Khmer Rouge is helped by the inclusion of interview exchanges with Duch, the death-camp warden sentenced to life in prison by a UN-backed tribunal. Yet Panh is at his best writing about his own survival as a teenaged orphan among an adopted collective of killers. - Joe Freeman (May 31, '13) |
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Portraits of an identity crisis Lens and the Guerrilla: Insurgency in India's Northeast by Rajeev Bhattacharyya Che in Paona Bazaar: Tales of Exiles and Belonging from India's Northeast by Kishalay Bhattacharjee Scores of local rebel groups are active in the seven states east of the narrow "Siliguri Neck" connecting the northeast with the rest of India, but the motivations and people behind these movements are understudied. By taking entirely different approaches to the problems of identity in the volatile region, two new books shine complementary light. - Bertil Lintner (May 10, '13) |
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Banker tries bait and switch Nothing Gained by Phillip Y Kim When this tale of death and mystery in a crisis-hit US investment bank relates how a life built on arrogance, privilege and luck can rapidly unravel, it's a pleasure to watch high-fliers squirm. However, the would-be international business thriller pushes its most compelling characters offstage and offers unsatisfying substitutes. - Muhammad Cohen (Apr 26, '13) |
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How humanitarians trumped neo-cons in Libya Slouching Towards Sirte: NATO's War on Libya and Africa by Maximilian Forte The succession of human-rights based scare stories used to justify Western intervention in Libya, from the looming bloodbath in Benghazi to the African mercenaries and the "mass rapes", underscore the colonial mentality of the liberal lynch mob who backed the invasion. While it's similar to the smoking gun deception over Iraq, at least the neo-cons never claimed to be kind. - Dan Glazebrook (Apr 25, '13) |
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The Real North Korea The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia by Andrei Lankov Andrei Lankov turns his critical eye on the North Korean system and attempts to do the impossible: describe a country that has spent considerable time and effort defying description. If anyone can have a shot at delivering the goods on the "real North Korea'', he is the man, and with a few exceptions, he does a very good job. - John Feffer (Apr 22, '13) |
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Living (and dying) in the shadows Hong Kong Noir by Feng Chi-shun Gruesome tales from the minds of Hong Kong's most notorious serial killers and gangsters fascinate and appall in equal measure. While the 15 "factual" stories in the book sometimes mobilize the author's imagination, the squeamish detail in the former pathologist's writing will likely leave some readers cold. - Kent Ewing (Apr 19, '13) |
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Searching the globe for China Inc China's Silent Army: The Pioneers, Traders, Fixers and Workers Who Are Remaking the World in Beijing's Image by Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Araujo As Chinese business expands overseas, it is increasingly important to understand how mainland companies and Beijing interact as the latter steers the economic juggernaut. This book unravels some aspects of how Chinese diplomacy and business cooperate to serve geopolitical goals, but it mistakenly implicates Chinese immigrants in search of a better life in the economic exploitation being orchestrated by their leaders. - Muhammad Cohen (Mar 22, '13) |
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Judaism's ancient voice of reason The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture by Yoram Hazony The Hebrew Bible has long been misinterpreted within the Christian framework of revelation, though Christian concepts such miracles and eternal life are conspicuously absent from core tenets of Judaism. This book sets out to remind readers that like the works of great Greek philosophers, ancient Hebrew scriptures are entirely products of universal reason. - Friedrich Hansen (Feb 8, '13) |
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Judaism's ancient voice of reason The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture by Yoram Hazony The Hebrew Bible has long been misinterpreted within the Christian framework of revelation, though Christian concepts such miracles and eternal life are conspicuously absent from core tenets of Judaism. This book sets out to remind readers that like the works of great Greek philosophers, ancient Hebrew scriptures are entirely products of universal reason. - Friedrich Hansen (Feb 8, '13) |
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Huddled masses Refugee Hotel (Voice of Witness) by Gabriele Stabile and Juliet Linderman Striking photographs and moving personal accounts present a firsthand look at the confusion-filled first days of refugees in the United States. The stories of refugees from Bhutan, Myanmar, Burundi, Ethiopia, Iraq, and Somalia illustrate the variety of calamities that drive people to flee their home countries. - Renee Lott (Feb 1, '13) |
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Can Asians be funny? The Curious Diary of Mr Jam by Nury Vittachi A endearing collection of Hong Kong humorist Nury Vittachi's observations on everything from global politics to family life, this "diary" of his alter-ego Mr Jam also sets out to prove that despite blacklisting by oppressive regimes, post-modern Asian vidushaks, or jesters, can indeed raise a smile. The author succeeds, it just takes a few too many pages to get there. - Kent Ewing (Jan 18, '13) |
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Hirsute iconoclasts Joseph Anton - A Memoir by Salman Rushdie. Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Salman Rushdie's most recent book describes the lead-up to the infamous death sentence imposed on him by Ayatollah Khomeini, while Nassim Nicholas Taleb's provides background to his examinations of probability in finance. This makes the works seem incomparable, but both are brave accounts of presenting counter-logic to a prevailing consensus, and both explore the radical afterthought that comes from post-trauma. - Chan Akya (Dec 7, '12) |
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A Wolfe loose as Miami meets Moscow Back to Blood: A Novel by Tom Wolfe The return of Tom Wolfe sees the "New Journalism" exponent expose a Russian oligarch in a plot to make hundreds of millions of dollars through donating fake art to a Miami art museum. While the romp through Russian art and Cuban-American montes veneris does get to the heart of the Cold War eventually, it's no triumph of investigative journalism, fictional or real. - John Helmer (Nov 16, '12) |
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Making Korea possible Korea: The Impossible Country by Daniel Tudor South Korea is far from being a dull place, and has much more to offer the visitor than kimchi and K-pop. From "neophilia" to Shamanism, Tudor reveals cultural and political concepts missed by less-informed Western observers while exploding the myth that this is a conservative and isolated country. - James Pearson (Nov 2, '12) |
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Curse of the donor Aid Dependency in Cambodia: How Foreign Assistance Undermines Democracy by Sophal Ear Billions of dollars in aid has poured into Cambodia over the past two decades, and while the economy has grown it is on shaky foundations, with real development languishing in a mire of corruption ruled over by a predatory elite. Modern Cambodia is a kleptocracy cum thugocracy, writes the author, and the international community, led by the UN, is its enabler. - Sebastian Strangio (Oct 26, '12) |
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Tamerlane through Central Asian eyes The Legendary Biographies of Tamerlane: Islam and Heroic Apocrypha in Central Asia by Ron Sela This glimpse into how Central Asia's evolving view of the legendary 14th-century ruler Timur (Tamerlane) highlights how the region's impoverished societies for centuries held up Timur as a symbol of past greatness and promise of future glory. In post-Soviet discourse the cult of Timur was re-launched under Uzbekistan leader Islam Karimov - overlooking that Uzbeks were his sworn enemies. - Dmitry Shlapentokh (Oct 19, '12) |
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A one-sided history Modern China-Myanmar Relations: Dilemmas of Mutual Dependence by David I Steinberg and Hongwei Fan Given the wide-ranging hypocrisy dominating the West's embrace of Myanmar's "normalization" and China's role in the transition, honest analysis of what is really going on in is scarce. While this book does little to fill the void, it does coherently outline China's economic aspirations in Myanmar and provide valuable data on cross-border trade. - Bertil Lintner (Oct 5, '12) |
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Unity in diversity: NAM's nuclear politics Nuclear Politics and the Non-Aligned Movement by William Potter and Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova This book offers valuable insights into how in a post-9/11 revival the Non-Aligned Movement has shed its outdated image and create non-proliferation initiatives that have put Israel and its Western defenders on the back foot. While summizing well the complexity of NAM's nuclear politics, the authors fail to grasp how the International Atomic Energy Agency is manipulated by Western powers. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Sep 28, '12) |
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Chinese juggernaut World.Wide.Web by Bertil Lintner Seemingly insignificant stopovers by US diplomats in Asia-Pacific backwaters are one pointer to the expansion of Chinese interests in the region. The author has done an excellent job of tracing the country's increased role over the past three decades, but the absence of some developments means the work already seems dated. - Kent Ewing (Sep 14, '12) |
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The nudists and the diplomat's daughter Midnight in Peking by Paul French Written in a racy style that occasionally veers too close to parody, this is a fascinating look at the brutal slaying of a young Englishwoman in Beijing during the run-up to World War II. The victim herself now lies under the modern city's Second Ring Road, but the author has told her tragic story, and that of her bereaved father who never accepted the official investigation into the murder, vividly and expertly. - Michael Rank (Aug 31, '12) |
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The West, the Gulf and China: An oil-fueled triangle China and the Persian Gulf, ed Bryce Wakefield and Susan L Levenstein As China continues its rise, its vast energy requirements are increasing its influence in the Middle East, source of more than two-fifths of its crude oil. China has replaced the United States as Saudi Arabia's top export partner and Beijing is taking advantage of the West's demonization of Iran to do business in the Islamic Republic. Yet neither oil buyer can force the other out from the Persian Gulf. - Giorgio Cafiero(Aug 24, '12) |
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Iran nuclear diplomacy: An insider's take National Security and Nuclear Diplomacy, by Hassan Rowhani Hassan Rowhani, Iran's nuclear negotiator for 22 months during Mohammad Khatami's presidency, continues to influence the debate on how Tehran deals with the West. His book, detailing disagreements within the establishment, is recommended reading for anyone interested in understanding Iran's post-revolutionary politics and how a changing power structure has transformed decision-making from one-man rule to a collective enterprise. - Farideh Farhi (Aug 10, '12) |
Marketing guru chooses a tough sell The End of Cheap China: Economic and Cultural Trends That Will Disrupt the World by Shaun Rein No longer a mere source of cheap labor, China is becoming the world's most compelling consumer market. The author not only has stellar credentials to describe this new reality, and offer advice on how foreign business can cash in on it, he does so in a clear and highly readable style. It's his spin on politics that falls flat. - Muhammad Cohen (Aug 3, '12) |
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The 'real' story is the less obvious Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China by Arthur Waley Because they are familiar, to some degree, to Westerners, the book's treatment of Taoism and Confucianism may be of most interest to readers. Yet it was the third way of thought, "realism", that largely guided the evolution of China. - Dmitry Shlapentokh (Jul 20, '12) |
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Living large in Hong Kong Walking the Tycoons' Rope by Robert Wang This autobiography by a lawyer who found success in the circles of Hong Kong's mega-rich, only to be brought down by that same world of greed and heartlessness, begins in a very different environment, of poverty and tragedy in the communist mainland. A fascinating look back at a city of dreams that no longer exists, the book is also timely, as resentment against the tycoon class grows in Hong Kong. - Kent Ewing (Jul 13, '12) |
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Internet under their thumb Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom by Rebecca MacKinnon United States-based companies happily profit from overseas Internet censorship - most notably in China, while at home Facebook, Google, and government officials exert feudal rule over cyberspace. MacKinnon draws on a rich history of classical liberal thought to explore the real threat to digital freedoms. - Geoffrey Cain (Jul 10, '12) |
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China's take-off riddle China Airborne by James Fallows Fallows' work, nominally about China's ambitious commercial aviation sector, opens far broader issues vital to future international relations, such as how far Western partisanship and passivity contributed to China's momentum over the past 30 years when it should have provoked action and investment. - Benjamin Shobert (Jul 5, '12) |
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Rationalizing US Middle East policy The Arab Uprising: The Unfinished Revolutions of the New Middle East, by Marc Lynch The range covered by Lynch in a work designed to reflect the recent complex and murky developments in the Middle East from Tunisia to Bahrain and Yemen, results in some essential reading for the student of the region. Yet he falls short in many ways, not least in his failings in considering socio-economic structures, the absence of an adequate theoretical framework, and an overly superficial grasp of United States involvement. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Jun 29, '12) |
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Mindset of a mass murderer Facing the Torturer: Inside the Mind of a War Criminal by Francois Bizot A searing personal account of the suffering the author endured as a prisoner of the Khmer Rouge in the early 1970s, this book delves deep into the mental makeup of his tormentor, the infamous "Comrade Duch". Haunted by his own ghosts over the circumstances of his release, Bizot explores why Duch, an evidently intelligent man, became a mass murderer. - Bertil Lintner (Jun 22, '12) |
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A window into North Korea's art world Exploring North Korean Arts edited by Rudiger Frank This collection of essays on North Korean visual arts, literature and music offers invaluable historical and theoretical perspective on an art culture that's as kitsch as it is cynically propagandistic. Postage stamps of American soldiers being killed and paintings of waves, waterfalls and rivers predictably promote slavish devotion to the Kim cult. Its less clear what motivated philatelic depictions of the late Princess Diana. - Michael Rank (Jun 15, '12) |
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A drone-eat-drone world Barely a decade after America's drone wars began, the unmanned hunter-killers are set to fill the global skies, with initial dreams of technological perfection giving way to the reality that as their use soars, so will the number of dead civilians on the ground. But drone warfare is here to stay, and will escalate as other nation's acquire more remotely controlled weaponized hardware. - Nick Turse (Jun 1, '12) |
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Cherry-picking from China's success What the US Can Learn from China by Ann Lee This book forces the reader to confront China's growth in the midst of America's decline, drawing attention to the reasons US politics became too self-serving, too short-sighted and too partisan. The author doesn't argue the Chinese approach is flawless, but she does hold up China's single-minded fixation on economic growth and leadership process based on experience as examples US policymakers must consider. - Benjamin Shobert (May 18, '12) |
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Mainstream political science masks Western clientelism The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents For Life by Roger Owen This study of repressive modes of governance in the Arab Middle East falls flat due to a failure to examine the West's historical role in perpetuating those authoritarian regimes. By whitewashing the legacy of interventionism, such works prevent a better understanding of how clientelism delayed democratization from below and kept the region a "subordinate sub-system" in global politics. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 11, '12) |
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When heaven and earth shook in China The Death of Mao: The Tangshan Earthquake and the Birth of the New China by James Palmer As a devastating earthquake struck the Chinese city of Tangshan on a sweltering summer's night in July 1979, killing an estimated 650,000, a series of political events that would culminate in the Gang of Four's expulsion were starting in Beijing. Recounting days of despair and deceit that helped forge modern China, this insightful work suggests political reform did little for disaster management. - Michael Rank (May 4, '12) |
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Anti-India agenda costs Pakistan dearly Pakistan on the Brink: The Future of America, Pakistan and Afghanistan by Ahmed Rashid Offering bleak but compelling insights into how the Pakistani military elite's obsession with defeating India has crippled national development and destabilized Afghanistan, this work argues that as a war-weary Taliban approach the United States seeking peace, Pakistani intelligence will increasingly rely on the Haqqani network to further its quest for strategic depth. - Brian M Downing (Apr 27, '12) |
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Green lessons from India's past Dharma and Ecology of Hindu Communities: Sustenance and Sustainability by Pankaj Jain Green lessons from India's past Exploring how three historic Indian communities - the Swadhyayis, the Bishnois and the Bhils - became forerunners of a tree-hugging ethos of "dharmic ecology", the book offers insight into how Hinduism-inspired environmental methods and ethics in rural India are relevant to the entire planet. - Piyush Mathur (Apr 20, '12) |
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Compelling case for Iraq war crime tribunal The Age of Deception: Nuclear Diplomacy in Treacherous Times by Mohamed ElBaradei The author, former head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, is so morally outraged by the blatant pulverization of a sovereign Middle East country (Iraq) by a Western superpower and its allies that he advises the Iraqis to demand war reparations. If for nothing else, this book is indispensable. Apart, that is, from the invaluable insights it offers into the ongoing crisis over Iran. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Apr 13, '12) |
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Global tango tilts toward China China Versus the West: The Global Power Shift of the 21st Century by Ivan Tselichtchev Professor and TV talking head Ivan Tselichtchev assesses the heavyweight battle for global economic supremacy in his new book. Rather than a clash of civilizations and systems, his nuanced analysis suggests that everyone can wind up a winner. However, the West will need to play by China's rules. - Muhammad Cohen (Mar 30, '12) |
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Two faces of Islamism in Afpak An Enemy We Created: The Myth of the Taliban/Al Qaeda Merger in Afghanistan by Alex Strick Van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn This study of the divergent origins and motivations of the Taliban and al-Qaeda argues that the United States mistakenly evaluated the Taliban's refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden in 2001 as proof of close links, coloring US policy for years. Al-Qaeda's international agenda was an anathema to the Taliban's nationalism, with shared suspicions of a Western conspiracy the only common thread. - Brian M Downing (Mar 23, '12) |
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The power and the inglory Power Struggle over Afghanistan by Kai Eide As the United Nations' main envoy in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2010, the author had unique insight into the myriad problems in that country, and the hatchet job done on Hamid Karzai by the Obama administration. Somehow Eide came away from the experience still hopeful that the Afghan people will find a way out of the chaos. Still, after reading his book, it's hard to see how. - Nick Turse (Mar 16, '12) |
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Meth madness in Hong Kong Eating Smoke by Chris Thrall This book works well as a portrait of a crystal-methamphetamine addict, not as a portrait of Hong Kong. The city is no longer what it was in the mid-1990s before the handover, the time of the English author's harrowing sojourn. What is captivating is his hellish depiction of his addiction and fall into a dangerous underworld. - Kent Ewing (Mar 9, '12) |
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Women who shaped India Sonia Gandhi: An Extraordinary Life, an Indian Destiny by Rani Singh . It began as a love story, and has culminated in a modern, transitional chapter of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. This cannily crafted biography stands as a narrative not only of the modern history of the planet's largest democracy, but also of the role of some of the most remarkable women the world has ever known, including Sonia's beloved mother-in-law, the late Indira Gandhi. - Dinesh Sharma (Mar 2, '12) |
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BRIC by brick to the future The Growth Map: Economic Opportunity in the BRICs and Beyond by Jim O'Neill. Few economists saw their reputations survive intact after the global financial crisis. The pre- and post-crisis growth of China and other BRIC countries has, however, burnished the standing of Jim O'Neill, who now expands his search to identify the world's next growth centers. - Benjamin Shobert (Feb 24, '12) |
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Love in a time of revolt Love, Passion and Patriotism: Sexuality and the Philippine Propaganda Movement, 1882-1892 by Raquel A G Reyes A number of young Filipinos, or rather the children of colonial Spaniards, educated in Spain in the 19th century were later venerated as national heroes after their ideas helped to spark the revolution of 1896. Yet these self-titled Ilustrados had an often overlooked human, if not haughty, side marked by serial affairs, duels, and deep male chauvinism. - George Amurao (Feb 17, '12) |
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Decoding Obama's Iran policy A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran by Trita Parsi An intricate study of how President Barack Obama's Iran policy evolved, this book relates how campaign pledges to reach out crumbled under the weight of Israeli and Saudi pressure, and from disillusionment following Iran's 2009 election crackdown. The book reveals top Israeli officials' doubts that a nuclear strike will ever be launched, with Israel's aggressive stance based on maintaining its Palestinian territories and aura of invincibility. - Brian M Downing (Feb 10, '12) |
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Playful lessons for North Korea's young leader The Lily: Evolution, Play, and the Power of a Free Society by Daniel Cloud Princeton University political philosopher Daniel Cloud's gift to North Korea's new leader Kim Jong-eun could not have come at a better time. The book explains to the Young General, that by grasping evolutionary forces, free societies - as the Dao De Jing puts it - "accomplish everything by doing nothing." Something for Kim to ponder among his ambitious plans to join the "elite club of nations" this year. - Mark A DeWaever (Feb 6, '12) |
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LeT: Terror incorporated The Caliphate's Soldiers: The Lashkar-e-Tayyeba's Long War by Wilson John With thousands of recruitment and training centers across Pakistan, funds pouring in from the Gulf and links from Nepal to Sri Lanka, Lashkar-e-Toiba has flourished since the Mumbai attacks of November 2008. Detailing LeT's growth into "the world's most powerful and resourceful terror consultancy firm" - including a Department of Martyrs - this book offers an excellent primer on LeT's global ambitions. - Surinder Kumar Sharma (Feb 3, '12) |
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Obama, the Lone Ranger Barack Obama in Hawaii and Indonesia: The Making of Global President by Dinesh Sharma This book maps out how the cultural influences and global underpinnings of Barack Obama's diverse upbringing in Indonesia and Hawaii created the president America needed for the multipolar world of the 21st century. Written by a cultural psychologist, it uses anthropological, political and genealogical perspectives to argue that Obama's life journey has reflected the challenges America faces today. - Richard Kaplan (Jan 20, '12) |
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How Imperial Russia wooed Asia Russia's own Orient: The politics of identity and Oriental studies in the Imperial and early Soviet periods by Vera Tolz When Russia launched Oriental studies amid its imperial decline, it sought to emulate the West. However, the glamorous image of the downtrodden at the time led minorities to be treated as equals rather than subjects, a wild contrast from the West's approach. Using a wealth of research this book outlines how this impacted positively on ethnic policy after the Bolshevik Revolution - until the regime needed to consolidate power. - Dmitry Shlapentokh (Jan 13, '12) |
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Invisible walls in Xinjiang The tree that bleeds: a Uighur town on the edge by Nick Holdstock A snapshot of Xinjiang province's Yining city four years after deadly ethnic riots in 1997, this book provides insights into how fraught relations between Uyghurs and and Han Chinese were worsened by Beijing's divisive rules and policies, particularly in education. The separate dormitories, canteens and admissions described as the ethnicities "pretend the other doesn't exist" make recent violence easier to understand. - Michael Rank (Jan 6, '12) |
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A future with China China and the Credit Crisis: the Emergence of a New World Order by Giles Chance The book explores the inter-connection between United States policy and China's participation in globalization. The presentation on what the current economic crisis means regarding the future of the US dollar and the necessary adjustment by the world's financial and regulatory systems to incorporate China's needs are balanced and satisfying. Yet the most important reason to read this work may be what it has to offer about how these troubled times will reshape US-China relations. - Benjamin A Shobert (Dec 21, '11) INTERVIEW Getting the dragon onboard The Chinese may have an attitude whereby they want to exploit the rest of the world for their own benefit. They do not see themselves yet as a responsible leader of the world economy in a way we would like them to. The issue is how can we bring China to stand alongside Europe and America? So asks Giles Chance, author of China and the Credit Crisis in a conversation with Benjamin A Shobert. (Dec 21, '11) |
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Angels and inquisitors A Point in Time by David Horowitz For a quarter of a century, Horowitz has told unpleasant truths about the political left where he spent the first half of his career before turning conservative some 30 years ago. He surpasses himself in this new essay, though, by telling unpleasant truths about the human condition. - David Goldman (Dec 21, '11) |
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The Unraveling The Unraveling: Pakistan in the Age of Jihad by John R Schmidt With relations between Pakistan and the United States in cold storage, John R Schmidt, a senior US diplomat, sheds some light on the reasons. He argues that Islamabad's dual policy of supporting US military actions in Afghanistan while maintaining its connection with radical Islamic groups is understandable and the US must face up to the problem; advice unlikely to lead to a thaw any time soon. - Erico Yu (Dec 16, '11) |
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Deconstructing Thomas Friedman The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work by Belen Fernandez Analyzing the work of influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, this book finds flaws ranging from hypocrisy and racism to factual errors and skewed judgment. More frightening is how Friedman is found to represent a US media that's sacrificed its objectivity to US economic and political goals, with corporate profit taking precedent over human life in counsel on Iraq, Israel and Palestine. - Sandra Siagian (Dec 9, '11) |
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Down the wrong path 9-11 by Noam Chomsky Updated to cover Osama bin Laden's death, this prescient work on the September 11 attacks written in November 2001 chillingly predicts how expensive and bloody wars in Muslim countries would drain the American economy and kill thousands of civilians. Though a compelling indictment of an "imperial mentality" that's seen America abandon human-rights principals to pursue its goals, the book's dialogue format may frustrate some readers. - Christopher Bartlo (Dec 2, '11) |
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Revelations of a secret war The Secret Army: Chiang Kai-shek and the Drug Warlords of the Golden Triangle by Richard M Gibson and Wenhua Chen While it's known that thousands of Chinese nationalists settled in north Thailand after the civil war, as seen in thriving Chinese villages like Mae Salong, this book reveals how the United States rebuilt and re-equipped the forces to fight Mao Zedong's China and later Thai communist insurgents. It also constructs how US involvement helped created the narcotics production hub that is today's Golden Triangle. - Bertil Lintner (Nov 18, '11) |
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The incredible lightheadedness of being German I Sleep in Hitler's Room: An American Jew Visits Germany by Tuvia Tenenbom Tuvia Tenenbom comes off as a Jewish Hunter S Thompson, describing cringing encounters in Germany that strip away the veneer of sanity from his subjects. His peregrinations show that World War II and the Holocaust have left the Germans with a terminal case of post-traumatic stress disorder and aspirations for their national identity to be subsumed into Europe. To understand Germans, one has to learn their language and live with them - or read Tenenbom's book. - Spengler (Nov 15, '11) |
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Harsh light on history Breaking the Rules by Alexander Casella An insider's account of the United Nations refugee agency's inner workings, this book sketches out a "humanitarian industry" run by politicians and bureaucrats more interested in securing their own paychecks and promotions than helping victims. Starting in post-unification Vietnam and traveling into the UN's dark heart, it rewards readers with a trove of insights and anecdotes about events that have shaped our time by someone who was right in the thick it it. - David Simmons (Nov 10, '11) |
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A path not taken The Ideal Man: The Tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American Way of War by Josh Kurlantzick Rather than seeking answers to Jim Thompson's mysterious disappearance in 1967, this book examines how the American spy turned Thai silk magnate increasingly resented his idealized Thailand being swept away by the involvement of the United States in the region. As Thompson strolled into Malaysian hills never to return, his era of intrigue and opportunity was fading forever from Southeast Asia. - Sebastian Strangio (Nov 4, '11) |
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A graveyard for US war strategies The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, And the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing West This cold hard look at United States' Afghan war strategies concludes that Washington's focus on nation-building rather than military supremacy since 2006 has reinvigorated the Taliban's influence. Through boots-on-the-ground chronicling, readers glimpse how US soldiers are battling bureaucracy as much as insurgents. However, its final argument - that Afghanizing counter-insurgency will turn the conflict - is problematic. - Geoffrey Sherwood (Oct 28, '11) |
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The human face of World War I To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 by Adam Hochschild An exploration of how World War I became so protracted and bloody, this book also retells how pacifists braved jail and lynchings to reject the carnage. By focusing on individuals like the vain generals who ordered a whole generation into deadly storms of steel, the author offers a timely reminder that blindness to war's realities leads to unparalleled loss. - Jim Ash (Oct 21, '11) |
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Hidden eyes and ears Spies for Nippon by Tony Matthews Using recently declassified United States intercepts of World War II Japanese intelligence, this book offers a rare glimpse into how Tokyo ran diplomat spies in Axis-leaning "neutral" European capitals to track Allied troop movements across Asia and establish Latin American cells. Though lacking insight into individual spy operations, it holds compelling revelations on how cracking Japan's "Purple" code altered the war's course. - George Amurao (Oct 14, '11) |
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US-China power imbalance threatens Asia A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia by Aaron L Friedberg While arguing that a stark evaluation of Beijing's military strategy proves the United States has been overly optimistic in believing economic engagement would foster democracy, this book makes no alarmist predictions of China pursuing global hegemony. However, to alter deep-seated patterns of power politics drawing the countries toward conflict, the US needs to rebalance its China relationship by urgently addressing its own economic and political dysfunctions. - Benjamin A Shobert (Oct 7, '11) |
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Before the darkness Rangoon Journalist: Memoirs of Burma days 1940-1958 by J F Samaranayake This gripping account of a journalist's life in 1940s-1950s Burma before press repression took hold covers the "gold rush", a time when media were more modern, outspoken and professional than any other in the region. Aside from offering a chilling glimpse into the descent into military rule, the book offers a valuable and rare account of the country's forgotten literary history. - Bertil Lintner (Sep 30, '11) |
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Russia's tug-of-war with its Asian soul Russian Orientalism: Asia in the Russian Mind from Peter the Great to the Emigration by David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye This book expertly details how pre-revolutionary Russia's view of "Asia" coincided with that of European Orientalists - even as Western intellectuals saw Russians as Asiatic successors to the Huns and Mongols. As study of Asia blossomed into a critical source of colonial know-how, belief in the potential of Eurasian symbiosis gradually gave way to suspicions and benign imperialism, mimicking present-day Russia's Asian outlook. - Dmitry Shlapentokh (Sep 23, '11) |
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Make babies or die How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too) by David P Goldman The author's demographics-mixed-with-religion dash through history displays the erudition and sarcasm that marks his writing on this site ("Spengler") and elsewhere. And demography may indeed be almost (sometimes fatal) destiny - but pessimism may blind Goldman to what is adaptation and survival. (Sep 23, '11) |
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Lashkar-e-Toiba - safe at home Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-e-Toiba by Stephen Tankel A detailed study of Lashkar-e-Toiba's evolution from a relatively unknown group into the infamous militant organization that launched the 2008 Mumbai attacks, this book also covers how Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence nurtured LeT as an indispensable asset in its anti-Indian struggle. The author concludes that ISI's strong support of LeT leaves it unlikely to turn against Islamabad. - Brian M Downing (Sep 16, '11) |
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Obama and Osama as archetypes Barack Obama in Hawaii and Indonesia: The Making of a Global President by Dinesh Sharma The ashes and the bellowing smoke of 9/11 metaphorically touched all corners of the Earth. They also touched the core of Barack Obama's identity as a would-be senator, global citizen and progressive thinker who knew the world had been pushed to a cataclysmic point and was determined to play a role in shaping events. Moreover, in the minds of millions, the Obama-Osama bin Laden binary opposition formed archetypes of good and evil. (Sep 9, '11) |
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One final word? On China by Henry Kissinger Forty years ago, Henry Kissinger's masterful diplomacy helped clear a path for China's rise, though he could not have foreseen the threat that presents to the American psyche today. His belief that partnership is possible - yet conflict the easier path - stems from aged and experienced eyes, but exhortations to Americans to avoid a contest with China focus readers on a question he is easily the least qualified to answer. - Benjamin A Shobert (Sep 2, '11) |
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War without end Roads of Bones: The Epic Siege of Kohima 1944 by Fergal Keane Almost forgotten, Kohima in the mountains of northeastern India was where British and British-Indian troops inflicted the Japanese Imperial Army's worst defeat and forced a retreat back into Burma (Myanmar). Keane's outstanding account of "Asia's Stalingrad" shows remarkable understanding of Japanese soldiers who fought and died, and has important contemporary value since it is often argued that in the hills of northern Myanmar and northeastern India, World War II never ended. - Bertil Lintner (Aug 26, '11) |
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US smart power falters in information age The Future of Power by Joseph S Nye Jr This too United States-centric analysis of global power trends envisions major shifts towards non-state actors in the 21st century, with soft power increasingly important. While the author rejects that the US is in precipitous decline, he argues that in the age of social networks and information-sharing, leaders need to think of themselves in a circle rather than atop a mountain. - Shiran Shen (Aug 19, '11) |
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In search of a way out No Exit: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, and International Security by Jonathan D Pollack With the belief that the how and why of the North Korean nuclear impasse must begin with the country's system and its history, the author consults Cold War archives, interviews and technical history, among others, to weave together the evolution of the Hermit Kingdom and its nuclear program. It's a useful narrative with a detailed, beyond-the-Beltway overview. - Shiran Shen (Aug 11, '11) |
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J Street battles for Jewish hearts and minds A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation by Jeremy Ben-Ami This manifesto of "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobby J Street and memoir of leader Jeremy Ben-Ami lays out the group's strategy to steer United States policy on the Middle East towards favoring a two-state solution. While J Street is emerging as a strong voice, forces aligned against it - Christian Zionists, neo-conservative think-tanks and the Israel Lobby - exert a powerful grip on US foreign policy. - Mitchell Plitnick (Aug 5, '11) |
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US rattled by Vietnam War skeletons Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes Girl by the Road at Night: A Novel of Vietnam by David Rabe Wandering Souls: Journeys with the Dead and the Living in Viet Nam by Wayne Karlin This wave of Vietnam War literature features the familiar grunt prose, patrol drama and punji pits, alongside a new, ultimately inadequate attempt to empathize with the formerly faceless enemy. Yet exploration of the gaping holes left in Vietnamese families by the countless still missing does suggest soul-searching, while guilt over the thousands forced into prostitution recognizes that lives were not only destroyed by bombs and bullets. - Nick Turse (Jul 29, '11) |
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The real AfPak deal Inside al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 by Syed Saleem Shahzad Drawn from fearless reporting in the complex and deadly Pakistani tribal areas, this book outlines the grand strategy al-Qaeda plotted for AfPak before the United States even coined the term. Despite the book's revelations and vision, it's also the cracking narrative of one man armed only with a strong moral compass; a man murdered by his own state for searching out the truth. - Pepe Escobar (Jul 22, '11) |
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Dispelling the myths of humanitarian aid International Organizations and Civilian Protection by Sreeram Chaulia Demolishing notions that humanitarian organizations from the United Nations and elsewhere risk all to protect civilians, the author draws on extensive experience in Sri Lanka and the Philippines to illustrate how donor and host-state pressures - as well as internal struggles - leave these organizations passively "building databases" and providing blankets while local activists fight to protect the innocent. - Sudha Ramachandran (Jul 15, '11) |
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Fallacy of American cosmopolitan power Cosmopolitan Power in International Relations by Giulio M Gallarotti The notion of a world led by United States "cosmopolitanism" is undermined by the superpower's use of colossal hard and soft power to manufacture consensus. Far from holding a worldly, trans-national outlook, the US employs military and economic strength to safeguard its geopolitical interests and promote its ideology of expansionism. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Jul 8, '11) |
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Asia on expressway to disaster Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet by Chandran Nair For the author, capitalism's deficiency remains its inability to acknowledge the natural resource limitations that confront most of the developing world. His solutions, like "economic activity being subservient to the vitality of resources" - will deeply trouble many in the West. However, questioning capitalism's longer-term implications makes sense for an Asian audience. - Benjamin A Shobert (Jul 1, '11) |
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A black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother by Janny Scott The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family by Peter Firstbrook While Barack Obama's Kansas-born mother was a trail-blazing globalist whose idealism gave the United States president access to the progressive soul of America, his intelligence, resourcefulness and ambition can be traced back several generations in his economist father's African bloodline. Obama's own books openly discuss his roots, but these works paint a clearer picture of his two guiding lights. - Dinesh Sharma (Jun 24, '11) |
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Pomp and porn during the Qing Dynasty Decadence Mandchoue. by Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse In an erotic romp through the twilight years of the Qing Dynasty, these memoirs recount among other trysts the Victorian Orientalist author's subservient servicing of the Empress Dowager Cixi, then 69, and adventures with the eunuchs and catamites of Peking's bathhouses. Intermingled with fantastical imperial palace intrigue, the work has faced charges of fraudulence and obscenity; this belies its charm and historical significance. - Kent Ewing (Jun 17, '11) |
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Moral war compass fails to point West Moral Combat: A History of World War II by Michael Burleigh This books succeeds perhaps too well in detailing just how repugnant the German and Japanese regimes were in World War II, and is especially strong on the Pacific theater, an area one-volume histories tend to neglect. Where it fails is in its resort to slippery tactics to avoid confronting the dirt that was on the Allies' hands. - Jim Ash (Jun 10, '11) |
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Crisis of American international thought Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order by G John Ikenberry A liberal pro-United States bias permeating the book sees the US's resource-oriented military gambits and imperial behavior conveniently papered over and rising states dismissed as challengers to the global order. By presenting US power as benign, with no nefarious core-periphery or hegemonic dimensions, the author undermines his own views on the rapidly changing state of world affairs. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May 27, '11) |
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War and taxes Development Disparities in Northeast India by Rakhee Bhattacharya In insurgent-run areas of northeast India the penalty for not paying "tax" is final: death. But as this book reveals, revenue collections systems put in place by rebels there are surprisingly sophisticated. By investigating exactly how the "taxation" takes place, the author offers an excellent glimpse into how other shadow insurgent economies are likely run elsewhere in Asia. - Bertil Lintner (May 20, '11) |
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Wages of peace Cambodia's Curse: The modern history of a troubled land by Joel Brinkley This searingly accurate depiction of how Western aid in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia helped create the corrupt, impoverished and lawless state of today is undermined by its premise: that Cambodians will never rise up against bad leadership due to a "curse" of feudal subservience. History suggests internal rebellion is more likely to spark change than the weak-kneed efforts of foreign donors. - Sebastian Strangio (May 12, '11) |
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When Attlee met Mao Passport to Peking, A very British mission to Mao's China by Patrick Wright This colorful account of British delegations sent to communist China in the 1950s intersperses valuable insights into the early Cold War period with a humorous culture clash as a typically eccentric English band led by prime minister Clement Attlee meets a rapidly transforming China. Beyond the gayety lies a fascinating account of a forgotten era. - Michael Rank (May 6, '11) |
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Obama's hidden radical past Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism, by Stanley Kurtz Detailed organizational charts, histories, and smoking-gun documentation about the world of left-wing organizations in which Barack Obama circulated early in his career make this book required reading for anyone who wants to pierce the veil of a self-constructed enigma. It also shows the US president is not the man he claimed to be in the 2008 campaign. - Spengler (May 2, '11) |
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Conservative reappraisal of the Afghan war The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing West The United States war effort in Afghanistan is failing, says this authoritative - and usually supportive - voice on US military affairs. While implacable Afghan resentment of foreigners is undermining the counter-insurgency, inter-ethnic divisions are killing "Afghanization". Throw in the financial crisis, an apathetic American public and the vague objectives of Washington's revolving-door leadership, and you have a recipe for quagmire - Brian M Downing (Apr 29, '11) |
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The president as a public intellectual Reading Obama by James Kloppenberg James Kloppenberg's intellectual biography of Barack Obama finds the United States President 's political philosophy and style of politics owes a lot to the pragmatic tradition in American philosophy. That will disappoint those on the right who paint him as an extreme leftist radical. Missing from this otherwise outstanding analysis are the ideas the younger Obama acquired from his global travels. - Dinesh Sharma (Apr 21, '11) |
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Seeing the forest for the leaves Family of Fallen Leaves by Charles Waugh and Huy Lien The Invention of Ecocide by David Zierler These books take separate approaches to the United States' defoliation campaign in the Vietnam War. One focuses on US scientists who realized there were horrendous implications to using chemicals such as Agent Orange; the other tells heart-rending tales of birth defects, sickness and death inflicted on the Vietnamese. Neither fully captures the horrific impact of "ecocide" on an agrarian society. - Nick Turse (Apr 15, '11) |
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The good old days Reporter Forty Years Covering Asia by John McBeth An absorbingly detailed account of the major stories that shook Southeast Asia during the 40 years the author was a reporter, from Thailand's five coups to the "secret war" in Laos and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge massacres. Evoking an era when journalists were cut from a different cloth, the book also recounts the death of one of Asia's most influential news magazines. - Robert Tilley (Apr 8, '11) |
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Asians can't have it all Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet by Chandran Nair Western consumerism in the developing East will have an irreversible climate impact, according to Nair, who observes that climate change is an example of massive market failure, so the world can't rely on markets to fix it - authoritarianism is his preferred alternative. The challenge is finding an appealing alternative to steak and SUVs. - Muhammad Cohen (Apr 6, '11) |
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Asians can't have it all Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet by Chandran Nair Western consumerism in the developing East will have an irreversible climate impact, according to Nair, who observes that climate change is an example of massive market failure, so the world can't rely on markets to fix it - authoritarianism is his preferred alternative. The challenge is finding an appealing alternative to steak and SUVs. - Muhammad Cohen (Apr 6, '11) |
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The trouble with China's brands The Brutal Truth About Asian Branding: And How to Break the Vicious Cycle by Joseph Baladi China has failed to nurture compelling consumer brands and largely remains a factory for the West. Blaming the rigid confines of Confucian leadership and a lack of awareness that "brands fundamentally define people", this book argues that if China can't make the transition to home-grown brands, the process of globalization will falter. - Benjamin A Shobert (Apr 1, '11) |
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The privatization of US foreign policy Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized Foreign Affairs by Laura A Dickinson Since the Vietnam War, the United States has steadily shunted foreign policy responsibilities onto private contractors, with no hope now of closing the Pandora's box. This legal look into how privatization has seeped into the Pentagon and why serious abuses take place outlines how a flawed organizational and monitoring structure can be reformed to not threaten human rights and democratic accountability. - David Isenberg (Mar 25, '11) |
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Davids in a world of Goliaths Small Acts of Resistance: How Courage, Tenacity, and a Bit of Ingenuity Can Change the World by Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson These heroic tales of non-violent, game-changing defiance by individuals or small groups in repressive states like Iran, Myanmar and communist Poland are a reminder that all authority, even at its very worst, exists only with the consent of those it commands. By illustrating the bravery of those facing imprisonment without trial, torture or extra-judicial murder just to enact change, the book makes a mockery of political apathy in the West. - Jim Ash (Mar 18, '11) |
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Smoking out Vietnam War truths Search and Destroy: The Story of an Armored Cavalry Squadron in Viet Namby Keith Nolan As the United States marks 50 years since the start of the Vietnam War, revisionism is as rife as ever. This one-year account of an armored cavalry squadron, however, offers a clear-eyed appraisal of atrocities inflicted on the Vietnamese people as well as a three-dimensional, sensitive portrayal of the American troops that suffered bravely in the conflict. - Nick Turse (Mar 11, '11) |
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Islam and democracy debate revisited Democracy in Modern Iran: Islam, Culture, and Political Change by Ali Mirsepassi This critique of political Islam's evolution in Iran attempts laboriously to apply Western philosophical and political perspectives to the issue, with an uncritical embrace of the opposition "Green" movement also apparent from the start. While there are useful chapters on Iranian intellectuals, the generalizations and borrowed terminologies undermine any serious exploration of Iran's part-theocratic, part-republican system. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (Mar 4, '11) |
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Oil poisoning humankind Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil by Peter Maass For the author, oil is a curse - from the moment it is extracted until the moment it is poured into the oversized gas tanks of sports utility vehicles. The book takes no pot-shots at companies, nations or people, instead using snapshots of badly affected counties to show that Peak Oil will be a blessing. - Jim Ash (Feb 25, '11) |
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The lighter side of the Tibet issue Waiting for the Dalai Lama: Stories from all sides of the Tibetan Debate by Annelie Rozeboom Not a run-of-the-mill portrayal of the Free Tibet love camp, this book draws on an eclectic cast of characters to flesh out the debate, including a former serf and a nomad, a state oracle and a Tibetan Mao Zedong impersonator. While the author's ability to highlight the funny and bizarre ensures an easy read, this limits analysis of meaningful subjects such as evolving views towards the Chinese. - Dinah Gardner (Feb 18, '11) |
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Unmasking British intelligence MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949 by Keith Jeffery Tracing the history of the British Secret Intelligence Service (now known as MI6) from its birth in 1909 until the post-World War II years, this book focuses on the spy service's trailblazing founder, its emergence and early triumphs, and political battles the organization faced for its survival. Replete with detail, the work rehabilitates the SIS's contribution to the British war effort. - Mahan Abedin (Feb 11, '11) |
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One man's Korean war Yin Yang Tattoo by Ron McMillan This novel follows the sexual and drunken exploits of Scottish photojournalist Alec Brodie as he is sucked into the shady attempt of a bankrupt South Korean chaebol to save itself through a corporate scam involving the Hermit Kingdom. As a work of expatriate escapism, the book is a great success. But as a cautionary tale it may fall a little short. - David Simmons (Feb 4, '11) |
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The party principle Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China's Extraordinary Rise by Carl E Walter and Fraser J T Howie Is China headed for a fall? Can it cope with the crises its rapid growth and uneven development might spark? Walter and Howie attempt to answer these questions by focusing exclusively on the country's financial system. They conclude that China’s embrace of the free market is merely a ploy to keep the Communist Party predominant, and question whether this approach can work in the long term. - Reviewed by Benjamin A Shobert (Jan 28, '11) |
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The neo-Renaissance man How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance by Parag Khanna Khanna tells us that an informal network of committed individuals can end the new feudal age we toil in, and usher in the next Renaissance. The book bristles with good ideas, and Khanna's heart is in the right place. But he fails to explain how his vision will survive the plutocrats and Pentagonistas who currently run the world. - Pepe Escobar (Jan 21, '11) |
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Not so special The Eurasian Face by Kirsteen Zimmern This photographic exploration of the Eurasian experience treads too lightly on a tumultuous history of discrimination, violence and stigma, dismissing the identity crisis many Eurasians still feel as an amusing reminiscence. While its subjects are young and old, and drawn from all walks of life, their shallow portraits make the reconciling of ethnicities sound far too easy. - Kent Ewing (Jan 14, '11) |
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The last American Caesars Dismantling the Empire: America's Last Best Hope by Chalmers Johnson The late author's last book encapsulates his previous themes of how America's empire-building since World War II, epitomized by base-building sprees, stage-managed coup d'etats and illegal killings and torture, has filled a "pond of hatred" set to cause pernicious "blowback" and financial ruin. It offers little hope for the empire's future, predicting a hubris-fueled demise similar to that of Rome. - Jim Ash (Jan 7, '11) |
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Reconfiguring the Middle East Reset: Iran, Turkey and America's Future by Stephen Kinzer The book argues the United States' morass in the Middle East could be improved by "reseting" relations with Turkey and Iran, who with their histories of popular democratic struggle are an ideal US "soul mate", while inching away from traditional ties with Saudi Arabia and Israel - relationships built on "dirty war" contracts and "Biblical traditions" that have hurt US interests. - Sreeram Chaulia (Dec 22, '10) |
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The driving force behind empires When Empire Meets Nationalism by Didier Chaudet, Florent Parmentier and Benoit Pelopidas When Empire Meets Nationalism by Didier Chaudet, Florent Parmentier and Benoit Pelopidas The authors attempt to deconstruct the ideologies that inform foreign policy and the creation of empires, particularly in relation to the United States and Russia. This is an informative exercise, but overlooked are other important factors, such as economic policies. - Dmitry Shlapentokh (Dec 17, '10) |
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Eastern promise The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You by Helen Wang The author argues that the mainland's rising middle class is essential to the economic health of both China and the United States, as well as to China's future political liberalization. Underneath all this, her book also strikes a poignant note about America's lost optimism. - Benjamin A Shobert (Dec 10, '10) |
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Myanmar's ageless ethnic question The Shan of Burma: Memoirs of a Shan Exile by Chao Tzang Yawnghwe The intensifying clashes between Karen rebels and government forces along Myanmar's border with Thailand make the re-release of this seminal account and overview of the Shan resistance all the more timely. Written by a late Shan activist and prince, the two-decade-old book's plea for a solution to the state's deadly ethnic divisions is equally powerful and relevant today. - Bertil Lintner (Dec 3, '10) |
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00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : livres, politique internationale, bibliographie | |
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mercredi, 23 octobre 2013
Bernard Lugan présente son livre "Printemps arabes, histoire d'une illusion"
Bernard Lugan présente son livre
"Printemps arabes, histoire d'une illusion"
00:07 Publié dans Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : bernard lugan, afrique, printemps arabe, monde arabe, monde arabo-musulman, egypte, tunisie | |
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mardi, 22 octobre 2013
Clément Rosset: Faits divers...
Faits divers...
Les Presses universitaires de France viennent de publier Faits divers, un recueil de textes de Clément Rosset. Philosophe du réel tragique et joyeux, Clément Rosset est notamment l'auteur de La philosophie tragique (PUF, 1960), Logique du pire (PUF, 1971), L'Anti-nature (PUF, 1973) , Le réel et son double (Gallimard, 1976), La Force majeure (Éditions de Minuit, 1983) ou de Principes de sagesse et de folie (Éditions de Minuit, 1991).
" Gilles Deleuze, les vampires, Emil Cioran, Samuel Beckett, le dandysme, Friedrich Nietzsche, Raymond Roussel, Casanova, Arthur Schopenhauer, Jean-Luc Godard, Goscinny & Uderzo, Jean-Paul Sartre, Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Le réel, le double, l’illusion, le tragique, la joie, la musique, la philosophie, la politique, le péché, l’enseignement. Faits divers sont les miscellanées de Clément Rosset : le répertoire désordonné et jubilatoire de ses passions et de ses dégoûts, de ses intérêts et de ses bâillements, de ses tocades et de ses coups de sang – ainsi que de la prodigieuse liberté de ton et de pensée avec laquelle il les exprime et les pense. Un des philosophes, un des écrivains les plus singuliers de notre temps revisite les coulisses de son œuvre. Et vous êtes invités. "
00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Philosophie | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : philosophie, clément rosset, livre | |
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vendredi, 18 octobre 2013
L’Iran au-delà de l’islamisme, de Thomas Flichy de la Neuville
Ex: http://www.realpolitik.tv
L’Iran est aujourd’hui placé au centre de l’attention géopolitique mondiale pour trois raisons fondamentales. En premier lieu, ce pays constitue le coeur énergétique du monde, exploitant simultanément les réserves en hydrocarbures de la mer Caspienne et celles du golfe Persique. Les puissances du Moyen-Orient qui l’environnent constituent, à cet égard, des périphéries envieuses. Pour la Chine, un partenariat avec l’Iran permettrait l’indispensable sécurisation de ses approvisionnements énergétiques. Ceci explique la double poussée maritime et terrestre de l’Empire du Milieu vers l’Iran, sur les traces des routes de la soie de la dynastie Tang. En second lieu, le monde chiite représente le coeur historique de l’innovation musulmane. Ce foyer d’inventivité est confiné depuis très longtemps par le monde sunnite. Profitant aujourd’hui du basculement irakien et de l’instabilité syrienne, l’Iran pousse son avantage pour étendre son influence au coeur du Moyen-Orient. Mais sa créativité, décuplée par la puissance imaginative de la poésie persane, effraie. En troisième lieu, l’Iran, qui souffre d’un déficit énergétique malgré ses réserves prodigieuses de gaz, développe des activités atomiques de façon accélérée, suscitant les interrogations légitimes de ses voisins. Soucieux d’éviter l’affrontement, les États-Unis et leurs alliés ont exercé des pressions indirectes sur l’Iran afin que celui-ci renonce à l’enrichissement nucléaire. Ces actions ont été qualifiées, le 3 septembre 2001, de djang-e-naram, ou « guerre douce », par Hossein Mazaheri, professeur de droit à Ispahan. Cette nouvelle forme de guerre, intimement liée aux progrès technologiques de la dernière décennie, se présente en effet comme un conflit dans lequel chacun des adversaires, préservant le capital humain et matériel de ses forces armées, cherche à faire tomber l’ennemi par des actions masquées et déstabilisatrices telles que les sanctions financières, la manipulation médiatique, les cyber-attaques ou l’élimination ciblée des têtes de réseau adverses. Ce conflit dépasse de loin la simple réalité iranienne dans la mesure où les puissances asiatiques et continentales que constituent la Russie, la Chine et l’Iran ont connu, malgré des différends internes, un rapprochement spectaculaire au cours des dernières années. Face à cette conjonction, les États-Unis redoutent la formation d’un nouvel Empire mongol, capable de concurrencer leur puissance océanique.
(…)
Les incompréhensions entre Français et Iraniens s’enracinent en réalité dans une double fracture culturelle. Partageant un héritage indo-européen commun, la France et la Perse se sont brusquement éloignées à partir de la conquête islamique. Les grandes divergences s’expliquent en grande partie par la très longue période d’occupation qu’a connue l’Iran depuis lors. La culture aristocratique de la négociation menée par les hommes d’armes s’est effacée à cause du discrédit jeté sur les élites militaires persanes vaincues. La culture des marchands combinant ruse et sophistication s’est substituée aux modes antiques de négociation. Face aux envahisseurs, l’inertie s’est imposée comme la force des dominés. La déliquescence de l’État a favorisé la lenteur et la corruption de ses agents. Face à la suspension du droit commun, les courtiers se sont substitués aux gens de loi afin de dire le droit et régler les difficultés privées. Devant le despotisme des rois et la prodigieuse insécurité des personnes et des biens s’est développé un langage indirect et ambigu destiné à protéger les sujets de l’arbitraire du pouvoir. Incapables de maîtriser leur propre destin, les Iraniens ont attribué les malheurs du pays aux complots étrangers. Les longs siècles de domination ont par conséquent forgé une culture allant à rebours de la tradition française fondée sur le temps compté, la force de la loi, la bonne foi et le rayonnement. La seconde fracture est le fruit de la Révolution française. Les ambassadeurs français du XVIIème siècle avaient de nombreux atouts pour comprendre les ressorts secrets de la culture persane. Enracinés dans la transcendance et l’attente messianique d’un temps nouveau, ils servaient un État puissant. Conscients d’un héritage historique pleinement assumé et partie intégrante de leur identité, ils étaient non seulement capables de saisir les références faites à leur propre passé, mais également aptes à renvoyer leurs interlocuteurs à leurs propres contradictions historiques. Ils n’ignoraient ni l’art de la conversation, ni les références littéraires donnant tout son sens à leur culture. L’étiquette de la Cour avait façonné en eux une habitude de la courtoisie devenue une seconde nature. Aujourd’hui, la fracture révolutionnaire sépare ces improbables messagers de la culture persane. Si la fracture culturelle générée par les invasions de la Perse explique pour une large part notre inaptitude à comprendre l’Iran au-delà des mots, nous pouvons à l’évidence puiser dans notre culture classique les clefs d’un dialogue réinventé avec ce pays méconnu.
Professeur à l’Institut d’Études Politiques de Bordeaux, à l’École Navale puis à l’École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, Thomas Flichy de La Neuville est spécialiste de la diplomatie au XVIIIème siècle. Ancien élève en persan de l’Institut National des Langues et Cultures Orientales, agrégé d’histoire et docteur en droit, ses derniers travaux portent sur les relations françaises avec la Perse et la Chine à l’âge des Lumières.
00:05 Publié dans Actualité, Islam, Livre, Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : livre, iran, politique internationale, islam, islamisme | |
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jeudi, 17 octobre 2013
Die Geburt der Moderne
Die Geburt der Moderne
von Benjamin Jahn Zschocke
Ex: http://www.blauenarzisse.de
Der Nationalsozialismus ist der absolute Fixpunkt der deutschen Geschichte – wirklich alles ballt sich zu ihm hin. Alle zeitlich daran angrenzenden Epochen verschwinden in seinem Schatten.
Der in Chemnitz lehrende Professor für Europäische Geschichte des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts Frank-Lothar Kroll ist dafür bekannt, eine mittelbar an diese Zeit angrenzende Epoche, nämlich das Deutsche Kaiserreich von 1871 bis 1918, dankenswerter Weise aus diesem Schatten hervorzuholen. Unter Zuhilfenahme aller verfügbaren historischen Quellen betrachtet er diese Epoche so, wie sie war und nicht, wie sie laut der verengten Sichtweise eines „deutschen Sonderweges“ – bei einem gleichzeitig angenommenen „westeuropäischen Normalweg“ – gewesen sein soll.
Ein umfassendes Update der Quellenlage
Krolls aktuellstes Werk Geburt der Moderne. Politik, Gesellschaft und Kultur vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg unternimmt auf reichlich 200 Seiten den Versuch, einen Gesamtüberblick über die gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungslinien zwischen 1900 und 1914 zu geben. Da dies in solcher Kürze fast unmöglich scheint, verzichtet Kroll auf alle narrativen Elemente und gibt dem Leser in höchster Komprimierung sozusagen ein Update der aktuellen Quellenlage, in deren Ergebnis die Annahme des besagten „deutschen Sonderweges“ ebenso definitiv zu den Akten gelegt werden muß, wie das „persönliche Regiment“ unseres letzten Kaisers Wilhelm II.
Die seit gut fünfzig Jahren praktizierte „germanozentrische“ Herangehensweise gelangt bei Kroll ebenfalls auf die Deponie. Vielmehr gehört der historische Blickwinkel nach seinem Verständnis auf eine europäische Dimension geweitet, was allein angesichts der verästelten außenpolitischen Bündnisse dieser Epoche gar nicht anders möglich ist.
Doch Krolls Schwerpunkt liegt in diesem Buch definitiv nicht auf dem Ersten Weltkrieg: ungleich mehr interessiert ihn der kulturelle und soziale Entwicklungsstand eines Landes, das zur damaligen Zeit das fortschrittlichste der Welt war. Krolls große Stärke ist es, nicht nach Belieben zu werten, sondern nüchtern Fakten um Fakten vorzutragen und damit großkalibrig gegen die an deutschen Gymnasien, Universitäten und in den Medien herrschende Guido Knopp-Mentalität vorzugehen.
Kultureller Vorreiter des Kontinents
Besonders der kulturelle Schwerpunkt reizt an Krolls Buch. Die titelgebende These, nach der die Moderne bereits zwischen 1900 – 1914 unter Wilhelm II. ihren Anfang nahm sowie erste Schwerpunkte herauskristallisierte – und damit nicht erst in den gepriesenen (dekadenten und auf Kredit finanzierten) so genannten Goldenen Zwanzigern – macht die Lektüre besonders empfehlenswert. Walther Rathenau schrieb schon 1919 in seinem Text Der Kaiser: „Für Kunst lag [beim Kaiser, Anm. BJZ] eine entschiedene formale Begabung zugrunde, die in rätselhafter Weise über die kunstfremde Umgebung emporhob […]. So ergab sich von selbst der Anspruch des künstlerischen Oberkommandos.“
Unter anderem am Beispiel der Kulturreform aber auch der Jugendbewegung arbeitet Kroll heraus, welche in Europa zur damaligen Zeit einmalige Fülle an verschiedenartigsten Kulturinstitutionen entstand und sich in aller Ruhe, teils sogar mit erheblichen Finanzspritzen, entwickeln konnte. Am bekanntesten sind auf dem Gebiet der Kunst wohl die Strömungen des Jugendstils, des Expressionismus und des Impressionismus, die zwischen 1900 – 1914 ihren Anfang nahmen. Besonders mit Blick auf Letzteren lohnt ebenso die Lektüre des bereits 1989 bei Königshausen & Neumann erschienenen Werkes von Josef Kern Impressionismus im Wilhelminischen Deutschland.
Weimars Probleme im Voraus erkannt – und behoben
Der oben mit „Guido Knopp-Mentalität“ zusammengefaßten Erscheinung heutiger Geschichtsschreibung (eigentlich politischer Bildung), tritt Kroll mit aller Entschiedenheit entgegen: Erhellend sind zum Beispiel seine Erkenntnisse auf dem Gebiet der Presse– und Parteienlandschaft. Er spricht hier von einem „beispiellosen Pluralismus“. Außerdem wird die vielzitierte, himmelschreiende Armut der späten Phase der Industrialisierung (auf die im gymnasialen Geschichtsunterricht „zufällig“ eine monatewährende Behandlung der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung folgt) als Ammenmärchen enttarnt: „Wirkliche Massenarmut, die zur Verelendung trieb, gab es im wilhelminischen Deutschland – anders als im viktorianischen und edwardianischen England – nicht, wenngleich, die Mehrheit der Arbeiterschaft von sehr bescheidenen Einkommen zehrte.“
Am schwerwiegendsten sind, mit Blick auf den anfangs benannten Schatten einer gewissen Epoche wohl Krolls Feststellungen zum angeblich durch und durch judenfeindlichen Deutschland unter Wilhelm II.: „Die unmissverständliche Zurückweisung solcher Zumutungen seitens des Kaisers und der Reichsregierung verdeutlichte einmal mehr, dass im ‚ausgleichenden Klima des wilhelminischen Obrigkeitsstaates‘ dem politischen Einfluss radikalisierter Massen und Massenbewegungen, anders als in den späten Jahren der Weimarer Republik, enge Grenzen gesetzt waren.“
An anderer Stelle wird Kroll noch deutlicher: „Dass sich die Mobilisierung antisemitischer Ressentiments in Deutschland – und nicht etwa in Frankreich, wo sie vor und nach der Jahrhundertwende weitaus stärker verbreitet waren – Jahrzehnte später zu einer parteipolitischen Massenformation verdichten und schließlich in die Katastrophe des ‚Dritten Reiches‘ einmünden sollte, lag, bei aller partiell vorhandenen gesellschaftlichen Diskriminierung der rechtlich gleichgestellten Juden im Kaiserreich, nicht an strukturellen Defiziten oder Defekten des vermeintlichen wilhelminischen Obrigkeitsstaates. Eigentliche Ursache waren vielmehr die fatalen Konsequenzen der militärischen und politischen Niederlage Deutschlands im Ersten Weltkrieg.“
Hörenswerte Audio-Rezension bei Deutschlandradio Kultur.
Frank-Lothar Kroll: Geburt der Moderne. Politik, Gesellschaft und Kultur vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg. Band 1 der Reihe Deutsche Geschichte im 20. Jahrhundert. 224 Seiten, Be.Bra Verlag 2013. 19,90 Euro.
Josef Kern: Impressionismus im Wilhelminischen Deutschland. Studien zur Kunst– und Kulturgeschichte des Kaiserreichs. 476 Seiten, Königshausen & Neumann Verlag 1989. 50,00 Euro.
00:05 Publié dans art, Livre, Livre, Révolution conservatrice | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : modernisme, modernité, allemagne, livre, histoire, art | |
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mardi, 08 octobre 2013
R. Marchand: Reconquista
00:05 Publié dans Evénement, Livre, Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : rené marchand, lyon, événement, france, livre, dédicace | |
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L’Ecologie n’est pas la démagogie !
Pierre Le Vigan
Ex: http://metamag.fr
Les auteurs couplent cette idée avec celle d’un Revenu maximum acceptable (RMA), en d’autres termes d’un revenu maximum. Comme d’autres écologistes radicaux, ils fixent l’écart entre le revenu minimum universel (donc sans travailler) et le revenu maximum à 4. Les auteurs essaient aussi d’articuler leur projet de revenu inconditionnel d’autonomie avec une réduction du temps de travail qui permettrait un partage du travail. Ils ne sont là-dessus guère convaincants. On leur objectera volontiers qu’ils posent mal le problème qu’ils essaient de résoudre par leur « revenu universel ». D’une part le travail ne saurait être rejeté, il est le propre de l’homme. Un revenu sans travail est donc inacceptable. En défendant un tel revenu, ils se privent de tout moyen d’effectuer une critique solide de la finance.
Par contre, le travail peut revêtir de multiples formes, il peut avoir un intérêt social sans être un travail salarié. Il faut donc reconsidérer ce qui est travail mais non proposer une anti-civilisation refusant le travail. On ne pinaillera pas outre mesure sur les écarts de revenus proposés. Mais tout de même… Un écart de 1 à 4 entre deux travailleurs est pour le moins modeste. Mais pourquoi pas ? Un travail 4 fois mieux payé que le salaire minimum est aussi souvent beaucoup plus intéressant. Mais ce n’est pas ce que proposent nos auteurs. Pour eux, c’est encore trop inégalitaire ! Ce qu’ils veulent c’est un écart entre le revenu inconditionnel donc sans travail et le salaire maximum de 1 à 4, cela veut dire un écart de 1 à 4 entre quelqu’un au RSA actuellement et le salarié le mieux payé : quelque 492 € pour le moins bien payé ne travaillant pas, moins de 2000 € pour le mieux payé. Imagine-t-on que quelqu’un prendra des risques, travaillera 70 heures et plus par semaine pour ne gagner que 4 fois le revenu minimum attribué inconditionnellement à quelqu’un qui ne travaille pas et à qui on ne demande pas de le faire ? Ce n’est pas sérieux.
Les auteurs de ce livre réduisent ainsi l’écologie à de la démagogie et n’emportent pas la conviction. Dommage car ils ont parfois des lueurs de lucidité. Ainsi quand ils indiquent que les « premières victimes de l’ [cette] immigration massive sont les immigrants eux-mêmes, condamnés pour des raisons économiques, aveuglés par les lumières du consumérisme, à quitter leur culture et leurs proches et à prendre de gros risques pour finalement être exploités par le système capitaliste dans un autre pays ». Les immigrés ont donc une culture ? Différente de la nôtre alors ? Ils ne sont donc pas solubles si facilement dans l’Occident ? L’immigration serait « massive » alors que les journaux « sérieux » nous expliquent que le nombre d’immigrés n’augmente pas ou si peu ? Il ne manquerait plus que nos auteurs finissent par nous expliquer que l’immigration n’est pas une chance pour l’écologie. Il resterait à reconnaitre que les indigènes aussi en sont victimes car l’immigration comme armée de réserve du capital est une arme de la lutte des classes que mène l’hyperclasse contre les peuples.
Vincent Liegey, Stéphane Madelaine, Christophe Ondet, Anne-Isabelle Veillot, Un projet de décroissance. Manifeste pour une dotation inconditionnelle d’autonomie, préface de Paul Ariès, éd. Utopia.
00:05 Publié dans Ecologie, Livre, Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : écologie, livre, démagogie, politique, décroissance | |
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dimanche, 06 octobre 2013
G. Adinolfi: Orchestre rouge
Gabriele Adinolfi vient de publier en France son tout dernier livre, Orchestre Rouge, adressé tout particulièrement au public français (il n’existe pas encore de version italienne).
Dans ce livre-enquête, il nous revèle les secrets de l’internationale terroriste. Secrets de Polichinelle, pour utiliser une expression chère à la commedia dell’arte! Les enquêteurs sont en effet en possession de preuves irréfutables disculpant totalement les nationalistes. Ils les ont toujours ignorées par décision politique.Cet ouvrage, conçu comme un complément de Nos belles années de plomb (toujours en librairie), reconstitue pas à pas les actes terroristes perpétués en Italie, mais qui concernent aussi la France, longtemps carrefour international de la terreur.Adinolfi révéle (avec l’aide d’avocats et de juges qui ont tenu à conserver l’anonymat), les preuves qui clouent la centrale de la terreur italienne qui n’était rien d’autre que la filière du commandemant partisan des annés quarante. Qui oserait dire que la «pieuvre» de la terreur était consitituée essentiellement de l’internationale trotzkiste et socialiste? Que leurs agissements étaient non seulement autorisés, mais surtout couverts par la Commisson Trilatèrale? Qu’ils ont déclenché une véritable guerre méditerranéenne, remportée par Israël avec l’imposition de la doctrine Kissinger?A la fin de l’ouvrage, un témoignage historique nous éclaire sur les motivations et le jeu machiavélique des guérilleros rouges. Une clef indispensable pour comprendre la mentalité révolutionnaire.L’auteur nous démontre point par point comment la théorie (officielle) de la «stratégie de la tension» voulue par le parti atlantiste pour contrer l’avancé communiste et le pacte de Varsovie est totalement fausse.
Orchestre Rouge Avatar Editions, 19 €.
00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : livre, gabriele adinolfi, orchestre rouge, terrorisme, années de plomb, italie, nationalisme révolutionnaire | |
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jeudi, 03 octobre 2013
UN REGARD SUR LES TRENTE GLORIEUSES
Pierre LE VIGAN
Ex: http://metamag.fr
00:05 Publié dans Histoire, Livre, Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : histoire, france, trente glorieuses, livre | |
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dimanche, 29 septembre 2013
Montherlant und der nutzlose Dienst
Montherlant und der nutzlose Dienst
von Jens Strieder
Ex: http://www.blauenarzisse.de
Die wichtigsten Auszüge aus Henry de Montherlants 1939 erstveröffentlichter Essaysammlung wurden im Verlag Antaios wieder aufgelegt.
Vielen deutschen Lesern ist der Name Henry Marie Joseph Frédéric Expedite Millon de Montherlant nicht mehr geläufig. Das gilt auch für sein Heimatland Frankreich. Es ist umso verwunderlicher, wenn man bedenkt, dass es sich bei dem 1895 in Paris geborenen Literaten um ein Ausnahmetalent handelte, das in nahezu allen Textformen zu Hause war: Montherlant schrieb Romane, Erzählungen, Novellen, Theaterstücke, Essays und Tagebücher. Sein Gedankenreichtum, seine Beobachtungsgabe und die durch ihre Schönheit bestechende Ausdruckskraft, sprechen für sich und machen ihn zu einem der bedeutendsten Schriftsteller des 20. Jahrhunderts.
Das Nutzlose liegt nicht im Trend
1939 erschien in Leipzig sein Essay-Band mit dem Titel „Nutzloses Dienen”. Damit diese Texte nicht vollends in Vergessenheit geraten, ist im Verlag Antaios ein Band erschienen, der in Form von fünf Essays eine Auswahl der im Original vertretenen Schriften aus den Jahren 1928 – 1934 versammelt.
Die Namensgebung des Bandes verweist sogleich auf eine literarische, aber auch lebenspraktisch orientierte Selbstkonzeption Montherlants: Eine persönliche Haltung, die einem scheinbar sinnlosen oder gar unsinnigen Handeln einen eigentümlichen Wert jenseits jeglichen oberflächlichen Utilitarismus’ beimisst.
Das Nutzlose liegt nicht im Trend, erschließt sich nicht jedem und ist vornehmlich Selbstzweck, dessen idealistischer Wert in der Herauslösung aus dem Alltäglichen, Banalen und Kollektiven liegt. Dabei dient es Montherlant auch zur Überwindung des Nihilismus: „Was mich aufrecht hält auf den Meeren des Nichts, das ist allein das Bild, das ich mir von mir selber mache”.
Der überzeitliche Wert des eigenen Handelns
Allein dieser Satz macht deutlich, dass sich die Dienerschaft auf den Dienenden selbst bezieht. Eine derartige Selbstkonzeption sollte nicht als Ausdruck von Arroganz oder Narzissmus missverstanden werden. Vielmehr geht es Montherlant darum, dem eigenen Wirken einen ideellen und überzeitlichen Wert jenseits des Egos beizugeben.
Ein solches Verständnis vom irdischen Dasein schlägt sich dann auch in allen fünf hier enthaltenen Texten nieder. Entscheidend scheint hierbei vor allem der Umstand zu sein, dass sich Montherlants Ethik eines nutzlosen Dienstes bei aller inneren Höhe, durch eine spezielle Form von Askese auszeichnet, die nicht nur auf Anerkennung von außen verzichtet, sondern auch nicht nach sichtbaren Bezeugungen giert.
So ist für Montherlant beispielsweise die Architektur ein Spiegel dieser Ethik. Wo das Versailler Schloß in erster Linie durch äußeren Glanz und Prunk wirkt, jedoch nach Meinung von Montherlant nicht darüber hinausschaut, sind beispielsweise die spanischen Paläste durch die Verbindung von Schnörkel und schlichtester Einfachheit ein Zeichen von Strenge, welche zum unabdingbaren Wesensmerkmal echter Größe gehört.
Montherlants Selbstkonzeption als Habitus
Für Montherlant sind deshalb die einzig wertvollen Kronen diejenigen, die man sich selbst gibt, denn „[…] die gute Tat geht nicht verloren, wie vergebens sie auch gewesen ist […].” Entsprechend wird auch die „sittliche Idee” der Ehre verteidigt, die auch dann zu wahren ist, wenn sie anderen als unangemessen oder gar lächerlich erscheinen mag.
Das „Heldentum des Alltags” ist nicht weniger bedeutsam als beispielsweise jenes im Krieg und anderen Ausnahmesituationen. Vielmehr ist es Bestandteil der Würde des Menschen. Montherlant setzt nicht einfach andere Prioritäten als jene, die ihm hier nicht folgen können, sondern er wird auch zum Schöpfer seiner selbst, indem er die Rolle konzipiert, die er als endliches Wesen im Fortgang der Zeit spielen möchte – nicht als Schauspieler, sondern als Resultat eines inneren Bedürfnisses.
Somit ist es nur logisch, sich nicht mit dem von niederen Instinkten geleiteten, hässlichen gemein machen zu wollen. Der nutzlose Dienst ist so auch immer ein Akt der bewussten Sezession.
Die Unabhängigkeit des Schriftstellers
Zugleich grenzt Montherlant in einem ebenfalls abgedruckten Vortrag, den der er am 15. November 1933 vor Offizieren der Kriegsakademie hielt, jenes Handeln aus Pflichtgefühl, Notwendigkeit oder edlen Motiven gegen ein Ehrverständnis ab, das der Unbesonnenheit anheim fällt und aus Dummheit und Leichtsinn Risiken eingeht und andere Leben gefährdet.
In Der Schriftsteller und das öffentliche Wirken fordert Montherlant die Freiheit der Unbhängigkeit des Schriftstellers von gesellschaftlich relevanten Themen ein. Er wendet sich gegen das Schubladendenken und die Erwartungshaltung des Kulturbetriebs, die letztlich den wesentlichen Teil des dichterischen Ausdrucks unterdrücken. Vor dem Hintergrund der heute üblichen, feuilletonistischen Simplifizierungen und Rollenzuschreibungen kann man mit Gewissheit sagen, dass dieses Anliegen berechtigt war.
Existentielle Bedrohung von innen oder außen
In einer Lage existentieller Bedrohung von innen oder außen dagegen sieht Montherlant den Schriftsteller dennoch in der Pflicht, seinen Beitrag zu leisten. Das verdeutlicht, dass die konstatierte Eigenart keine Ausrede für Verantwortungslosigkeit oder Feigheit sein kann. Ein geistig-moralischer Führungsanspruch im Sinne einer „engagierten Literatur” lässt sich hieraus jedoch keineswegs ableiten und wird vom Autor auch verworfen.
Für alle, die sich für diesen großen Geist interessieren, stellt der Band trotz seiner Knappheit den idealen Einstieg für eine tiefergehende Beschäftigung mit dessen Werk und Wirkung dar.
Henry de Montherlant: Nutzloses Dienen. 88 Seiten, Verlag Antaios 2011. 8,50 Euro.
00:05 Publié dans Littérature, Livre, Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : livre, lettres, littérature, lettres françaises, littérature française, france, montherlant | |
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mercredi, 25 septembre 2013
Pour une critique positive
La première publication de Pour une critique positive est datée de 1962. Rédigé en détention (les prisons de la République hébergeaient alors de nombreux patriotes coupables d’avoir participé à la défense des Français d’Algérie), ce texte est un exercice d’autocritique sans comparaison « à droite ».
S’efforçant de tirer les enseignements des échecs de son action, l’auteur propose une véritable théorie de l’action révolutionnaire. Pour une critique positive a été une influence stratégique majeure pour de très nombreux militants, des activistes estudiantins des années 70 aux identitaires.
Pour une critique positive a été publié sous anonymat, comme c’est souvent le cas pour ce type de textes d’orientation, mais il est aujourd’hui communément admis que Dominique Venner en fut l’auteur. C’était avant qu’il quitte le terrain de l’action politique pour se consacrer à l’histoire.
Nous avons souhaité conserver l’œuvre originale dans son intégralité, les références ou le vocabulaire employés dans le texte pourront parfois surprendre ou choquer. S’il arrive que les mots soient durs, c’est que l’époque et les épreuves traversées l’étaient.
00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Nouvelle Droite | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : dominique venner, nouvelle droite, critique positive, livre | |
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lundi, 23 septembre 2013
La teoria etnonazionalista
La teoria etnonazionalista

00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Terroirs et racines, Théorie politique | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : ethno-nationalisme, ethnies, livre, théorie politique, sciences politiques, politologie, ethnisme | |
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dimanche, 22 septembre 2013
Technopol und Maschinen-Ideologien
Robert Steuckers:
Technopol und Maschinen-Ideologien
Analyse: Neil POSTMAN, Das Technopol. Die Macht der Technologien und die Entmündigung der Gesellschaft, S. Fischer Verlag, 1991, 221 S., ISBN 3-10-062413-0.
Neil Postman, zeitgenößischer amerikanischer Denker und Soziolog, ist hauptsächlich für seine Bücher über die Fernsehen-Gefahren bei Kindern bekannt. In seinem Buch Das Technopol klagt er den Technizismus an, wobei er nicht die Technik als solche ablehnt, sondern die Mißbräuche davon. In seiner Einleitung, spricht Postman eine deutliche Sprache: Die Technik ist zwar dem Menschen freundlich, sie erleichtert ihm das Leben, aber hat auch dunkle Seiten. Postman: «Ihre Geschenke sind mit hohen Kosten verbunden. Um es dramatisch zu formulieren: man kann gegen die Technik den Vorwurf erheben, daß ihr unkontrolliertes Wachstum die Lebensquellen der Menschheit zerstört. Sie schafft eine Kultur ohne moralische Grundlage. Sie untergräbt bestimmte geistige Prozesse und gesellschaftliche Beziehungen, die das menschliche Leben lebenswert machen» (S. 10). Weiter legt Postman aus, was die Maschinen-Ideologien eigentlich sind und welche Gefahren sie auch in sich tragen. Postman macht uns darauf aufmerksam, das gewisse Technologien unsichtbar sein können: so Postman: «Management, ähnlich der Statistik, des IQ-Messung, der Notengebung oder der Meinungsforschung, funktionniert genau wie eine Technologie. Gewiß, es besteht nicht aus mechanischen Teilen. Es besteht aus Prozeduren und Regeln, die Verhalten standardisieren sollen. Aber wir können ein solches Prozeduren- und Regelsystem als eine Verfahrensweise oder eine Technik bezeichnen; und von einer solchen Technik haben wir nichts zu befürchten, es sei denn, sie macht sich, wie so viele unserer Maschinen, selbstständig. Und das ist der springende Punkt. Unter dem Technopol neigen wir zu der Annahme, daß wir unsere Ziele nur erreichen können, wenn wir den Verfahrensweisen (und den Apparaten) Autonomie geben.
Diese Vorstellung ist um so gefährlicher, als sie niemand mit vernünftigen Gründen gegen den rationalen Einsatz von Verfahren und Techniken stellen kann, mit denen sich bestimmte Vorhaben verwirklichen lassen. (...) Die Kontroverse betrifft den Triumph des Verfahrens, seine Erhöhung zu etwas Heiligem, wodurch verhindert wird, daß auch andere Verfahrensweisen eine Chance bekommen» (S. 153-154). Weiter warnt uns Postman von einer unheimlichen Gefahr, d. h. die Gefahr der Entleerung der Symbole. Wenn traditionnelle oder religiöse Symbole beliebig manipuliert oder verhöhnt werden, als ob sie mechanische Teilchen wären, entleeren sie sich. Hauptschuldige daran ist die Werbung, die einen ständig größeren Einfluß über unseres tägliche Denken ausübt und die die Jugend schlimm verblödet, so daß sie alles im Schnelltempo eines Werbungsspot verstehen will. Um Waren zu verkaufen, manipulieren die Werbeleute gut bekannte politische, staatliche oder religiöse Symbole. Diese werden dann gefährlich banalisiert oder lächerlich gemacht, dienen nur noch das interressierte Verkaufen, verlieren jedes Mysterium, werden nicht mehr mit Andacht respektiert. So verlieren ein Volk oder eine Kultur ihren Rückengrat, erleben einen problematischen Sinnverlust, der die ganze Gemeinschaft im verheerenden Untergang stoßen. Postmans Bücher sind wichtig, weil sie uns ganz sachlich auf zeitgenößischen Problemen aufmerksam machen, ohne eine peinlich apokalyptische Sprache zu verwenden. Zum Beispiel ist Postman klar bewußt, daß die Technik lebenswichtig für den Menschen ist, denunziert aber ohne unnötige Pathos die gefährliche Autonomisierung von technischen Verfahren. Postman plädiert nicht für eine irrationale Technophobie. Schmittianer werden in seiner Analyse der unsichtbaren Technologien, wie das Management, eine tagtägliche Quelle der Delegitimierung und Legalisierung der politischen Gemeinschaften. Politisch gesehen, könnten die soziologischen Argumente und Analysen von Postman eine nützliche Illustration der Legalität/Legitimität-Problematik sein (Robert STEUCKERS).
00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Nouvelle Droite, Philosophie, Sociologie | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : neil postman, technocratisme, livre, synergies européennes, nouvelles droite, robert steuckers | |
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samedi, 21 septembre 2013
Kerry Bolton: Revolution from Above
Kerry Bolton: Revolution from Above
By Manfred Kleine-Hartlage
Ex: http://www.sezession.de
Jeder, der einmal versucht oder auch nur theoretisch erwogen hat, einen größeren geistig-politischen Umschwung herbeizuführen – von einer Revolution ganz zu schweigen –, weiß, daß dazu vor allem eines erforderlich ist: Geld.
Geld bringt Journalisten dazu, bestimmte Themen hoch- oder niederzuschreiben, Geld veranlaßt Professoren, ihre Erkenntnisinteressen denen ihrer Drittmittelgeber anzupassen, Geld ermöglicht es, Zeitungen und Fernsehsender zu kaufen, mit Geld kann man Kurse für Agitatoren und solche, die es werden wollen, bezahlen, mit Geld eine Infrastruktur von „Nichtregierungsorganisationen“ unterhalten, und wenn all dies nicht reicht, kann man mit Geld Waffen kaufen.
Obwohl dies so offenkundig ist, daß man es schon banal nennen muß, ist es zugleich ein Tabuthema. Jeder weiß zwar, daß etwa die Bolschewiki eine Organisation von „Berufsrevolutionären“ waren; und jeder, der darüber nachdenkt, könnte sich sagen, daß Berufsrevolutionäre – wie alle anderen Berufstätigen auch – auf Arbeitgeber oder Kunden angewiesen sind, die sie bezahlen. Und doch gilt die Oktoberrevolution bis heute als das Werk eines gewissen Lenin, nicht etwa als das seiner Geldgeber. Allenfalls gesteht man zu, daß die Millionensummen, die die deutsche Regierung während des Ersten Weltkriegs zur Verfügung stellte, eine gewisse Rolle gespielt haben mögen. Daß entsprechende Summen aber schon lange vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg an die Bolschewisten und andere revolutionäre Organisationen flossen, und daß sie keineswegs aus Deutschland stammten, sondern aus amerikanischen Finanzkreisen: Das ist zwar kein Geheimnis, sondern wohldokumentiert; im offiziösen Geschichtsbild kommt es aber nicht vor.
Dabei ist die Russische Revolution noch dasjenige Thema, bei dem der kausale Zusammenhang zwischen den Interessen schwerreicher Finanziers und der Entfesselung der Revolution am ehesten thematisiert werden kann. Wer dagegen fragt, warum 1789 wie auf Kommando in ganz Frankreich Agitatoren auftauchten, die ein gar nicht so unzufriedenes Volk aufzuhetzen verstanden, sieht sich schnell als „Verschwörungstheoretiker“ abgestempelt, und erst recht gilt dies für den, der den ominösen „Zeitgeist“ hinterfragt, der – man weiß nicht wie – seit rund hundert Jahren, spätestens aber seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, grundsätzlich nur von links zu wehen scheint.
Wiederum ist es nicht wirklich ein Geheimnis, daß dieser Zeitgeist keineswegs von selbst entstanden ist, und es ist auch kein Geheimnis, wer seine Entstehung organisiert und finanziert hat: Die verantwortlichen Akteure rühmen sich dessen sogar und geben in ihren Veröffentlichungen detailliert Auskunft darüber. Und doch haben diese allgemein zugänglichen Informationen kaum Eingang ins herrschende politische Bewußtsein gefunden.
In seinem Buch „Revolution from Above“ [2], das zur Zeit leider nur auf Englisch verfügbar ist, hat der neuseeländische Autor Kerry Bolton diese Informationen zusammengetragen und zu einem theoretisch überzeugenden und empirisch unanfechtbar untermauerten Ganzen zusammengefügt. Er weist überzeugend – und dies ausschließlich auf der Basis von Selbstzeugnissen der einschlägigen Akteure! – nach, daß praktisch alle intellektuellen und politischen Strömungen der Linken im 20. Jahrhundert, soweit sie nicht von der UdSSR finanziert wurden, nur aufgrund der milliardenschweren Unterstützung durch eine winzige Schicht von amerikanischen Superreichen und deren Stiftungen zum Zuge kommen konnten. Zumindest hätten sie ohne diese Unterstützung bei weitem nicht die Durchschlagskraft haben können, die sie haben.
Ein solcher Befund mag denjenigen überraschen, der den Gegensatz von Kapitalisten und Sozialisten immer noch für unüberbrückbar hält. Tatsächlich war er das nie. Die Linke leistet dem Kapital vielmehr gute Dienste bei der Zerstörung hergebrachter Strukturen, Bindungen und Werte. Sie planiert damit das Gelände, auf dem der globale Kapitalismus errichtet wird. Sie zerstört reale, gewachsene Solidarität im Namen einer fiktiven und bloß ideologisch postulierten, und sie erzeugt damit die Gesellschaft von atomisierten Einzelnen, die auf ihre Rolle als Produzenten und Konsumenten zurückgeworfen werden und als Masse so lenkbar und nutzbar sind wie eine Viehherde. Das gilt für die russischen und chinesischen Kommunisten, die eine traditionelle agrarische Gesellschaft ins Industriezeitalter katapultierten und schließlich in den Weltmarkt einbanden; es gilt genauso für die westliche Linke mit ihrem Kampf gegen Nation, Tradition, Religion und Familie.
Boltons Buch ist die passende Ergänzung zu meinen eigenen Ausführungen zu diesem Thema (in „Die liberale Gesellschaft und ihr Ende“ [3]). Wo ich die Zusammenhänge abstrakt analysiere, nennt er konkrete Namen, Summen, Profiteure und Strategien. Steinchen für Steinchen entsteht dabei das Mosaik einer langfristigen Strategie der amerikanischen Plutokratie, die auf nicht mehr und nicht weniger hinausläuft als auf eine Weltrevolution – eben auf die Revolution von oben, der das Buch seinen Titel verdankt.
Solche Bücher können auch entmutigen: Wie will man denn, so mag mancher Leser fragen, einem Feind entgegentreten, der an allen Fronten unter Einsatz schier unbegrenzter Mittel auf dem Vormarsch ist? Ist da nicht jeder Widerstand von vornherein zumm Scheitern verurteilt?
Ich selbst ziehe den umgekehrten Schluß: Wenn der Feind Milliardensummen einsetzt, dann deshalb, weil er es nötig hat. Wer ganze Völker mit einem geschlossenen System von Lügen indoktrinieren muss, muß wesentlich mehr investieren als der, der es sich leisten kann, mit Wahrheiten zu operieren. Freilich rechtfertigt auch diese Feststellung nicht eine in manchen Kreisen immer noch verbreitete naive rechte Sozialromantik, die ohne professionelle Strukturen auszukommen glaubt, weil die Wahrheit sich allein durch den Idealismus ihrer Verfechter durchsetzen werde.
Kerry Boltons Buch ist insofern kein Anlaß zu Resignation, wohl aber zu produktiver Ernüchterung: Wir kommen mit weniger Geld aus als der Gegner, aber auch wir werden viele Millionen Euro benötigen, um einen spürbaren politischen Effekt zu erzielen. Es wird Zeit, daß diese Einsicht sich unter den besser betuchten Sympathisanten der politischen Rechten herumspricht.
Article printed from Sezession im Netz: http://www.sezession.de
URL to article: http://www.sezession.de/40908/kerry-bolton-revolution-from-above.html
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.sezession.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/kerry-bolton-revolution-from-above.jpg
[2] „Revolution from Above“: http://www.arktos.com/revolution-from-above.html
[3] „Die liberale Gesellschaft und ihr Ende“: http://antaios.de/detail/index/sArticle/314/sCategory/13
19:09 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Nouvelle Droite | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : kerry bolton, nouvelle droite américaine, livre | |
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jeudi, 19 septembre 2013
Silvio Gesell: der “Marx” der Anarchisten
Robert STEUCKERS:
Silvio Gesell: der “Marx” der Anarchisten
Analyse: Klaus SCHMITT/Günter BARTSCH (Hrsg.), Silvio Gesell, “Marx” der Anarchisten. Texte zur Befreiung der Marktwirtschaft vom Kapitalismus und der Kinder und Mütter vom patriarchalischen Bodenunrecht, Karin Kramer Verlag, Berlin, 1989, 303 S., ISBN 3-87956-165-6.
Silvio Gesell war ein nonkonformistischer Ökonom. Er nahm zusammen mit Figuren sowie Niekisch, Mühsam und Landauer an der Räteregierung Bayerns teil. Der gebürtige Sankt-Vikter entwickelte in seinem wichtigsten Buch “Die natürliche Ordnung” ein Projekt der Umverteilung des Bodens, damit ein Jeder selbständig-autonom in totaler Unabhängigkeit von abstrakten Strukturen leben konnte. Günter Bartsch nennt ihn ein “Akrat”, d.h. ein Mensch, der frei von jeder Bevormündung ist, sei diese politischer, religiöser oder verwaltungsartiger Natur. Für Klaus Schmitt, der Gesell für die deutsche nonkonforme Linke wiederentdeckt (aber nicht kritiklos), ist der räterepublikanische Akrat ein der schärfsten Kritiker der “Macht Mammons”. Diese Allmacht wollte Gesell mit der Einführung eines “Schwundgeldes” bzw. einer “Freigeld-Lehre” zerschmettern. Unter “Schwundgeld” verstand er ein Geld, das man nicht thesaurisieren konnte und für das keine Zinsen gezahlt wurden. Im Gegenteil war für Gesell die Hortung von Geldwerten die Hauptsünde. Geld, das nicht in Sachen (Maschinen, Geräte, Technik, Erziehung, Boden, Vieh, usw.) investiert wird, mußte durch moralischen und ökonomischen Zwang an Wert verlieren. Solche Ideen entwickelten auch der Vater des kanadischen und angelsächsichen Distributismus, C. H. Douglas, und der Dichter Ezra Pound, der in den amerikanischen Regierung ein Instrument des Teufels Mammon sah. Douglas entwickelte distributistische Bauern-Projekte in Kanada, die teilweise noch heute existieren. Pound drückte seinen Dichterhaß gegen Geld- und Bankwesen, indem er die italienischen “Saló-Republik” am Ende des Krieges unterstütze. Pound versuchte, seine amerikanische Landgenossen zu überzeugen, keinen Krieg gegen Mussolini und das spätfaschistischen Italien zu führen. Nach 1945, wurde er in den VSA zwölf Jahre lang in einer Irrenanstalt eingesperrt. Er kam trotzdem aus dieser Hölle ungebrochen zurück und ging bei seiner Dochter Mary de Rachewiltz in Südtirol wohnen, wo er 1972 starb.
Neben seiner ökonomischen Lehren über das Schwund- und Freigeld, theorisierte Gesell einen Anarchofeminismus, wobei er besonders die Kinder und die Frauen gegen männliche Ausbeutung schützen wollte. Diese Interpretation des matriarchalischen Archetyp implizierte eine ziemlich scharfe Kritik des Vaterrechts, der in seinen Augen die Position der Kinder in der Gesellschaft besonders labil machte. Insofern war Gesell ein Vorfechter der Kinderrechte. Praktish bedeutete dieser Anarchofeminismus die Einführung einer “Mutterrente”. «Gesell und sein Anhänger wollten den gesamten Boden den Müttern zueignen und ihnen bzw. ihren Kinder die Bodenrente bis zum 18. Lebensjahr der Kinder als “Mutter-” bzw. “Kinderrente” zukommen lassen. Ein “Bund der Mütter” soll den gesamten nationalen und in ferner Zukunft den gesamten Boden unseres Planeten verwalten und (...) an den oder die Meistbietenden verpachten. Nach diesem Verfahren hätte jeder einzelne Mensch und jede einzelne Gruppe (z. B. eine Genossenschaft) die gleichen Chancen wie alle anderen, Boden nutzen zu können, ohne von privaten oder staatlichen Parasiten ausgebeutet zu werden» (S. 124). Wissenschaftliche Benennung dieses Systems nach Gesell hieß “physiokratische Mutterschaft”.
Neben den langen Aufsätzen von Bartsch und Schmitt enthält das Buch auch Texte von Gustav Landauer (“Sehr wertvolle Vorschläge”) und Erich Mühsam (“Ein Wegbahner. Nachruf zum Tode Gesells 1930”).
Fazit: Das Buch hilft uns, die Komplexität und Verwicklung von Ideen zu verstehen, die in der Räterepublik anwesend waren. Ist Niekisch wiederentdeckt und breit kommentiert, so ist seine Nähe zu Personen wie Landauer, Mühsam und Gesell kaum erforscht. Auch interressant wäre es, die Beziehungspunkte zwischen Gesell, Douglas und Pound zu analysieren und zu vergleichen. Letztlich wäre es auch, die Lehren Gesells mit den national-revolutionären Theorien eines Henning Eichbergs in den Jahren 60 und 70 und mit dem Gedankengut, das eine Zeitschrift wie Wir Selbst verbreitet hat. Eichberg hat ja auch immer den Akzent auf das Mütterliche gelegt. Er sprach eher von einem mütterlich-schützende Mutterland statt von einem patriarchalisch-repressive Vaterland. Ähnlichkeiten, die der Ideen-Historiker nicht vernachlässigen kann (Robert STEUCKERS).
00:05 Publié dans Histoire, Livre, Livre, Nouvelle Droite, Synergies européennes, Théorie politique | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : silvio gesell, anarchisme, allemagne, histoire, nouvelle droite, théorie politique, sciences politiques, politologie | |
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vendredi, 13 septembre 2013
Pour une séparation du Laïcisme et de l'État
Pour une séparation du Laïcisme et de l'État
par Jean-Gilles MALLIARAKIS
Ex: http://www.insolent.fr

Tout cela le prétentieux personnage l'écrit lui-même.
Qu'on en juge par ses propres citations :
On remarquera d'abord que, comme beaucoup d'esprits marqués par l'enseignement de la philosophie, il fait bon marché de la connaissance concrète de l'Histoire. Voici en effet comment il définit la révolution :
"La révolution française est l’irruption dans le temps de quelque chose qui n’appartient pas au temps, c’est un commencement absolu, c’est la présence et l’incarnation d’un sens, d’une régénération et d’une expiation du peuple français. 1789, l’année sans pareille, est celle de l’engendrement par un brusque saut de l’histoire d’un homme nouveau. La révolution est un événement méta-historique, c’est-à-dire un événement religieux." (1)⇓
Et il enchaîne donc par cette conclusion, certes logique, mais terrifiante :
"La révolution implique l’oubli total de ce qui précède la révolution. Et donc l’école a un rôle fondamental, puisque l’école doit dépouiller l’enfant de toutes ses attaches pré-républicaines pour l’élever jusqu’à devenir citoyen. C’est une nouvelle naissance, une transsubstantiation qui opère dans l’école et par l’école cette nouvelle église avec son nouveau clergé, sa nouvelle liturgie, ses nouvelles tables de la loi."
On se situe exactement dans cette idée rousseauiste "il faut les forcer d'être libres" qu'Augustin Cochin souligne. (2)⇓
Peillon ose écrire : "La laïcité elle-même peut alors apparaître comme cette religion de la République recherchée depuis la Révolution". (3)⇓
Mais il déclare par ailleurs ouvertement que "la franc-maçonnerie est la religion de la république". (4)⇓
Le laïcisme qu'il professe se veut par conséquent l'expression profane, le mot d'ordre, – et comme le mot "républicain",– le mot de passe d'une secte, d'ailleurs divisée, dont on rappellera qu'au sein de l'Éducation dite Nationale elle doit représenter au maximum 1 % des fonctionnaires eux-mêmes, malgré sa réputation d'ascenseur professionnel : ce qui doit bien vouloir dire qu'elle dégoûte les autres 99 %.
Cessons donc de confondre laïcité et neutralité. L'un des fondateurs du système, Viviani, qui fut président du Conseil au moment de la déclaration de guerre de 1914, l'écrivait à l'époque: "La neutralité est, elle fut toujours un mensonge [...]. Un mensonge nécessaire lorsque l’on forgeait, au milieu des impétueuses colères de la droite, la loi scolaire [...]. On promit cette chimère de la neutralité pour rassurer quelques timidités dont la coalition eût fait obstacle au principe de la loi. Mais Jules Ferry avait l’esprit trop net pour croire en l’éternité de cet expédient [...]." (5)⇓
Le développement de l'éducation étatique a toujours été conçu en vue de perpétuer le système.
Le fonctionnement de cette coûteuse administration, lourdement centralisée, se révèle d'année en année plus improductif, et plus destructeur.
Les écoles d'État ne parviennent plus à enseigner aux enfants de France à lire, écrire et compter. Mais on veut, par l'effet du laïcisme totalitaire, faire semblant d'imposer avec une soi-disant "morale laïque", dont personne ne connaît les fondements, un recul de l'islamisme, lâchement, sans oser le nommer : cette rustine méprisable, poisseuse et liberticide ne servira à rien. Jetons la sans hésiter. Séparons le laïcisme de l'État.
JG Malliarakis
Apostilles
- cf. "La révolution française n’est pas terminée" Seuil 2008 page 17⇑
- *cf. "Les sociétés de pensée et la démocratie moderne" Éditions du Trident. ⇑
- Ibidem p. 162 ⇑
- cf. ses déclarations destinées à promouvoir son livre enregistrées au départ sur le site de son éditeur.⇑
- cf. L’Humanité 4 octobre 1904.⇑
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00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Politique | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : jean-gilles malliarakis, laïcisme, laïcité, état, france, livre, europe, affaires européennes | |
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jeudi, 12 septembre 2013
L’histoire fabriquée
Pierre LE VIGAN
Ex: http://metamag.fr

00:04 Publié dans Ecole/Education, Histoire, Livre, Livre | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : livre, histoire, école, éducation, enseignement | |
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mardi, 10 septembre 2013
The Gentleman from Providence
The Gentleman from Providence
By Alex Kurtagić
Ex: http://www.counter-currents.com
S. T. Joshi
I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft [2]
2 vols.
New York: Hippocampus Press, 2012
When it comes to a truly comprehensive biography of Howard Philip Lovecraft, one cannot do better than S. T. Joshi’s I am Providence, a 2 volume, 1,000-page, 500,000-word mammoth of a book that aims to cover everything there is to know about the American master of the weird tale.
As with Mark Finn, whose biography of Howard I reviewed recently, it would seem that L. Sprague de Camp was what spurred Joshi into action: after reading the latter’s Lovecraft: A Biography upon initial publication in 1975, Joshi dedicated his life thereafter to the study of the author from Providence. His choice of university was dictated by its holding the Lovecraft manuscript collection of the John Hay Library. And when he discovered that At the Mountains of Madness, his favourite Lovecraft story, contained no less than 1,500 textual errors, he devoted the ensuing years to tracking down and examining manuscripts and early publications in order to determine the textual history of the work and make possible a corrected edition of Lovecraft’s collected fiction, “revisions,” and other writings. What we have here, you may confidently conclude, is the product of decades of fanaticism and obsessive investigation.
Lovecraft was born in 1890, into a conservative upper middle class family, in Providence, Rhode Island. His father, Winfield, was a travelling salesman, employed by Gorham & Co., Silversmiths, and his mother, Sarah, could trace her ancestry back to the arrival of George Phillips to Massachusetts in 1630. His parents married in their thirties.
The young Lovecraft was talented, intellectually curious, and precocious, able to recite poetry by age two, and to read by age three. Growing up at a time when school was not compulsory, Lovecraft would not be enrolled in one until he was eight years of age and his attendance would be sporadic, possibly due to a nervous complaint and / or psychosomatic condition. But he was well ahead of his coevals in any event, having been exposed, and thereafter enjoyed ready access, to the best of classical and English literature. From Lovecraft’s perspective, this meant 17th and early 18th century prose and poetry, and, indeed, so steeped was he in the canonical literature from this period that he regarded its style of writing not only the finest ever achieved, but, for him, the norm. In the process, he also absorbed some of the archaic tastes and sensibilities permeating this literature, which would subsequently be reflected in his writing, speech, and attitudes, fundamentally aristocratic and at odds with the 20th century. What is more, Lovecraft was never denied anything he may have needed in the pursuit of his intellectual development, be it a chemistry set, a telescope, or printing equipment, so he became knowledgeable enough on these topics, and particularly his passion, astronomy, to contribute articles to a local publication from an early age. He also regularly produced—while still in infancy—his own amateur scientific journals, many of which still survive and were personally examined by Joshi for this biography. Thus, from early on, Lovecraft, a somewhat lonely boy with a charmed boyhood, was committed to a life entirely of the mind.
With such beginnings, it would appear to a casual observer that Lovecraft was well-equipped to become a success in life. But, instead, in adulthood he experienced ever-worsening poverty, squalor, and, though well known for a period within the specialised milieu of amateur publishing, growing professional obscurity. That his legacy has endured owes—besides to the intrinsic value of his works—perhaps in a not insignificant measure to his having been a prodigous correspondent: it has been estimated that throughout the course of his life Lovecraft may have written as many as 100,000 letters (only about 20,000 of which survive), and these were not hastily penned missives, as can be seen in the many excerpts herein presented, but thoughtful communications, sometimes of up to 30 pages in length, which are works of literatue in themselves.
In examining his overall trajectory, we can identify a number of negative vectors early on. The loss of his father, who, following a psychotic episode and permanent committal to a local hospital, suffering from what Joshi presumes to have been syphilis, meant that, from 1893, Lovecraft passed into the care of his mother, aunts, and his maternal grandfather. Whipple van Buren Phillips, a wealthy businessman, proved a positive influence, but died in 1904, and, his estate being poorly managed, this eventually forced the family to downsize. This badly affected the young Lovecraft, to the point that he briefly contemplated suicide. He was eventually dissuaded by his own intellectual curiosity and love of learning.
In 1908, just prior to his high school graduation, Lovecraft suffered a nervous breakdown. Joshi speculates that failure to master higher mathematics may have been a factor, since Lovecraft’s ambition was to become a professional astronomer. (Failure to master meant not getting straight As, but, among the As, a few A-s and Bs.) Whatever its cause, the breakdown prevented Lovecraft from obtaining his diploma, a fact he would later conceal or minimise. Lovecraft then went into seclusion—hikikomori, as it would be called today—in which condition he remained for five years, mostly reading and writing poetry. Joshi expresses alarm at the sheer volume of reading undertaken by Lovecraft during this period, a large portion of it consisting of magazines.
Lovecraft’s re-emergence owes to his irritation with a pulp author, Fred Jackson, whose stories in Argosy magazine he found maudlin, mediocre, and irritating. His letter was published in the magazine, whereby it detonated an opinionated debate. When Lovecraft’s expressed view led to attacks, he responded in lofty and witty verse, thus instigating a months-long war—in archaic rhyme—in the letters’ page. This got him noticed by the president of the United Amateur Press Association (UAPA), Edward F. Daas, who invited Lovecraft to join. This inaugurated Lovecraft’s amateur career, which led to his return to fiction—something he had dabbled in years before—and, by 1919, to his first commerically published work. During his early years in amateurdom, Lovecraft would also produce his own literary journal, The Conservative, a publication that truly lived up to its name and that has only recently been reprinted by Arktos in unabridged form.
Throughout this period Lovecraft continued to live with his mother, who sustained them both off an ever-shrinking inheritance. Trapped between the expectations of her class and dwindling resources, she grew progressively more neurotic and unstable. She already had an unheathily close, love-hate, relationship with her son, and Joshi records that she considered her son’s visage too ugly for public view. By 1919, suffering from hysteria and clinical depression, she would be committed to hospital, where she would remain for the rest of her days. Mother and son stayed close correspondents, but she was a perennial source of worry. Thus, when Sarah died in 1921, initial grief led to a sense of liberation, and an improvement in Lovecraft’s general health—though he, at this time a tall man of nearly 200 lbs, always regarded himself as ailing.
Yet there were further turns to the worst ahead. In 1921, at a convention for amateur journalists in Boston, Lovecraft met Sonia Green, an assimilated 38-year-old Ukrainian Jew from New York, whom he would marry in 1924. Interestingly, Lovecraft only told his aunt after the fact, writing to her from New York, where he had by then already taken residence at Sonia’s apartment.
Joshi notes that at this time Lovecraft’s prospects appeared to be improving: Sonia earned a good living at a hat shop in Fifth Avenue, and Lovecraft’s professional writing career was taking off. Lovecraft, then in a decadent phase, was also enthralled by the city, where he had a number of amateur friends. However, Sonia lost her job almost immediately when the shop went bankrupt. This forced Lovecraft for the first time to find regular employment, but without qualifications, work experience, nor, apparently, marketable skills, he was unable to find a position. The consequent financial difficulties impacted on Sonia’s health, who entered a sanatorium for a period of recovery. Eventually, she would find a job in Cleveland, leaving Lovecraft to live on his own, in a tiny apartment, in Brooklyn Heights (then Red Hook), back then a seedy neighbourhood. Sonia sent him an allowance, which permitted him to cover his rent and minimal expenses, but otherwise Lovecraft lived in poverty, stretching as far as possible a minuscule fare of unheated beans, bread, and cheese.
This was, however, genteel poverty. When, on one occasion, Lovecraft’s apartment was burglarised, he was left with only the clothes on his back (while he slept, the thieves gained access to his closet and stole all his suits). His reaction says much about Lovecraft: first priority for him was to get four new replacements: light and dark, winter and summer—no easy task, given his slender wallet. A gentleman may be poor, but he must still dress like a gentleman! The ensuing hunt for suitable attire taxed Lovecraft’s ingenuity, and ignited his frustration at the shoddy quality of modern suits (Lovecraft’s original suits had been made in happier times). Eventually, he succeeded, with minimal compromise.
Seething with immigrants of all descriptions, crowded, and filthy, Lovecraft came to despise New York, recognising it as an emblem of modern degeneration (remember: he already thought this in 1925!). This negative opinion does not sit well with Joshi: having immigrated from India at a young age and having been a New York resident for 27 years, Joshi puts Lovecraft through the wringer for failing to appreciate the city’s vibrancy. Here and elsewhere, he attacks Lovecraft for his enamourment with Anglo-Saxondom, his fierce resistance to racial egalitarianism, and his rejection of the multicultural society. In Joshi’s estimation, Lovecraft ought to have considered Franz Boas’ research, which was beginning to transform anthropology at this time; Joshi views this as contrary to Lovecraft’s rigorous scientific outlook—in other words, as Lovecraft having been blinded by prejudice. However, this overlooks the fact that there were different strands of opinion in anthropology at this time: this was the Progressive Era, when the American eugenics movement was at its height, enjoying institutional legitimacy, famous proponents (e.g. John Harvey Kellogg), and backing from the likes of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Carnegie Institution, and the the Harriman estate. Boas’ findings were politically motivated and not universally accepted, and he had by no means proven his case. (Worse still, since then there have been accusations of scientific fraud.) It would, therefore, seem that Lovecraft was entirely consequent with his aristocratic and scientific worldview.
Though Joshi deems it necessary to shoehorn his views on race and racism—zzz . . . —he shows admirable restraint, all things considered—though he has still been criticised by readers. He clearly struggles to reconcile his admiration for Lovecraft with an imagined rejection by him, which is coloured by the absurdities of the modern discourse on these matters. As the author of The Angry Right: Why Conservatives Keep Getting it Wrong (2006), where he invects against liberals like William Buckley and Rush Limbaugh, and where he welcomes the Leftward drift of American values, he can understand Lovecraft’s own merely as a reflection of the times in which he lived. Yet, Joshi has expended an immense amount of time and energy studying and writing about Lovecraft’s thought and worldview, as expressed both in correspondence and in fiction, and thus makes a fair attempt at describing them at length in a temperate fashion.
Lovecraft would eventually return to Providence, thus marking the beginning of the most productive phase of his career. By this time his marriage to Sonia was essentially over; a final attempt was made, but Lovecraft’s aunts rejected the idea of Sonia setting up shop in Providence, regarding her—or rather, the idea of a businesswoman—as somewhat declassé. Joshi again takes Lovecraft to task for not having shown more backbone before his aunts, but he is, nevertheless, of the opinion that Lovecraft was unsuited for marriage—being emotionally distant, stiff-upper lipped, and sexually sluggish—and ought never to have taken a wife. The Lovecrafts would in time agree on an amicable divorce (though, in the end, and to Sonia’s shock later on, he never signed the decree).
Despite his peaking productivity, Lovecraft’s economic prospects continued to decline. His stories became longer and more complex, and it became increasingly difficult to place them. Farnsworth Wright, Weird Tales’ capricious editor, repeatedly rejected them, though sometimes he would accept some after a period, after lobbying or intercession by one of Lovecraft’s correspondents. His seminal essay on horror fiction, Supernatural Horror in Literature [3], completed at this time, appeared haphazardly and incompletely in tiny amateur publications, and would never appear in its final, revised, complete form during his lifetime. Therefore, Lovecraft, now living in semi-squalor with his aunt in cramped accommodation, was increasingly forced to survive through charging for “revisions,” which, given the amount of hands-on editing and re-writing involved, was for the most part tantamount to ghostwriting. Lovecraft was too much of a gentleman, too generous for his own good, and charged very modest fees. We must remember, however, that Lovecraft, in this same modest spirit, saw himself as a hack.
All the same, through extreme frugality and resourcefulness, Lovecraft still managed to travel yearly around New England, mainly as an antiquary. This resulted in extensive travelogues, written in 18th-century prose, replete with archaisms and therefore neither publishable nor intended for publication. Joshi mentions that some have criticised Lovecraft for expending excessive energy on correspondence and unpublishable travelogues, rather than writing fiction, but he argues that this was Lovecraft’s life, not his critics’—who are they to tell him, posthumously, what he ought to have done?
Joshi notes that the Great Depression forced Lovecraft to reconsider some of his earlier positions, and that he—encouragingly in his view—embraced FDR’s New Deal. He also notes, although briefly, that Lovecraft may have misunderstood the nature of the program. All the same, he likes to describe Lovecraft as having become a “moderate socialist,” even if he is later careful to point out that his socialism was radically distinct from the Marxist conception—in fact, Lovecraft instinctively sympathised with fascism and Hitler’s movement, and would remain firmly opposed to Communism. Lovecraft’s conception of socialism was entirely elitist. From his perspective, the culture-bearing stratum of a civilisation should not, in an ideal world, be shackled by the need to waste time and energy on trivial tasks, out of the need to earn a living: the production of high culture is often incompatible with commercial goals, so, in his view, it demands freedom from economic activity. And this implied some sort of patronage, in the manner that kings, popes, or wealthy aristocrats or businessmen provided to artists in the past. In other words, a portion of the nation’s wealth should be channelled into things of lasting value—and, therefore, into seeing to it that the very few individuals capable of producing them are in a position to do so. Lovecraft conceived this as socialism because he saw it as the task of the best to better the rest, and high art and intellection played an important rôle in that endeavour.
By 1936, Lovecraft, already in constant pain, was diagnosed with bowel cancer. He would die a few months later, on 15 March 1937.
As with Finn’s biography of Robert E. Howard, Joshi carries on beyond the grave to trace Lovecraft’s legacy, and the development of Lovecraft scholarship over the past 75 years. Like Finn, he has complaints about L. Sprague de Camp’s biography, which he deems substandard and inaccurate; he describes de Camp as business-minded (a euphemism for opportunist). Joshi also criticises August Derleth, one of Lovecraft’s correspondents, who acted early on and energetically to preserve Lovecraft’s legacy through his publishing company, Arkham House: as de Camp did with Howard, Derleth sought to extend Lovecraft’s mythology with posthumous “collaborations,” wherein he distorted the mythology by infusing it with his own preconceptions. To Joshi this was a disreputable attempt to market his own fiction using Lovecraft’s name, though Derleth would later become a well-regarded author in his own right.
While Joshi’s biography is impressive in its comprehensiveness and level of detail, I found his compulsion to provide a plot summary of every single story that Lovecraft ever wrote rather tedious and beyond requirements. One can see that the biography’s comprehensive logic dictates their inclusion, and they can be useful, but I wonder if the tomes’ objectives could not have been met without this overwhelming prolixity.
Joshi recognises his subject’s superior character in that, though Lovecraft would have been able to prosper economically had he compromised on quality, produced more, and stuck to what was popular, he remained steadfast in his refusal to do so. Whatever he did, he did to the best of his ability, without homage to Mammon. Readers, says Joshi, should be grateful for that, as it was this that has guaranteed the lasting value of Lovecraft’s work as well as his enduring legacy.
Article printed from Counter-Currents Publishing: http://www.counter-currents.com
URL to article: http://www.counter-currents.com/2013/09/the-gentleman-from-providence/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.counter-currents.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/iap.gif
[2] I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H. P. Lovecraft: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1614980519/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1614980519&linkCode=as2&tag=countercurren-20
[3] Supernatural Horror in Literature: http://shop.wermodandwermod.com/supernatural-horror-in-literature.html
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samedi, 07 septembre 2013
Nietzsche et l'éternité
Pierre Le Vigan
Ex: http://metamag.fr

00:05 Publié dans Livre, Livre, Philosophie | Lien permanent | Commentaires (0) | Tags : philosophie, nietzsche | |
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