Reviewing Colm Tóibín‘s The Master, a ‘novelistic portrait’ of Henry James, Daniel Mendelsohn writes: ”The Master” is not, of course, a novel about just any man, but rather a novel about a figure from the past about whom we know an extraordinarily great deal, through both his own and others’ memoirs, books and letters. As Toibin wellContinue reading “Henry James on the ‘Fatal Cheapness’ of the Historical Novel”
Category Archives: History
Time Again to Support Academic Freedom
This morning, I received the following email from the Brooklyn College President, Karen Gould: Dear students, faculty, and staff, Each semester, student clubs, academic departments, and other groups on our campus host events and invite speakers on a broad range of topics. At times, the issues discussed may be challenging and the points of viewContinue reading “Time Again to Support Academic Freedom”
Young Lady, You Too Can Strap On An Ammo Belt
It’s official: American women can now kill strange people in strange lands, put themselves in harm’s way and die for their country. The Pentagon’s announcement that women in the US military will now be allowed to serve in combat zones finally brings to an end a discriminatory policy that had looked increasingly ludicrous as women continuedContinue reading “Young Lady, You Too Can Strap On An Ammo Belt”
Martin Luther King Jr.: Menace II (Racist) Society
As a callow boy, I used to confuse Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. Fortunately, that ignorant conflation didn’t last too long and I soon got the two of them sorted out. The first one complicated my understanding of Christianity, the second that of my home for twenty-five years, the United States of America,Continue reading “Martin Luther King Jr.: Menace II (Racist) Society”
David Shulman on Asia’s Autonomous Discovery of Modernity
In his review (‘The Revenge of the East, New York Review of Books, October 11, 2012) of Pankaj Mishra’s From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012), David Shulman provides an interesting disputation of Mishra’s claim that Asia’s–as yet incomplete and flawed–encounter with modernity began via and through a series of interactionsContinue reading “David Shulman on Asia’s Autonomous Discovery of Modernity”
Liberal Democracies and Armed Insurrections: Never the Twain Shall Meet?
Jeff McMahan has an interesting article–Why Gun Control Is Not Enough–over at The Stone today (New York Times, 20 December 2012). I agree with him that gun ownership does not have the salutary political effects that its most fervent, Second Amendment-quoting advocates claim it does, even though I don’t agree with McMahan’s conclusion that ‘the UnitedContinue reading “Liberal Democracies and Armed Insurrections: Never the Twain Shall Meet?”
Unamuno on Lasting Glory
Today’s post is merely a pointer to a couple of lyrical passages from Miguel De Unamuno‘s The Tragic Sense of Life (Collins; The Fontana Library of Theology and Philosophy, 1962). These aren’t just lyrical, they ring true as well. Or perhaps that’s the same thing. Either way, here they are. This violent struggle for theContinue reading “Unamuno on Lasting Glory”
Aimé Césaire’s Immortal, Eminently Quotable Line
From Notebook of a Return To My Native Land: For it is not true that the work of man is finished, That we have nothing more to do in the world, That we are just parasites in this world, That it is enough for us to walk in step with the world, For the work ofContinue reading “Aimé Césaire’s Immortal, Eminently Quotable Line”
Miguel De Unamuno: Conservative War-Lover?
My philosophical education, just like everyone else’s, is far from complete, and of course, never shall be. One omission from my readings has been the work of Miguel De Unamuno, whose The Tragic Sense of Life has been adorning my bookshelves for some twenty years now. Recently, I set out to clean up some shelf spaceContinue reading “Miguel De Unamuno: Conservative War-Lover?”
Karl Steel on the Fallacious Animal-Human Distinction
Who is human? What is distinctively human? Answering this fairly intractable question of demarcation–one that students in philosophy of biology can see peeking around the corner at them when they tackle the subject of whether species exist– can often–if not always–involve defining and articulating the non-human. One particularly well-established tradition of such attempts has beenContinue reading “Karl Steel on the Fallacious Animal-Human Distinction”
Samir Chopra 