Libraries as Agencies of Culture. Edited by Thomas Augst and Wayne Wiegand. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. (Appeared originally as a special issue of American Studies The Library as an Agency of Culture, Fall 2001, volume 42, no. 3).
Submitted by R. Stuhr
The essays in this collection each look at some aspect of the role of libraries in supporting cultural and civic life. In his introduction, Augst considers the social interaction of the reader with the book and notes that books acquire social life through exchange and use, thus claiming the innate social nature of libraries. He describes the library as a social enterprise, a physical space, and a symbolic site of collective memory. Augst provides food for thought and some very nicely expressed ideas, including, "To read a book is to borrow from established forms of cultural authority and to refashion that authority within personal and communal contexts of meaning and practice (p. 15).
In "The Sound of the Civic: Reading Noise at the New York Public Library," Ari Kelman, writes about the rule of silence in the New York Public Library reading room, and the code of behavior patrons were expected to follow. He describes the NYPL as a "public institution that attempts to foster private interactions between people and texts.... The library provides information but it cannot facilitate congregation or conversation" (p. 28). He compares this state with Habermas's description of the public sphere which requires conversations among readers (although based on shared texts) to prosper. However dreary this idea of imposed silence and stifled conversation may seem, Kelman contrasts this kind of spiritually nourishing space with the nonstop noise of the city and stresses the goal of the library to "ensure the safe and clear transmission of information from text to individual," p. 40.
Contrast these ideas with "Exploring the American Idea at the New York Public Library," by Jean L. Peer. This essay provides a history of Cold War era discussion forums which the NYPL devised to provide an opportunity for library patrons to read and discuss important documents and texts looking at US democratic principles from a variety of angles. These book forums were provided along with Great Books discussion groups, and eventually, film series. Nothing quiet about these programs!
The Library as Place: History, Community, and Culture. Edited by John E. Buschman and Gloria J. Leckie. Westport, CT: Libraries Unlimited, 2007.
This is another collection of essays. It is divided into three parts, with part one focusing on public libraries, part two on the research library, and part three on the myths created around libraries. The essays on public libraries are all about creating community, making spaces where disparate people from all walks of life come to feel comfortable, to learn, to read, to be with others, to relax and find refuge. Public libraries have had the role of creating social spaces, furthering the goals of democracy, and building a sense of civic responsibility. Julia A. Hersberger's article on the Greensboro Carnegie Negro Library drives home the idea of taking the library beyond the building as this library moved well past its initial community to serve the entire county through book mobile services. Ronald Tetreault's essay on the rise of military libraries during the time of the British Empire shows the library, in this context, moving from an officers' club to an institution that served enlisted men accompanied by an overall change in the militaries' view of these men which led to respect and improved conditions and opportunities.
Other essays in this collection look at the use of libraries by scholars and undergraduates. Antell and Engel show that scholars value the library as a place to work and where serendipitous discovery can take place. Lisa M. Given finds that undergraduates are still relying heavily on materials within the library as well as finding the library a welcoming place to work. She finds that students like to be able to arrange furniture to suit their needs--moving chairs and tables around to accommodate groups or individual study. Heavy, nailed down furniture is (may be) a thing of the past and she recommends that libraries should consult carefully with their students before renovating spaces. [By the way, this theory was carried out successfully by Georgia Tech and presented in a recent ALA session].
Both of these books provide thoughtful and interesting discussion on the role and purposes of libraries within existing communities and as micro-communities in and of themselves. They promote the idea of the library as a social space where conversations can take place inspired by texts. This can happen between the text and an individual reader or through group discussion. Learning and discovery can take place in solitude or as a shared and collaborative activity.
Library As Place
Burling 1st floor Z716.4 .L485 2007
Libraries as Agencies of Culture
on order for the Grinnell College Libraries
Friday, August 22, 2008
Monday, August 18, 2008
The Struggle For Power: The American Revolution
Theodore Draper. The Struggle For Power: The American Revolution (New York:
Random House, 1996)
Reviewed by T. Hatch
If one supposes that ideology is a litany of highfalutin excuses justifying the nakedly brazen acquisition of power; not a streetlight (that while providing a drunk with a place to steady himself) nonetheless affords at least some illumination, then, this book belongs on the nightstand.
Draper's history of the American Revolution concentrates on the period following the British victory in the Seven Years' War until the beginning of armed hostilities in 1775. With the French now vanquished and no longer a threat to the English colonists, stoked by success, the British sought to make the colonial bureaucracy a bit more rational. Unhappily for the sake of the emerging Empire the colonists were only too thoroughly English. And like all real Englishmen they were adroit at smuggling, loathed paying taxes, and were among the world's finest at rioting. Because it was ambition (not oppression) that drove the colonist to revolt, it was only natural that a group of proper Englishmen should avail themselves of the opportunity to seize political power. So they did.
Because of the debt incurred in the Seven Years' War Parliament stepped up to claim its long dormant power of administration of the colonies. The colonists were used to the economic expansion that marked the first half of the eighteenth century. They were also accustomed to the lax enforcement effort of the custom authorities and quite naturally resented the crackdown. In addition to the unpopular Royal Proclamation of 1763 that enraged colonists who were already purchasing land beyond the Alleghenies, and for whom the Crown's imposition of a land monopoly was disagreeable, found themselves in opposition to a short list of slightly less egregious measures taken by the British government. The Sugar, Currency, and Stamp Acts of 1764 as well as the establishment of the vice-admiralty courts were all resented by the colonists with a propensity to rebellion.
Because the enterprising part of the colonial elite that we know as our founding fathers were able to exploit the “mob” in resisting taxes and duties there is no loose talk among American historians about social revolution. Because colonists held slaves in nearly all of the American colonies there can be no real discussion of a colonial war of liberation either. Like the Glorious Revolution of 1688 the American Revolution took place during a time of relative economic prosperity. In the tradition of their English revolutionary brethren the followers of the American Revolution see the event as a historical sui generis, entirely superior to revolutions in other countries.
Burling 2nd floor E210 .D73 1996
Random House, 1996)
Reviewed by T. Hatch
If one supposes that ideology is a litany of highfalutin excuses justifying the nakedly brazen acquisition of power; not a streetlight (that while providing a drunk with a place to steady himself) nonetheless affords at least some illumination, then, this book belongs on the nightstand.
Draper's history of the American Revolution concentrates on the period following the British victory in the Seven Years' War until the beginning of armed hostilities in 1775. With the French now vanquished and no longer a threat to the English colonists, stoked by success, the British sought to make the colonial bureaucracy a bit more rational. Unhappily for the sake of the emerging Empire the colonists were only too thoroughly English. And like all real Englishmen they were adroit at smuggling, loathed paying taxes, and were among the world's finest at rioting. Because it was ambition (not oppression) that drove the colonist to revolt, it was only natural that a group of proper Englishmen should avail themselves of the opportunity to seize political power. So they did.
Because of the debt incurred in the Seven Years' War Parliament stepped up to claim its long dormant power of administration of the colonies. The colonists were used to the economic expansion that marked the first half of the eighteenth century. They were also accustomed to the lax enforcement effort of the custom authorities and quite naturally resented the crackdown. In addition to the unpopular Royal Proclamation of 1763 that enraged colonists who were already purchasing land beyond the Alleghenies, and for whom the Crown's imposition of a land monopoly was disagreeable, found themselves in opposition to a short list of slightly less egregious measures taken by the British government. The Sugar, Currency, and Stamp Acts of 1764 as well as the establishment of the vice-admiralty courts were all resented by the colonists with a propensity to rebellion.
Because the enterprising part of the colonial elite that we know as our founding fathers were able to exploit the “mob” in resisting taxes and duties there is no loose talk among American historians about social revolution. Because colonists held slaves in nearly all of the American colonies there can be no real discussion of a colonial war of liberation either. Like the Glorious Revolution of 1688 the American Revolution took place during a time of relative economic prosperity. In the tradition of their English revolutionary brethren the followers of the American Revolution see the event as a historical sui generis, entirely superior to revolutions in other countries.
Burling 2nd floor E210 .D73 1996
Friday, August 1, 2008
The Winning of the West
Theodore Roosevelt. The Winning of the West. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1904
[1889] 4 vols.
[v. 1. From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1769-1776 -- v. 2. From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1777-1783 -- v. 3. The founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790 -- v. 4. Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807.]
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Aside from the renown that the twenty-sixth president receives for expropriating the Progressive agenda and his charmingly contrived cowboy persona he also had a career as an historian. The Winning of the West is the story of American expansion beyond the Allegheny mountains. The intrepid frontiersman armed with little more than his rifle and axe, heroically weathering ubiquitous Indian attacks of untold ferocity, settled the “sparsely peopled temperate zone” that is today the central part of the United States. Teddy Roosevelt is then to U.S. historiography what Leon Uris is to the history of Zionism. As Ronald Reagan opined after the invasion of Grenada, “it was lucky we got there when we did.”
Spreading out over the North American continent in Roosevelt's view was only right and natural for the English speaking peoples as it was inevitable anyway. Notions of progress, the march of civilization, and Anglo-Saxon supremacy were self-evident to the right thinking Americans of T.R.'s day (and beyond). To have avoided this clash would have meant caving into “sentimental humanitarians” who though they meant well were nevertheless “the large class of amiable but maudlin fanatics.” Consistent with the Rooseveltian zeitgeist sentimentalism was to deny the settler and pioneer the basic justice of their cause and sentencing the better part of the North American continent to being “kept as nothing but a game preserve for squalid savages.” It was bleeding-heart humanitarianism to grant the barbarians title to the land for which they held no valid deed. Clearly natural right was on the side of the frontier Irish Calvinists- those backwoods “Roundheads” - who understood that “the man who puts the soil to use must of right dispossess the man who does not, or the world will come to a stand still.”
Speaking of barbarians and savages.... If one were a member of an Indian tribe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries here in America social mobility was limited to a promotion from mere barbarian to the more exalted rank of savage. For Roosevelt it was largely a distinction without a difference. To aspire to the social station of savagery meant little more than growing crops and not torturing your captives in a way that offended Anglo-Saxon sensibilities. Either way your days were numbered and the inexorable march of progress demanded that you wither away.
Professor Chomsky has aptly described Theodore Roosevelt as a “lunatic racist.” Not that there is any honor amongst racists – lunatic or otherwise – but contrasted to the misplaced paternalism of a Lord Lugard there is something pathologically grimy about Roosevelt's brand of racism. Lugard as a representative of the British Empire in Northern Africa divided humanity into “advanced” and “backward” races. It was the duty of advanced races to provide the “three C's” of Christianity, civilization, and commerce so that one day they might be self-sufficient and provide the world market with goods and raw materials (see Lord Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa). Not so with T.R. There was not any place in Roosevelt's world for the “backward” races. The future for the American Indian resembled the prospects facing the Picts in England centuries ago.
An excellent companion piece to The Winning of the West is Gore Vidal's Empire. Vidal portrays T.R. as a shallow manic who revels in the banality of phrases such as “dee lighted.” Perhaps there is some justice to Roosevelt's visage on the side of that crime against nature, taste, and historical accuracy that we call Mount Rushmore.
Burling 2nd floor F351 .R79
[1889] 4 vols.
[v. 1. From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1769-1776 -- v. 2. From the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, 1777-1783 -- v. 3. The founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790 -- v. 4. Louisiana and the Northwest, 1791-1807.]
Reviewed by T. Hatch
Aside from the renown that the twenty-sixth president receives for expropriating the Progressive agenda and his charmingly contrived cowboy persona he also had a career as an historian. The Winning of the West is the story of American expansion beyond the Allegheny mountains. The intrepid frontiersman armed with little more than his rifle and axe, heroically weathering ubiquitous Indian attacks of untold ferocity, settled the “sparsely peopled temperate zone” that is today the central part of the United States. Teddy Roosevelt is then to U.S. historiography what Leon Uris is to the history of Zionism. As Ronald Reagan opined after the invasion of Grenada, “it was lucky we got there when we did.”
Spreading out over the North American continent in Roosevelt's view was only right and natural for the English speaking peoples as it was inevitable anyway. Notions of progress, the march of civilization, and Anglo-Saxon supremacy were self-evident to the right thinking Americans of T.R.'s day (and beyond). To have avoided this clash would have meant caving into “sentimental humanitarians” who though they meant well were nevertheless “the large class of amiable but maudlin fanatics.” Consistent with the Rooseveltian zeitgeist sentimentalism was to deny the settler and pioneer the basic justice of their cause and sentencing the better part of the North American continent to being “kept as nothing but a game preserve for squalid savages.” It was bleeding-heart humanitarianism to grant the barbarians title to the land for which they held no valid deed. Clearly natural right was on the side of the frontier Irish Calvinists- those backwoods “Roundheads” - who understood that “the man who puts the soil to use must of right dispossess the man who does not, or the world will come to a stand still.”
Speaking of barbarians and savages.... If one were a member of an Indian tribe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries here in America social mobility was limited to a promotion from mere barbarian to the more exalted rank of savage. For Roosevelt it was largely a distinction without a difference. To aspire to the social station of savagery meant little more than growing crops and not torturing your captives in a way that offended Anglo-Saxon sensibilities. Either way your days were numbered and the inexorable march of progress demanded that you wither away.
Professor Chomsky has aptly described Theodore Roosevelt as a “lunatic racist.” Not that there is any honor amongst racists – lunatic or otherwise – but contrasted to the misplaced paternalism of a Lord Lugard there is something pathologically grimy about Roosevelt's brand of racism. Lugard as a representative of the British Empire in Northern Africa divided humanity into “advanced” and “backward” races. It was the duty of advanced races to provide the “three C's” of Christianity, civilization, and commerce so that one day they might be self-sufficient and provide the world market with goods and raw materials (see Lord Lugard, The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa). Not so with T.R. There was not any place in Roosevelt's world for the “backward” races. The future for the American Indian resembled the prospects facing the Picts in England centuries ago.
An excellent companion piece to The Winning of the West is Gore Vidal's Empire. Vidal portrays T.R. as a shallow manic who revels in the banality of phrases such as “dee lighted.” Perhaps there is some justice to Roosevelt's visage on the side of that crime against nature, taste, and historical accuracy that we call Mount Rushmore.
Burling 2nd floor F351 .R79
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Mysteries by Donald Westlake and Michael Chabon
Westlake, Donald. What's So Funny. NY: Warner Books, 2007.
Chabon, Michael. The Yiddish Policeman's Union. NY: Harper Collins, 2007.
Submitted by Mark Schneider
I'm a sucker for mystery novels. I find having a light read going is a good thing especially during the summer. Unfortunately, after you have read a number of mysteries, they can get a bit predictable, so it is nice to have a twist. That is why I have long been a fan of Tony Hillerman, but it seems cranking them out has become more of a business for him than a labor of love, and I have found his recent works lackluster at best. However, there are a couple of great novels I have read recently that nicely combine the twist with a good yarn.
Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union takes place in an alternative world where the survivors of the holocaust end up in a settlement in Alaska rather than the Holy Land (don't you remember the catastrophic collapse of the state of Israel in 1948?). Meyer Landsman is a troubled cop with a troubled life, and his best friend and fellow cop Berko Shemets is half Jew, half Tlingit. Prominent is an ultraorthodox sect that plays the role of the local Mafia. Chabon manages to combine the real and the imagined in such a skillful way that the reader is often left wondering: "did he make that up or is that real?" The novel tends to sputter out a little at the end, but even so, I found it the sort of novel I was sad to finish--I just wanted a little more.
Visit the Stewart Library to find books by Donald Westlake.
Both Burling Library and Stewart Library have Michael Chabon's books.
For the Yiddish Policeman's Union stroll over to the 1st floor Smith Memorial PS3553.H15 Y54 2007 at Burling Library.
Chabon, Michael. The Yiddish Policeman's Union. NY: Harper Collins, 2007.
Submitted by Mark Schneider
I'm a sucker for mystery novels. I find having a light read going is a good thing especially during the summer. Unfortunately, after you have read a number of mysteries, they can get a bit predictable, so it is nice to have a twist. That is why I have long been a fan of Tony Hillerman, but it seems cranking them out has become more of a business for him than a labor of love, and I have found his recent works lackluster at best. However, there are a couple of great novels I have read recently that nicely combine the twist with a good yarn.
What's So Funny by Donald Westlake puts the small time thief in the lead role. In one of his Dortmunder novels (and the only one I've read so far), Dortmunder is a talented criminal who just wants to make a [dis]honest living. He's got a heart, he's modest, he doesn't want to push his luck. He ends up getting drawn into some big time white collar crime as a tool of folks trying to right a decades old wrong involving misappropriated treasures from WWII. Dortmunder wants nothing to do with it, but he and his buddies end up having to be tools of the "good guys" or end up going to jail for their much more small-time misdeeds. Lots of interesting characters, and enough twists to keep you guessing.
Visit the Stewart Library to find books by Donald Westlake.
Both Burling Library and Stewart Library have Michael Chabon's books.
For the Yiddish Policeman's Union stroll over to the 1st floor Smith Memorial PS3553.H15 Y54 2007 at Burling Library.
Monday, July 28, 2008
One's Company
Holland, Barbara. One's Company: Reflections on Living Alone. Akadine Press, 1996.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Holland considers all of the aspects of living alone and devotes a chapter to each one. Chapters cover the importance of food and its proper preparation, finding the right place to live, the importance of connecting with other people and making merriment part of your day-to-day life, surviving depression, keeping anxiety at bay, and finding appropriate work that suits you. She is practical as well, providing recipes for certain kinds of days, detailed instructions for changing a lock, advice on how to fix your own toilet, and a survey of hobbies and activities that can be used to stave off couchdom (my word) and television addiction.
Holland is a fantastic writer and I have been sharing different parts of the book with anyone who will listen as I've been reading it.
Sadly, the Akadine Press was part of the Common Reader which is no more. But you can find copies of this and other books by Barbara Holland at your favorite used book site.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Holland considers all of the aspects of living alone and devotes a chapter to each one. Chapters cover the importance of food and its proper preparation, finding the right place to live, the importance of connecting with other people and making merriment part of your day-to-day life, surviving depression, keeping anxiety at bay, and finding appropriate work that suits you. She is practical as well, providing recipes for certain kinds of days, detailed instructions for changing a lock, advice on how to fix your own toilet, and a survey of hobbies and activities that can be used to stave off couchdom (my word) and television addiction.
Holland is a fantastic writer and I have been sharing different parts of the book with anyone who will listen as I've been reading it.
Sadly, the Akadine Press was part of the Common Reader which is no more. But you can find copies of this and other books by Barbara Holland at your favorite used book site.
West of Kabul, East of New York
Ansary, Tamim. West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2002.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
In this memoir, Ansary tells the story of his childhood in Kabul, the son of an American woman and an Afghan father. Published before The Kite Runner became the run-away favorite book club read, Ansary shares his impressions of Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion and three decades and counting of devastating war. Ansary's father worked for the government, and his childhood was colored by this fact, which determined both how and where he and his family lived. At the age of 16, in the mid-sixties, Ansary moved with his family to the United States. His father eventually returned to Afghanistan to be with is extended family and to continue his government work. Ansary describes the different ways he and his siblings responded to their Afghan identity. During the late 1970s, Ansary travels throughout South and Central Asia and the Middle East coming as close to Afghanistan as possible with the thin justification of writing an article about his travels. Later, after his return, he attempts to navigate the intricate networks of the Afghan community in exile. Ansary writes with humor and humility. His book is enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable.
For Kite Runner fans, Ansary mentions Khaled Hosseini toward the end of his book, describing him as a "young Afghan doctor whose passion after work was writing--not ghazals, not quasidas, not even rubaiyat, but horror stories in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft (p. 284).
Burling Library 2nd Floor E 184 .A23 A57 2002
Submitted by R. Stuhr
In this memoir, Ansary tells the story of his childhood in Kabul, the son of an American woman and an Afghan father. Published before The Kite Runner became the run-away favorite book club read, Ansary shares his impressions of Afghanistan before the Soviet invasion and three decades and counting of devastating war. Ansary's father worked for the government, and his childhood was colored by this fact, which determined both how and where he and his family lived. At the age of 16, in the mid-sixties, Ansary moved with his family to the United States. His father eventually returned to Afghanistan to be with is extended family and to continue his government work. Ansary describes the different ways he and his siblings responded to their Afghan identity. During the late 1970s, Ansary travels throughout South and Central Asia and the Middle East coming as close to Afghanistan as possible with the thin justification of writing an article about his travels. Later, after his return, he attempts to navigate the intricate networks of the Afghan community in exile. Ansary writes with humor and humility. His book is enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable.
For Kite Runner fans, Ansary mentions Khaled Hosseini toward the end of his book, describing him as a "young Afghan doctor whose passion after work was writing--not ghazals, not quasidas, not even rubaiyat, but horror stories in the tradition of H.P. Lovecraft (p. 284).
Burling Library 2nd Floor E 184 .A23 A57 2002
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
I Don't Believe In Atheists
I Don't Believe In Atheists
Hedges, Chris. I Don't Believe In Atheists. NY: Free Press, 2008.
Reviewed By T. Hatch
Chris Hedges has produced another concise volume dealing with a contemporary moral issue. Hedges who can be described as a left of center philosophical skeptic has attacked head on what he sees as the squalid utopianism of the new or “fundamentalist” atheism of Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins.
It was quite recently that this writer heard the word atheist modified with the adjective fundamentalist. That was one afternoon on NPR and the speaker was coming from a right wing perspective. Perhaps, I thought, the speaker meant any atheist who had the temerity to publish was a fundamentalist. Hedges though is quite specific in defining what he sees as atheistic fundamentalism. “The belief that rational and quantifiable disciplines such as science can be used to perfect human society is no less absurd than a belief in magic, angels and divine intervention.”(p.13)
At no point in the book does Hedges attempt to make an argument that God actually exists. He argues that “Utopian dreams are always psychotic” and the culprits on the secular side of the ledger were Descartes, Hume, Locke, Voltaire, Kant, Diderot, Rousseau, and Thomas Paine. Accordingly, Utopian violence together with industrial and bureaucratic power culminate in totalitarianism. His argument in this respect is a little too direct and the net he casts is a little large. Rousseau is no more responsible for the horrors of Auschwitz than Augustine was for the Inquisition. He specifically cites the Atlantic slave trade as an example of this kind of terror produced by these aforementioned Enlightenment dilettantes. This act of inhumanity was well under way before “the age of reason.”
It is also interesting to note that Hedges repeatedly references Reinhold Niebuhr and contemporary British philosopher John Gray to make his case. There is coherence in this but he also is fond of employing Dostoevsky and Nietzsche to make the same series of points. Talk about a couple of legendary misanthropes!
Despite these inconsistencies, the hang-ups Hedges has with the Jacobins as the first totalitarians (as a technical point and still a stretch why not Napoleon?), his notion that all ethics begin with religion, and his (or my) semantical quibbling with the terms “sin” and “evil,” on balance, it is a solid argument. Indeed Utopian fundamentalists be they religiously or secularly inspired represent the same danger. In fact they can in some instances make common cause and come up with fetching schemes such as the “war on terror.”
A more felicitous title for Hedges' book might have been “Why All Utopians are D#$*%*B@#s (Especially Hitchens, Harris, and Dawkins).”
Hedges, Chris. I Don't Believe In Atheists. NY: Free Press, 2008.
Reviewed By T. Hatch
Chris Hedges has produced another concise volume dealing with a contemporary moral issue. Hedges who can be described as a left of center philosophical skeptic has attacked head on what he sees as the squalid utopianism of the new or “fundamentalist” atheism of Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, and Richard Dawkins.
It was quite recently that this writer heard the word atheist modified with the adjective fundamentalist. That was one afternoon on NPR and the speaker was coming from a right wing perspective. Perhaps, I thought, the speaker meant any atheist who had the temerity to publish was a fundamentalist. Hedges though is quite specific in defining what he sees as atheistic fundamentalism. “The belief that rational and quantifiable disciplines such as science can be used to perfect human society is no less absurd than a belief in magic, angels and divine intervention.”(p.13)
At no point in the book does Hedges attempt to make an argument that God actually exists. He argues that “Utopian dreams are always psychotic” and the culprits on the secular side of the ledger were Descartes, Hume, Locke, Voltaire, Kant, Diderot, Rousseau, and Thomas Paine. Accordingly, Utopian violence together with industrial and bureaucratic power culminate in totalitarianism. His argument in this respect is a little too direct and the net he casts is a little large. Rousseau is no more responsible for the horrors of Auschwitz than Augustine was for the Inquisition. He specifically cites the Atlantic slave trade as an example of this kind of terror produced by these aforementioned Enlightenment dilettantes. This act of inhumanity was well under way before “the age of reason.”
It is also interesting to note that Hedges repeatedly references Reinhold Niebuhr and contemporary British philosopher John Gray to make his case. There is coherence in this but he also is fond of employing Dostoevsky and Nietzsche to make the same series of points. Talk about a couple of legendary misanthropes!
Despite these inconsistencies, the hang-ups Hedges has with the Jacobins as the first totalitarians (as a technical point and still a stretch why not Napoleon?), his notion that all ethics begin with religion, and his (or my) semantical quibbling with the terms “sin” and “evil,” on balance, it is a solid argument. Indeed Utopian fundamentalists be they religiously or secularly inspired represent the same danger. In fact they can in some instances make common cause and come up with fetching schemes such as the “war on terror.”
A more felicitous title for Hedges' book might have been “Why All Utopians are D#$*%*B@#s (Especially Hitchens, Harris, and Dawkins).”
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food
Jennifer 8. Lee. The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food. Twelve, 2008.
Submitted by Jennifer (Wheeler) Rothschild '02
In this book, Lee explores three major things: the history of fortune cookies (they're actaully Japanese and internment had a big role in making them a Chinese restaurant favorite), the phenomenon that is Chinese-American food (as opposed to authentic Chinese food), and how Chinese-American food shapes the Chinese immigrant experience and vice versa.
Fascinating and extremely readable, Lee's journey starts with what happened when an unexpectedly large amount of people got 5 out of 6 numbers right on the Powerball lottery. It turns out they were playing fortune cookie numbers.
Lee traces Chinese restaurants around the world, sometimes following the cookies, sometimes the workers, sometimes the food. She has essays on the evolution of Chop Suey and General Tso's chicken (both very American dishes, while Kung Pao chicken is "authentic" Chinese.) She talks about the advent of delivery and the quest to find the greatest Chinese restaurant in the world. Lee delves into crimes committed on Chinese deliverymen in New York, and how most Chinese restaurants in the states are staffed from an agency under the Manhattan Bridge. She also has great examination on why Jewish people love Chinese food and the story of the Great Kosher Duck Scandal in 1989.
Some random facts from the book:
There are two Chinese restaurants for every McDonald's in the US.
Almost all fortunes are written by just two guys.
Cheap Chinese restaurants in South America are called chifa (chee-fah) which is derived from the Chinese words chi fan (chir fan) which means "to eat food"
Almost all of those little soy sauce packets are made by one company and don't have soy in them.
The writing is engaging and accessible, but well-researched. I highly recommend it, but plan on having Chinese food for dinner.
Submitted by Jennifer (Wheeler) Rothschild '02
In this book, Lee explores three major things: the history of fortune cookies (they're actaully Japanese and internment had a big role in making them a Chinese restaurant favorite), the phenomenon that is Chinese-American food (as opposed to authentic Chinese food), and how Chinese-American food shapes the Chinese immigrant experience and vice versa.
Fascinating and extremely readable, Lee's journey starts with what happened when an unexpectedly large amount of people got 5 out of 6 numbers right on the Powerball lottery. It turns out they were playing fortune cookie numbers.
Lee traces Chinese restaurants around the world, sometimes following the cookies, sometimes the workers, sometimes the food. She has essays on the evolution of Chop Suey and General Tso's chicken (both very American dishes, while Kung Pao chicken is "authentic" Chinese.) She talks about the advent of delivery and the quest to find the greatest Chinese restaurant in the world. Lee delves into crimes committed on Chinese deliverymen in New York, and how most Chinese restaurants in the states are staffed from an agency under the Manhattan Bridge. She also has great examination on why Jewish people love Chinese food and the story of the Great Kosher Duck Scandal in 1989.
Some random facts from the book:
There are two Chinese restaurants for every McDonald's in the US.
Almost all fortunes are written by just two guys.
Cheap Chinese restaurants in South America are called chifa (chee-fah) which is derived from the Chinese words chi fan (chir fan) which means "to eat food"
Almost all of those little soy sauce packets are made by one company and don't have soy in them.
The writing is engaging and accessible, but well-researched. I highly recommend it, but plan on having Chinese food for dinner.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move
Katherine Lanpher. Leap Days: Chronicles of a Midlife Move. Boston: Springboard Press, 2006.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Lanpher is a newspaper journalist and radio host. She was born and raised in Illinois (across the river from Iowa) and worked in Minneapolis for most of her career and in 2004 moved to NYC to co-host a new radio program with Al Franken. In this book, she writes as much or more about her childhood and career and how she came to make her move from her spacious St. Paul house, friends, and career, to a small (but lovely) Greenwich Village apartment in New York City, than she does about her actual move and transition, her work at Air America with Al Franken, or what she is doing currently. Although she has since left her radio show at Air America, she continues to live in New York City, suggesting that her transition is complete.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Lanpher is a newspaper journalist and radio host. She was born and raised in Illinois (across the river from Iowa) and worked in Minneapolis for most of her career and in 2004 moved to NYC to co-host a new radio program with Al Franken. In this book, she writes as much or more about her childhood and career and how she came to make her move from her spacious St. Paul house, friends, and career, to a small (but lovely) Greenwich Village apartment in New York City, than she does about her actual move and transition, her work at Air America with Al Franken, or what she is doing currently. Although she has since left her radio show at Air America, she continues to live in New York City, suggesting that her transition is complete.
The Bookseller of Kabul
The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad. Translated by Ingrid Christophersen. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Seierstad has been a journalist Chechnya, the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She got to know "Sultan" and his family and asked if she could live with them to write this work. She has written it in the form of a novel and changed all of the names. Seierstad provides a lot of interesting detail about daily life for one family in Kabul, but she layers this with her own point of view. One doesn't know whether to blame the author or the translator for the condescending tone. Still, I think we need to know as much as we can about these countries that the United States has invaded and is occupying. We need to read widely just because much what we have available to us is written in a highly subjective manner and by Westerners.
Burling 1st Floor CT 1877.5 .K48 S45 2003
Submitted by R. Stuhr
Seierstad has been a journalist Chechnya, the Balkans, Iraq, and Afghanistan. She got to know "Sultan" and his family and asked if she could live with them to write this work. She has written it in the form of a novel and changed all of the names. Seierstad provides a lot of interesting detail about daily life for one family in Kabul, but she layers this with her own point of view. One doesn't know whether to blame the author or the translator for the condescending tone. Still, I think we need to know as much as we can about these countries that the United States has invaded and is occupying. We need to read widely just because much what we have available to us is written in a highly subjective manner and by Westerners.
Burling 1st Floor CT 1877.5 .K48 S45 2003
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