Tag: Books and literature

A Medieval Age of Disruption: On Nicholas Morton’s “The Mongol Storm”

Reviewed by Nile Green THEIR ARRIVAL WAS described in the deceptively mellifluous Persian of medieval historian Juvaini: “Amadand o kandand o sokhtand o koshtand o bardand o raftand”—“They came, they uprooted, they burned, they killed, they looted, and they left.” It is one of the tersest lines in world history-writing, summarizing in a single sentence the… Read More A Medieval Age of Disruption: On Nicholas Morton’s “The Mongol Storm”

Dilip

A World After Liberalism: the Radical Right and the dream of tradition

A World After Liberalism, a fascinating new book by Yale scholar Matthew Rose, considers the thought and influence of five thinkers beyond the political and academic mainstream who have played a significant role in establishing the intellectual framework for the movement, which Rose refers to as the ‘Radical Right’. Justin Reynolds Russia’s invasion of Ukraine… Read More A World After Liberalism: the Radical Right and the dream of tradition

Dilip

Milan Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being author dies aged 94

The Czech novelist found himself silenced by the communist regime at home, but achieved international fame with playfully philosophical fiction Czech writer Milan Kundera, who explored being and betrayal over half a century in poems, plays, essays and novels including The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has died aged 94 after a prolonged illness, Anna Mrazova, spokesperson… Read More Milan Kundera: The Unbearable Lightness of Being author dies aged 94

Dilip

Pirates + Madagascar = Egalitarian Utopia? David Graeber’s “Pirate Enlightenment”

 By Edward Carver WHEN HE died unexpectedly in 2020, American anthropologist and left-wing activist David Graeber was best known for his 2011 book Debt: The First 5,000 Years, a revisionist history of money, and his involvement in Occupy Wall Street. He helped coin the catchphrase “We are the 99 percent.” But before he became a swashbuckling public… Read More Pirates + Madagascar = Egalitarian Utopia? David Graeber’s “Pirate Enlightenment”

Dilip

Touch me not

Witness to the Resurrection, saint, sinner and feminist icon By Anna Della Subin Why was it first to a woman / that he showed his resurrection, and not to men?” asked the fourth-century poet Ephrem the Syrian. “Here he showed us a mystery.” The risen Christ appeared to Mary Magdalene first, at a time when, under… Read More Touch me not

Dilip

New Roma writing

New writing by Czech Roma authors: different takes on the story-telling tradition; memories of growing up as a Roma after ’89; mainstreaming Roma writing and the decline of the Romani language. A2 devotes an issue to writing by Czech Roma authors, featuring samples from their works, reviews and interviews. Saša Uhlová provides a short history of… Read More New Roma writing

Dilip

The recovery of cuneiform, the world’s oldest known writing

Louise Pryke For over 3,000 years, cuneiform was the primary language of communication throughout the Ancient Near East (roughly corresponding to the Middle East today) and into parts of the Mediterranean. The dominance of the cuneiform writing style in antiquity has led scholars to refer to it as “the script of the first half of the known… Read More The recovery of cuneiform, the world’s oldest known writing

Dilip

Tracing the Hard Edges of Religion: On Peter Brown’s “Journeys of the Mind”

Journeys of the Mind: A Life in History Reviewed by Michael Ledger-Lomas TOWARDS THE END of the first century AD, a Roman emperor met the family of Jesus Christ. Domitian had this failed Messiah’s relatives hauled before him while he was traveling in Palestine to make sure that they posed no threat to his power. They… Read More Tracing the Hard Edges of Religion: On Peter Brown’s “Journeys of the Mind”

Dilip