Tag: Books and literature

Alex Ross: How American Racism Influenced Hitler -The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

First posted April 25, 2018 In 1928, Hitler remarked, approvingly, that white settlers in America had “gunned down the millions of redskins to a few hundred thousand.” When he spoke of Lebensraum, the German drive for “living space” in Eastern Europe, he often had America in mind. History teaches, but has no pupils,” the Marxist philosopher… Read More Alex Ross: How American Racism Influenced Hitler -The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law

Dilip

1938: the year Indian workers fought for themselves

First posted May 1, 2021 NB: Today is International Labour Day, May 1, 2021. As a tribute to India’s workers, I post a chapter from my monograph on the history of the labour movement in Jharkhand during the 1930’s. It was titled The Politics of Labour Under Late Colonialism: Workers,Unions, and the State in Chota Nagpur, 1928-1939. The… Read More 1938: the year Indian workers fought for themselves

Dilip

Enemies in Love

First posted September 06, 2020 NB: This is an example of how the micro-history of ordinary people can subvert all our stereotypes about animus based on race, ideology, religion and identity. Worth reading. DS. A love story between a 23 year-old black Army nurse and a 19 year-old white German POW during World War II? You… Read More Enemies in Love

Dilip

P. Sainath: ‘The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom’

NB: A recent article headed The Right is Writing Now, celebrates unsung warriors, and (if the report is correct) criticises the ‘Left’ for ignoring them. It is unfortunate that history has become a battleground and that aristocratic warfare seems to be the sole focus of those historians who choose to identify themselves as ‘Right’. (Judging… Read More P. Sainath: ‘The Last Heroes: Foot Soldiers of Indian Freedom’

Dilip

Newly discovered manuscripts may offer fresh understanding of Hegel

Sara Tor A biographer researching the German philosopher Hegel has uncovered a massive treasure trove of previously undocumented lectures that could change perceptions regarding one of the leading figures of modern western philosophy. More than 4,000 pages of notes on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s lectures were found by Klaus Vieweg in the library of the archdiocese of Munich and… Read More Newly discovered manuscripts may offer fresh understanding of Hegel

Dilip

The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry review – a potent, plain-speaking womanifesto

Rachel Cooke In this cultural moment, The CaseAgainst the Sexual Revolution could hardly be more radical. It is an act of insurrection, its seditiousness born not only of the pieties it is determined to explode, but of the fact that it is also diligently researched and written in plain English. Did Perry, I wonder, struggle to find a home… Read More The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry review – a potent, plain-speaking womanifesto

Dilip

हरिशंकर परसाई: महात्मा गाँधी को चिट्ठी पहुँचे (1977)

First posted January 31, 2015 यह चिट्ठी महात्मा मोहनदास करमचंद गाँधी को पहुंचे. महात्माजी, मैं न संसद-सदस्य हूँ, न विधायक, न मंत्री, न नेता. इनमें से कोई कलंक मेरे ऊपर नहीं है. मुझमें कोई ऐसा राजनीतिक ऐब नहीं है कि आपकी जय बोलूं. मुझे कोई भी पद नहीं चाहिये कि राजघाट जाऊँ. मैंने आपकी समाधि… Read More हरिशंकर परसाई: महात्मा गाँधी को चिट्ठी पहुँचे (1977)

Dilip

Mike Davis (1946-2022); lonely pillar of a more open Marxism

GABRIEL WINANT While academic historians generally divide political economy, political history, and social history into three separate fields—the study of markets, the study of the state, and the study of ordinary people and communities—they were irreducibly fused for Davis. He certainly could do political economy with the best of them: I return often to his… Read More Mike Davis (1946-2022); lonely pillar of a more open Marxism

Dilip

Book review: Sumit Guha’s new book on the history of caste

First posted June 13, 2014 ‘A persuasive and a totally new way of thinking about a difficult subject, a truly significant achievement‘ Beyond Caste: Identity and Power in South Asia, Past and Present (2013) by Sumit Guha Reviwed by Tirthankar Roy  EPW vol – XLIX No. 24, June 14, 2014) Three building-blocks structure this book.… Read More Book review: Sumit Guha’s new book on the history of caste

Dilip