Tag: Books and literature

Partha Chatterjee: No one, not even Indians, can claim to be part of an ancient nation

There are no ancient nations anywhere in the world. All nations (rāstra) are modern. Ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, ancient China, ancient India – all of them may have had great civilisations whose architecture, art, and literature are objects of admiration. But they were not nations. To realise this truth, you will have to forget for the… Read More Partha Chatterjee: No one, not even Indians, can claim to be part of an ancient nation

Dilip

Politics and Vision – By Professor Sheldon Wolin (1922-2015)

Professor Sheldon Wolin’s Politics and Vision is two volumes in one, by an author whose  interview / lectures I have suggested before. The first part appeared in 1960, the second in 2004. The contents will convey the range of themes. Of especial significance today is his concept of ‘inverted totalitarianism’. Here are a few lines from p… Read More Politics and Vision – By Professor Sheldon Wolin (1922-2015)

Dilip

Simon Leys: AN EMPIRE OF UGLINESS (extract from The Hall of Uselessness, 2013)

An Empire of Ugliness (from The Hall of Uselessness: Collected Essays, pp 31-42)   EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY literature developed the new literary genre of the epistolary novel; I wonder if it would not be legitimate for me to propose now a new form of book review, the epistolary criticism, in which arguments are developed through an exchange of letters… Read More Simon Leys: AN EMPIRE OF UGLINESS (extract from The Hall of Uselessness, 2013)

Dilip

Book review – The Philosopher’s Trail: On Samantha Rose Hill’s “Hannah Arendt”

Arendt shows us “how to think the world anew […] how to hold ourselves accountable for our actions, how to think critically without succumbing to ideology,” Hill writes. “Only when we do this, she says, will we be able to love the world.”    The peak of her pariahdom came when she covered Adolf Eichmann’s… Read More Book review – The Philosopher’s Trail: On Samantha Rose Hill’s “Hannah Arendt”

Dilip

Book review: Pleasure Domes and Postal Routes – How the Mongols Changed the World

Two millennia ago, in his Records of the Grand Historian, the Chinese scholar Sima Qian concluded that no empire could be ruled from horseback, and later histories seemed to confirm the view that imperial authority must be vested in cities. The great fourteenth-century scholar Ibn Khaldun developed a now familiar theory that “the rulers of a… Read More Book review: Pleasure Domes and Postal Routes – How the Mongols Changed the World

Dilip

Book review: Michael Wolff’s third Trump book is his best – and most alarming

The 45th president is out of office and Michael Wolff has brought his Trump trilogy to a close. First there was Fire and Fury, then there was Siege, now there is Landslide. The third is the best of the three, and that is saying plenty. Three years ago, Trump derided Fire and Fury as fake news and… Read More Book review: Michael Wolff’s third Trump book is his best – and most alarming

Dilip