Tag: History

Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: From a book on authoritarianism, lessons on ‘realism’ for India

The Captive Mind, Czesław Miłosz’s searing anatomy of authoritarianism, highlights the dangers of self-deception in the name of ‘realism’ The Captive Mind, Czesław Miłosz’s searing anatomy of authoritarianism, tells a story drawn from an older Polish novel by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Insatiability. Europe is about to be overrun by a Sino-Mongolian army that dominates from… Read More Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: From a book on authoritarianism, lessons on ‘realism’ for India

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A Famous Enigma: On Alexandre Kojève: An Intellectual Biography and “The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève”

Isabel Jacobs “Be human, after all!” – “But I don’t want to be human!” Bertolt Brecht, Mahagonny, cited by Kojève Until 2025, the name “Alexandre Kojève” was a paradox. A philosopher often invoked yet rarely read – a famous enigma. For decades, Kojève’s mythical reputation rested on rumors and anecdotes orbiting his Hegel seminar of the 1930s.… Read More A Famous Enigma: On Alexandre Kojève: An Intellectual Biography and “The Life and Thought of Alexandre Kojève”

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The Jena Declaration on race and eugenics (2019) / Conference on the concept of ‘race’ at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, 2021

The Jena Declaration affirms that there are no “races” in the biological sense in humans, since the genetic variation within human populations is often greater than the genetic variation between these populations… In the human genome, for example, there is not a single difference among the 3.2 billion base pairs that separates Africans from non-Africans. So not… Read More The Jena Declaration on race and eugenics (2019) / Conference on the concept of ‘race’ at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, 2021

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Tora! Tora! Tora!

DANIEL A. MÉTRAUX Tora! Tora! Tora! provides a powerful visual image of the Pearl Harbor crisis. We are given a highly unique presence in Tokyo as the Japanese plan their mode of attack, but unfortunately, the movie’s attention is focused almost exclusively on the attack on Pearl Harbor. The truth is that Pearl Harbor was only… Read More Tora! Tora! Tora!

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‘A white man’s war, a Black man’s fight’: the eye-opening story of Black soldiers in Vietnam

At a time when Black military history is being rewritten under Trump officials, new book The War Within a War provides a vital reminder Martin Pengelly Wil Haygood’s new book, his 10th, is The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home. Meeting in Washington DC to discuss it, he produces from… Read More ‘A white man’s war, a Black man’s fight’: the eye-opening story of Black soldiers in Vietnam

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After years spent documenting state terror, I know it when I see it. And I see it now in the US and Israel

It’s chilling to watch as Trump and Netanyahu adopt the methods of regimes their countries once condemned Janine di Giovanni In Syria, where I worked during the years of Bashar al-Assad’s terror, people were often taken away to torture cells before dawn by masked men. The timing was deliberate. It disoriented them at their most… Read More After years spent documenting state terror, I know it when I see it. And I see it now in the US and Israel

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If you are reading this it is because I’m dead: here’s what I want to tell you about how to live

Leaving this world in an age of lies and cruelty, my last message is simple: don’t give up on truth Carlos Hernández Photo: Alberto Di Lolli Dear reader, for the first time since I became a journalist, I have to tell you I wish you weren’t reading what I’ve written. Because if you’re reading this,… Read More If you are reading this it is because I’m dead: here’s what I want to tell you about how to live

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