Tag: History

‘Truth is one of our rights’: victims of Indonesia’s bloody past want more than regret from their president

Rebecca Root  The violence began when the military set out to quash what it said was a communist coup sparked by the deaths of six generals. This has since been identified as a government pretext to launch a large-scale pursuit of communists and sympathisers. About 500,000 people were murdered in six months and 1 million… Read More ‘Truth is one of our rights’: victims of Indonesia’s bloody past want more than regret from their president

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‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ in Golden Globes race

Kevin Tschierse It’s the first non-English language adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel “All Quiet on the Western Front.” German director Edward Berger has taken it upon himself to venture a German interpretation that launched internationally on Netflix in October 2022.  Some critics have praised the remake as a successful anti-war drama, while others criticize the… Read More ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ in Golden Globes race

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Transition Theory

Tim Barker A Brief History of Commercial Capitalism by Jairus Banaji (2020) Capitalism is either eternal or it isn’t. There are people who defend the first view, or something close to it – the 2014 multivolume Cambridge History of Capitalism opens in Babylonia, circa 1000 BCE – but it is much more plausible that capitalism, like most… Read More Transition Theory

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‘Only a God Can Save Us’: Martin Heidegger & Nazism. A Film by Jeffrey Van Davis

NB: This is an interesting historical documentary; and the comments are also thought provoking. (I do not agree with everything said here: for instance the suggestion – at about 1 hr 11 m – that Hannah Arendt’s phrase ‘the banality of evil’ was a way of suppressing the horror of Nazism, or that she blamed… Read More ‘Only a God Can Save Us’: Martin Heidegger & Nazism. A Film by Jeffrey Van Davis

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Year One: A Philosophical Recounting

Review of Susan Buck-Morss, Year One: A Philosophical Recounting Buck-Morss imagines universal history outside of its traditional parochialism. By Nasrin Olla Philosophers of the enlightenment such as Rousseau, Kant and Hegel imagined their projects as universal in reach and scale. Whether these philosophers were writing about the social contract, the foundations of moral law or… Read More Year One: A Philosophical Recounting

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Empire not only made the colonies. It made the unequal Britain we see today

openDemocracy’s new film BOOMERANG, exploring the legacies of empire through Liverpool’s docks, is available online Kojo Koram Lenin’s famous quote that “there are weeks where decades happen” would be a suitable epitaph for the tombstone of the Liz Truss premiership. As commentators focus on her obvious personal limitations as a politician to explain her spectacular… Read More Empire not only made the colonies. It made the unequal Britain we see today

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Mystery of why Roman buildings have survived over 2000 years, unraveled

Katie Hunt, CNN The majestic structures of ancient Rome have survived for millennia — a testament to the ingenuity of Roman engineers, who perfected the use of concrete. But how did their construction materials help keep colossal buildings like the Pantheon (which has the world’s largest unreinforced dome) and the Colosseum standing for more than… Read More Mystery of why Roman buildings have survived over 2000 years, unraveled

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Death of Judge Loya: A critical examination of the ECG and post-mortem demonstrates the failings of the Supreme Court verdict

First posted April 24, 2018 NB: This article, along with Shanti Bhushan’s petition listing ten instances of bench fixing, shows who is committing contempt of court. You cannot utilise your formal authority to throw all principles of fairness (such as not sitting in judgement in a case involving yourself) – to the winds; and then behave… Read More Death of Judge Loya: A critical examination of the ECG and post-mortem demonstrates the failings of the Supreme Court verdict

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