Daniel Berrigan, Defiant Priest Who Preached Pacifism Dies at 94 (2016) / Catonsville 9 Statement written by Dan Berrigan, S.J.

First posted May 01, 2016 NB: The Berrigan brothers represent the best in the tradition of non-violent resistance to war and bellicose nationalism. Here is what they said in a public statement issued at the height of the Vietnam war, in 1968:  “We confront the Catholic Church, other Christian bodies and the synagogues of America with their… Read More Daniel Berrigan, Defiant Priest Who Preached Pacifism Dies at 94 (2016) / Catonsville 9 Statement written by Dan Berrigan, S.J.

Paul Fussell, ex-soldier, literary scholar & critic of war (1924-2012)

First posted May 27, 2012 Out of the mass experience of pointless death, a new way of speaking and writing, devoid of euphemism, arose, a plain style we associate with Hemingway.. The Great War chronicles the loss of the old rhetoric, of high pieties, of sacrifice and roseate dawns, in favor of “blood, terror, agony, madness, shit,… Read More Paul Fussell, ex-soldier, literary scholar & critic of war (1924-2012)

Antony Beevor on the history of the second world war: ‘There are things that are too horrific to put in a book’

First posted May 22, 2015 The historian Antony Beevor tells Keith Lowe why his next book will confront one of the last taboos of the Second World War Antony Beevor has sleepless nights. When I met him recently at his west London home, he confessed this in a matter-of-fact way, and neither of us sees… Read More Antony Beevor on the history of the second world war: ‘There are things that are too horrific to put in a book’

‘Monument to history’ battle between US and China over future of Mao’s secretary’s diary

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past: George Orwell, 1984 When you have a monopoly over power, you develop an obsession with secrecy: Frank Dikotter Amy Hawkins Senior China correspondent In the early hours of 4 June 1989, Li Rui, a veteran of the Chinese Communist party (CCP), was… Read More ‘Monument to history’ battle between US and China over future of Mao’s secretary’s diary

Sinn Fein should never be able to escape Jean McConville’s ghost (2010) / Say Nothing (2018)

It is almost 38 years since the Belfast mother was abducted and killed by the IRA, yet no one has been found guilty of her murder Amanda Foreman It is almost 38 years ago to the day that a gang of masked IRA men and women in West Belfast burst through Jean McConville’s door. Jean had been… Read More Sinn Fein should never be able to escape Jean McConville’s ghost (2010) / Say Nothing (2018)

Amarjit Chandan: Remembering Gehal Singh, who gave his life for communal harmony

First posted September 21, 2014 Gehal Singh: martyr to the supreme cause On the face of it this photograph of a withdrawn gentleman does not tell much except that it night have originated in an old family album. Roland Barthes said that we give captions ‘to sublimate, patheticise or rationalise the image’.  This photograph does demand… Read More Amarjit Chandan: Remembering Gehal Singh, who gave his life for communal harmony

A Proclamation regarding the Anniversary of the First Nuclear War Crimes

H. Patricia Hynes Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – As I write, five of nine governments with arsenals of nuclear weapons – capable of destroying life on our planet many times over – are engaged in war: the United States (in multiple wars and stoking one with China), Israel, Russia, and NATO members… Read More A Proclamation regarding the Anniversary of the First Nuclear War Crimes

Jaag Musafir: Pagdandi Collective

Hello, we are pleased to invite you to join us for a conversation with Dilip Simeon in Chandigarh on Saturday, August 3; 2024. More details here: https://pagdandi.substack.com/p/jaag-musafir Kindly RSVP if you plan to come: https://forms.gle/P7vAeWmWHWic7pgi6 My regards and gratitude to Pagdandi Collective for organising this conversation. What follows below is my personal addition to the matter above,… Read More Jaag Musafir: Pagdandi Collective

After more than 350 years, the first critical edition of Hobbes’s ‘Leviathan’

First posted October 06, 2012 Thomas Hobbes: Leviathan. Edited by Noel Malcolm. Oxford University Press; 2,355 pages WHEN Thomas Hobbes was maths tutor to the future English king, Charles II, in Paris in 1646, his young charge reportedly found Britain’s first great modern philosopher to be “the oddest fellow he ever met with”. That was one of… Read More After more than 350 years, the first critical edition of Hobbes’s ‘Leviathan’