Makers of Modern India Review

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(More customer reviews)The diversity, originality, and volume of content written by our founding fathers is really heartening. The subject they wrote on were the teething concerns of their days, and touched upon all facets such as freedom, social justice, caste, gender, and India's standing /role in the world. Seems like a whole lot of original and revolutionary thinker-politicians came together in those days, and we have stopped producing the breed of original thinker-politicians.
Just the 4 great men- Jawaharlal Nehru, M.K. Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar and Rabindranath Tagore have wrote close to 50, 000 volumes on diverse topics.
If only the petty contemporary politicians who claim to be followers of these great men & women had read the writings/speeches of these great people. When Guha introduces, he writes, "The tradition that this book has showcased is dead. No politician now alive can think or write in an original way or even interesting fashion about the direction Indian society and politics is or should be taking."
In this book, Ramachandra Guha has introduced and edited writing (and speeches) of 19 men and women, who he thinks were the makers of modern India. There are a few surprising additions, and a few omissions. Without delving into why there were a few added or deleted from this list, we can look at the heterogeneity of the their thoughts and their views on causes close to them.
The book shows the diversity and originality of thought, the "argumentative" or debating nature of these men/women, and a compendium of ideas on wide variety of subjects.
Guha has tried to tie the book together with his introduction and editions, but still this is a collection rather than one cohesive, flowing tome.
The book starts with Rammohun Roy- a modernist way ahead of his time, who wrote about freedom, social justice, and educational reforms and goes on to Syed Ahmed Khan- the founder of Aligarh Muslim university. Jotirao Phule talks about rural poverty and caste inequalities while Hamid Dalwai writes about the extremism in both Hindus and Muslims .
There are the radicals, the rightists, the leftists, the early capitalists, and the feminists.
It off course, covers the social and reforming ideas of Gandhi. Some speeches and writings by Ambedkar and Gandhi has been put across in a debating fashion making for a great read.


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When Souls Had Wings: Pre-Mortal Existence in Western Thought Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a subject that I have always been interested in. I am LDS and was aware that we were one of the few western religions that believe in a pre-existence. I also knew that Plato and a few early Christians such as Origen believed in the concept. I was not aware of the many others that believed in pre-existence and the diversity of views that it entailed. This book has exceeded my expectations and made me aware of many other schools of thought on the subject.
Givens has a very impressive resume and is professor of Literature and Religion at the University of Richmond. He has done an extensive study of the subject of pre-mortal existence and the results are condensed into this book. Here he covers religion, philosophy, and poetry that cover this subject.
The book covers from Mesopotamian times to modern times. Highlights include Hebrew traditions, Plato, Gnosticism, Origen, Augustine, the Kabbalah, and the Cambridge Platonists. Philosophers that tackled this subject include Descartes, Leibniz, and Kant. In 19th century religion major players were Wilhelm Benecke, Joseph Smith, Edward Beecher and Julius Muller. Poets that covered the subject include Blake, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, Byron, Lermontov, Carlyle, and Goethe.
His final chapter is more philosophical and discusses the views of Jung and others and how the idea pre-existence can solve many philosophical and religious problems. He notes that this paradigm never succumbed to philosophical or scientific critique. It has great explanatory power, but did not fit in with the western idea of creation out of nothing and that fact that God is the only eternal being.
This book is a must for anyone interested in the idea of a pre-existence. Givens explores the religious, poetic, and philosophical implications of this belief and for someone like myself who loves theology and philosophy was a wonderful exercise in thought.

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The idea of the pre-existence of the soul has been extremely important, widespread, and persistent throughout Western history--from even before the philosophy of Plato to the poetry of Robert Frost. When Souls Had Wings offers the first systematic history of this little explored feature of Western culture. Terryl Givens describes the tradition of pre-existence as "pre-heaven"--the place where unborn souls wait until they descend to earth to be born. And typically it is seen as a descent--a falling away from a happier and untroubled state into the turbulent and sinful world we know. The title of the book refers to the idea put forward in antiquity that our souls begin with wings, and that only after shedding those wings do we fall to earth. The book not only traces the history of the idea of pre-existence, but also captures its meaning for those who have embraced it. Givens describes how pre-existence has been invoked to explain "the better angels of our nature," including the human yearning for transcendence and the sublime. Pre-existence has been said to account for why we know what we should not know, whether in the form of a Greek slave's grasp of mathematics, the moral sense common to humanity, or the human ability to recognize universals. The belief has explained human bonds that seem to have their own mysterious prehistory, salved the wounded sensibility of a host of thinkers who could not otherwise account for the unevenly distributed pain and suffering that are humanity's common lot, and has been posited by philosophers and theologians alike to salvage the principle of human freedom and accountability. When Souls had Wings underscores how durable (and controversial) this idea has been throughout the history of Western thought, the theological dangers it has represented, and how prominently it has featured in poetry, literature, and art.

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The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers Review

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(More customer reviews)No one says it better than those who have been there, and the reality is that there is a gap between behavioral health providers' experience, both uniformed and civilian, and the opportunities to truly walk in the shoes of our soldiers. Bridging this gap is the book "The Untold War," which is a dramatic culmination of stories from soldiers struggling and forging resolutions for events previously thought to be unspeakable. Dr. Sherman's book is a powerful guide both for clinicians who have never been there, and for those in uniform still trying to find a way to dig themselves out from the seemingly bottomless pit of guilt and demoralization. Abbey-Robin Durkin, Ph.D., Military Psychologist, former US Army Officer.

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The Masterless: Self & Society in Modern America Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a simply splendid historical analysis of the ambivalences inherent in the American character. McClay frames the issues within a process he calls "consolidation," which is the bureacratization and rationalization of American economic and political life. McClay concludes (as did Tocqueville) that the seemingly oppositional tendencies of hyper-individualism and bland conformism are in fact mutually reinforcing, symbiotic sides of the same coin. McClay's writing is poetic, and his research is painstaking. A must read for anyone interested in American history.

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The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters Review

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(More customer reviews)I knew that B. R. Myers was a contributing editor, I believe, for "The Atlantic," my favorite periodical. I had no idea that he was also a student of the Korean Peninsula, especially the "Hermit Kingdom" north of the 38th parallel. Christopher Hitchens reviewed this book for "Slate" today, and after catching it this morning, I drove to my local Barnes & Noble in the vague hope they might have a copy. I was shocked that they had a copy in stock. And I was not able to put this fascinating book down.
Myers objective is, by explaining North Korea in the roots of its modern past, to try to make some form recommendations as to how the world community can deal with this strange and blinkered land. His ultimate conclusion is, unfortunately, rather gloomy, arguing essentially that containment and "benevolent neglect" are the only methods to deploy against a regime that, by its own self-definition, is as fixed and unchangeable as a steel and cement mold. All this short of actual military confrontation no one exterior to North Korea wants.
But, this is not the best part of the book. Myers advances and, I think, proves that North Korea is purely a product of its all-pervasive propaganda which literally soaks every aspect of daily life, twenty-four seven, learned in part from the brutal occupation tactics of the Japanese between 1905-1945. And this propaganda supports the two pillars of this Orwellian moonscape, the military and the Kim clan, arguably the most successful crime family since the fictional Corleones. North Korea is no longer properly understood as a "communist" society. Indeed, the very word was removed from the latest Constitution in favor of the long-evolving bogus governmental policy of "Juche," the military elites celebrated as a class in support of a paranoid "imperial family" who have gone to absurd lengths to soldify their dread power over a population kept in absolute, deliberate ignorance of the world outside; even going to far as to use low-level malnutrition as a method of social control. Myers uses mutitudinous examples of past and contemporary North Korean governmental propaganda to illustrate the depths to which this control is exercised. And the consistent keys struck over and over are: (a) absolute fear of the "outside," especially South Korea, Japan, the United States, and even China to a limited extent; (b) the fostering of a divine cult around the ruling family (even suggesting the future "quasi-resurrection" of the dynastic founder); (c) glorification of the military establishment, including the nuclear programme as nationalist expression; and (d) institutionalized racism that also extendes into eugenic practices to keep the Korean race "pure." And all this is overlaid with a perverse form of warped Confucianism where deference to authority is posited as the highest of social aspirations. Put in radically simpler terms, North Korea is best understood less as nation-state than religious cult where the "Dark Other" is the rest of the earth itself.
I also note that Myers descriptive prose is very powerful, but made more so by ample visual examples in the book which are not "filler" but artfully chosen to illustrate main points. Excellent visual and written editing all the way around.
I admit that using propaganda alone as a basis for historical conclusions is usually a spotty exercise. But in a nation where that propaganda is the essence of the state and the people its creations from cradle to grave, I think the basis far more firm than, say, it would be in a discussion of modern China, for example, or Soviet-era Roumania. On this sure footing, and backed by what is obviously years of work and scholarship, Myers makes a complelling case that any dealings with North Korea must be informed by an understanding of how it sees itself, as horrible that vision may be.
Recommended without reservation, especially to people interested in political science, cultural history, and East Asian Studies.


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Truth with a Capital T Review

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(More customer reviews)If I had a daughter, I'd want her to read this. I love strong young female characters. Great story.

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Being Teddy Roosevelt Review

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(More customer reviews)Since I work as a children's librarian, I see plenty of kids coming in for homework on "being" a historical character--so I know this book is very real! As often as not, they have no idea who they are going to portray but end up enjoying the assignment.
A wonderful thing about this book is the many plotlines woven into its 90 pages: Will Riley get his sax? Will this or that kid succeed in the assignment? Will the overachiever triumph this time, too?
The author has a good ear for kid dialogue and a good sense of pacing. All in all an enjoyable book, and at just under a hundred pages long enough for book reports.

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Short: Walking Tall When You're Not Tall At All Review

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(More customer reviews)This highly readable and deeply moving book isn't just for short kids -- it's perfect for any young readers who've ever been ostracized because they're built differently. (For that matter, it's perfect for the ostracizers too.) Schwartz is a former science reporter for The New York Times (he also trained as a lawyer and recently became the paper's national legal correspondent; so much for any easy myths about stature and achievement) and his sections on the science of shortness are particularly good reading. His clear, brisk explanation of the statistical analysis behind marketing to short people is worth the price of admission all by itself. As good as the science stuff is, though, this is at its heart a book with a humane message: Anybody who tries to make you feel bad because you're different doesn't have science, logic or history on his side.

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