This novel builds on remarkably detailed research into the world of enslaved people in the 1700s. Then it fills in the universe of personal experienceThis novel builds on remarkably detailed research into the world of enslaved people in the 1700s. Then it fills in the universe of personal experience with close to the greatest performance of empathetic imagination I've ever seen. I'm really glad to have read it....more
This book was originally published in 1899, and it shows it. In a kind of reverse Orientalism, Budge holds it evident that the ancient Egyptians "beliThis book was originally published in 1899, and it shows it. In a kind of reverse Orientalism, Budge holds it evident that the ancient Egyptians "believed in One God, who was self-existent, immortal, invisible, eternal, omniscient, almighty, and inscrutable ...." As for all the evidence that they built temples to many deities, Budge admits that they "also developed polytheistic ideas ... to such a degree that the nations around ... were misled by his [the Egyptian's] actions, and described him as a polytheistic idolator."
With such determination to read monotheism into all ancient inscriptions, Budge offers translations that sound like the Nicaean Creed. ...more
I think it's a competent, entertaining survey of the world's doomsday prophecies. The selection of examples to discuss is a bit random and a bit repetI think it's a competent, entertaining survey of the world's doomsday prophecies. The selection of examples to discuss is a bit random and a bit repetitive, but Newman does her homework and her attitude is refreshing. For example: People can't decide when the Middle Ages ended. Personally, I think we're still in them. After all, if this is the last age, then any quibbles about eras within it are rather pointless.
In discussing Augustine's views on the book of Revelation, she comments, I find it comforting that someone as brilliant and devout as Augustine couldn't understand it either. In examining the predictions of total cataclysm in the Mayan Popol Vu, she notes This is what happens to people who don't respect the hard work their gods went through to create them.
Here's a few more quotes that convey the book's scope and approach:
In researching this book, I read about a lot more prophets, doomsday groups, and theorists than I could possibly include. You may find the ones I've chosen a bit odd. I may have left out your favorite scenario. But the more I researched, the more I realized that the ideas about the end of the world were astonishingly similar.
Also,
I began to realize that no one expects their world to end. People who expect the Apocalypse soon arn't preparing to die but to survive. They'll build an ark or be raptured up or hitch a ride on the mother ship....more
The great Jewish historian Ilan Pappé pulls together a competent team of scholars to investigate similarities between the issues and proposed solutionThe great Jewish historian Ilan Pappé pulls together a competent team of scholars to investigate similarities between the issues and proposed solutions to ethnic conflict in South Africa and Israel. Of course they deal with objections that the two situations “cannot be compared” (because “they are not the same”). They stress that “comparing” means discerning both similarities and differences, rather than simply equating different situations.
The contributors examine differences in the ways apartheid South Africa discriminated between races, and the ways Israeli policy discriminates between Arabs and Jews. They detail the differences in legal rights between Arab Israeli citizens (whose ancestors did not flee in the ethnic cleansing war of 1948), and Palestinians in the areas occupied by Israel since the 1967 war. They look at how South Africa and Israel have functioned as “ethnocracies,” with tensions between “ethno-nationalism” and “civic nationalism” in determining people's basic rights. They compare South Africa’s “Bantustans” with the Palestinian occupied territories. Probably the book’s most important comparison is between the strategies of human rights advocates in both countries, with their implications for what works for resolving social division.
Concerning the historical similarity between apartheid South Africa and Israel, Ilan Pappé quotes Israel’s former-Chief of the General Staff, Rafael Eytan: "Blacks in South Africa want to gain control over the white minority just like Arabs here want to gain control over us. And we too, like the white minority in South Africa, must act to prevent them from taking us over."
Steven Friedman explains how the problem of co-existence in South Africa seemed insoluble for decades: "For years, scholarship and common wisdom insisted that blacks and whites could not share a political space in peace. The struggle for the end of apartheid seemed to be ‘necessarily a zero-sum game’ in which white rule would endure or be violently overthrown: either way, a common society was not possible."
But clearly it was possible. It was not a zero-sum game. Peace with equalized rights was better than endless war....more
Mahjoub slips back and forth between re-visiting his childhood haunts in Khartoum, and pondering the fate of Sudan. The local scenes he paints are beaMahjoub slips back and forth between re-visiting his childhood haunts in Khartoum, and pondering the fate of Sudan. The local scenes he paints are beautiful, desolate, and disturbing all at once. Clearly, the city is exploding: “At independence in 1956, it was less a city than a small town. The population of the entire country was put at ten million. Today the capital alone rivals that figure.”
He examines Sudan’s parade of tragedies, with the politicians and generals torn between urging unity between people of differing races and religions, and insisting on the ethnic and religious purity that must divide them: “I’ve never understood the idea of national pride. The notion of being proud of the place one happened, by chance, to have been born requires fetishizing the complete randomness of the fact. … Here, no matter how bad things are, pride is the answer to everything, eclipsing all the country’s shortcomings.”
Mahjoub finds some glimmers of hope, as investment from Chinese and other sources starts to pay off. But he also names the looming dangers, with sometimes frightful accuracy: “In the old days the golden rule for any ruler was to keep the army happy. This is no longer the case. The military has been slowly carved up. Real power is now in the hands of the myriad of security forces, the complex web of intelligence agencies, with a combined force of between forty and fifty thousand operatives. The protests over pay suggest some form of brinksmanship is underway. The security forces are demonstrating that they are not afraid of the army. With their network of informers, it is they who rule the country.” ...more
I greatly enjoyed Hessler's books on China, and this one on Egypt is even better. He has an easy-going, conversational, curious style, just talking toI greatly enjoyed Hessler's books on China, and this one on Egypt is even better. He has an easy-going, conversational, curious style, just talking to ordinary people like garbage collectors, shop owners, or local officials. Slowly he builds composite pictures that are more particular and more insightful than travel writing by V.S. Naipaul, probably because Hessler spends years in a place, learning the language and the cultural landscape.
Concerning who should replace the ousted Muslim Brotherhood president Morsi, a neighbor explains, "I don't care who he is, as long as he isn't nice. ... He needs to punish people. Morsi was too soft."
Furthermore, "Everybody welcomed the involvement of the army, because everybody assumed that the army would be on his side."...more
I’ve much appreciated Monbiot’s work as a passionate environmental activist, and there’s a lot of that in this book. But I hadn’t realized what an allI’ve much appreciated Monbiot’s work as a passionate environmental activist, and there’s a lot of that in this book. But I hadn’t realized what an all-round journalist he is, covering loads of additional issues involving war, finance, culture, God, power, or housing in England. This collection of articles dates from the war on terror decade, and Monbiot mercilessly rips the stupidity of spectacular spending on military crusades, while we approach the point of no return on global warming. He’s an angry, driven reporter, and I’d rate his research excellent....more
I’m really glad to have found this book. Ryrie has such a reasonable, realistic but empathetic way of explaining highly controversial events. He makesI’m really glad to have found this book. Ryrie has such a reasonable, realistic but empathetic way of explaining highly controversial events. He makes it a human story of choices, consequences, inspirations, and limited accomplishments. It’s a balanced book, giving roughly equal coverage to the Reformation, religious movements in the modern West, and Protestant communities around the world—with special focuses on South Africa, Korea, China, and global Pentecostalism. Ryrie’s combination of honesty with compassion makes for a remarkable sort of objectivity. For a stark example, he ends his chapter on the trials and hypocrisies of Protestants in Nazi Germany like this: “There is only one reason we do not share their guilt: we were not there.”...more
It's careful, technical work, but Garcea shows that Saharan civilization comes prior to Egypt: "it is a fact that the Saharan sites with the earliest It's careful, technical work, but Garcea shows that Saharan civilization comes prior to Egypt: "it is a fact that the Saharan sites with the earliest pottery and the first domestic fauna are earlier that those of the ... Nile Valley.”...more
Van Reybrouck makes history personal, interviewing vast numbers of Congolese people of all kinds, sometimes visiting for several days. He finds some pVan Reybrouck makes history personal, interviewing vast numbers of Congolese people of all kinds, sometimes visiting for several days. He finds some people in their 90s, or even over 100 years old. He talks to child soldiers, refugee women, mine workers, high-level bureaucrats, warlords, local merchants, and rumba superstars. The book achieves a kind of intimacy I’ve rarely seen in a history book. And it’s highly revealing. For example, I’d heard a lot about how the Rwandan genocide spilled over into the Congo, after Hutu-tribe leaders tried to exterminate the Tutsi people of Rwanda. But I hadn’t realized how an avenging Tutsi army repeatedly invaded the Congo, chasing and massacring vast numbers of Hutu refugees, and turning the Congo into a zone of ethnic-cleansing war and militarized resource plunder. Concerning the profitability of this force-backed free enterprise, Van Reybrouck explains
“Westerners have been used to seeing wars as exorbitantly expensive money-guzzling enterprises that are disastrous to the economy. But in Central Africa, exactly the opposite was true: fighting a war was relatively cheap, especially in the light of the magnificent profits to be made from raw materials. And this was no high-tech war. The oversupply of light secondhand firearms, often from post-Communist regimes of Eastern Europe pushed prices down, and (child) soldiers who were allowed to plunder their own salaries cost nothing at all. They kept the population cowering, while the ore was there for the taking. War, in other words, became a worthwhile economic alternative. Why would one want to call a halt to such a lucrative business? Under pressure from the people themselves? But that’s what guns were for, right?” (pp. 449–459)
Considering global trends in the arms trade, population pressure, and environmental degradation, he states it like fact: “Congo does not lag behind the course of history, but runs out front.” (p. 471)
But the Congo is too vast and unpredictable for predictions of doom and gloom. The music industry is booming, the young women are launching businesses, Chinese investment is pouring in, the Pentecostal churches are rocking. It’s always a tragedy and always an adventure. ...more
I had thought of ancient Egypt as a roughly 3,000-year span of almost timeless tradition, unfolding in relative peace and isolation. But Wilkinson givI had thought of ancient Egypt as a roughly 3,000-year span of almost timeless tradition, unfolding in relative peace and isolation. But Wilkinson gives a long, eventful, detailed account, focused on the dramas of political intrigue, civil war, and unchecked egomania among the elites. Rather than presenting the Egyptians’ accomplishments in art, engineering, or medicine as wonders of ancient wisdom, Wilkinson depicts a real-politic world where power holders claimed godhood, governance depended on maximum intimidation, and defeated rivals were tortured to death, with their mutilated bodies exposed in public. Wilkinson connects clues of many kinds to look behind the official statements of rulers who would wield “the power of the written word to render permanent a desired state of affairs.”...more
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