Recommended reading.

[toastkid]

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"Peculiar memories of Thomas Penman", by Bruce Robinson (nm)

Posted by ollie on December 4, 2007, 8:09 am, in reply to "your most inspiring books"

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Re: your most inspiring books

Posted by Peter Cleall on December 4, 2007, 9:52 am, in reply to "your most inspiring books"
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I can highly recommed The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein - un-putdownable!



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"Understanding Power - The Indispensable Chomsky"

Posted by Stian on December 4, 2007, 11:16 am, in reply to "your most inspiring books"
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This book radically changed my life and got me started in world politics - which lead med to Media Lens - which led me to Buddhism...I recommend it to anyone not into "leftist" politics or Chomsky.

Stian


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And one from me

Mark Kurlansky

Non-violence. The history of a dangerous idea

Does what it says on the cover.
Well written. read it in a day.

[toastkid]

Pasted from message board some more DC picks


Re: your most inspiring books

Posted by The Editors on December 4, 2007, 3:03 pm, in reply to "your most inspiring books"
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Good idea, and thanks to dan for the forum archive for these. Here are a few of mine.

Robert Tressell's 'The Ragged Troused Philanthropists', read as an impressionable young teenager. ‘A Search for Scotland’ by R. F. Mackenzie, a progressive school teacher who transformed the lives of many children. Several books by Fritjof Capra and E. F. Schumacher were quite influential early on for me - in particular, 'The Turning Point' and 'Small is Beautiful', respectively. Same goes for Richard Douthwaite: 'The Growth Illusion' and 'Short Circuit'. 'Slow Reckoning' by Tom Athanasiou and 'The End of Nature' by Bill McKibben. Susan George's 'The Lugano Report' was a big inspiration when I was writing 'Private Planet.'

Reading 'The Compassionate Revolution' by David Edwards, just after it was published in 1998, made me determined to track him down. Thankfully, he didn't dismiss me as a nutter but instead invited me to his local pub.

Other influential books include pretty much anything and everything by Noam Chomsky, Mark Curtis, Erich Fromm, Ed Herman, John Pilger and Howard Zinn (often thanks to DE for highlighting them, often literally!). Pilger's 'Hidden Agendas' was a real find for me - I devoured that one. Discovering Jeff Schmidt's 'Disciplined Minds' was crucial too. 'Taking the Risk out of Democracy' by Alex Carey is an important book. And 'Homage to Catalonia' by George Orwell is a worthy classic.

One of my favourite books in recent years is 'Happiness' by Matthieu Ricard. I also recommend 'Field notes on the compassionate life' by Marc Ian Barasch. Inspiring works of fiction include 'In dubious battle' by John Steinbeck, 'You have to be careful in the land of the free' by James Kelman, 'The monkey wrench gang' by Edward Abbey and pretty much everything by Alasdair Gray, especially 'Lanark'. Loads of other books I could mention but I'd better stop here.

DC





R. F. Mackenzie's 'A Search for Scotland'

Posted by The Editors on December 4, 2007, 3:14 pm, in reply to "Re: your most inspiring books"
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‘A Search for Scotland’ (1989) by R. F. Mackenzie

Scots forever tell each other, and anyone else who will listen, that we have the best education system in the world. R. F. Mackenzie (1910-1987) disagreed but perhaps did more than anyone else to demonstrate what was possible. He wrote ‘A Search for Scotland’ after a long teaching career in which he upset many in the higher echelons of Scottish education. But he transformed the lives of generations of schoolchildren, many from deprived backgrounds.

The historian T. C. Smout described Mackenzie as “a teacher of progressive freedoms. In a world that worships the golden calf of economic growth, he was sceptical of the happiness it could bring.”

Mackenzie wrote several books about his attempts to liberalise Scottish education, among them ‘A Question of Living’ and ‘Escape from the Classroom’. But his final book is his masterpiece and still as vital today as it ever was. The book is no mere travelogue. Critic Allan Massie wrote accurately that its “true subject is the state of modern civilization.”


May 2, 2006. Written for Glasgow University Magazine.

[toastkid]

Pasted from message board

Re: The Ghandi Award and moments of epiphany

Posted by Tim on December 4, 2007, 4:52 pm, in reply to "The Ghandi Award and moments of epiphany"
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Shortly after September 11th i joined a book club in Wisconsin, where i was living at that time, and our first book, chosen by a genius, was "Collateral Language" edited by John Collins & Ross Glover... from that moment on my eyes have been wide open.

Keep up your invaluable work fellas.

Tim

[toastkid]

The Compassionate Revolution

Posted by Grand Inquisitor on December 4, 2007, 6:35 pm, in reply to "Re: your most inspiring books"
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The one and only review of The Compassionate Revolution, even though it sounds like a plant by the Book Publisher , on Amazon.com, is this:

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'If, like this particular reviewer, you grew up in the West and have come to take for granted a competitive capitalist culture where the mantra of "survival of the fittest" reigns supreme, David Edwards' insightful synthesis of radical political dissent and Eastern philosophy may come as something of a revelation.

Edwards wastes little time in casting seeds of doubt on the vain pursuit of personal wealth and happiness at the expense of others as practised in Western culture, condemning the "institutionalised subordination of people and planet to corporate profit" and "an economic system reducing humans and animals to the status of industrial fodder". Here the author summarizes the now-familiar critique of the global justice movement: the demolition of democracy epitomized by the corporate takeover of the planet. Edwards ties in this analysis with a razor-sharp dissection of the myths of press freedom, elegantly distilling the extensive writing of such outstanding dissidents and modern historians as Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman, Howard Zinn, John Pilger and Mark Curtis into a very clear and readable summary.

The true power of Edwards' message, however, lies in his detailed analysis of the underlying malaise of a capitalist system that relies on the unholy trinity of greed, hatred and ignorance in order to prevail: the greed for profit at any cost, the hatred and demonizing of anyone or anything that stands in the way of that profit, and the widespread ignorance of the truly dreadful effects of Western corporate "business as usual" on people and planet. More powerful still is the convincing case Edwards makes for applying Buddhist teachings to the ills of our times: "the antidote is awareness [as opposed to ignorance] rooted in compassion...working for the happiness of others is the basis of all happiness."

[toastkid]

Thanks. If DE has any new ones I would be glad to know...

Posted by jim l on December 4, 2007, 8:34 pm, in reply to "The Compassionate Revolution"
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That's my Xmas list sorted. Allows me hide away, with a nose in a book, ignoring my relatives until Dr Who comes on...

Thanks to everyone for contributing - inspirational stuff!

Jim L x


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BTW: Has anybody read Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac?

Posted by jim l on December 4, 2007, 9:37 pm, in reply to "Thanks. If DE has any new ones I would be glad to know..."
User logged in as: jiml

..about some hedonistic guys who try Buddhism, but keep falling back into their old ways. This is familiar territory for me.

I still think 'On the Road' is one of my favourites. You can't beat that sense of freedom combined with the flick of the Vs at the establishment.

[toastkid]

Reccomendations for books about Race from JK and Lenin copied form the message board.

Posted by lenin on November 5, 2008, 9:57 am, in reply to "Race"

: Have you read 'Strange Fruit' by Kenan Malik?
: It's the best book on race that I've read.

No and, to be frank, given his spurious assessment of Islamophobia, I don't trust him to have a serious analysis of race. I fail to see how anyone who properly understood the genealogy race and racism could flatly deny that there is such a thing as Islamophobia - unfortunately, one of the many failures of the Furedi tendency. The best books that I have read on race are David Roediger's 'Wages of Whiteness' and C Loring Brace's 'Race is a Four Letter Word'. Alden T Vaughan is also very good.

[toastkid]

Lenin, a favour to ask

Posted by ollie Email on February 11, 2009, 7:03 pm

Lenin,

I've got to answer the following:-

"In the realm of politics and political ideas, are religious doctrines a challenge to liberalism in particular? Discuss with reference to at least two of the three major case studies explored in this room: (a) the US abortion case study, (b) the French riots case study, and (c) the case of Iran"

Basically, I need to argue that religion poses little or no threat to liberalism, as long as liberals actually adhere to liberal theory on the freedom to pratice religion. I also want to argue that social injustice and economic inequality is the real threat.

I haven't got a copy of your book, but I was wondering if you had any relevant quotes that might help on this. Or, alternatively, can you point me to a post on your blog that could help either?

Of course it's no trouble if you can't help with this (too busy etc)- but I'll be getting a copy of your book when I get paid either way. If you'd prefer to email me, it's ollierobbins@yahoo.com

thanks!
Ollie

Posted by lenin on February 11, 2009, 7:31 pm, in reply to "Lenin, a favour to ask"

I'll e-mail some material to you, but just off the cuff, my reaction would be that liberalism's uneasy relationship to religion points to limitations in liberalism itself. I mean, to take the case of the banlieue riots, the idea that this was all about religion is a purely liberal reading (and a particularly mundane liberal reading at that). In a way, I think the response of liberals such as Christopher Hitchens and Pascal Bruckner was a gargantuan example of projection, in which the dark side of liberalism was imputed to some mythical essence of Islam. I would recommend Joan Wallach Scott's book, The Politics of the Veil for an insight into the way in which French republicanism has been complicit in colonial and racist doctrines that have endured to this date, mainly taking the form of hostility to migrants from the former imperial periphery, and which have become newly regnant in the era of the 'war on terror'.

And a couple of quick references

Posted by lenin on February 11, 2009, 7:40 pm, in reply to "Re: Lenin, a favour to ask"

For some invaluable introductory info, check out:

Joel Beinin and Joe Stork, Political Islam, IB Tauris, 1997

Sami Zubaida, Islam, The People and the State, IB Tauris, 2001

Nazih Aybi, Political Islam: Religion and Politics in the Arab World, Routledge, 1991

Also, let's not forget that this particular relationship between liberalism and Islam has, as one of its bases, the Aryanism of empire. So, for an admittedly obscure but still useful discussion, see:

Tony Ballantyne, Oriantalism and Race, Palgrave Macmillan, 2002

Also, get hold of a copy of Hegel's Philosophy of History for some interesting tuition on liberal philosophy and Islam. It would be unfair to say that Hegel was just a liberal. He was a fascinating critic of liberalism, in many ways. But on empire he swallowed the imperial story wholesale.

Re: And a couple of quick references

Posted by lenin on February 11, 2009, 8:06 pm, in reply to "Re: And a couple of quick references"

: great stuff- thanks. Trouble is, I'd have to
: buy and read these books by sunday.
: Interesting for further reading though.

No need to buy, I'd just ensure they're in your library: some of them are bound to be. Then I'd use the index to check for topics that you need to read and scan through for useful quotables or stats, etc. The Beinin & Stork volume, for example, has loads of useful essays on Islam and Democracy, the Iranian Revolution, Liberal Islam, Islam and Feminism, etc etc. I can probably forward some articles from scholarly journals that you can use too.

[toastkid]

Re: Foucault again (just for some handy relativism) nom

Posted by lenin on February 12, 2009, 8:45 am, in reply to "Re: Foucault again (just for some handy relativism) nom "

: Just out of curiosity, isn't it a commonplace
: these days that liberalism is fascism on its
: day off?

Given that fascism is explicitly anti-liberal, despises its individualism, rationalism, enlightenment, etc., this assertion would demand some elaborate supporting argument. Perhaps it would be better to view it in terms of the tendency for the ideals of liberalism to transmute into their opposites. After all, liberalism emerged as part of the same historical complex as capitalism, colonialism, race 'science', slavery, etc. As such, it has been implicated in the development of forms of tyranny that both negated its essential premises and contributed to the development of fascism. Enzo Traverso is very good on this - see his The Origins of Nazi Violence.

[toastkid]

book recommendations from Keith-264 and Dr Gideon Polya

Dear Doc

Posted by Keith-264 [User Info] [Email User] on August 10, 2009, 11:09 am, in reply to "Oz Truthful Journalist Reuben Brand: post-invasion Iraqi violent deaths "1.2 million and counting" "

Being a history man I'm not surprised about 'Western' crimes or that the Johnny-come-lateleys Hitler and Stalin are used as moral loss leaders. If you turn Hitler's crimes right for about 90 degrees what do you get? The history of Europe's exploitation of the southern hemisphere for the last 500 years, that's what. Mark Mazower makes no bones about it which makes a change but I wonder if you're familiar with 'The First World War: An Agrarian Interpretation' by Avner Offer?


Posted by Dr Gideon Polya [User Info] [Email User] on August 10, 2009, 3:47 pm, in reply to "Dear Doc"

Thanks for the reference Keith - I will look it up. In his brilliant book on the basis for Western colonialism "Exterminate all the Brutes" , Sven Lindqvist makes it clear that the Nazi atrocities in Eastern Europe were a lebensraum-driven German equivalent of what the Western colonialists had been doing in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific.

[toastkid]

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Re: New Statesman: Bias and the Beeb
Posted by RMS on August 27, 2009, 2:14 pm, in reply to "New Statesman: Bias and the Beeb"

Thanks for posting this..but the author ought to read "The British State" by James Harvey and Katherine Hood (1959) Which devotes a brilliant chapter on the inner workings of the BBC and ITN exposing the in built bias of these public service broadcasters since their inception. They give a summary of attitudes and examples of the anti-working class, anti-socialist bias that is deep within the ethos of both organisations (joined now by skynews) For example a report from the national Council of Civil Liberties observed
"The BBC has been accustomed for many years to abrogate to itself the right, in normal times, to censor the expression of views by outside speakers to the microphone...disquieting information is received from time to time that certain well-known public figures are blacklisted" NCCL 1955.
The BBC is fundamentaly part of the state machine, its news broadcasting "has all the function of slanting news in an anti-socialist direction, all the tricks for distorting the truth and conditioning peoples minds"...(The BS 1959)
Mehdi Hasan is saying nothing new, he omits the BBC's long standing hostility to the socialist left, the trade unions and almost blanket ban on communists since 1926.


--Previous Message--
: The charge that the broadcasting corporation
: is left-wing has been repeated so often that
: it goes almost unchallenged. If anything,
: Mehdi Hasan argues, it is a bastion of
: conservatism.
:
: http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/08/bbc-wing-bias-corporation
:

[toastkid]

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Re: Can NL be democracised?

Posted by Alex Doherty [User Info] on October 31, 2009, 8:27 am, in reply to "Can NL be democracised?"

Serious efforts to democratise the Labour party were made by New left elements within the party during the mid 70's and early 80's - eventually they were beaten back by the centre and right wing of the party (people who today would be considered to be little better than communists by the NL leadership) - the chances of making NL into a democratic force for good is now negligible. Leo Panitch and Colin Leys document the efforts of the Labour New Left in 'The End of Parliamentary Socialism" - it's an excellent read:

[toastkid]

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"Posted by MikeD on November 7, 2009, 2:25 pm, in reply to "Chris Harman RIP"

Tragic indeed.People's History is a brilliant work I read it recently and got following offer from Amazon re his latest ( last) book which I think applies to all......."

".....A People's History of the World: From the Stone Age to the New Millennium by Chris Harman"... [+] ......"Zombie Capitalism by Chris Harman."

Zombie Capitalism
Chris Harman"


"Posted by JK [User Info] on November 7, 2009, 3:11 pm, in reply to "Re: Chris Harman RIP - his Zombie Capitalism just published"

Harman's great little book, 'How Marxism Works', is the main reason I became a Socialist."

[toastkid]

Peter Cleal recommended the ragged trousered philanthropist.

http://www.medialens.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3032&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

[toastkid]

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Re: A Certain Ratio

Posted by Ged Travers [User Info] [Email User] on November 19, 2009, 11:41 am, in reply to "Re: A Certain Ratio"

"...........................................................
I've just re-read Trotsky's 1905 and this whole internet lark minds me of ch. 13 'Storming the Censorship Bastilles' in a cyberspace abstract sense, of course. Wherein Trotsky details the lengths to which the Petersburgh Soviet were driven to publish Izvestia. With the tacit compliance of management and the wholehearted support of the print workers."