The
Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering is a 2000 book
by Norman G. Finkelstein that argues that the American Jewish establishment
exploits the memory of the Nazi Holocaust for political and financial gain, as
well as to further the interests of Israel.
Beyond
Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History is a book by Norman G. Finkelstein published
by the University of California
Press in August 2005.
Image
and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict by Norman G.
Finkelstein is a 1996 book. The prospects for war between Israel and the Arab
nations may be fading, but the war of the historians rages on. For some years,
revisionists have been dismantling Israeli and Arab myths created in the
formative years of the conflict. Now, as in this book, the revisionists themselves
are under attack for not going far enough. Finkelstein already has one victory
to his credit. Along with a few other conscientious scholars, he demonstrated
that Joan Peters’ book From Time Immemorial, which claimed that Palestinians
arrived in Palestine only recently,
was based on shoddy scholarship. That landmark essay is included in this
collection and is the best of his offerings. More controversially, Finkelstein
tackles Benny Morris, author of an important account of the origins of the
Palestinian refugee exodus. Here he praises much of Morris’ empirical research
but rejects the conclusion that the exodus was born of war rather than a master
plan. All this is bound to be a bit confusing to readers new to the
historiography of the Arab-Israeli conflict, but for those well versed in the
debates and the literature, this thoroughly documented book is guaranteed to
stimulate and provoke. It will be required reading in the continuing war of the
historians.
The
Age of Openness: China Before Mao is a 2008 book by historian Frank Dikötter.
It provides an account of the Republican era of Chinese history, spanning from
the early 20th century to the Communist Party takeover in 1949. In it, Dikötter
describes a period of unprecedented openness during which China was actively
pursuing engagement with the world, as evidenced by a pluralistic intellectual
environment, thriving open markets and economic growth, and expanded liberties
and rule of law.
Art
in Turmoil The Chinese Cultural
Revolution, 1966-76 is a 2010 book. Chapters by scholars of Chinese
history and art and by artists whose careers were shaped by the Cultural
Revolution decode the rhetoric of China’s turbulent
decade. The many illustrations in the book, some familiar and some never seen
before, also offer new insights into works that have transcended their times.
From
Dictatorship to Democracy, A Conceptual Framework for Liberation is a
book-length essay on the generic problem of how to destroy a dictatorship and
to prevent the rise of a new one. The book was written in 1993 by Gene Sharp
(b. 1928), a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts.
From
Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present is a 2001 book
by Jacques Barzun. In this account, Barzun describes what Western Man
wrought from the Renaisance and Reformation down to the present in the double
light of its own time and our pressing concerns. He introduces characters and
incidents with his unusual literary style and grace, bringing to the fore those
that have "Puritans as Democrats," "The Monarch's
Revolution," "The Artist Prophet and Jester" -- show the
recurrent role of great themes throughout the eras.
The triumphs and defeats of five hundred years form an
inspiring saga that modifies the current impression of one long tale of oppression
by white European males. Women and their deeds are prominent, and freedom (even
in sexual matters) is not an invention of the last decades. And when Barzun
rates the present not as a culmination but a decline, he is in no way a prophet
of doom. Instead, he shows decadence as the creative novelty that will burst
forth -- tomorrow or the next day.
Scribble, Scribble, Scribble: Writing on Politics, Ice Cream, Churchill, and My Mother is a 2012 book by Simon Schama. In this passionate and provocative collection, the brilliant Simon Schama reveals his lighter, more playful side as he brings his keen critical sensibility to a wide range of topics. Captivating and informative, Scribble, Scribble, Scribble captures Schama's wit and acute observations as he holds forth on everything from food and family to Winston Churchill, Martin Scorsese, and Richard Avedon, from Rubens to Rembrandt, from his travels in Brazil and Amsterdam to sailing on the Queen Mary 2.
Never predictable, always stimulating, Scribble, Scribble, Scribble is a treasure trove of surprises that highlight Schama's sense of humor, curiosity, and idiosyncrasies, allowing us to view the world, in all its diversity, through the eyes of one of its most intelligent, witty, and original inhabitants.
Modern
Intellectual Tradition: From Descartes to Derrida by Professor
Lawrence Cahoone is a DVD set from The Great Courses series.
COURSE
DESCRIPTION
What is reality? It's a seemingly simple question. But penetrate beneath
its surface and the simplicity drops away, a succession of subsequent questions
luring you deeper—to where even more questions await. Ask yourself whether you
can actually know the answers, much less be sure that you can know them, and
you've begun to grapple with the metaphysical and epistemological quandaries
that have occupied, teased, and tormented modern philosophy's greatest
intellects since the dawn of modern science and a century before the
Enlightenment.
Dr.
Lawrence Cahoone is Professor of Philosophy at the College of the
Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, where he has
taught since 2000. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the State University of
New York at Stony Brook.
A two-time winner of the Undergraduate Philosophy Association Teaching
Award at Boston University who has taught
more than 50 different philosophy courses, Professor Cahoone is not only a
skilled teacher, but also an author. With a background in recent European,
American, and social and political philosophy, as well as interests in
postmodernism, metaphysics, and the latter's relation to the natural sciences,
he has written Cultural Revolutions: Reason versus Culture in Philosophy,
Politics, and Jihad; Civil Society: The Conservative Meaning of Liberal
Politics; The Ends of Philosophy: Pragmatism, Foundationalism, and
Postmodernism; and The Dilemma of Modernity: Philosophy, Culture, and
Anti-Culture. He also edited From Modernism to Postmodernism: An Anthology.
