What’s your Class
WHAT’S YOUR CLASS? I cannot boast of having read Marx or Engels, but enough Marxian analysis has ‘trickled down’ to me by now about class relations. It goes like this: in Antiquity society was based on masters and slaves; in the Middle-Ages you had lords and peasants (sometimes attached to the land as serfs);…
Drang nach Osten
Drang nach Osten This German expression means “push to the East.” Going West is more familiar in the American tradition – as in “go West, young man.” And when it comes to massive popular moves, it goes all the way to when the Spaniards and the Portuguese and the Dutch ventured into the open seas…
DAVID GIBBS’S REVOLT OF THE RICH
David Gibbs’ book, Revolt of the Rich, is interesting and valuable on so many levels. Even the title rings an unexpected note: ‘revolt’ is usually associated with the powerless, not the powerful. Another general assumption is that the turn toward conservative politics, both at home and abroad, was associated with President Reagen, not the kindly…
WHAT’S YOUR CLASS?
I cannot boast of having read Marx or Engels, but enough Marxian analysis has ‘trickled down’ to me by now about class relations. It goes like this: in Antiquity society was based on masters and slaves; in the Middle-Ages you had lords and peasants (sometimes attached to the land as serfs); then, starting in England,…
INTRODUCTION
After my professional immersion in literature, my retirement finally offered the option of catching up with non-fiction. The comments and “reviews” were, for the most part, stimulated by my active participation in a reading group. I am grateful to my fellow book club participants for introducing me to unfamiliar subjects and for putting up with…
Review of Dr. Vladimir Brovkin’s Book, From Vladimir Lenin to Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Brovkin’s Book, From Vladimir Lenin to Vladimir Putin, is remarkable on many levels. Although his book covers the last hundred years, his knowledge has deep roots in Russian history: its Eurasian dimensions, its ethnic diversities, its economy and finances – and last but not least, the organization of its political institutions. His knowledge of…
REVIEW OF CALEB MAUPIN’S BOOK
As Americans, we all live with the urgent question Caleb Maupin addresses in his latest book: Where Is America Going? And if we want to know where we are going – it surely follows that we need to know where we came from. Moreover, whether we like it or not, we must also acknowledge that…
TAKE THE TOYS AWAY FROM THE BOYS
These words still resonate with me. They were writ large on a poster a woman was carrying on the famous New York peace march of 1982. My 13 years-old daughter Muriel and I were among the marchers. And I have been on so many peace marches since then – and WILPF has been struggling with…
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN
The conflict between the two former trans-caucasian republics of the Soviet Union goes back to 1988 and has caused waves of refugee movements: between 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and 724,000 Azeris. This has involved the intervention of international organizations with conflicting agendas. There is the initial CSTO, or Collective Security Treaty Organization composed of Armenia,…
WHAT NEXT?
I get the Military Industrial Complex. Or the Military Industrial Congressional Complex, which is what President Eisenhower initially considered naming it. Or the Military Industrial Congressional Academic Technological – and everything else – Complex, as Ray McGovern calls it. I have read Christian Sorensen’s Understanding the War Machine, and it all adds up: the whole…
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