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Book Review: Unpacking an Israeli Obsession

by Jacob Lederman

Ira­nopho­bia: The Logic of an Israeli Obses­sion by Hag­gai Ram. Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity Press (2009).

In the con­text of fre­quent rhetor­i­cal spar­ring and esca­lat­ing threats of nuclear destruc­tion, lit­tle com­mon ground is said to exist between Israel and Iran. Enmity between the two states is often framed as the prod­uct of irrec­on­cil­able geopo­lit­i­cal, ide­o­log­i­cal, and strate­gic dif­fer­ences. Iran’s sup­port of ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tions that seek Israel’s destruc­tion, the regime’s reli­gious char­ac­ter, and sup­pos­edly anti-Semitic lead­er­ship all appear to ensure con­fronta­tion between the two states.

Book Review: Radical Imaginings

by Abe Walker

Imag­i­nal Machines by Stevphen Shukaitis. Autono­me­dia (2009).

At every level, Imag­i­nal Machines is a sub­ver­sive text. Against the ris­ing tide of com­pla­cency, Stephven Shukaitis sketches out new pos­si­bil­i­ties for polit­i­cal engage­ment that are at once sedi­tious and savvy.

Book Review: “A Quiet Unlike Any Twilight”

by Doug Sparks

Illus­trat­ing the Machine that Makes the World by Joshua Poteat. The Uni­ver­sity of Geor­gia Press (2009).

In 1851, the same year Moby-Dick was pub­lished and the first World’s Fair was held in Lon­don, Ger­man engraver and printer J.G. Heck pub­lished his Pic­to­r­ial Archive of Nature and Sci­ence. The sci­en­tific rev­o­lu­tion that began in the mid-sixteenth cen­tury was over and sci­ence had assumed its mod­ern form.

Book Review: This New Yet Still Approachable America

by Tim Krause

A New Lit­er­ary His­tory of Amer­ica by Greil Mar­cus and Werner Sol­lors. Belk­nap Press (2009).

A book as long and as rich as A New Lit­er­ary His­tory of Amer­ica can­not have jus­tice done to its many indi­vid­ual essays in the space of a sin­gle review. Nev­er­the­less, high­lights from the vol­ume fairly leap out every twenty or thirty pages or so, beg­ging espe­cial mention

Book Review: Pictures of an Institution

by Lavelle Porter

The Mar­ket­place of Ideas by Louis Menand. W. W. Nor­ton and Com­pany (2010).

The Great Amer­i­can Uni­ver­sity: Its Rise to Pre­em­i­nence, Its Indis­pens­able National Role, Why It Must Be Pro­tected by Jonathan R. Cole. Pub­lic Affairs (2010).

In The Mar­ket­place of Ideas, Menand nar­rows his empha­sis to a set of par­tic­u­lar issues, but in the process pro­vides a use­ful overview of Amer­i­can higher edu­ca­tion. The book is orga­nized into three essays exam­in­ing three par­tic­u­lar issues in higher edu­ca­tion: 1) the his­tory of the gen­eral edu­ca­tion cur­ricu­lum, 2) the logic of aca­d­e­mic dis­ci­plines and the allure of “inter­dis­ci­pli­nar­ity” as a buzz­word in acad­e­mia, and 3) the pol­i­tics of pro­fes­sors and the aca­d­e­mic labor market.

Book Review: “Beyond the Intensities of the Fountain”

by Alison Powell

A Vil­lage Life: Poems by Louise Glück. Far­rar, Straus and Giroux (2009).

One way to approach a book of poems is to imag­ine not how the poet speaks, but from what stage. Wordsworth talks out of the woods, on a long walk. Allen Gins­berg shouts to his reader from a crowded bar.

Theatre Review: Greek to Me

by Frank Episale

Medea and its Dou­ble by Euripi­des, adapted and directed by Hyoung-Taek Limb. Pre­sented by Seoul Fac­tory for the Per­form­ing Arts and La MaMa ETC
Auto Da Fe by Masa­taka Mat­suda, trans­lated by Kameron Steele and Shigeki Mori, directed by Josh Fox with Paul Bar­getto. Pre­sented by Inter­na­tional WOW Com­pany and the Baruch Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter
On paper, there […]

Music Review: New Versions of Some Old Classics

by Naomi Perley

Petrushka and Rite of Spring by Igor Stravin­sky. Per­formed by the Győr National Bal­let.
Il mondo della luna by Franz Joseph Haydn. Per­formed by Gotham Cham­ber Orches­tra.
This review is about three recent adap­ta­tions of clas­si­cal works: The Győr National Ballet’s take on Stravinsky’s early-twentieth-century mas­ter­pieces, Petrushka and Rite of Spring, and Gotham Cham­ber Opera’s pro­duc­tion of […]

Film Review: Toward a Nazi Prequel

by Matt Lau

The White Rib­bon directed by Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke’s lat­est film, The White Rib­bon, is eas­ily his least con­tro­ver­sial and most audience-friendly work. It has already earned many hon­ors includ­ing the Palm D’Or at Cannes, three Euro­pean Film Awards, and a Golden Globe for Best For­eign pic­ture. It is also the favorite for the For­eign Film Oscar […]

The Maven of NeoLiberalism

by Neil Smith

The Shock Doc­trine: The Rise of Dis­as­ter Cap­i­tal­ism by Naomi Klein. Pic­a­dor (2008).
Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doc­trine hit book­shelves and inter­net book­seller sites in 2007 just as the storm clouds of global eco­nomic cri­sis were about to burst. She was not in the least con­cerned with US hous­ing and the sub­prime mort­gage and fore­clo­sure cri­sis which, […]