The Depression’s Unheeded Lessons – NYTimes.com.
Month: January 2015
15 intimate snapshots of the Romanov family, shortly before their execution
This pictures are great! They humanize the czar and his family. Too bad that the addition of color was so poorly done!
15 intimate snapshots of the Romanov family, shortly before their execution.
History News Network | Sharpening Contradictions: Why al-Qaeda attacked Satirists in Paris
Juan Cole has an interesting take on the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack: “This horrific murder was not a pious protest against the defamation of a religious icon. It was an attempt to provoke European society into pogroms against French Muslims, at which point al-Qaeda recruitment would suddenly exhibit some successes instead of faltering in the face of lively Beur youth culture (French Arabs playfully call themselves by this anagram).” It is certainly a possibility, but I’m not convinced at this point. It has happened before (as Cole points out) so it is not out of the question. However, this would assume that these men were carrying out an Al-Qaeda strategy rather than being lone wolves. At this point we don’t know enough. Either way, Cole is correct that this event will polarize the French population unless they have the fortitude to follow Cole’s advice: “The only effective response to this manipulative strategy (as Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani tried to tell the Iraqi Shiites a decade ago) is to resist the impulse to blame an entire group for the actions of a few and to refuse to carry out identity-politics reprisals.” Read his entire essay at:
History News Network | Sharpening Contradictions: Why al-Qaeda attacked Satirists in Paris.
How He and His Cronies Stole Russia by Anne Applebaum | The New York Review of Books
After reviewing Karen Dawisha’s Putin’s Kleptocracy, Anne Applebaum concludes: “Since 2000, Russia has been ruled by a revanchist, revisionist elite with origins in the old KGB. This elite had been working its way back to power since the late 1980s, using theft on a grand scale, taking advantage of the secrecy provided by Western offshore havens, and cooperating with organized crime. Once in power, the new elite sought to maintain control using the same methods that the KGB always used to maintain control: through the manipulation of public emotion, and by undermining the institutions of the West, and the ideals of the West, in any way that it can. Based on its record so far, it has every reason to expect continued success.” Read her full review at:
How He and His Cronies Stole Russia by Anne Applebaum | The New York Review of Books.
Depiction of Lyndon B. Johnson in ‘Selma’ Raises Hackles – NYTimes.com
Pro-Israeli Groups Continue their Assault on Academic Freedom
Chip Gibbons reports that “some pro-Israel groups have now set their sights on a familiar target—Middle Eastern studies departments. A coalition of groups led by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and the AMCHA Initiative are leading a campaign to end federal funding for college Middle Eastern studies programs unless they adopt means to oversee and police the alleged ideological content of those programs.” If these groups get their way it would set a precedent for imposing ideological agendas by force in higher education. Knowledge does not advance through censorship, but through unfettered debate. If these groups disagree with certain claims about Israel they should engage in scholarly debate. Their agenda also threatens to undermine any hope for peace in the region. If we are to tackle the problem we need to face the situation honestly and JUSTLY. A one-sided perspective in which one group is completely innocent (Israelis) and the other is completely guilty (Palestinians) is not only not true, it will perpetuate the status quo of revenge/counter-revenge in the region.
Congress Under Pressure to Defund University Middle East Programs | Defending Dissent Foundation.
Update on the Japanese ‘Comfort Women’
More attempts by the Japanese government to deny the use of comfort women by the Japanese army during WWII. Nogawa Motokazu gives an update on the situation in Japan and concludes: “These moves of the government and the ruling party not only prevent any improvement of Japan-Korea relations but also inflict a second victimisation on the victims of Japanese military’s wartime sexual slavery, who are still living in many parts of the world. We should never forget this.” Read his entire article at:
History News Network | New Attack on the ‘Comfort Women’.
Credit: Robert G. Fresson from the New York Times article: “The Comfort Women and Japan’s War on Truth” (November 14, 2014)
History Chick in AZ 