Brian J. Sudlow (Reading): Violence and Non-Violence: French Catholic Writers between the Mimetic Crisis and the Crucified. From Minerva, Pauline O’Flynn (MIC): The Creation of Meaning: Simone de Beauvoir’s Existentialist Ethics; and Brian Lightbody (Brock): Death and Liberation: A Critical Investigation of Death in Sartre’s Being and Nothingness. From Rolling Stone, the Runaway General: Stanley McChrystal, Obama’s top commander in Afghanistan, has seized control of the war by never taking his eye off the real enemy: The wimps in the White House. A review of Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Miles. A review of Fly Fishing with Darth Vader: And Other Adventures with Evangelical Wrestlers, Political Hitmen, and Jewish Cowboys by Matt Labash. Psychologists’ research on the power of movement is giving us insight into why we first danced and how cultures built on that ancient impulse. From Law, Social Justice & Global Development, Raza Saeed on Conceptualising Success and Failure for Social Movements. “Aryanism” is a strictly modern, anti-democratic political ideology, as are the politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. A review of The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas. From Vice, an interview with Helen Thomas. What went wrong: Why did Iran's pro-democracy movement stall? From GQ, lost in the catastrophic aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is the gripping tale of the rig workers and the Coast Guard crewmen who rescued them; Sean Flynn re-creates their long, harrowing, heart-pounding night. Why does the government still allow suspected terrorists to buy guns? The 10 least sexy World Cup players: Sexy is, truly, in the eye of the beholder. Think gas is too pricey? Think again.
And check out an interview with Henry Roth biographer Steven Kellman over at Paper Trail, Bookforum's blog on publishing, literature, and our favorite authors.
