Book picks similar to
Making Alternative Histories: The Practice of Archaeology and History in Non-Western Settings by Peter R. Schmidt
archaeology
class-readings
colonialism
economy
Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital
Vivek Chibber - 2013
It is also a school of thought popular because of its rejection of the supposedly universalizing categories of the Enlightenment. In this devastating critique, mounted on behalf of the radical Enlightenment tradition, Vivek Chibber offers the most comprehensive response yet to postcolonial theory. Focusing on the hugely popular Subaltern Studies project, Chibber shows that its foundational arguments are based on a series of analytical and historical misapprehensions. He demonstrates that it is possible to affirm a universalizing theory without succumbing to Eurocentrism or reductionism.Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital promises to be a historical milestone in contemporary social theory.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies
Jared Diamond - 1997
one of the most important and readable works on the human past published in recent years."Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a national bestseller: the global account of the rise of civilization that is also a stunning refutation of ideas of human development based on race.In this "artful, informative, and delightful" (William H. McNeill, New York Review of Books) book, Jared Diamond convincingly argues that geographical and environmental factors shaped the modern world. Societies that had a head start in food production advanced beyond the hunter-gatherer stage, and then developed writing, technology, government, and organized religion—as well as nasty germs and potent weapons of war—and adventured on sea and land to conquer and decimate preliterate cultures. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world came to be and stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history.Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the Phi Beta Kappa Award in Science, the Rhone-Poulenc Prize, and the Commonwealth Club of California's Gold Medal
Anthropology as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences
George E. Marcus - 1986
Marcus and Michael M. J. Fischer look closely at cultural anthropology's past accomplishments, its current predicaments, its future direction, and the insights it has to offer other fields of study. The result is a provocative work that is important for scholars interested in a critical approach to social science, art, literature, and history, as well as anthropology. This second edition considers new challenges to the field which have arisen since the book's original publication.
Karl Marx: His Life and Environment
Isaiah Berlin - 1939
It provides a penetrating, lucid, and comprehensive introduction to Marx as theorist of the socialist revolution, illuminating his personality and ideas, and concentrating on those which have historically formed the central core of Marxism as a theory and practice. Berlin goes on to present an account of Marx's life as one of the most influential and incendiary social philosophers of the twentieth century and depicts the social and political atmosphere in which Marx wrote. This edition includes a new introduction by Alan Ryan which traces the place of Berlin's Marx from its pre-World War II publication to the present, and elucidates why Berlin's portrait, in the midst of voluminous writings about Marx, remains the classic account of the personal and political side of this monumental figure.
Marxism and the National and Colonial Question
Joseph Stalin - 1912
Before the 1917 revolution, Stalin was the Communist Party's expert on the "nationalities problem"; after the revolution he became Commissar for the Nationalities in the early years of the Soviet Union. The nationalities problem was a debate over which national groups of the old Russian Empire were to remain a part of the new Soviet Union and which should form independent nations. The material in this book covers Finland, Georgia, Poland, and Ukraine; the national question in Yugoslavia; and many related topics.
The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World
Vijay Prashad - 2007
The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the twentieth century attempt to knit together the world’s impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and Soviet spheres of influence in the decades following World War II.Spanning every continent of the global South, Vijay Prashad’s fascinating narrative takes us from the birth of postcolonial nations after World War II to the downfall and corruption of nationalist regimes. A breakthrough book of cutting-edge scholarship, it includes vivid portraits of Third World giants like India’s Nehru, Egypt’s Nasser, and Indonesia’s Sukarno—as well as scores of extraordinary but now–forgotten intellectuals, artists, and freedom fighters. The Darker Nations restores to memory the vibrant though flawed idea of the Third World, whose demise, Prashad ultimately argues, has produced a much impoverished international political arena.
Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts
James C. Scott - 1990
Peasants, serfs, untouchables, slaves, laborers, and prisoners are not free to speak their minds in the presence of power. These subordinate groups instead create a secret discourse that represents a critique of power spoken behind the backs of the dominant. At the same time, the powerful also develop a private dialogue about practices and goals of their rule that cannot be openly avowed. In this book, renowned social scientist James C. Scott offers a penetrating discussion both of the public roles played by the powerful and powerless and the mocking, vengeful tone they display off stage—what he terms their public and hidden transcripts. Using examples from the literature, history, and politics of cultures around the world, Scott examines the many guises this interaction has taken throughout history and the tensions and contradictions it reflects.
When the Gods Changed: The Death of Liberal Canada
Peter C. Newman - 2011
Newman, Canada's most "cussed and discussed" political journalist, on the death spiral of the Liberal Party.The May 2, 2011 federal election turned Canadian governance upside down and inside out. In his newest and possibly most controversial book, bestselling author Peter C. Newman argues that the Harper majority will alter Canada so much that we may have to change the country's name. But the most lasting impact of the Tory win will be the demise of the Liberal Party, which ruled Canada for seven of the last ten decades and literally made the country what it is. Newman chronicles, in bloody detail, the de-construction of the Grits' once unassailable fortress and anatomizes the ways in which the arrogance embedded in the Liberal genetic code slowly poisoned the party's progressive impulses.When the Gods Changed is the saga of a political self-immolation unequalled in Canadian history. It took Michael Ignatieff to light the match.
Unexplained Mysteries: Ancient Aliens Or Lost Technology?: The Missing Tech Behind The World's Greatest Structures (UFOs, ETs, and Ancient Engineers Book 1)
Robert Jean Redfern - 2015
Not just because these structures are beautiful and shrouded in mystery, but because they were constructed on a scale we can't comprehend, thousands of years ago. The Missing Tech Behind The World’s Greatest Structures Modern science claims everything boils down to physical labor and primitive tools, yet can't replicate an effective recreation strategy. Let's explore: - The Great Pyramids Of Giza - Stonehenge - Derinkuyu Underground City - Pumapunku and some more added information about: - Gobekli Tepe - Nan Madol - Hypogeum of Hal-Saflieni - Coral Castle - Russian Megalithic Stones Ancient engineers? Forgotten technology? Let us know what you think! Take action and grab your copy now!
How Barack Obama Won: A State-by-State Guide to the Historic 2008 Presidential Election
Chuck Todd - 2009
Although much has changed in the nearly four years since, How Barack Obama Won remains the essential guide to Obama’s electoral strengths and offers important perspective on his 2012 bid. The votes in each state for Obama and McCain are broken down by percentage according to gender, age, race, party, religious affiliation, education, household income, size of city, and according to views about the most important issues (the economy, terrorism, Iraq, energy, healthcare), the future of the economy (worried, not worried) and the war in Iraq (approve, disapprove).
Unspeakable Truths: Facing the Challenge of Truth Commissions
Priscilla B. Hayner - 2002
Hayner examines twenty major truth commissions established around the world paying special attention to South Africa, El Salvador, Argentina, Chile, and Guatemala.
Disunited Kingdom: How Westminster Won a Referendum but Lost Scotland
Iain Macwhirter - 2014
On the 18th September Scotland voted to stay in the Union. In this provocative new book, Iain Macwhirter argues that the UK will never be the same again. Disunited Kingdom explores Scotland's political and cultural landscape in the immediate build up to, and aftermath of, the referendum. Combining expert and personal insight, Macwhirter examines the future of Scotland, the UK, and the enduring passion for independence.Praise for Iain Macwhirter: "A truly important book, particularly at this moment." ~ Andrew Marr. "A terrific book [...] full of shrewd insights. I'd recommend it highly." ~ The Guardian
The Soul at Work: From Alienation to Autonomy
Franco "Bifo" Berardi - 2009
Privacy and its possibilities are abolished. Attention is under siege everywhere. Not silence but uninterrupted noise, not the red desert, but a cognitive space overcharged with nervous incentives to act: this is the alienation of our times....—from The Soul at WorkCapital has managed to overcome the dualism of body and soul by establishing a workforce in which everything we mean by the Soul—language, creativity, affects—is mobilized for its own benefit. Industrial production put to work bodies, muscles, and arms. Now, in the sphere of digital technology and cyberculture, exploitation involves the mind, language, and emotions in order to generate value—while our bodies disappear in front of our computer screens.In this, his newest book, Franco "Bifo" Berardi—key member of the Italian Autonomist movement and a close associate of Félix Guattari—addresses these new forms of estrangement. In the philosophical landscape of the 1960s and 1970s, the Hegelian concept of alienation was used to define the harnessing of subjectivity. The estrangement of workers from their labor, the feeling of alienation they experienced, and their refusal to submit to it became the bases for a human community that remained autonomous from capital. But today a new condition of alienation has taken root in which workers commonly and voluntarily work overtime, the population is tethered to cell phones and Blackberries, debt has become a postmodern form of slavery, and antidepressants are commonly used to meet the unending pressure of production. As a result, the conditions for community have run aground and new philosophical categories are needed. The Soul at Work is a clarion call for a new collective effort to reclaim happiness.The Soul at Work is Bifo's long overdue introduction to English-speaking readers. This Semiotext(e) edition is also the book's first appearance in any language.Foreign Agents seriesDistributed for Semiotext(e)
Consciencism: Philosophy and Ideology for De-Colonization and Development with Particular Reference to the African Development
Kwame Nkrumah - 1964
In this book he sets out his personal philosophy, which he terms "consciencism," and which has provided the intellectual framework for his political action.Why "consciencism"? The answer is that in this concept Dr. Nkrumah draws together strands from the three main traditions that make up the African conscience: the Euro-Christian, the Islamic, and the Original African. He characterizes traditional African society as essentially egalitarian and argues that a new African philosophy must draw its nourishment chiefly from African roots. But he reviews Western philosophy in some detail to illustrate the thesis that philosophy, however academic, is always trying, explicitly or implicitly, to say something about society. In this relevance of philosophy to society, and to social and political action in particular, that chiefly interest him.Dr. Nkrumah shows how his philosophical beliefs are related to special problems of "the African Revolution," and states his case for socialism as the most valid expression of the African conscience at the present time.
The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L'Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution
C.L.R. James - 1938
It is the story of the French colony of San Domingo, a place where the brutality of master toward slave was commonplace and ingeniously refined. And it is the story of a barely literate slave named Toussaint L'Ouverture, who led the black people of San Domingo in a successful struggle against successive invasions by overwhelming French, Spanish, and English forces and in the process helped form the first independent nation in the Caribbean.