by Victor Davis Hanson
PJ Media
We all know the usual reasons why we are prodded to read the classics — moving characters, seminal ideas, blueprints of our culture, and paradigms of sterling prose and poetry. Then we nod and snooze. Continue reading “Why Read Old Books?”
by Bruce S. Thornton
Defining Ideas
“To read the Latin & Greek authors in their original,” Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “is a sublime luxury.” Fortunately, for those who don’t read Greek and Latin, the great works of Classical literature are available in first-rate translations. The following five classics are some of the best works from the astonishing variety and brilliance of Greek and Roman literature. Continue reading “A Summer With Virgil”
by Craig Bernthal
Private Papers
At the beginning of the 20th century, T. E. Hulme, in his great essay “Romanticism v. Classicism” defined Romanticism as “spilt religion.” Continue reading “Weaponized Romanticism”
by Victor Davis Hanson
PJ Media
Is Reading Good Books Over?
There is great “truth and beauty” in Homer’s Iliad [1], but I would not try to make his sale on such platitudes. Continue reading “So Why Read Anymore?”
Editorial
Publishers Weekly
Leading classicist Hanson (The Father of Us All) focuses on the Theban defeat of the renowned Spartan army in 371 B.C.E. Continue reading “A Tale and Taste of Ancient Greece: The End of Sparts Reviewed”
by Victor Davis Hanson
NRO’s The Corner
I’m about halfway through the new Cheney memoir, In My Time, and it does not at all resemble the media’s description of it — a highly controversial book preoccupied with scoring points against rivals — which suggests that many of those who have written about it have not read it. Continue reading “The Cheney Memoir: Hype and Reality”
by Terry Scambray
The Chesterton Review
Darwin’s God: Evolution and the Problem of Evil (Brazos Press, 2001, 189 pp.)
Darwin’s Proof: The Triumph of Religion over Science (Brazos Press, 2003, 168 pp.)
Science’s Blind Spot: The Unseen Religion of Scientific Naturalism (Brazos Press, 2007, 170 pp.) Continue reading “God Is Not Dead”
by Victor Davis Hanson
City Journal
A review of Known and Unknown: A Memoir by Donald Rumsfeld (Sentinel, 832 pp.) Continue reading “Rumsfeld’s Rebuttal”
by Raymond Ibrahim
Middle East Quarterly
A review of Inside Egypt: The Land of the Pharaohs on the Brink of a Revolution by John R. Bradley (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
To the general reader, Inside Egypt is a good introduction to some of the problems rife in the most populous, Arabic-speaking country. From regime corruption and oppression, to widespread poverty and discontent, to human rights abuses and the plight of Egypt’s minorities, most of the important issues are here. Bradley, formerly a Middle-East-based foreign correspondent, also provides useful insights, such as how the current regime exploits the West’s fear of the Muslim Brotherhood to its advantage.
Unfortunately, there is a myopic tendency to view nearly every problem in Egypt as a byproduct of Husni Mubarak, Egypt’s president since 1981, and in Bradley’s view, the “most corrupt offender of them all.” Even things one might have supposed were products of time or chance—from the condition of Egypt’s Bedouin, who have led the same desperate lifestyle for centuries, to the radicalization of Muslims, a worldwide phenomenon—are somehow traced back to Mubarak.
While the Mubarak regime is responsible for many of Egypt’s woes, blaming all of the nation’s problems on it is misleading. By minimizing the Islamization of society and the influence of the Brotherhood, which the author claims “has made only limited inroads into the mainstream” since Egypt’s Muslims are “intolerant of extremist Sunni doctrine,” Bradley moves from fact-based evidence to conjecture and, perhaps, wishful thinking.
Indeed, this is the book’s chief problem. Bradley is convinced that, given a chance, through the elimination of Mubarak, Egyptians would create a liberal, egalitarian, and gender-neutral society. This tendency to project things that are important to the author (though often not to Egyptians) is highlighted by his fixation on homosexuality in Egypt. The topic permeates the entire book, including a rather out-of-place section recounting the in-and-outs of Western gay tourism in Luxor.
In short, while the book is a good primer for novices to Egypt’s culture and politics, the author’s own proclivities mar his objectivity. And while he is convinced that Egypt is a byproduct of Mubarak, one is left wondering instead whether Mubarak is a byproduct of Egypt.
©2011 Raymond Ibrahim