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A thorough breach of the norms

Karen J. Greenberg: Subtle Tools. The Dismantling of American Democracy from the War on Terror to Donald Trump

USA: Donald Trump broke down established norms and led democracy astray, but he would never have reached this far, if the groundwork had not been laid by others – this new tradition of imprecise wording, secrecy and dodgy methods.
Hans Henrik Fafner -

Societies that prioritize care

Talia Schaffer: Communities of Care: The Social Ethics of Victorian Fiction

CARE: If you think reading 1800th-century British novels does not have much to contribute to the current political situation, you are wrong. Talia Schaffer shows how our thinking about care, help and health work already existed in the middle of the Victorian era.
Kjetil Korslund -

"The New Jew"

Shaul Magid: More Kahane. The Public Life and Political Thought of an American Jewish Radical

MESSIANIAN THOUGHT OF VIOLENCE: From Jewish Identity in New York to Messianic Racism in the West Bank: The controversial rabbi Meir Kahane, whose thoughts live on with certain radical settlers in the West Bank, is the subject of a new and thorough biography.
Hans Henrik Fafner -

The Soviet architecture

Lukasz Stanek: Architecture in Global Socialism. Eastern Europe, West Africa, and the Middle East in the Cold War

DIPLOMACY: The Soviet Union and the Eastern European satellite states gained influence in the world through a so-called gift diplomacy that spawned streaks of architectural beauties. By Hans Henrik Fafner
Hans Henrik Fafner -

Rethinking democracy

David Stasavage, John G. Matsusaka: The Decline and Rise of Democracy. A Global History from Antiquity to Today, Let the People Rule. How Direct Democracy Can Meet the Populist Challenge

Democracy: The Greeks do not have the patent on the idea of ​​«democracy». And are referendums a necessity to get democracy back on track?
Hans Henrik Fafner -

Just a feminist?

Sylvana Tomaselli: Wollstonecraft. Philosophy Passion and Politics

FREEDOM: Mary Wollstonecraft wanted a whole new society. Her demands for women's rights were only a consistent part of this. She put her trust in the French Revolution, and went on a red-hot attack on Edmund Burke, a former comrade-in-arms.
Kjetil Korslund -

Africa and «the brutish museums»

Amin Maalouf, Block Museum of Art, Dan Hicks, Alice Procter: Leo Afrikaneren, Caravans of Gold – Fragments in Time – Art Culture and Exchanges Across Medieval Saharan Africa, The Brutish Museums, The Whole Picture

Cultural history: It is necessary to relinquish ownership of the colonial loot. The treasures of European museums have been stolen. And what about the Cultural History Museum in Oslo – which is also on the list of museums that have Benin's stolen bronze sculptures?
Dag Herbjørnsrud -

At the top of Hitler's wish list

Despina Stratigakos: Hitler's Northern Utopia: Building the New Order in Occupied Norway

BUILT NORWAY: Nazi Germany's plans for Norway were extensive. We were to become part of the Great Germanic Empire. In the years 1940–1945, large parts of Norway were a construction site.
Kjetil Korslund -

Revolution in a social and political vacuum

Walter Crossbow: Martyrs & Tricksters. An Ethnography of the Egyptian Revolution

EGYPT 10 YEARS AFTER: Walter Armbrust has written about the time after the first eighteen days of the revolution: If one considers the revolution on Tahrir Square in Cairo as a rite of passage, there are several good reasons why it went wrong.
Hans Henrik Fafner -

Religious notions

Laurence Louër Translated by Ethan Rundell: Sunnis and Shi'a: A Political History

SUNNI AND SJIA: The religious contradictions between the two main directions in Islam are not so great. But in conflicts between countries and groups, they are used for all they are worth.
Kjetil Korslund -

What is freedom without governance?

Cass R. Sunstein: On Freedom

PATERNALISM: Sunstein advocates active social manipulation to help us make wiser choices. In the book On Freedom, he questions whether free choice actually promotes human welfare.
Henning Næs -

Spear tactics and the camouflage of rights

Clifford Bob: Rights as Weapons. Instruments of Conflicts, Tools of Power

: ABUSE OF POWER: Human rights and law in general are a positive value that can, however, end in cynical manipulation. New book perspectives the concept.
Hans Henrik Fafner -

Steinhardt grasped the geology

Marcia Bjornerud: Timeliness. How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World

GEOLOGY: Everyone can and should learn more from geology, says Marcia Bjornerud. Her well-meaning attempt to bring the subject's insights to life, on the other hand, falls on deaf ears.
Kjetil Korslund -

The misunderstood revolution

Amin Saikal: Iran Rising. The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic

IRAN: Solidly argued status of the Iranian state 40 years after the fall of the shah.
Hans Henrik Fafner -

Forced accuracy

Alberto Alesina, Carlo Favero, Francesco Giavazzi: .Austerity When It Works and When It Doesn't

: In the midst of this era of austerity, three economists believe they have found the explanations for when austerity policies work. However, they deftly bypass the question of who it works for.
Nina Trige Andersen -

Future without utopia?

Martin Rees: On the Future – Prospects for Humanity

: Rees strives as much as the rest of us to separate science from science fiction. He declares himself a technological optimist and a political pessimist, but the role of technology becomes difficult to understand without a credible vision of a better world.
Anders Dunk -
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Full 100-page MODERN TIMES including the appendix Orientering and Modern Times Review comes out quarterly in early March, June, September and December) with international book reviews (non-fiction) and comments / essays. According to the physical newspaper (and PDF), the articles are published regularly online (see the newsletters).

© MODERN TIMES & Orientering AS. PO Box 3113 Elisenberg, 0207 Oslo. Chief editor: Truls Lie

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