Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine ReviewSaposnik provides scholars, lay readers and policy makers an insightful, engaging and comprehensive synthesis of early competing and complimentary ideas and actions integral to the formation of contemporary Israeli national culture. BECOMING HEBREW provides a historical view of the cultural foundations of Israel as a Jewish nation that is a must read for persons seriously interested in a political solution which will support a just and lasting peace in the Mid East.Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine Overview"If the Jews wish to become a nation of 'Jewish Culture,'" Eliezer Ben-Yehuda wrote in 1904, "they must first become truly a nation." Throughout the subsequent decade, Ben-Yehuda and other Zionist activists in Palestine attempted to transform the small, divided, economically depressed, and demographically declining Yishuv -- the pre-state Jewish community -- into the foundation of a modern nation. In this book, Arieh Bruce Saposnik tells the story of this transformation. As Saposnik shows, these activists did not attempt to rewrite Jewish culture simply by uprooting and transplanting themselves, but sought to affect a dramatic revolution in all aspects of Jewish life. They endeavored not only to revise Judaism, but to revise the very definition of culture, and the expanse with which they viewed the word was, in part, what made this group so revolutionary. The new "Hebrew" culture they sought to create encompassed everything from the way in which Yishuv Zionists dressed to the art they created and the literature they read, to the holidays they celebrated, to the language they spoke and the accent with which they spoke it. Politics, economics, and even medicine were mobilized to become dynamic parts of a new Jewish identity. Saposnik attempts to recapture their comprehensive view of culture and to show how these activists translated images and ideas into concrete cultural institutions, new art, rituals, and language. But, he also argues that this new culture, while expansive, was highly precarious and intensely contested. The Zionists struggled to maintain a complex relationship with traditional Jewish discourses, practices, and liturgy and to forge a delicate balance between the traditional and the novel, "occident" and "orient," and shifting national centers and peripheries. Through his examination of the Zionist cultural project, Saposnik sheds new light on the origins of Israel and Israeli culture, and on the fundamental building blocks from which modern nations and nationalisms are erected.

Want to learn more information about Becoming Hebrew: The Creation of a Jewish National Culture in Ottoman Palestine?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Nationalism (PKC - Polity Key Concepts series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Nationalism (PKC - Polity Key Concepts series)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Nationalism (PKC - Polity Key Concepts series). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Nationalism (PKC - Polity Key Concepts series) ReviewProfessors John Hutchinson and Anthony D. Smith, both at the London School of Economics, have put together here a great collection of texts from the major writers on nationalism over the last 100 years. Starting with Ernest Renan, Joseph Stalin and Max Weber, the book also includes extracts from Benedict Anderson, Walker Connor, Partha Chatterjee, Karl Deutsch, Ernest Gellner, Liah Greenfeld, EJ Hobsbawm, Donald Horowitz, Elie Kedourie, Hans Kohn, James Mayall, Tom Nairn, and Anthony Smith himself, in addition to many others. As in Smith's _Nationalism and Modernism_, all perspectives of the field are represented here. There are 49 essays organized into seven chapters, complete with an introduction to each plus notes, a bibliography, information about each author and an index.
This book is a definite must for anyone interested in nationalism.Nationalism (PKC - Polity Key Concepts series) OverviewFor the last two centuries, nationalism has been a central feature of society and politics. Few ideologies can match its power and resonance, and no other political movement and symbolic language has such worldwide appeal and resilience. But nationalism is also a form of public culture and political religion, which draws on much older cultural and symbolic forms.
Seeking to do justice to these different facets of nationalism, the second edition of this popular and respected overview has been revised and updated with contemporary developments and the latest scholarly work. It aims to provide a concise and accessible introduction to the core concepts and varieties of nationalist ideology; a clear analysis of the major competing paradigms and theories of nations and nationalism; a critical account of the often opposed histories and periodization of the nation and nationalism; and an assessment of the prospects of nationalism and its continued global power and persistence.
Broad and comparative in scope, the book is strongly interdisciplinary, drawing on ideas and insights from history, political science, sociology and anthropology. The focus is theoretical, but it also includes a fresh examination of some of the main historical and contemporary empirical contributions to the literature on the subject. It will continue to be an invaluable resource for students of nationalism across the social sciences.

Want to learn more information about Nationalism (PKC - Polity Key Concepts series)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics) ReviewJose Casanova, Georgetown University: "This is a pathbreaking book that shifts the attention from contentious debates over secularism as a norm and over the model of the secular state to the more fruitful task of comparing varieties of secularism and understanding the complex struggles that led to the historical formation of each particular type of secular state. It provides that secularism is not just a doctrine of separation of church and state but is most importantly a mode of state regulation in society. Kuru has opened up a field of study that should include many other varieties of secularism: Indian, Chinese, Russian, Mexican, Indonesian, and so forth."
Joel Fetzer, Pepperdine University: "Secularism and State Policies toward Religion should be a cautionary tale for opportunistic religious leaders tempted to give their public blessing to whichever authoritarian government happens to be in power at the moment. At the same time, Professor Kuru demonstrates that true democracy does not require the state to be hostile to religious expression. This book deserves to be read and debated by citizens of predominantly Christian and majority-Muslim nations alike."
Alfred Stepan, Columbia University: "One of the most important and difficult tasks for a major book in comparative politics is to document distinctive, politically significant patterns among states, and then to demonstrate the causes and consequences of these distinctive patterns. Kuru brilliantly pulls off this triple feat in his analysis of the `separatist secularisms' of Turkey, France, and the United States."
Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics) OverviewWhy do secular states pursue different policies toward religion? This book provides a generalizable argument about the impact of ideological struggles on the public policy making process, as well as a state-religion regimes index of 197 countries. More specifically, it analyzes why American state policies are largely tolerant of religion, whereas French and Turkish policies generally prohibit its public visibility, as seen in their bans on Muslim headscarves. In the United States, the dominant ideology is "passive secularism," which requires the state to play a passive role, by allowing public visibility of religion.Dominant ideology in France and Turkey is "assertive secularism," which demands that the state play an assertive role in excluding religion from the public sphere. Passive and assertive secularism became dominant in these cases through certain historical processes, particularly the presence or absence of an ancien régime based on the marriage between monarchy and hegemonic religion during state-building periods.

Want to learn more information about Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey (Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from the Old Regime to 1848 Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from the Old Regime to 1848? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from the Old Regime to 1848. Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from the Old Regime to 1848 ReviewWilliam H. Sewell argues that the analysis of early nineteenth century French labor idiom reveals its roots were firmly established in Ancien Regime artisan   corporations. Revealing what the author calls a "little- noticed paradox," Sewell discovered "the discourse of revolutionary workers of 1848 was laced with seemingly archaic terminology dating from the guild and corporate system of the old regime ... founded on a very old sense of craft community." Although intended to incorporate the elements of social history and langage, Sewell adds that a thorough understanding of the overall political perspective is essential to this well-rounded study. His argument is convincing and his methods, at the time of publication, must have shed new light on the historical profession. Sewell is up front about the limitations of his study and the methods he incorporates, however. Admitting he prefers to avoid existing historiographical debates, the author stresses he is "attempting to sketch out a new map that will indicate relations between already explored regions and suggest useful approaches to those not yet explored." Pointing out that historical evidence of labor, particularly in France, is primarily confined to the local or regional level; Sewell stresses the need to incorporate an overall political ideology into the mix. Paradoxically, however, Sewell warns that political ideology emanating from Paris   may not necessarily reflect the thoughts of workers in rural regions of France. In addition, the authorl borrows methods from cultural anthropology to illustrate how such practices as religious festivals shaped peoples ideas and experiences, yet warns that not all sociological practices, such as ethnography, for instance, benefit the historian. For any historian attempting to reveal a "collective conscience" of the French labor before, during, and after the French Revolution, the task is nothing less than daunting. Regardless, his emphasis on historical methods gives strength too the notion of exploring new areas by fusing various fields of the Humanities. Sewell has synthesized his information well. His chronological approach, detailing the origins of corporate practices; particularly the Journeyman's Compagnonnage makes for interesting reading, however, his argument sometimes gets buried in the narrative. By the time the reader reaches the crux of the author's main focus-language (page 179)-one could perhaps become confused and forget the "map" the author so eloquently laid out in his opening chapters. In spite of the main argument sometimes becoming lost in the shuffle, the author's conclusions reveal a well-researched thesis and a significant postmodern contribution to the history of labor.Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from the Old Regime to 1848 OverviewWork and Revolution in France is particularly appropriate for students of French history interested in the crucial revolutions that took place in 1789, 1830, and 1848. Sewell has reconstructed the artisans' world from the corporate communities of the old regime, through the revolutions in 1789 and 1830, to the socialist experiments of 1848. Research has revealed that the most important class struggles took place in craft workshops, not in 'dark satanic mills'. In the 1830s and 1840s, workers combined the collectivism of the corporate guild tradition with the egalitarianism of the revolutionary tradition, producing a distinct artisan form of socialism and class consciousness that climaxed in the Parisian Revolution of 1848. The book follows artisans into their everyday experience of work, fellowship, and struggles and places their history in the context of wider political, economic, and social developments. Sewell analyzes the 'language of labor' in the broadest sense, dealing not only with what the workers and others wrote and said about labour but with the whole range of institutional conventions, economic practices, social struggles, ritual gestures, customs, and actions that gave the workers' world a comprehensive shape.

Want to learn more information about Work and Revolution in France: The Language of Labor from the Old Regime to 1848?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...

The Cultural Politics of English As an International Language (Language in Social Life Series) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy The Cultural Politics of English As an International Language (Language in Social Life Series)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on The Cultural Politics of English As an International Language (Language in Social Life Series). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

The Cultural Politics of English As an International Language (Language in Social Life Series) ReviewSimilar to Phillipson's linguistic imperialism this book critically deals with the world-wide spread of English. Altough Pennycook overplays the dangers of English a bit he is far less idelogical than Phillipson. Contrary to Phillipson he also offer an interestign solution which is that teachers of English have to deal critically with this phenomenon. He refers to this as critical pedagogy. This book is highly recommended for any discussion about international English!The Cultural Politics of English As an International Language (Language in Social Life Series) OverviewCovers a wide range of areas including international politics, colonial history, critical pedagogy, post colonial literature and applied linguistics to find ways to understand the cultural and political implications of the global spread of English. Explains how English has come to be seen as an international language by examining colonial origins, connections to linguistics and applied linguistics and relationships to the global spread of teaching practices, offers a new, critical approach, developing an alternative understanding through the concept of the 'worldliness, of English, includes separate chapters on English in Malaysia and Singapore. Readership: 3rd / 4th year undergraduate and postgraduate students of education, English and applied linguistics, for courses on teaching second languages, critical pedagogy, comparative education and world Englishes. Also for students of post-colonial literature and international relations.

Want to learn more information about The Cultural Politics of English As an International Language (Language in Social Life Series)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now

Read More...