Thoughts on Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang's "Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance between Astrophysics and the Military"

 

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Avis Lang have written a very depressing book on how warfare and states' pursuit of dominance have become increasingly intertwined with scientific pursuits. Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance between Astrophysics and the Military covers developments from early modern Europe to our time. While the book is informative and well-organized, it fails to answer or even address the biggest question facing the scientific enterprise for which Dr. Tyson has become its most public advocate: why is humanity not acting on the knowledge the scientific enterprise has produced in order to create a sustainable, just human society?

Review: The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco by Marilyn Chase

Marilyn Chase's The Barbary Plague: The Black Death in Victorian San Francisco is an easy-to-read, non-technical history of public health authorities' efforts to contain an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco in the first decade of the 20th century C.E. Reading it during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, brings to mind the adage that "History doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme," as Ms. Chase noted regarding a May 19, 2020 column she wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle.

The most obvious parallel is the reluctance of business elite and their political lackeys to take public health concerns seriously for fear of a reduction in profits. For years, San Francisco oligarchs used their influence with city and state officials and media to obstruct the work of public health officials. Only the threat of losing authorization to host a large United States naval fleet persuaded these authorities to address the threat of bubonic plague with the seriousness and resources public health officials had long sought.

Free eBooks from U of California Press through the Luminos Project

Luminos is a University of California Press project to publish scholarly monographs and provide Open Access to their electronic versions.

Review: Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying - The Secret WWII Transcripts of German POWs by Sönke Neitzel and Harald Welzer

Sönke Neitzel & Harald Welzer. Jefferson Chase, translator. Soldaten: On Fighting, Killing, and Dying - The Secret WWII Transcripts of German POWs. Alfred A Knopf, New York, 2012.

Jennifer Teege, author of My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me, spoke in my town. I asked her about English language books which might help me understand the mentality of Germans during fascism, and she recommend this book.

Sönke Neitzel, a historian, and Harald Welzer, a social psychologist, analyzed declassified transcripts of surreptitiously recorded conversations of German prisoners of war in British & American prisons during World War II. These transcripts confirm both the shocking level of violence fascists unleashed and the suitability of the psychological and institutional structures of a modern capitalist, industrial society to support this violence. Reading it in the United States of America in 2019 increases the urgency of radical resistance to oligarch-inspired labor docility, militarism and global genocide through ecological destruction.

Re-Opening of Penn Museum's Middle East Galleries

The November/December 2018 issue of Islamic Horizons has an article by Kenneth Wahrenberger describing some of the contents of the newly reopened Penn Museum's Middle East Galleries. (click to enlarge)

The Penn Museum is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Plan your visit!

Reading List on Modern and Colonial Science in the Middle East by Nir Shafir

Nir Shafir has compiled, with the help of the Internet hive mind, a reading list on Modern and Colonial Science in the Middle East.

You can hear Professor Nir on episode 124 of the Ottoman History Podcast.

Decolonising Science Reading List by Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

I maintain a “Decolonising Science Reading List” that is stuff that I have read &recommend. https://t.co/BQLWX2wLHE #racenstem #blackandstem

— Dr. Chanda 🇧🇧 (@IBJIYONGI) September 8, 2016

Documentary: African-American Pioneer Muslimahs in Washington, DC by Zarinah Shakir

This documentary film uses oral history to examine the lives of African-American Muslim women in Washington, DC primarily during the 1940s and 50s.



Zarinah Shakir is the producer.

I'm still looking for Part 1.

Review: Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion by Susan Jacoby

Strange Gods: A Secular History of Conversion by Susan Jacoby

If you, like me, grew up receiving religious education, you likely encountered conversion stories. For Muslims, an important topic of our weekend school education in the United States is the siirah (biography, "gospel") of the Messenger Muhammad ﷺ. It is replete with stories of how courageous and noble individuals, beginning with his wife Khadija and cousin `Ali, recognized him as God's Messenger. Implicitly and explicitly, those who rejected him were cruel and venal.

Susan Jacoby examines how European Christians told stories about conversion, which, under the scrutiny of modern historical method, turn out to have concealed varying degrees of coercion, and how the post-fascist Catholic Church has attempted to shift blame away from itself for the most grievous period of coercion, the enslavement and murder of six million Jews by Nazi Germany.

Zurayk’s “War Diary: Lebanon 2006”: Get your free download!

ICYMI, u can get a *free* download of Rami Zurayk's poignant "War Diary: Lebanon 2006" here: https://t.co/GiKBglGYrt pic.twitter.com/wEJCAw0AEH

— Just World Books (@Justworldbooks) August 7, 2016

Film: Continuous Journey by Ali Kazimi

I first heard about Continuous Journey by Ali Kazimi on Democracy Now!.

The movie is a wonderful introduction to immigration and white supremacy in the settler-colonialist societies of the Americas. You can stream it from Vimeo.

Of particular interest for us today is the amicable relations between Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus in Vancouver. The majority of Indians in Vancouver and on the Komagata Maru were Sikhs, but there were Muslims and Hindus as well. The solidarity was heartening.

Review: Muslim Women Writers of the Subcontinent (1870-1950) by Munazza Yaqoob & Sofia Hussain

Review: The neglected history https://t.co/83HUQNFt2D pic.twitter.com/Onz3VUV7aF

— The Express Tribune (@etribune) July 9, 2016

Use worldcat.org to find the book in a library near you.

I have not read the book.

Mohammad Fadel "The Challenge of ISIS to Sunni Islam"

University of Toronto Law Professor Mohammad Fadel gave the Third Annual Sharjah Chair in Global Islam Lecture on September 29, 2015. You can follow him on Twitter and read some of his papers.



Parts of his talk focusing on the dismal political conditions in predominantly-Arab countries leading to the heresies of ISIS reminded me of Umberto Eco's novel In the Name of the Rose.

Support Dawud Walid's Book "Centering Black Narrative in Early Islamic History"

If @DawudWalid doesn't get to his goal, he won't get any of the funds 4 his awesome book project! Help! https://t.co/7LtXfHAGQv #islam

— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) July 11, 2015

Review: In God's Path: Arab Conquests and The Creation of an Islamic Empire by Robert Hoyland

Stuart Kelly reviewed In God’s Path: Arab Conquests and The Creation of an Islamic Empire by Robert Hoyland in The Scotsman of January 7, 2015.

This kind of book always eschews its embedded nature in contemporary discourse: it’s the facts, man, not a comment on the contemporary cradled in archaism. That is true, but it would be beneficial to everyone if both Muslims and non-Muslims read it, realised their shared history, understood their differences, and appreciated that the stories can always be retold, reinterpreted, revised and reimagined. A Norman knight and a Korean monk can give us insights into Islam; Islamic writing, thinking and behaving can hold up a mirror to the West as well. Read more

I have not read the book.

The Africans: A Triple Heritage by Ali A Mazrui

Professor Ali Al-Amin Mazrui died today.

Prof. Ali Mazrui has died http://t.co/zRzkwxcCN1 - a great scholar and wonderful human being. He will be missed!
— Sheila Musaji (@SheilaMusaji) October 13, 2014

Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt: Ibn al-Nafis, Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection by Nahyan Fancy

Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt: Ibn Al-Nafis, Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection by Nahyan Fancy.

"This book should be read by any historian of pre-modern science and medicine, not only by Islamicists," writes Leigh Chipman ... read more

Interview with Mark Cohen, Contributor to A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations

Joseph Richard Preville conducted an interview with Professor Mark R. Cohen, and it was published in IslamiCommentary.org on January 28, 2014.

Jews and Muslims have been intertwined for fourteen centuries. Their long relationship is the subject of A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations: From the Origins to the Present Day (Princeton University Press, 2013). read more

Professor Cohen is one of the contributors to the book. I have not read the book.

Review: Gaza Writes Back

The Story of #Gaza by @davidcnswanson http://t.co/O7W79Ce2mW #Palestine #Books #Israel #MENA
— MyFDL (@MyFDL) January 2, 2014

David Swanson reviewed Gaza Writes Back at firedoglake.com. You can purchase Gaza Writes Back from Just World Books. I have not read the book.


Gaza Writes Back

Open Access Academic Books from University of California Press

h/t Mark Lynch, who retweeted

This is pretty great: UC Press makes 194 e-books from its history catalog (and 700+ books total) open access http://t.co/zzw4LYZisG
— Ian Mosby (@Ian_Mosby) December 30, 2013

Here are some books which may interest readers of this blog: