Dear Colleague,
We learned recently that our email marketing program now allows sending three million pieces of mail each year. That's correct, three-million. Why? I don't know. But it's the miracle of digitilization.
So...we are returning to our mission of reviewing books. Please click through to the HOME PAGE of Library of Social Science Book Reviews.
Click through to see Published Review Essays.
In addition to reviewing books, we will be inviting people to author commentaries and reflections on papers and essays that have been published on Library of Social Science websites.
Our websites contain hundreds of papers and essays:
Ideologies of War, Genocide & Terror
Essays/Papers by Richard A. Koenigsberg
We are opening things up.
Reviews and commentaries will be distributed through the Library of Social Science Newsletter. Who reads the LSS Newsletter?
- 8000 of the finest scholars and students in the world.
- Editors and marketing personnel from most of the major publishers in the world.
A chronological list of some of the Newsletters we've published is here.
A list of some prominent authors whose work has been published and distributed by the Library of Social Science Newsletter is here.
We are looking forward to bringing together the greatest thinkers in the world--to create a new chapter in the history of scholarship.
Best regards,
Mary Helen (MHGS)
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| Click link on any title below to read the complete review essay. |
| Civilization and the Fantasy of Immortality: Review Essay of The King's Two Bodies. In The King’s Two Bodies (1957), Ernst Kantorowicz describes a profound transformation in the concept of political authority that occurred over the course of the Middle Ages. Kantorowicz found in Edmund Plowden’s reports (1571)—a collection of law cases written under Queen Elizabeth I—the first clear elaboration of “that mystical talk with which the English crown jurists enveloped and trimmed their definitions of kingship and royal capacities.” The discussion of the “King’s Two Bodies” in this review essay is based on Kantorowicz’s presentation and analysis of Plowden’s reports. |
| Blood Sacrifice and the Nation: Review Essay of Marvin and Ingle. Marvin and Ingle define religion as a “system of cosmological propositions” grounded in a belief in a transcendent power expressed through a “cult of a divine being” that gives rise to a set of ethical propositions. Nationalism, the authors say, is the “most powerful religion in the United States, perhaps in many other countries.” What is “really true in any community,” Marvin and Ingle claim, is “what its members can agree is worth killing for,” or what they can be compelled to “sacrifice their lives for.” Thus, what is “sacred” within a given society is easily recognized. |
| Terrorism as Blood Sacrifice: Review Essay of James Jones. Jones seeks to understand Islamic terrorism as a form of sacrificial behavior undertaken in the name of a religious ideology and community. Citing Ivan Strenski, he observes that suicide bombers are regarded as “sacred” by their communities of reference—as sacrificial victims. A Palestinian militant stated that it is when a bomber gives his life that he earns the most respect and is “elevated to the highest level of martyrdom.” |
| Nationalism as a Political Religion: Review Essay of Emilio Gentile. Emilio Gentile defines political religion as a “more or less developed system of beliefs, myths, rituals and symbols” that creates an “aura of sacredness" around an entity belonging to the world and turns it into a "cult or object of worship or devotion.” |
| Warfare, Truth and the Body: Review Essay of Elaine Scarry. Elaine Scarry observes that if designating a winner or loser was the essence of warfare, then any other “contest” could be substituted for it — since all contests can equally provide a “means for deciding a winner or a loser.” Does warfare genuinely revolve around the desire to “win?” In face of the continual succession of futile wars that has dominated the historical record, it is necessary to interrogate — and deconstruct — conventional ways of thinking about societal violence. Scarry identifies “injuring” as the essence of warfare. We regularly claim that soldiers (or civilians) are maimed and killed as societies attempt to achieve some objective. However, what if maiming and killing is the central objective of warfare? |
| War as a Ritual of Self-Destruction: Review Essay of Franco Fornari and Georges Bataille. According to Matthew White, over 65 million troops were mobilized. White reports 8.5 million killed and died, over 21 million wounded and nearly 8 million prisoners and missing—for a total of 37,508,686 casualties. What could this war have been about? What could justify such prodigious slaughter? |
| The Psychoanalytic Meaning of Culture and History: Review Essay of Norman O. Brown. Norman O. Brown set forth a vision for the psychoanalytic interpretation of culture and history—one that has not yet been actualized. Why has this project had difficulty making its way into the world? Perhaps because psychoanalysis has become identified as a form of therapy. Brown, however, is concerned with reshaping psychoanalysis into a "wider theory of human nature, culture and history” to be “appropriated by the consciousness of mankind as a new stage in the historical process of man’s coming to know himself.” |
| The Meaning of Fascism: Review Essay of Roger Griffin. Based on comprehensive research conveyed in numerous books and papers, Roger Griffin has developed a generic theory of fascism. He claims to have identified a core myth that lies at the root of various historical instances. |
| Killing in the Name of Love: Review Essay of Ruth Stein's For Love of the Father. After the September 11, 2001 suicide bombings, President Bush declared that the perpetrators “hated” Americans. Ruth Stein suggests that this was not the case. Rather, the suicide bombers were driven by love—love of God. What’s more, in performing acts of violence, they imagined they were carrying out the will of God by destroying infidels—those who refused to acknowledge the greatness of Allah. |