...the official 'shout out a book' thread...

[vexed less]

yo i know yall got some books to name drop....

...simply give the name...author, a brief summary or quick overview...and what u rate it outa 10.

peace.

[KRUMB]

Nice thread Vexed , I read alot in the winter , last book I finished was about a week ago , "Underboss" by Peter Maas , it's the story of Sammy The Bull Gravano's life in the mafia , haha basically 480 pages of snitching , but if you can get past that it's actually a pretty good story.

[AL-JABR]

TITLE: RICH DAD POOR DAD
AUTHOR: ROBERT KIYOSAKI
OVERVIEW: LEARN ABOUT STARTING YOUR OWN BUSINESS AND HOW TO GET RICH INVESTING AND SHIT LIKE THAT. WON.

[T-rade]

Pillars of the Earth

Ken Follet I think wrote it

It's about a guy who's works building houses but always wanted to make one of those huge churces ( can't remember their names) and a priest who wants to make a change and a count's datter who loses everything when her fathers count area are taken by a stronger family and how these three fight to get it build against the count (his sherif) and the bishop for that part.

I stopped reading for a couple of months after that because nothing could match it!

If you want a rating saying x out of 10 this book gets 20 out of 10

[vexed less]

goodlooks yall...

nice idea T.... ive edited this thread to ask for a rating outa 10...

peace.

[vexed less]

'The Intention Experiment'
by Lynne McTaggart

It basically challenges the average persons view of what this reality is, and how your thoughts can alter your reality. Heaps of info n experiments back McTaggart's theories, and it is also a great introduction to Quatum Physics... the acclaimed new path of science(as opposed to Newtonian Physics.)

great read...although certain chapters lost my interest. 7.5/10

[4anybody...]

Religion and the Rise of Capitalism R. H. Tawney http://www.amazon.com/Religion-Rise-Capitalism-Historical-Study/dp/0844614467/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198884604&sr=8-2

*note, this is only about Christianity

--Have you ever wondered how exactly Christianity of the new testament--which was so strongly egalitarian--came to be used to justify capitalism and its use of slavery, class oppression, genocide, and exploitation?

--Have you ever wondered how "Christians" today can justify buying sweatshop labored produced products or simply look down on others as lazy or inferior despite all the signs of economic repression?

This book paints a picture that shows how these ideas grew in history starting in the middle ages. Written in 1926, it is an important work in the fields of sociology, history, economics and religion. The book is filled with quotes from maybe hundreds of primary sources, and relates all the majore political, economic, and religious events from 1500-1700

here's the gist:

1. Medieval europe was a serfdom and the church reinforced this by saying that everybody is part of the social "body". There was little change, little class mobility. BUT there were some financial centers that dealt with trade and the growing mining industry (main center was in Florence, Italy and the Roman Church controlled some finances, thru taxes and trade between states). Overall, financiers were generally criticized as evil, greedy ppl who did not work for their money and charged exorbirant interest rates--true, tho the church neatly evaded criticizing itself.

2. Then the 16th century hit--with an explosion of european mining and more importantly, the importation of riches from the americas and the far east. However, all these expeditions required much more capital than individual fuedal landowners, or even states had, so people began to invest together, creating several financial markets throughout europe, and creating great wealth for the financiers--a class of people that was quickly growing to become influential.

3. Meanwhile, Martin Luther starts criticizing the church because of its abuses of power, especially its use of interest. In fact, he starts criticizing all economic ideas and proposes that ppl should go back to a pre-medieval feudal system because true faith in god cannot be shown thru an institution, only thru hard labor on the land. He is the first sign of the movement separating church from state, tho he does not have a realistic economic plan

4. In the mid to late 1500s, John Calvin, swiss, also wants the church to stop telling ppl how to live. However, he is a merchant/capitalist and thinks that interest and trade SHOULD be used, tho strictly regulated. In Geneva, a main financial city, a group of his followers start living like that, working diligently at creating profits, but showing strict limits on economic actions (like high interest).

5. In england, during this time, they break away from the Roman Church, but continue to want the English church to regulate laws. At first, they outlaw interest and forbid capitalists from bying up land. But as the mercantile class gets larger and starts offering the state more money to buy the land (which increases the states' profits and then the owners turn around sell it for more), that class starts to gain clout in politics and the state starts paying less attention to its church's criticisms of interest. They start citing the idea of "natural law", that man is born with certain rights to do whatever he wants--hardly ethics. by the end of the 1500s, the church is stripped of its judicial power and laws are inacted giving the mercantiel class free reign

6. Protestantism grows in popularity in england--basically it's Calvinism with no restrictions on economic activities. It's members are primarily capitalist class ppl so they believe that god has chosen them (because of their good standing in society) and that they should do their best to make use of the world. They don't believe that the Church or State should regulate them--they desire freedom of religion and democracy. They believe poverty is a result of laziness. The reason they get away with this elitist theology is because the Church (and therefore its theologians) has been so pushed aside that there is no developed Theology to sufficiently criticize them.

7. And, since then, religion has faded more and capitalism is all that has remained.

8. But there is a new wave of Christianity that is providing ethics to our debauched world

[Bossanova]

Title: The Attack
Author: Yasmina Khadra

Overview:
Dr. Amin Jaafari, an Israeli Arab, seems fully assimilated into Tel Aviv society, with a loving wife, a successful career as a surgeon, and numerous Jewish friends. But after a restaurant bombing kills nineteen people, and it becomes apparent that his wife was the bomber, he plunges into the world of Islamic extremism, trying to understand how he missed signs of her intentions. Khadra (the nom de plume of Mohammed Moulessehoul) vividly captures Jaafari's anguish and his anger at the fanatics who recruited his wife. The Israelis don't escape lightly, either, as their army marches over law-abiding Arab citizens in an attempt to stamp out the militants. Khadra's writing has a tendency toward cliché, but the book's dark vision of the conflict is powerful.

Rating: 8/10

[Bossanova]

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Author: Mark Haddon

Overview:
Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this revelatory novel, relaxes by groaning and doing math problems in his head, eats red-but not yellow or brown-foods and screams when he is touched. Strange as he may seem, other people are far more of a conundrum to him, for he lacks the intuitive "theory of mind" by which most of us sense what's going on in other people's heads. When his neighbor's poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of the crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes (one of his favorite characters) and track down the killer. As the mystery leads him to the secrets of his parents' broken marriage and then into an odyssey to find his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a closed book to him. In the hands of first-time novelist Haddon, Christopher is a fascinating case study and, above all, a sympathetic boy: not closed off, as the stereotype would have it, but too open-overwhelmed by sensations, bereft of the filters through which normal people screen their surroundings. Christopher can only make sense of the chaos of stimuli by imposing arbitrary patterns ("4 yellow cars in a row made it a Black Day, which is a day when I don't speak to anyone and sit on my own reading books and don't eat my lunch and Take No Risks"). His literal-minded observations make for a kind of poetic sensibility and a poignant evocation of character. Though Christopher insists, "This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them," the novel brims with touching, ironic humor. The result is an eye-opening work in a unique and compelling literary voice.

Rating: 8/10

The storyline and narration are similar to Flowers for Algernon.

[(--LazerScope-->>]

Title: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Author: Mark Haddon

Overview:
Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this revelatory novel, relaxes by groaning and doing math problems in his head, eats red-but not yellow or brown-foods and screams when he is touched. Strange as he may seem, other people are far more of a conundrum to him, for he lacks the intuitive "theory of mind" by which most of us sense what's going on in other people's heads. When his neighbor's poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of the crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes (one of his favorite characters) and track down the killer. As the mystery leads him to the secrets of his parents' broken marriage and then into an odyssey to find his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a closed book to him. In the hands of first-time novelist Haddon, Christopher is a fascinating case study and, above all, a sympathetic boy: not closed off, as the stereotype would have it, but too open-overwhelmed by sensations, bereft of the filters through which normal people screen their surroundings. Christopher can only make sense of the chaos of stimuli by imposing arbitrary patterns ("4 yellow cars in a row made it a Black Day, which is a day when I don't speak to anyone and sit on my own reading books and don't eat my lunch and Take No Risks"). His literal-minded observations make for a kind of poetic sensibility and a poignant evocation of character. Though Christopher insists, "This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them," the novel brims with touching, ironic humor. The result is an eye-opening work in a unique and compelling literary voice.

Rating: 8/10

The storyline and narration are similar to Flowers for Algernon.

Wow, sounds like a fascinating read. Definitely gotta check that out.

In the summer I read "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. It's actually a beloved American classic of 2 friends who spend their lives traveling across America, meeting strange and wonderful character, all the while under a heroin induced haze. (It's kind of shocking to know that ppl were shooting heroin in the 50's!). A great read. 8/10

Currently I'm reading "The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe". I enjoyed re-reading classics like "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The House of Usher". 2 GREAT short stories of his I never read before were "The Pit & The Pendulum" (about a guy trying to survive in a dungeon during the Spanish Inquisition), and "MS. in a Bottle", about a sailor who somehow survives a deadly storm only to end up on a ship of damned souls.

[Dr. ibarfly Jones]

I just got this book yesterday. But she rocks!!!

Title: Rape
Author: Joyce Carol Oates

Overview:
Prolific Oates (We Were the Mulvaneys; Beast; etc.) explores sexual violence and its aftermath in this taut, harrowing novella. Teena Maguire, a pretty, 30-something widow, is on her way home from a party when she is beaten, gang-raped and left for dead. She survives the attack, which her 12-year-old daughter Bethie witnesses, but as only a husk of her former self ("That pathetic woman," she thinks of herself, "they should have finished the job"). It is to Bethie, then, that the task of caring for her falls: "If Momma could sleep, that was good. It was your duty to let her sleep." Oates draws on shifting, often fragmentary points of view to tell the story of the days before and after the rape, including that of Teena's lover, Ray Casey, whose feelings have changed since the attack; Walt Pick, the father of two of the rapists; Harriet Diebenkorn, the deputy prosecutor who fails Teena in the preliminary hearing; and Bethie, whose affecting chapters are written in the second person. Redemption of a sort is offered in the form of John Dromoor, a young police officer whose concern for Teena is matched by his desire for justice. When a slick Buffalo defense lawyer devastates Teena on the witness stand, Dromoor takes matters into his own hands. This is where the story truly chills, as the attackers fret about their future and Dromoor slowly exacts a cool vengeance. The love story is Bethie's-a haunting affection born of a terrible crime. The effects linger, despite the book's brevity.

Rating: N/A

[(--LazerScope-->>]

THE DELIVERY MAN - by Joe McGuinness Jr

We've all heard the sordid tales of ne'er-do-wells and their rises to fame & fortune, and then their inevitable downfalls into the pits of despair within the infamous City of Sin (Las Vegas). Here once more the city is a seedy neon-filled, tourist infested backdrop for the story of a young man's quarter-life crisis.

Chase grew up on the other side of the tracks in Vegas, a rarely seen Vegas where employees of the gambling industry are slaves to granting others momentary flights of fancy while stuck in a desert seemingly as desolate in true happiness as that of the temporary thrills in a casino.

In a fatherless home, he is raised by his burnt out mother, struggling to provide for him and his emotionally unstable sister, Carly. The 2 become friends with Michel, the Salvadorian girl of Chase's dreams, and Bailey, a boy blessed with model looks and cursed by a broken home.

Sex and drugs infiltrate their circle, and has an impact on an incident that will affect the rest of their lives forever.

Fast forward to Chase, 25, engaged to his beautiful, law firm bound African American fiance Julia. While Julia has her (and his) entire future mapped out, Chase is like a lost ship at sea, with no real direction. He has an ever fleeting ambition to be a painter in New York, but has somehow settled to become a High School teacher in LV, not far from where he grew up.

His childhood love, Michel, is grown but not quite emotionally. She has become a prostitute/partner/Co-Pimp for Bailey, and though Chase has moved on, Michel harbors a desire for him. After getting into a fight with a student, Michel hires him as her personal "delivery man". His job entails delivering her and her prostitute employees to different houses for "jobs". Michel plays a dangerous game where she is making scores on the side, under the nose of her boss Bailey, all the while under a haze of filthy sex and tons of coke.

Soon, Chase finds himself delivering even students that he taught, who have now been employed in the services of Michel.

The characters all face their personal demons and mourn their shattered dreams throughout the novel. Each seems desperate to escape his or her life, the desert, the hotels, Vegas, but somehow never muster the fortitude to do so. They are all chained together by that one past event that corrupted their youths and ideals forever.

The author McGuinness has a terse, visual style of writing that lends to the harshness of the environment of its inhabitants. From posh, five star motels with 15 and 16 yr. old sexy hookers, to dilapidated drug dens that house sordid, soulless characters, McGuinness takes you on a ride that puts you right alongside Chase in his car as he makes his rounds.

I picked up this book just on a whim. I read the first page, and couldn't put it down for several days. It's a great page-turner about dreams deferred and lost childhood innocence, as well as a commentary on violence and the world the forgotten youth of today inhabits. In the end, we see our protagonist's catharsis through blood ritual, and the cycle of endless sex, drug binges, and despair passes on to another.

Really good book. Pick it up.

3.5/5 *'s

[King of Queenz]

I have read most of the Alex Cross series made by James Patterson. I just finished reading Cross and let me tell you the book was crazy. Cross is a black F.B.I. agent in D.C. who deals with some crazy psychos. If you saw the movie Along came a Spider with Morgan Freeman, that is the character, Morgan portrays in the movie. Well this book details the origin of how Alex's wife dies and who her killer is. If you like real suspense and mystery this book will not disappoint. Trust me you will not put this book down.

[4anybody...]

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Images/Chicago/9780226791692.jpeg


After God
by Mark C. Taylor
2007

This book has several aims, but its biggest one is to offer new values for our complex, relativistic world. Personally, I think he fails in this regard. However, most of this book is extremely successful at offering other arguments.

The most valid and important argument he offers is that secularism, as we know it, is in fact a very religious notion. He traces the heritage of secularism to Protestant values and follows it through all the important philosophers up to Derrida. Here is a brief outline.

1. Luther actually inherited the idea of an individualistic Christianity from studying the 14th ce theologian William of Ockham who used Platonian logic to argue this idea. Actually, individualism, Taylor argues, can be traced back through the very beginnings of Christianity and even to pre-Christian Babylonian religions. It is Ockham, tho, who puts together a cohesive individualistic theology.

2. Calvin took Luther's individualism and combined it with ideas of capitalism. Luther, who came from poverty, was essentially a fundamentalist who believed it was wrong to make money off of others. But Calvin was a well-educated middle-class businessman who believed that if one takes Luther's idea--that we must have a personal relationship with God and we can't earn God's grace, we can just be good Christians in preparation for death-- to the extreme, then god is everything, we are nothing. That being the case, then what ever we do that is productive and efficient (capitalistic ideals) is therefore Godly.

3. The great enlightenment and modern thinkers usually came from a Protestant background. Newton wrote more about religion than he did about science. Hume, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche all came from religious backgrounds and actually based their "secularist" philosophies and Protestant ideas that God is transcendent and has therefore given humans the capacity to rationalize. Rationalism is therefore justified by religion.

4. The influential Scottish economists were Presbyterian (Calvinists). In fact, Adam Smith did not invent the concept of the "invisible hand." It was actually Calvin himself who first used that idea in reference to God's support of worldly success by rational (christian) actors. Capitalism, as we know it, then, is actually a very Protestant idea.

5. Mass communication has been intentionally fostered by Protestants who use it to spread the word. Beginning with Luther's million copy distribution of the "95 theses," protestants have utilized and encouraged the development of communications technology. Today's global communication system has been countenanced by Protestant ideas of capitalism and communications.

6. The US founding fathers were often deists. Which is a more extreme form of Protestant individualism. They were, however, also shaped by french enlightenment thinkers who, because France did not go through the religious revolutions like England and Germany, were more anti-religious than the other thinkers. The influence of these thinkers helped give the US the idea of the separation of church and state, because the US Lutherans and Calvinists did not originally want that separation.

7. Because of those influences in the US, there has always been a history of Christian fundamentalism here. Revivalist traditions were live and kicking throughout the 19th ce up til the scopes trial in the 1920's, then re-emerged during what they saw was the increasing decadence of the US in the 1950s. That decade congress was persuaded to add "In God We Trust" to coins and added "Under God" to the pledge of alliegance. The 60's rebellion era proved to be more grist for the fundamentalist mill and they began to mobilize. By the 1980s, Reagan was securing Christian Right votes by preaching fundamentalist ideas in his politics, and passing them on to his VP Bush. the Christian right also continues the Protestant legacy of encouraging imperialistic capitalism and the vilification of all non-Christians.

8. It is interesting to note that a major actor of the Fundamentalists involved in politics during the 1980s was Tim LeHaye who is currently the #2 most purchased author (the "left behind" series), only behind JK Rowlings, the author of Harry Potter.

[ebonygod]

i hate books but ive read n was feeling these ones...

nigger - dick gregory

black boy - richard wright

red tent - anita diamant

[SCENE]

Tiltle: Penetration: The Question of Extraterrestrial and Human Telepathy
Author: Ingo Swann

Ingo Swann is THE 'original' remote view-er. He worked with The Stanford Research Institute, SRI, and many government agencies for years.

Ingo Swann tells of his involvement with a very secret government agency that asked him to remote view the dark side of the Earth's Moon. Swann saw extensive buildings, roads, and human forms digging.

Swann makes it very clear that our government is very much intimidated by these ETs. He says to the government agent: "They've somehow got you by the balls, haven't they? That's why you are resorting to psychic perceptions...They are NOT friendly are they?..."

Swann also describes his encounter with a live alien in a Los Angeles supermarket and confirms that ET civilization has been infiltrating the Earth in humanoid bodies. Swann's friends warn him: "There are alot of THEM, you know, and many of them are bio-androids...they realize that Earth psychics are their only enemies."

People advised Ingo Swann NOT to write this book because "...it challenges those echelons of conventional credibilty that lasciviously get off on deconstructing those unfortunates who experience what they can't prove."

Ingo Swann understands the perils and pain of being someone who has had "experiences". Many of you, like myself, fall into this category.

He also talks about the fact that DENIAL of the ETs is a "...patent fact. The question is WHY?...Earthsiders [he calls us] as a whole seem to be caught up in some kind of strange but broadly shared amnesia induced..."

[4anybody...]

the agrarian problem in the sixteenth century by R. H. Tawney

http://www.amazon.com/Agrarian-Problem-Sixteenth-Century/dp/0061313157/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213562030&sr=8-1

This is the first book written by R. H. Tawney, the Author who wrote the Book "Religion and the rise of capitalism" that I discussed in post #7. Tawney's works focused mainly on England in the 16th ce and this book was his foundation for later ones. This book aims to expose a very important factor which contributed to the departure from medieval society to the entrance into a modern, capitalistic, individualistic world. This book is very detailed and tedious, but tawney also offers chapters which give overviews of the events so you can see the major impact these things had on 16th ce England and thusly the rest of the world.

The English agrarian revolution was not the only factor that contributed to the incredible economic and social readjustments that took place in 16th ce england, but it was very important.

The main reason for this "revolution," according to tawney and others, was the growth of the wool industry which had been emerging as Englands' top export since its rise in the 14th century.

at the time, as was most of europe, england was deeply entrenched in a feudal system in which feudal rulers fought for territory. Land to these rulers was simply a place where their peasants (who served as soldiers) could survive thru subsistence farming and paying taxes to the lord. Little "profit" was gained from land other than its benefit of keeping peasants working and producing taxes--usually in the form of food and soldiering. It was a harsh life, but most people were very equal (b/c most were peseants) and things simply did not change. Families stayed working on the same land under the same ruling family for centuries, as long as the ruling family wasn't vanquished or farming problems arose.

in the middle ages, trading centers were fairly insignificant. But the increase of trade of wool during the 16th (prolly brot on by newly discovered trade routes and increased wealth gained from the pillaging of the americas) meant that the traders, the capitalists, began to gain power--financial power.

concurrently, Henry the VII had seized control of the English crown thru battle in 1486. In order to maintian his position, tho, he had to ensure other lords wouldn't be able to seize it from him. He outlawed armies and divested many lords of their political powers. Also, he established laws that supported the wool industry as he knew that most lords did not have their hands in that area, so they lost financial power.

Capitalists were able then to have enough money to buy up land once used for farming and turn it into pastures for sheep grazing (a method called enclosing). They began evicting peasants who then emigrated to the cities where they would become employed by cloth manufacturers in the bourgeoning industries.

The woolen industry became so profitable, tho, that the influx of money made english currency depreciate. Lords had to start enclosing and participating in the wool industry just to keep income up. This resulted in more peasants being sent to the cities and greater stratification of income, more reliance on money as the source of power (as opposed to military strength), and therefore the rise of capitalism and its financiers, speculators and money markets.

[4anybody...]

(This is pretty much a "must-read." not b/c every idea in it is important and perfect--cuz some are faaar from perfect--but it is a seminal work in Western scholarship)

The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber

background: If u don't know, Max Weber is one of the most imporant scholars of the late 19th/early 20th ce. He is considered one of the founding fathers of sociology and his writings on economic history have also been looked at as incredibly imporant. He had a vast array of knowledge and was one of the "grand" theorists of the 19th ce (like Kant, Hegel, Marx, and Freud). The original edition of this book was published as 2 essays in 1904/05 in German. This particular edition was revised by Weber and published the year of his death in 1920. It has been translated by Talcott Parsons, another founder of sociology. There is a foreward by Parsons, as well as one by R. H. Tawney, whose book "Religion and the Rise of Capitalism" (post #7) was primarily based off Weber's book here. Finally, there is an introduction written by Weber in 1919 which is very illuminating as to his and contemporary scholars' mindstate--he believed that the modern West was far superior to an other civilization EVER, in every realm: art, science, politics, economics, etc. He also end his intro with a dubious assertion that he believes that "hereditary" differences btwn ppls can account for the differences in advancement--what he calls "anthropolgy"--but he admits he can't prove it. Not only is it proof of his (and thusly Occidental scholarship's) racist bias, it obviously taints (in our eyes) the rest of his work. BUT the impact of this work cannot be ignored: in the early 1900s and especially now. While in as late as the 1960's western intellectuals were predicting the disappearance of religion altogether in the increasingly
secular world, the new revivals of religious participation (fundamentalism, "3rd world" christianity, Islamic revivals) has forced scholars to re-evaluate Christianity's role in "secularization"--see Mark Taylor post #14--scholars are using Weber's ideas again.


book:
The premise is simple. There are questions that we all should ask: Why are all the leaders of business Protestant? What changed europeans (in their ethics) from being content with peasantry to making everything revolve around profit (ie, time is money, money makes the world go round, etc.)? Why did capitalism, which has been around as long as civiliztion, finally become the norm?

Weber, who is incredibly well-versed in european history and modern era (1400 and up) theologies, demonstrates that the "spirit" of economics, that of maximizing the efficiency of every little thing, and valuing money over all, and the ruthless, cold mentality that it takes to get it--these are all vestiges of Protestant, especially Calvinistic ideas and asceticism.

here are some points:
1) the idea of a "calling", that God has given you a specific task in this world.

The word as we know it simply did not appear in christian writing before the protestants. It was, however, in the works of a german mystic who had a great deal of influence on Luther. So when Luther translated the Bible, he used the word in a place that it had never been used before. This meant that the Bible now "justified" the idea. Prior to that, ppl believed that work was a painful burden and true religious piety came in motionless prayer--like monks--not in labor. Luther, however, saw the Catholic system as corrupt b/c it meant that avg peasants could not achieve real piety and the selling of indulgences to gain partial absolution was an exploitation of that beleif (as well as diproportionately benefitting the wealthy). He believed, and supported it with a reinterpretation of the Bible, that ppl were given their lot in life and that lot was ordained by god and therefore holy (as god made the world the way He wanted it to be). God has chosen those who will be saved and u couldn't gain salvation through work (or the buying of indulgences). but ppl needed to work hard to demonstrate their belief in the holiness of god. Luther, tho, b/c of his peasant roots, believed that all ppl should work on the land and like most ppl before him, thot capitalism was barely not sinful.

2) This emphasis, that hard work is its own reward, was then picked up by the Calvinists. The Calvinists, however, believed more in predestination than Lutherans. Like lutherans, they believed, that god has already chosen the ppl who will be saved and nothing could help one gain salvation. But as a practical issue, it was difficult to determine exactly who was saved and who wasn't. There was a sort of "invisible church" b/c u couldn't really determine difference btwn the saved and damned by their actions. And the lack of confidence in salvation showed imperfect faith. Calvinists, who were bourgeoise business ppl and capitalists, saw how this fit perfectly into their lifestyles anyways. They took this doctrine of "calling" and applied it to their economic class. They were very ascetic ppl and thot indulging in luxiries, idle time and greed were sins, so they thot that the traditional lifestyle of peasantry (which included a 5 to 6 hour workday and many hours at the bar) was sinful. They believed that one must work hard all day. So in their world, that meant making profit day in and day out. This theology was exemplified by the Puritans (who were very calvinist). Other protestants believed in the same strict moral behaviors, but because of other socioeconomic differences, they were simply not as praising of capitalism as the highest virtue. (remember new england was started by puritans. and Ben Franklin, who had so much influence on the philosophy of young america, was a calvinist)

3) At the same time, the price revolution (due to the growing world trading market and the precious metals stolen from the americas) gave the capitalists unprecedented power. But unlike ancient times when capitalists had power and the state simply ended up taking them over b/c they capitalists got lazy with being caught up in ostentation and other depravities of the wealthy. The Protestant capitalists, hwoever, with their strict moral code, were protected from this (at least in teh early stages) and they gained unprecendented power.

4) Ultimately tho, the idea of capitalism became so pervasive and freedom of religion was allowed (to quash dissidents) that the religious background of capitralism and the economic spirit fell into the background and ppl have simply forgotten whence it came.

[AL-JABR]

THE DESTRUCTION OF BLACK CIVILIZATION.

AUTHOR: CHANCELLOR WILLIAMS.

THE ART OF THE DEAL

AUTHOR: DONALD TRUMP

[KiddFlash]

*BUMP*

Title : The outsiders.
They also have a movie
good shit i say 8.0/10

[Vicious Grin]

The Holy Quran


http://www.mowjeldoha.com/mix-pic/quran/www.mowjeldoha.com-quran-5.gif

[4anybody...]

Transcendent Justice by Carl Friedrich 1964
http://www.amazon.com/Transcendent-justice-religious-dimension-constitutionalism/dp/B0007DOWU4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217802746&sr=8-2


The goal of this book is to explain how the ideas of Constitution, rights, laws, and justice--and their specific definitions--came to be. Freidrich, who was a hightly esteemed political scholar in his time does just this. Though he leaves out some details, i am sure they were to keep the book short (116) pages. Depite being so short, the book is incrediby dense as it follows the arguments from the various works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Augustine, Aquinas, Locke, Hobbes and many others.

*the issues of property are best explained in an article cited by Friedrich called "The dvlpmnt of the concept of proprty" by McKeon

In short:

1) constitutionalism goes back to ancient greece and rome, but there it simply was a synonym for state. The rulers had to be watched over by the ppl, who themsleves had political participation, but other than political ones, ppl had few rits. Individual justice was something only the learned person (the "philosopher") could understand, and it was only an ideal that was never achieved on earth. The goal of the state was simply to remain together. There were other ideas tho: natural right to property and natural law that said men have reason and that reason tends toward what is good.

2) For Plato and Cicero (tho not Aristotle), The state was seen as a larger version of the household and just as the father ran the household, the rulers ran the state. in the 4th ce Augustine used this idea to explain The City of God, which was the ideal world, but the kings and heads of state were justified in autocratic rule because of a similar metaphor--He saw the state, and every smaller instititution down to a marriage, as a reflection of God's rule/law/justice. So, similar to greek and roman ideas, a tyrant was justified. He also beleived that a tyrant could be evil, but God did not want men to rebel, they should stay focused on making themselves good so they could go to heaven.

3) when Aristotle was translated in the 13th ce, Aquinas picked him up and applied him to Xn thot. Aristotle believed that the state was not in fact simply given by god, that it was run imperfectly by men. man still naturally possessed reason--tho now this reason tended toward what was good in God's eyes, what was just/right. Aquinas saw property as a natural right, but it should be avoided because it leads to greed, therefore, the church should not have property. He advocated that relus ppl should not have it, the state should. PPl should still follow the will of the rulers to b/c men should still focus on being good to go to heaven.

4) These ideas are taken up by reformation thinkers, but, as they are increasingly repressed by rulers, they begin to change their attitude on passive acceptance. They use the Aristitolean idea that the community are really the rulers and their voices together reflect the common good. This supports constitutionalism. They reject autocracies.

5) the idea of freedom goes back to the greeks as well--what it means for them and all subsequent thinkers up through Kant is that animals and children are not free, freedom only comes to rational man and the natural knowledge of what he can do w/in a community that doesn't restrict the rights of anyone else. and the right to survival is also embedded in this idea.

6) when the English, French and US constitutions are written, these Christian ideas are what they had in mind.

7) as rationalism revealed that ideas are contingent on historical situations, these ideals were questioned. and they began to lose their religious background. ppl began to think of constitutions as creating rights.

8) world wars and minority revolutions have forced governments to come up with greater, more "universal" rights, such as education, work, relaxation, etc.
and the state should protect those rights

9) he goes on to say that rights should not be ranked (except freedom of belief, which to him is most important) and govt impinging on liberties is only allowed for security, but even then it has to be carefully monitored.



my only critique with his conclusion that the UN dec of human rights are actually universal rights accepted by everyone--we know this is a prob, esp w/ world of islam--an islamic dec of human rights was created. he does admit tho that rights are dvlped from certain contexts and truths are not stable, they are and can change and ppl need to be educated to know about it

[Luse_Fiasco]

bump

[onema]

"What Evolution Is" by Ernst Mayr

"Elegant Universe" by Brian Greene

[4anybody...]

The Quest for the Origins of Vedic Culture
by Edwin Bryant

it's on googlebooks: http://books.google.com/books?id=Y2jfHlinW4UC&dq=bryant+the+quest+for+the+vedic&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=_J201II8od&sig=EMjkTZY1_tdl4E4pgTBR7uBUApA&hl=en&ei=k6IkSt7AJMaMtgfj5f3pBg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#PPP1,M1

it's about the debate over the origins of the "Indo-Europeans." Covers the linguistic and archeological evidence from both Western and Indian scholars

its fascinating

[Sosa]

Ché

[Tom]

Title : The Road
Authour: Cormac McCarthy i think

Synopsis: A Father and his son are trying to survive in a post-nuclear bomb America and they're travelling on a road and theres like scavengers and bandits trin to rob them and shit. It's shows how America would basically become a ghost country if a nuclear war occured
Sorry for shitty summary


Rating 8/10

PS theyre gonna make a movie with viggo mortenson as the father

[Sosa]

Title : The Road
Authour: Cormac McCarthy i think

Synopsis: A Father and his son are trying to survive in a post-nuclear bomb America and they're travelling on a road and theres like scavengers and bandits trin to rob them and shit. It's shows how America would basically become a ghost country if a nuclear war occured
Sorry for shitty summary


Rating 8/10

PS theyre gonna make a movie with viggo mortenson as the father

Co-sign this!

I love that book, one of my favorites...although it is unknown what caused the catastrophe. it could've been global warming, nuclear war, or any of those or none of those, the book doesn't go into what happened to make the world that way.

The filmed the movie already and it was suppose to come out in nov. 08 and has been pushed back to sometime in late 09 for better post-production (allegedly).

It looks like it'll be a great movie...

[Luse_Fiasco]

The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo

i think thats how u spell his name

good book to read

[Sosa]

The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo

i think thats how u spell his name

good book to read

Great book

[(--LazerScope-->>]

The Catcher in The Rye by J.D. Salinger

This is considered one of the great American literary works of the 20th Century. It is studied in classrooms throughout the U.S. and is often hailed as one fo the greatest American novels of all time.

It tells the story of Holden Caulfield. He is a teenager residing at his third boarding school (he was kicked out of the first two). After a violent incident in his room with another student, he sets off on a two day excursion, visiting different haunts throughout the city: seedy bars, dark streets, lonely parks....all the while giving a run-on narrative of his thoughts.

Caulfield's past is tragic, involving the death of a close family member. He also seems to be under the strains of mental illness, possibly depression. He finds it hard to connect with anyone and/or anything, and his thoughts prevents much social interraction.

It was a nice read. You'll find yourself laughing and feeling sad at times throughout.

[Sosa]

The Catcher in The Rye by J.D. Salinger

This is considered one of the great American literary works of the 20th Century. It is studied in classrooms throughout the U.S. and is often hailed as one fo the greatest American novels of all time.

It tells the story of Holden Caulfield. He is a teenager residing at his third boarding school (he was kicked out of the first two). After a violent incident in his room with another student, he sets off on a two day excursion, visiting different haunts throughout the city: seedy bars, dark streets, lonely parks....all the while giving a run-on narrative of his thoughts.

Caulfield's past is tragic, involving the death of a close family member. He also seems to be under the strains of mental illness, possibly depression. He finds it hard to connect with anyone and/or anything, and his thoughts prevents much social interraction.

It was a nice read. You'll find yourself laughing and feeling sad at times throughout.

Never got a chance to read it...i'll definitely give it a read before summer is over

[4anybody...]

https://www.textbooksnow.com/books/022/634/0226346838.gif


The Venture of Islam
v. 1 The Classical age of Islam

by Marshall Hodgson

http://www.amazon.com/Venture-Islam-Classical-Age/dp/0226346838

probably the most comprehensive survey book on classical Islam (570 ce -945 ce). this is the first of the 3-volume masterpiece by hodgson about the history of Islam up to WWI.

this book has several great qualities, but its most important is its masterful narrative which weaves together the many important themes and events in Islam's history, showing how several small, seeming disparate events are often related. hodgson traces important connections and continually reminds the reader about these connections to help reinforce the multiple dimensions of Islam's history. in doing this, he includes immense detail but never gets bogged down in presenting numerous trivial facts (a tendency of many historians)--you can count on almost everything he writes, even the smallest details, have multiple connections in Islam's history. furthermore, he places islam within its world history context, and not treating its events as due entirely to Islam's supposed "essence" as many have tried to do before--ie he shows how Islam's history is the history of different individuals and groups of people interpreting and living by how they understood "submission" to God as revealed in the Qur'an, and of course understandings changed depending on the peoples' socio-historical-ethnic-psychological context.

in terms of weaknesses: hodgson died in 1968 (the book was published posthumously in 1974, and the first 2 volumes originally appeared in very different states in 1961) so his scholarship is somewhat outdated (eg his discussion of the early Hadith fabrications), but generally these are minor details that would only be of importance to people intensely interested in those details, plus he was such a strong scholar he was never hesitant to admit the (academic, not just his personal) lack of knowledge on a particular topic and usually his analyses were based on such a deep understanding of history that they still hold even when he didn't have access to our current knowledge. the only time i see this as a slight annoyance is when he presents a framework for understanding different religious styles of piety that is not as well thought-out as it would be (ideally) in today's state of religious studies (though it was the vanguard in his time), and so for this reason his chapter on piety is somewhat boring and unclear imo

but overall, the book was riveting. i was rarely bored reading it--despite it being 500 pages and incredibly dense, and perhaps one of the longest book i've read in terms of hours spent (because sometimes there were so many details that played into a particular history i'd have to read slowly and go back and re-look at previous sections to remind myself of those events). So because of its enormity, i can't absolutely recommend it for the casual reader who has little background in islam, and there are dozens of other less detailed and more accessible books to read (eg Esposito's "Islam: the straight path"). but if you REALLY want to understand islam's history, i cant think of a better single book

[Tom]

http://blog.gurdas.com/2007/09/18/the-100-best-novels-of-20th-century/

many lists of books that are good

a great place to look for books that u haven't read and are almost guaranteed to be a good read

[4anybody...]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51J62BPFPZL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Sources of the Self
by Charles Taylor


http://www.amazon.com/Sources-Self-Making-Modern-Identity/dp/0674824261


This book became famous upon its publication in 1989 because of its innovative look at "The Making of the Modern Identity" (the subtitle of the book, and it of course refers to the Western White dominant views). In one sense, this book is a sweeping analysis of western philosophy concerning the "self", from the Greeks to the post-modernists, and Taylor has an exceptional command of an immense body of literature. But the thesis of this analysis is that the various formations of the "self" all contain a sense of morality, even if that morality is denied to exist within it. The book is divided into 5 parts, but for me, part 2 was by far the most interesting. In this section Taylor makes a case for demonstrating that Westerners haven't always had the same idea of what is in our "selves": In the world of Homeric Greece, for instance, the "psyche" is not something which solely rests inside the individual--its power travels the universe and leaves individuals upon death, and ideas and emotions are not necessarily possessed by people--they can be IN the objects of environment (and we experience thots or emotions upon dealing with or looking at these objects) or they are powers given by gods for some limited period of time. But this began to change with Plato who said that people have the power to contemplate within them (tho for plato, contemplation meant seeing the world for "what it is", with its heirarchies and morality already a given, shown in the environment). Plato's turn is followed by Taylor's next 3 heroes: Augustine, Descartes, and Locke--all who each locate the powers of reason, will, and emotions increasingly within the individual, and everytime they do this, this affects how they look at how morality must be viewed. Taylor's main focus is the 17th century from where he says several divergent views of the self--which still exist today--emerge. One of his main points is that the idea that people have, within themselves--and not based on a god of any sort--the power to reason and to therefore see how men should live together, has not always been the case and that it really didn't even exist in the West until the late 18th c, and then it was still only a minority who believed it (radical naturalists). Furthermore, those who did believe it hid the fact that their own views of how men should live together contained a morality not purely based on reason. And so today, furthered by the so-called battle between theology and science in the late 19th c, we still have this idea in our culture and the problem with it is that when people in power use it (eg Western nations) their refusal to admit their non-rational moral standards precludes dialog and progress. Another interesting facet of this book is its demonstration of where we get the modern ideas of people having an "inner nature," "heart," the need for "expression", and the "post-modern" idea of each person having "multiple identities". This is a great book for really looking at how the Western "mind" developed in the history of its philosophy (Taylor admits tho that philosophers often only reflect what is more strongly reinforced through other changes have created more of an impact--eg science, rise of institutions, urbanization, industrial revolution, etc--but his focus is mostly on philosophy).



A couple critiques: he can have a meandering style (especially in part 1), and this can be very difficult to put up with especially if you don't have a decent grounding in philosophy. I think he also relies to0 heavily on art theory to explain rise of "modernist" thought in the early 20th c. And he doesn't offer a satisfying view of how he thinks we can move beyond these issues, though, admittedly, he says that would probably require much more writing (and the book is already long enough at 521 incredibly dense pages).

[nhw]

The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo

i think thats how u spell his name

good book to read

i love this book,

[Welcome2DaSlopes]

any book thats focuses on Black improvement.

[Sosa]

The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything - Christopher Hitchens