Author Archives: stephenkmacksd

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About stephenkmacksd

Rootless cosmopolitan,down at heels intellectual;would be writer. 'Polemic is a discourse of conflict, whose effect depends on a delicate balance between the requirements of truth and the enticements of anger, the duty to argue and the zest to inflame. Its rhetoric allows, even enforces, a certain figurative licence. Like epitaphs in Johnson’s adage, it is not under oath.' https://www.lrb.co.uk/v15/n20/perry-anderson/diary

Books of Interest:A Woman Who Defends All the Persons of Her Sex: Selected Philosophical and Moral Writings, Suchon, Stanton, Wilkin

  During the oppressive reign of Louis XIV, Gabrielle Suchon (1632–1703) was the most forceful female voice in France, advocating women’s freedom and self-determination, access to knowledge, and assertion of authority. This volume collects Suchon’s writing from two works—Treatise on … Continue reading

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Books of Interest: Sorcery in the Black Atlantic, Parés, Sansi

  Edited by Luis Nicolau Parés and Roger Sansi 304 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2011 Most scholarship on sorcery and witchcraft has narrowly focused on specific times and places, particularly early modern Europe and twentieth-century Africa. And … Continue reading

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Books of Interest:The Lady Anatomist: The Life and Work of Anna Morandi Manzolini, Messbarger

Rebecca Messbarger 248 pages | 50 color plates, 20 halftones | 7 x 10 | © 2010 Anna Morandi Manzolini (1714-74), a woman artist and scientist, surmounted meager origins and limited formal education to become one of the most acclaimed … Continue reading

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Books of Interest:Gay Shame, Halperin, Traub

Edited by David M. Halperin and Valerie Traub 408 pages | 22 halftones, 1 DVD | 6 x 9 | © 2010 Ever since the 1969 Stonewall Riots, “gay pride” has been the rallying cry of the gay rights movement … Continue reading

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Books of Interest:The Fear of Barbarians: Beyond the Clash of Civilizations, Todorov, Brown

The relationship between Western democracies and Islam, rarely entirely comfortable, has in recent years become increasingly tense. A growing immigrant population and worries about cultural and political assimilation—exacerbated by terrorist attacks in the United States, Europe, and around the world—have provoked … Continue reading

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Books of Interest:The Enlightenment: A Genealogy, Edelstein

Dan Edelstein 184 pages | 1 table | 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 | © 2010 What was the Enlightenment? Though many scholars have attempted to solve this riddle, none has made as much use of contemporary answers as Dan Edelstein does … Continue reading

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Books of Interest:Prague Palimpsest: Writing, Memory, and the City, Thomas

“Prague Palimpsest is one of the most intriguing and exciting books written about this ancient cosmopolitan city. Based on prodigious research, Thomas offers a complex close reading of the main figures and topics of Prague’s cultural and literary history. He … Continue reading

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Books of Interest:Bodies of Knowledge: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Women’s Health in the Second Wave, Kline

Wendy Kline 200 pages | 10 halftones | 6 x 9 | © 2010 Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, women argued that unless they gained access to information about their own bodies, there would be no equality. In Bodies of … Continue reading

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Books of Interest: Why Niebuhr Now?, Diggins

Barack Obama has called him “one of my favorite philosophers.” John McCain wrote that he is “a paragon of clarity about the costs of a good war.” Andrew Sullivan has said, “We need Niebuhr now more than ever.” For a … Continue reading

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The Good Doctor and The Arab Spring: The Conservative Thinkers, Episode XX of The American Political Melodrama

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/03/AR2011030304239.html   The rhetorical frame of The Good Doctor’s (TGD) latest essay is unsurprisingly self congratulatory: could this be just another example of the self-obsession, even the blatant narcissism, of the Neo-Conservative thinker, in situ? Or might we just settle … Continue reading

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