Politics:
Supreme Injustice
Did the United States Supreme Court cheat in its decision in the case of Bush
v. Gore, which ultimately led to George W. Bush's election as president of the
United States? Alan Dershowitz argues "yes" to that question and offers
some impressive arguments to support his case. By extensively citing the law and
the justices' own records, he demonstrates that there was certainly something fishy going on. Read More...
Culture Wars and the Global
Village
People often claim that they are interested in living in peace, but why then
do we continue to have so much conflict in areas like the Balkans, the Middle East,
Africa and other areas? Is there something about human nature which makes conflict
inevitable and peace impossible? According to Carl Coon, the answers lie not so much
in human biology, but in the development of human culture. Read More...
Enemies of the Enlightenment
Who were the "Enemies of the Enlightenment," and why it matter what
they said and thought? The answers to both are intriguing, at least as presented
by Darrin M. McMahon in his new book. Of particular relevancy to many will be the
ways in which people today have similar motivations and goals as the "enemies"
described in McMahon's book. The case against the Enlightenment has not been finalized.
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Arming America
Guns are everywhere in America today. In fact, they play such a role in America
that it is hard to imagine that matters have ever been different. Well, imagine away
- America's "gun culture" is in fact a very recent invention. What is most
interesting, however, is that it is possible to determine with great accuracy just
when and why it started. Read More...
Who Owns Death?
Capital Punishment is an issue of frequent and heated debates in America - one
of the last industrialized countries to retain this form of punishment. Lifton and
Mitchell are not supporters of the death penalty, but in this case they offer a new
and unusual look at the debate. Instead of simply presenting the usual arguments,
they instead attempt to describe the deep ambiguity with which Americans in general
and those involved in administering capital punishment view the matter. Along the
way, the usual - and some novel - arguments are discussed. Read More...
Daughters of Light: Quaker
Women Preaching
What role and influence did Christian women have in 17th and 18th century America?
Most people's answer to this question would be heavily colored by the image of Puritan
women, who practiced a religion which idealized female submission to men in both
this world and the next. These were not, however, the only Christian women in America
- there were also many Quaker women, and they lead dramatically different lives.
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The Angel of Ashland: Practicing
Compassion and Tempting Fate
What was it like for perform abortions when it was illegal? What was it like for
an atheist to resist the imposition of religious morality and follow his own conscience
in trying to help women terminate unwanted pregnancies? One recent book helps answer
those questions and more by reviewing the life and career of Robert Spencer, a doctor
who probably performed about 100,000 abortions in Ashland, Pennsylvania between 1919
and 1969. Read
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Why I Am An Abortion Doctor
Why would anyone want to perform abortions in America today? Protesters march not
only outside of clinics, but even outside of doctors' houses. Anyone who performs
abortions even occasionally takes on serious personal risk - a person who peforms
them regularly risks not only themselves, but also their families. And what about
the difficult moral questions? Few such doctors have taken the time to explain their
position and reasoning at length, but Dr. Popppema has, thus giving us a unique and
informative look at the background and current situation of a doctor performing abortions.
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Oberammergau: Troubling Story
of the World's Most Famous Passion Play
In the German village of Oberammergau, both theater and life intermingle to the point
where it has become difficult to tell which is which - and in more ways than one.
Here we have the oldest continuous staging of a "Passion Play" - the drama
of Jesus' arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection. We also have, as a result, one of
the oldest continuous debates about the presence of anti-semitism in Christian theology
- and whether or not that anti-semitism can ever be removed. Read More...
A Rumor About the Jews
Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion was a forged pamphlet, probably created
by the secret police of Imperial Russia in the late 1890's. The goal was to get people
to believe that it was actually the minutes of meetings of Jewish leaders plotting
to take over the world. What it attacked, however, was not simply Jews but in fact
the entire project of the Enlightenment - religious diversity, freedom, toleration,
and social progress. Read More...
Southern Cross: The Beginnings
of the Bible Belt
What is the "Bible Belt" and how did it originate? Why is it that the location
of the most conservative strains of Christianity moved from New England down to the
South? Much has been written about Southern evangelical and fundamentalist Christianity
in America, some of it positive and some of it negative. But not a lot has been written
about its very earliest origins - how a mostly Anglican region based upon money and
commerce was converted to the Baptist and Methodist denominations. Read More...
Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials
As many perhaps have already noticed by now, America has a buoyant love affair with
all things irrational. This is certainly nothing new - it's been going on since last
century at least. Some may find this to be quaint but unimportant to how society
functions - but Wendy Kaminer does a fantastic job of arguing that wide spread irrationalism
and uncritical acceptance of things like angels, aliens, gurus, etc. has serious
repercussions for everyone. Read More...
Created Equal
Should heterosexual Americans even care about the rights of gays? Michael Nava and
Robert Dawidoff argue well that the movement for gay rights is of fundamental importance
to the continuing maintenance and growth of individual liberties of all Americans.
This is a small, handy, and rather comprehensive book which ably presents the arguments
in favor of equal rights for homosexuals. Read More...
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