Politics at Continuum

Book Review: Federalism by Kyle Scott

Federalism: A Normative Theory and its Practical Relevance by Kyle Scott is reviewed in the December issue of Choice .

Scott (Univ. of Houston) seeks to formulate a theory of federalism based on popular sovereignty. He begins with an examination of the relevant thoughts of Althusius, Aristotle, and Tocqueville and suggests that federalism offers answers to some criticisms of deliberative democracy. Drawing on Plato and Montesquieu, in chapters 2 and 3, Scott argues that federalism's protection of local variations is not a form of relativism but serves instead as a framework for popular views. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 examine, respectively, nullification, veto, and secession as protections for federalism. Scott sees nullification as strengthening federalism and the right of secession as "integral" to "healthy" federalism. His discussion of veto focuses on protecting the rights of religious minorities. The final chapter analyzes Calhoun's theory of the concurrent majority and concludes with an assertion of the inadequacy of "top-down" approaches for dealing with problems Iraq and the Israel-Palestine conflict pose. Although this is a useful contribution to discussions of federalism, Scott's mixing of the ideas and processes of direct democracy with the institutions of federalism, as normally understood, needs further explanation for his perspective to be theoretically persuasive. Summing Up: Recommended. Research collections. -- R. Heineman, Alfred University

Scott, Kyle.  Federalism: a normative theory and its practical relevance.  Continuum International Publishers Group, 2011.  216p bibl index afp; ISBN 9781441197641, $90.00; ISBN 9781441177148 pbk, $27.95. Reviewed in 2011dec CHOICE. Scott (Univ. of Houston) seeks to formulate a theory of federalism based on popular sovereignty. He begins with an examination of the relevant thoughts of Althusius, Aristotle, and Tocqueville and suggests that federalism offers answers to some criticisms of deliberative democracy. Drawing on Plato and Montesquieu, in chapters 2 and 3, Scott argues that federalism's protection of local variations is not a form of relativism but serves instead as a framework for popular views. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 examine, respectively, nullification, veto, and secession as protections for federalism. Scott sees nullification as strengthening federalism and the right of secession as "integral" to "healthy" federalism. His discussion of veto focuses on protecting the rights of religious minorities. The final chapter analyzes Calhoun's theory of the concurrent majority and concludes with an assertion of the inadequacy of "top-down" approaches for dealing with problems Iraq and the Israel-Palestine conflict pose. Although this is a useful contribution to discussions of federalism, Scott's mixing of the ideas and processes of direct democracy with the institutions of federalism, as normally understood, needs further explanation for his perspective to be theoretically persuasive. Summing Up: Recommended. Research collections. -- R. Heineman, Alfred University

Review: Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis de Tocqueville, by Alan S. Kahan was reviewed in the journal, French Studies.  You can read the full text of the review by clicking on: Download Kahan FS review 2011

The book is part of Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers, a series that provides comprehensive accounts of the works of seminal conservative thinkers . This volume includes an intellectual biography, historical context, critical exposition of Alexis de Tocqueville's work, reception and influence, contemporary relevance, bibliography including references to electronic resources and an index.

Book Review: US Civil-Military Relations After 9/11

Mackubin T. Owen's book, US Civil-Military Relations After 9/11 was reviewed in The Washington Times on October 7th, 2011. You can read the full review  on the Washington Times website.

Book Review: US Civil-Military Relations After 9/11

US Civil-Military Relations After 9/11 by Mackubin Thomas Owens was reviewed in The Providence Journal. You can read the review at http://www.projo.com/books/content/BOOK-CIVIL-MILITARY_08-21-11_HDPH81O_v11.6dd35.html

" This is the finest work available today for a serious student of how the military can best serve the Republic."--James N. Mattis, General, U.S. Marines

 

Review: The Transforming Fire

HAARETZ.com has published a review of The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict.

Written by Jonathan Spyer, the book sets out to explain how the rise of Islamism is changing the nature of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

"in clear language not burdened with academic jargon (despite the author's doctorate in international relations from the London School of Economics ), Spyer lays out the threats against Israel that have worsened in the two decades since Islamists took over from Arab nationalists as Israel's main foes."

To read the full review click on the link: http://www.haaretz.com/culture/books/middle-east-when-force-has-the-final-word-1.361060

Mac Owens goes spelunking through 'U.S. Civil-Military Relations After 9/11' - By Tom Ricks | The Best Defense

US Civil-Military Relations After 9/11 by Mackubin Owens was cited by Tom Ricks in his blog post on the Foreign Policy website today (Feb. 14).

You can read the post at  ricks.foreignpolicy.com

The Transforming Fire reviewed in Washington Times

The Washington Times reviewed Jonathan Spyer's Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict. You can read the full review at http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/feb/2/new-cold-war-in-middle-east/

"How can a society remain perpetually ready for war yet uncorrupted by the readiness?

It is a question posed by Jonathan Spyer in “The Transforming Fire: The Rise of the Israel-Islamist Conflict,” and it’s a thoughtful question that highlights the book’s composition as equal parts philosophical memoir and strategic analysis."

Review: Groundless Existence (Michael Marder)

Groundless Existence: The Political Ontology of Carl Schmitt  (Michael Marder, 2010) was reviewed in the International Journal of Philosophical Studies Vol. 19(1), 145–148 by Santiago Zambala.

To read the complete review, click on this link Download Review Groundless Existence.

Review: Energy and Climate Wars

"A good read for anyone interested in climate and energy issues.  Agree or disagree, the issues are too important to be viewed through a politically correct smokescreen.  The book is a commendable contribution to the debate." -- John R. Hays, Jr., University of Texas School of Law.

You can read the full review of Energy and Climate Wars (Ecomides & Glover) on the ReReact website at http://www.rereact.com/index.php/rereact/article/996.

 

Recast All Under Heaven wins "honorable mention"

Continuum is pleased to announce that Recast All Under Heaven by Xiaoyuan Liu has received an "honorable mention" in this year's scholarship award competition of the Chinese Historians in the United States. The award committee wrote:

"Professor Liu Xiaoyuan’s book, Recast All Under Heaven, offers a systematic examination of China’s incessant efforts to reassert its sovereignty over its frontiers in the twentieth century. By weaving together the episodes of its interactions with neighboring countries (Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, and India), the two superpowers of the Cold War era, as well as domestic ethnic minorities, the author tells a fascinating story of China’s regeneration from a traditional empire based on universalistic sovereignty to a “modern” state that went beyond the conventional type of nation-states. Liu’s work is conceptually powerful, empirically rich and solid, and indeed groundbreaking in advancing our understanding of China’s territorial identity in the modern era."

Putin's Oil - Martin Sixsmith

Putin's Oil: The Yukos Affair and the Struggle for Russia by Martin Sixsmith was reviewed in the 'Books of the Year' feature, Times Literary Supplement (UK):

'Martin Sixsmith brings out all the political drama (and literary resonance) of the ongoing confrontation between Putin and the imprisoned entrepreneur Mikhail Khodorkovsky.'

Foreign Affairs: Review of International Relations of Sub-Saharan Africa

The October issue of Foreign Affairs features a review of International Relations of Sub-Saharan Africa by Ian Taylor.

"In this up-to-date and always readable introduction to Africa's international relations, Taylor argues that Africa has often played a significant role on the global stage, and he provides many examples of how African leaders are able to manipulate the international system to pursue their own interests. [...] Surveying the relationship between each of the world's major powers and Africa and discussing the region's international economic relations, the book also includes an especially incisive chapter on China's recent forays into the region and another one on recent British policies there. Although it is presumably targeted at an undergraduate audience, it will appeal to most interested readers."

You can read the full review at

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66734/ian-taylor/international-relations-of-sub-saharan-africa

 

Putin's Oil by Martin Sixsmith

The Mantle has published a lengthy review of Putin's Oil: The Yukos Affair and the Struggle for Russia, by Martin Sixsmith, which can be read at www.mantlethought.org

Continuum, 2010, 311 pp.

Publicity news -- Continuum Authors in the Media

Steve Hewitt, author of Snitch! A History of the Modern Intelligence Informer did a program for the Sunday Edition of CBC radio. http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/2010/05/may-16-2010.html

Steven Moore's The Novel: An Alternative History was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal on Sunday May 16.Click here to read the review.

Peter YU's Second Long March was reviewed in The Taiwan Review. Download Taiwan Review

Review: Michael Oakeshott by Edmund Neill

Michael Oakeshott, written by Edmund Neill from the University of Oxford, is volume 8 in our Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers series.

The book and the series are garnering high praise and the latest review for Michael Oakeshott appeared in Informationsmittel (IFB) : digitales Rezensionsorgan für Bibliothek und Wissenschaft. Reviewer Till Kinzel wrote:

Among recent introductions to Oakeshott’s work the latest addition comes from Edmund Neill who offers a succinct, balanced and therefore valuable account of the major elements of Oakeshott’s thinking. His book appears in a series about conservative and libertarian thinkers which, according to series editor John Meadowcroft, aims to show that there is a rigorous scholarly tradition of social and political thought that may be broadly described as 'conservative’, 'libertarian’ or some combination of the two“. This is indeed a very valuable aim and highly to be commended, as book series explicitly devoted to conservative thought as a serious intellectual enterprise are few and far between. Neill always offers a sober understanding of Oakeshott's sometimes rather difficult teaching. He thus enables the reader to see what is Oakeshott's contribution to 20th century political and philosophical thought.

You can read the full text in English by clicking on or copying the following link: http://ifb.bsz-bw.de/ifb2/bsz321985532rez-1.pdf?id=3049

Coming Soon: The Poetics of Fear

The Poetics of Fear: A Human Response to Human Security by Chris Erickson will be published next month.

"Subtlety of analysis and fearlessness in the face of complexity characterize Erickson’s work: he reads poetically, seeing not just models for thought (and hence action), but also ways in which the very texts he reads complicate the matter. Erickson has a salutary awareness of metaphor, the reverberations of literary context, and the imaginative attitudes encouraged by various texts and methodologies. 
We rarely find in political thought such sensitivity to the deeper and more unsettling aspects of poetics, but here Erickson rejects the oversimplifications of ‘realism’ and shows how the cultural allies from the past that are enlisted on its side can themselves qualify, question, make problematic, or undermine the positions they are enlisted to support.

This book compares favorably to the best of those that use Ancient Greek and Roman texts to think with and think through, in company with, e.g., the psychologist Jonathan Shay’s Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character, or the legal scholar James Boyd White’s Heracles’ Bow: Essays in the Rhetoric and Poetics of the Law.

In the end Erickson does come out with a clear position, but it is a position that is complex and flexible : we are often seduced by the simplicity of Realpolitik, but we can escape its unfit logic by resisting flattening and ham-fisted readings that use Classical texts to support political ‘realism.’ Erickson uses the ways in which the Shield of Achilles in the Iliad can encourage us to think of representation and mediation, in terms of a negotiated engagement with versions of the world.  Erickson uses this as a springboard for careful interpretations not just of passages from the Iliad, but also Sophocles, Thucydides, Plato, Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Derrida, and Baudrillard, culminating in the use the Homeric Shield of Achilles to shape an analysis of a pair of speeches, one by George W. Bush, one by Barack Obama.

Such intellectually fruitful use of poetics to understand politics is as impressive as it is rare."

--Dr. Andrew S. Becker, Associate Professor of Latin & Ancient Greek Languages, Literatures, & Cultures; Co-Director, Spring Semester Liberal Arts Program,Center for European Studies & Architecture,Riva San Vitale, Switzerland; Associate Chair, Dept of Foreign Languages & Literatures, Virginia Tech, USA.

Choice Editor's Pick: Thomas Hobbes by R.E.R Bunce

Thomas Hobbes by R.E.R Bunce is the first of our twenty volume series, Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers. Choice reviewed it this month:

"As the inaugural volume in a new series from John Meadowcraft, "Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers," Bunce's Thomas Hobbes sets a high standard for future volumes. Bunce (Univ. of Cambridge) has provided a text useful for undergraduates, graduates, and faculty alike. The book includes a brief yet informative biographical sketch, an account of the development of Hobbes's civil philosophy, and a particularly valuable discussion of how Hobbes's thought was received in his own day, as well as the various avenues of interpretation subsequently developed. The discussion of Hobbes's reception and interpretation is particularly useful to students as it addresses the critiques of Hobbes made by Pufendorf, Locke, and Rousseau. The account of contemporary views of Hobbes discusses his place in the thought of important recent theorists such as Michael Oakeshott, Leo Strauss, and Francis Fukuyama as well as his continued relevance to contemporary political subjects. Bunce's volume has the particular virtue of paying due attention to Hobbes's physics as well as his politics, clarifying the frequently neglected link between his physics and his moral and political teachings. Summing Up: Recommended. All undergraduate, graduate, and research collections." -- M. Harding, University of Dallas

Just Published: Snitch! A History of the Modern Intelligence Informer

Snitch! is a thorough and vivid study of intelligence informers --people who secretly supply information to a domestic state security agency. This wide-ranging study by Steve Hewitt details both the practical and political aspects of information, supported by examples from various countries.

"Snitch! is a concise and fluent reminder that, for all the publicity about increasing technical surveillance, informers were not just the first way by which states sought security information but are now re-emphasised as a critical feature of countering terrorism. Through examining famous cases and general aspects of the recruitment and use of informers, Steve Hewitt has provided an excellent survey of their utility for ‘authorities’ and the personal and social costs entailed." Peter Gill, University of Liverpool, UK

Coming soon: Putin's Oil

This review of Martin Sixsmith’s book PUTIN’S OIL 9781441199683 is just in from Library Journal’s January 2010 issue.



 

“Dramatic and compelling… Sixsmith vividly describes the struggle between former Russian president (and current prime minister) Vladimir Putin and Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former owner of the Yukos Oil company and one of the wealthiest men in Russia. With the skill of a novelist (he has written two works of political fiction), Sixsmith recalls how Khodorkovsky transformed himself from a businessman, who may have committed ruthless criminal actions to get ahead, into a philanthropist who stood for Western-style above-board corporate accounting and political freedom for Russians. However, after provoking the prickly Putin with accusations of shady political and financial dealing and hypocrisy, Khodorkovsky was sentenced to jail for tax evasion on questionable evidence.”

-Library Journal

Coming Soon: British Conservative Party and One Nation Politics

The British Conservative Party and One Nation Politics, by David Seawright, will be published in November 2009.

"The label, One Nation, has been central to the politics of British Conservatism for nearly 150 years. Often used as code in internal conflicts or as short-hand for a complex electoral strategy, it has seldom been analysed systematically. David Seawright’s book addresses and remedies this by exploring the evolution of the concept of One Nation politics, locating it in the party’s history and demonstrating its continued importance in contemporary Conservatism. The British Conservative Party and One Nation Politics is a significant contribution to our understanding Conservative politics in Britain." --Andrew Taylor, Professor of Politics,University of Sheffield.

"David Seawright knows his subject backwards. His book is a persuasive blend of history and social science: it demonstrates definitively that One Nation politics, far from being some kind of centrist alternative to Thatcherism, has always been a microcosm of the creative tensions that have made the Conservative Party, at its best, Britain’s natural party of government." --Tim Bale, author of The Conservative Party from Thatcher to Cameron

For more information on this title, visit our website at http://www.continuumbooks.com