Book Description
This revealing story of a father-son relationship, the first memoir of its kind by a Palestinian living in the Occupied Territories, is set against the backdrop of Middle East hostilities and more than thirty years under military occupation. Marked by a sense of loss and impermanence and embroiled in political conflict, it is the family drama of a difficult relationship between an idealistic son and his politically active father-Aziz Shehadeh, who, in 1967, was the first Palestinian to advocate a peaceful, two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute-a situation further complicated by the arbitrary humiliations of living under the occupier's law. Above all, it is a moving description of the daily lives of those who have chosen to remain on their land.
Customer Reviews:
Eye-opening.......2006-07-28
As an American, I have grown up to believe that Israel is a close friend to us. I would imagine that an ally of the United States would be a country that follows human rights guidelines. However, I was mistaken. "Strangers in the House" is a brilliantly written piece which provides personal experiences in an occupied Palestine. With all of the conflict in the Middle East currently, it is a must-read, to understand the viewpoint from all angles. Raja Shehadeh thinks way past his time, as his father had. He has written this book for the world to know what daily life is like under occupation and that it is a constant struggle. Mr. Shehadeh is admirable in his open-mindedness. If you would like to see the viewpoint from the other side, this book is perfect. It will help you open your mind and see the truth.
It is a privilege and an honour to read this.......2005-09-06
I was at first taken aback by the way Palestinian lawyer and writer Raja Shehadeh chose to begin this book, his memoir. Knowing that he is a very important figure in Palestine, I expected (even half-dreaded) a right-on plunge in the middle of Israeli/Middle-Eastern politics. I was wrong.
Although he begins by mentioning the 1948 war as a fact that explains his having been born in Ramallah and not Jaffa, where his family was very important, that's just about it.....in the beginning. We are treated then to a delicately rendered description of the writer's childhood: to a vision of the almost sad figure of a fragile child whose life seems always measured against the looming and powerful figure of his father (a very important Palestinian lawyer), and the impossible to reach lights and colours of neverland-Jaffa, the way of life that the family had lost forever.
It is the relationship with the father, however, what soon becomes the focus of this memoir. And here we must admire one of the most important aspects of the book: an honest-to-God account of how this boy, then young man, then adult, managed his growing, changing relationship with a strong and powerful father. I was swept from my feet at having such a first hand description of a never-easy son/father relationship. I must confess I was astounded that this incredibly sincere testimony was rendered by an Arab man since, as the same author acknowledges, his is a culture where the son/father bond tends to be quite distant, formal and formidable.
We, readers, see how having such an important father proves to be a load, but also a challenge for the author. And as he begins to be more sure about what his place in the world is, and what his mission is, the world of politics (which had never quite disappeared from the background) returns with force, but in such a way that provokes a fatal crisis in this already difficult son/father relationship. And just as the situation appears to be unbearable, just as the breach seems impossible to mend......Raja's father is murdered.
Here the book takes an abrupt turn. Raja decides to help as much as he can to find the murderer, whom he believes to be someone involved in a land dispute his father was working on. He is good. The pace and tempo of the narrative change so that we begin to feel the urge to know who this murderer is, for we are much pretty sure of why the murder took place......and I won't spoil the ending for you. I'll just say that it is important. Very important. For Raja and for all of us.
Just as this seemingly humble book is terribly important: as the personal memoir of a man who has always been politically moderate, a fighter for human rights, one of the few Palestinians who has ever dared to criticise the politics of the Palestinian leaders and of the Arab leaders; one of the few who was always convinced that Arabs had to negotiate with Israeli, that Israel was there to stay; as a honest, moving homage to a father who was a powerful force in the author's life (and who taught him to see politics and the Middle-East the way he saw it);..... as a way to know more about that rarely-found-in-the-news-and-media specimen: the Arab, Palestinian moderate, and the way he fares.
A Courageous Man.......2003-07-29
Shehadeh's book is perhaps the only one to lay out the multi-faceted nature of the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab conflict. Or, as Shehadeh, puts it so eloquently a conflict between Palestinians, Israelis, the "inside" and the "outside".
For me, the most touching moment of the book came when the young Shehadeh heard the PLO radio denounce his father for daring to work for a two-state solution. "A.S.," it declared, "you are a traitor, a despicable collaborator. You want to surrender and sell your birthright. We know how to deal with the likes of you. A. S. you shall pay for your treason. We shall eliminate you. Silence you forever. Traitor. Collaborator. Quisling."
The PLO quite simply could not afford to lose the funding it received from the surrounding Arab states to create a peaceful future for Israelis and Palestinians and also to ensure that Israel would no longer "be the subject of fiery speeches in which the people's rage could be articulated and released-they would be distracted from dealing with all that was wrong at home."
The PLO simply could not afford peace because it wasn't being paid to bring about either peace or an independent Palestinian State; it was being paid to keep the Palestinians miserable and angry. To ensure that the Palestinian plight remained a distraction for the Arabs earning for democracy.
Shehadeh's father dared to stand up to the PLO and its backers. He was murdered.
And now, his son is carrying on his father's work.
It is our job to make sure that Raja's life lasts longer than his father's.
Required Reading.......2003-05-03
This book should be considered required reading for anyone seeking to understand the current Palestinian - Israeli conflict. Shehadeh provides a very personal view of the reality of growing up in the occupied West Bank. Best of all, he pulls no punches - against Israel or his fellow Palestinians.
Author misunderstands real reason behind Palestinian rage.......2002-06-18
There is no doubt that Raja Shehaded is a well meaning and peaceful man. The Mid East would be a land of milk and honey if most of its inhabitants shared his noble aims. However, Shehaded mistakenly blames the present Israeli conflict for the central reason behind the rage of the Palestinian Arabs. The author's father was likely assassinated by militant Arabs because he advocated cooperation and coexistence with Israel. And yet, the author ironically still fails to concede that a large number of Palestinians will not be satisfied until the Jewish state is driven into the sea. Shehaded complains about the restrictions placed upon the movement of Palestinian citizens while virtually ignoring Israel's legitimate concerns to curtail violence. His charges of harassment and humiliation ring somewhat hollow when the whole situation is taken into context. Why doesn't Shehaded react more strongly against the murderous militants who force Israel to enact such draconian measures? He also seems to downplay their virulent anti-Semitism.
Raja Shehaded argues that peace mostly depends upon Israeli willingness to compromise. The Palestinians who have opted for death and destruction are portrayed as more than willing to lay down their arms once a just settlement is reached. Many categorically reject such a sanguine prediction. Bernard Lewis, for instance, in his most recent book, What Went Wrong?, is convinced that the whole Arab world is wallowing in rage and bitterness due to its falling behind the West. The Palestinians are merely a microcosm of wider Arab anger over the failure of the Muslim world to achieve anything significant in the last 400-500 years. Eric Hoffer's seminal work, The True Believer, points to the yearning of some people to seek a nihilistic cause to assuage their existential need for meaning. Eventually returning to a life of everyday normal concerns is a near impossibility. Admittedly, though, Shehaded has a valid point when objecting to the added Israeli settlements in the so-called occupied (the term disputed would be more accurate) territories. The author is right on target for blaming Israel for exacerbating an already volatile situation. Shehaded may jump to some erroneous conclusions, but he still is a voice for reasonableness and compromise. Unfortunately, the evidence indicates that few Palestinians care to listen to this decent and life affirming man. One can only hope that Raja Shehaded's influence dramatically increases in the immediate future.
Book Description
Arnold Toynbee's A Study of History has been acknowledged as one of the greatest achievements of modern scholarship. A ten-volume analysis of the rise and fall of human civilizations, it is a work of breath-taking breadth and vision. D.C. Somervell's abridgement, in two volumes, of this magnificent enterprise, preserves the method, atmosphere, texture, and, in many instances, the very words of the original. Originally published in 1947 and 1957, these two volumes are themselves a great historical achievement. Volume 1, which abridges the first six volumes of Toynbee's study, includes the Introduction, The Geneses of Civilizations, and The Disintegrations of Civilizations. Volume 2, an abridgement of Volumes VII-X, includes sections on Universal States, Universal churches, Heroic Ages, Contacts Between Civilizations in Space, Contacts Between Civilizations in Time, Law and Freedom in History, The Prospects of the Western Civilization, and the Conclusion. Of Somervell's work, Toynbee wrote, "The reader now has at his command a uniform abridgement of the whole book, made by a clear mind that has not only mastered the contents but has entered into the writer's outlook and purpose."
Customer Reviews:
Why the world is as it is now!.......2006-11-10
A key to Toynbee, fascinating in itself. This is marvelous not only for its view of World History, but as an interesting example of writing style and expository method.
This work has not aged well.......2006-07-15
A study of history had been on my reading list for a while, I initially thought I'd go for the entire series but ended up reading this abridgement instead. I'm glad I chose the abridgement because reading the original would have been an even bigger waste of time.
This book supposedly covers all civilizations, but this is really true only insofar as all of them are MENTIONED at some point. The great majority of material is taken from western history, particularly from the classic Athens-Rome-Europe axis, with Christendom as the example of a "universal religion". The existing literature on non-European history was of course much more limited when this work was written than it is today, and undoubtedly mr Toynbee was very well acquainted with all the material available to him, but why should you as a reader of history today be limited by what was there in the 1940s?
The second problem with this work is its philosophy. Toynbee searches for genesis, growth, breakdown and disintegration patterns in the "life-cycle" of civilizations. This looks extremely interesting when you browse the table of contents, but the actual work is quite disappointing. Basically a model which applies reasonably well to western European history (Athens-Rome-Europe, again) is forcibly fitted to all other civilizations, and the results are not pretty. A couple of suitably interpreted cases from a couple of civilizations are enough to "prove" any given proposition. Possible objections are not discussed at all even though anyone with a good knowledge of world history will see that the argumentation is often ridiculously weak. Well, the good part is that these vain attempts at categorization and systematization of history will make you ponder how complex and multifarious history really is in reality.
Finally, I should mention that I think volumes VII-X provide more interesting reading because they do not drag the dead weight of the Argument with them. But on the other hand these latter volumes are burdened by the author's religious convictions which make some texts resemble sermons more than historical writing.
My recommendation is that you find your comparative history in books that are less ambitious but wiser.
The case for History as a guide.......2005-02-27
I came to this book through a personal study of the secrets of human development. Singapore's miracle of development from 1970 on was the immediate precursor to discovering this work. The architect, Lee Kuan Yew, repeated read Toynbee's work through his career and used the challenge and response theory effectively to lift his country. Study of History is an enduring masterpiece. Clearly, it is more detailed and rich addressing western civilizations than eastern, but some of this imbalance might be due to the abridgement. I also find it interesting to contrast the book with Jared Diamond's "history as science" theory and would have loved to have seen Toynbee's consideration of Diamond's scholarship. Though Toynbee's emphasis is on the social, cultural and spiritual levels and boxes in geo physical factors in accord with the science of his era, I believe the two works complement each other in the end.
His emphasis is better than more modern works.......2004-07-13
People who consider Michael Moore's latest movie, `Fahrenheit 9/11,' sort of crazy, particularly when it is talking about attempts to keep Americans afraid that they are about to be attacked in some way that no one could guess, or, conversely, when it provides R-rated examples of a CD that American troops are able to listen to in their helmets through an armored fighting vehicle's soundtrack system to illustrate how pumped up troops feel going into combat, could feel that the abridgement by D. C. Somervell of Arnold Toynbee's multi-volume set into two small volumes is too selective to encompass the whole picture. People with strong political opinions might even agree with Walter Kaufmann, at the end of his book, FROM SHAKESPEARE TO EXISTENTIALISM, that Arnold J. Toynbee's attempt to write A STUDY OF HISTORY in ten volumes, which provides abundant lessons which leaders of today ought to heed to avoid the ignominious fate of numerous nations, peoples, and civilizations who are far less prosperous than Americans today, if certain outstanding obligations are not considered and everything which must be reported as income for tax purposes is assumed to benefit someone, actually amounts to a form of argument in which, "His method is what Stephen Potter calls `one-upmanship.' Where a red herring might be recognized and challenged, the queer fish that Toynbee introduces with an air of mildly bored authority silence all opposition--unless you either happen to know about them or have the patience to find out." (Kaufmann, FSTE, Chapter 20, `Toynbee and Religion,' p. 413).
The Table of Contents has parts and chapters both consecutively numbered with Roman Numerals, so Part V. The Disintegration of Civilizations, includes Chapter XIX. Schism in the Soul. Subdivisions such as (3) Truancy and Martyrdom show such mixtures of cowardice and courage that even Toynbee gets caught considering subjective natures in the worst possible light:
`~`The truant soul of which we are in search is a soul whose truancy is inspired by a genuine feeling that the cause which it serves is not really worth the service that this cause demands of it. Similarly the martyr soul of which we are in search is the soul which goes to martyrdom not merely or mainly to render practical service to the furtherance of that cause but rather to satisfy a craving of the soul itself for deliverance from
the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world. [W. Wordsworth, `Tintern Abbey]
Such a martyr, noble as he may be, is psychologically more than half a suicide. He is, in modern jargon, an escapist, as is also of course our truant an escapist of a more ignoble variety.'~' (Toynbee, A STUDY OF HISTORY Abr. Vol. I, p. 442).
Continuing on the same page, the disintegration of civilizations was not a pretty picture, even in ancient times:
`~`The Christian Church was the principal target for the parting strokes of a Hellenic dominant minority which turned savage in its death-agony; for this dying pagan ruling class refused to face the heart-rending truth that it was itself the author of its own downfall and destruction. Even in articulo mortis it tried to salvage a last shred of self-respect by persuading itself that it was perishing as the victim of a dastardly assault on the part of the proletariat; and, since the external proletariat was now marshalled in formidable war-bands which were able to defy or elude the Imperial Government's attempts at retaliation for their galling raids, the brunt fell upon the Christian Church, which was the master institution of the internal proletariat.'~'
Toynbee is able to appreciate the martyrs of the early Christian Church. "Ignatius of Antioch, one of the notable Christian martyrs of the second century, speaks of himself as `the wheat of God' and longs for the day when he shall be `ground by the teeth of wild beasts into the pure bread of Christ'." (Vol. I, p. 443).
There is much more to Toynbee than theology, but it was a very religious time when Volume I of the Abridged A STUDY OF HISTORY was published in 1947 and became an international best-seller. The second abridged volume appeared much later.
Landmark Work.......2004-04-05
I won't spend time writing all the myriad ways in which I admired this work. It would take too long. If you have an intellectual bent, if you are interested in history, this work is a treasure trove.
I particular admire that the author, unlike Spengler, found a space for God at the head of all that he documents; the author was not swayed by the simplistic atheistic zeitgeist of our age.
Product Description
Mr. Toynbee's analysis of the rise and fall of civilizations has been acknowledged as an achievement without parallel in modern scholarship.
Book Description
An enthralling look at the convergence of brain science, biological computation and quantum physics, and what it implies about our minds, our selves, our future, even God
Do we really have free will or do we just imagine we do? Do we create our own destinies, or are we merely machines? Will the machines we are now making themselves have free will? These are the fundamental questions of The Quantum Brain. To answer them, psychiatrist, researcher, and critically acclaimed author Jeffrey Satinover first explores the latest discoveries in neuroscience, modern physics, and radically new kinds of computing, then shows how, together, they suggest the brain embodies and amplifies the mysterious laws of quantum physics. By its doing so, Satinover argues we are elevated above the mere learning machines modern science assumes us to be. Satinover also makes two provocative predictions: We will soon construct artificial devices as free and aware as we are; as well as begin a startling re-evaluation of just who and what we are, of our place in the universe, and perhaps even of God.
Customer Reviews:
A Middle View of Religion and Related Topics.......2007-08-04
There are many topics raised in this book, some rather arcane. This review is limited to Satinover's attitude towards religion. He is open-minded to it. However, he believes that religion has justifiably been criticized for its failures more than science because only the former believes in absolute truth. (Could one not argue just the opposite?)
Satinover frowns on unexamined beliefs, regardless of their content. To him, both belief and unbelief can be a fool's conviction. Against the view that no serious academic can be a believer, Satinover cites several top scientists who believe in God (pp. 215-216).
Additionally, Satinover is willing to entertain other academic heresies. He is open to the idea that the universe is designed by an extraneous entity, and considers this view a matter of personal preference (p. 217). And, against those who scoff at the notion of free will, Satinover contends that science cannot decide between free will and determinism (p. 218).
The Quantum Brain: The Search for Freedom and the Next Generation of Man.......2007-02-11
I found the book to be a wonderful read! If your interested in the mysteries of Quantum Physics and the power of thought, this book is for you.
not for a beginner.......2007-01-30
This book was hard to understand. I would not recommend this one to those who are just curious, like myself.
Undecided ...obviously not written by a scienist.......2006-11-03
I found the subject matter intriguing but the entire time I was reading this book I felt some vague discomfort with the delivery of the information presented. Although the science is complex, the explanations or the 'teaching of it' so to speak could have been greatly simplified. It seemed a bit cluttered. There were so many details presented that it was almost impossible (without great concentration) to see the 'big picture'. At some point during my reading of this book I investigated the author and was not surprised to discover that he had no scientific background and had written a book called 'Cracking the Bible Code'. I should have read the back of the book sooner. This book as just to hard to read. I've read a great many 'scientific' books on complex subjects that were much easier to absorb than this one. If I would have picked up this book in the bookstore and scanned it I would not have bought it. find your self another book on a similar subject, preferably written by a scientist and not a psychologist (that thinks codes are hidden in the bible) and get it instead.
The Quantum Brain.......2006-09-05
Great book. Mind boggling.Not a casual read must work you'r noggin.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life, published by Institute on Religion and Public Life on November 1, 2001. The length of the article is 2099 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: The Quantum Brain: The Search for Freedom and the Next Generation of Man. (Books in review: matter, life, and soul).(Review)
Author: Stephen M. Barr
Publication:
First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 2001
Publisher: Institute on Religion and Public Life
Page: 43(4)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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Game Warden's Diary
Chauncey Weitz
Manufacturer: Willow Creek Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 093255816X |
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