For students looking for an introduction to decolonization, or faculty looking to catch up on conversations they have been missing (or conversations they have avoided or actively sought not take part in), Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni has brought it together for you in Epistemic Freedom in Africa: Deprovincialization and Decolonization (2018). As the title implies, this book […]
The people of Ethiopia defeated European attempts to colonize it. However, Dr Yirga argues that in embracing western education and erasing local history and tradition, the institutions and laws put in place colonizing processes, what he calls ‘native colonialism’. This is one of the most interesting books I have read of recent, highly recommended to anyone interested […]
Teodros Kiros is a public philosopher, demonstrated by his commitment to making philosophy accessible and bringing philosophy into the public spaces. Ethiopian Discourse (2011) is a kind of companion book to Teodros Kiros’ Philosophical Essays (2011). Both are published by Red Sea and both are collections of articles written in the Ethiopian Reporter newspaper, amongst […]
Edited collections are challenging to write about and review, with the chapters covering diverse areas / topics and each offering unique data and perspectives. One unique edited collection on Qatar is Policy-Making in a Transformative State: The Case of Qatar, edited by M. E. Tok, L. R. M. Alkhater and L. Pal (2016). The book is over 400 […]
In looking for ideas about how to present the history and connectivity of ideas, I returned to Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morality, published in 1887. Sharing a few notes with that interest in reading (and only a periphery interest in the arguments of the book). In the Introduction of the version I read (by […]
Other than a short publication from 1979, there are few academic books on the history of Qatar. After spending a year in Qatar, at Qatar University, Allen Fromherz wrote ‘Qatar: A Modern History’. The book was originally published in 2012, (Kamrava’s book is 2013) however, the updated version (published in 2017) provides updates throughout the […]
Notes from Chinua Achebe, who needs no introduction, from Home and Exile (2000): “One morning all the animals were going to a meeting to which the town crier had summoned them the night before. Surprisingly the chicken was headed not to the public square like the rest, but away from it. When his neighbours and […]
Qatar National Library The Creation of Qatar (1979) Zahlan Histoire et Changements Sociaux au Qatar (1982) Montigny-Kozlowska Oil and Politics in the Gulf (1990) Crystal The Ottoman Gulf (1997) Anscombe The Emergence of Qatar (2005) Rahman Qatar, A Modern History (2012, 2017) Fromherz Jassim the Leader (2012) Mohamed al-Thani Qatar – Politics and the Challenges […]
There is a reason why some books are published by academic publishers, and others not. Academic books are peer reviewed and are held to a standard of quality (usually). Retired professor Gary Wasserman’s book, “Doha Experiment: Arab Kingdom, Catholic College, Jewish Teacher” (2017), was not published by an academic press, he opted for Skyhorse (known for […]
Geoff Harkness attempts to offer a sort of primer on Qatar in “Changing Qatar: Culture, Citizenship, and Rapid Modernization” (2020), published by NYU Press. The book reads like a mixture between Wikipedia pages and a Lonely Planet travel guide. One review of the book, by Daniel Martin Varisco, felt it more reflective of journalism than academic […]