Book Review: Identity: Contemporary Identity Politics and the Struggle for Recognition by Francis Fukuyama

 Tracing the development of the idea of identity from the time of Plato, the author Francis Fukuyama gives a simple message of shaping a universal understanding of human dignity. Unless humans do that conflict seems unavoidable. The author says that the inner self is the basis of human dignity. He adds that economic grievances become more severe when indignity and disrespect are attached with it. The concept of identity is rooted in Thymos, according...

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Book Review: The Girlfriend By R. L. Stine

I personally think this book presents a short story with so many lessons for the reader. It is about a boy named Scotty and his friend Lora. Scotty has been accepted at Princeton and is happy in life until he faces a difficult situation. Lora goes to Paris with her family for holidays. During this time Scotty meets Shannon, a girl at his school. Things change very quickly as Shannon gets addicted to Scotty. Scotty regrets his action and tries to...

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Book Review: The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

This novel was written by Ernest Hemingway in the United States in 1899. The author of this book worked as a journalist, took part in both world wars of the twentieth century and covered two civil wars too. In 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. Seven years after this, he sadly committed suicide. The story of this novel revolves around a person named Santiago. In his younger days he was called by his full name, but now “salao” has...

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Book Review: Ibn Khaldun: His Life and Work by Muḥammad Abdullah Enan

 The author of this book presents a study on Ibn Khaldun, one of the distinguished personalities in the history of Muslim thought. Although western scholars benefited from Ibn Khaldun, but the author believes that in the East he is still not fully appreciated. The early chapters of the book cover the early life period of Ibn Khaldun and his adventures, whereas the latter part focuses on his intellectual and social legacy. Born in 1332 in Tunis,...

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Book Review: Water by Bapsi Sidhwa

 In this book Bapsi Sidhwa adapts Deepa Mehta’s controversial film ‘Water’. The setting is based on the backdrop of Gandhi’s rise to power in India of 1938.  The story revolves around the life of an eight-year-old girl named Chuyia. Chuyia is a child-bride who is abandoned away from her village at an Ashram, when her fifty-year-old husband dies. Like all the other widows there at the Ashram, she is expected to spend the rest of her life...

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Book Review: Judgment of History by Mubarak Ali

Judgment of History is one of the more than eighty books published by Dr. Mubarak Ali. This book is a collection of articles on various themes in history and historiography. Ali presents a pro-people approach in his writings.  He does not agree with the dominant narratives of history where local perspectives of the people are missing. In his simple style Ali discusses dynasties, imperial powers, Europe, Mughals, Arabs, Romans, traders, civilizations,...

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