Book Review: The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by Bell Hooks

 Bell Hooks says that militant feminism gave women permission to unleash their rage and hatred at men but it did not allow us to talk about what it meant to love men in patriarchal culture, to know how we could express that love without fear of exploitation and oppression. To simply label men as oppressors and dismiss them meant we never had to give voice to the gaps in our understanding or to talk about maleness in complex ways. She believes...

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Book Review: Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

 Power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes one wants. This can be done through coerce by threats, induce them with payments or through attraction and co-option. Soft power is the ability to get what you want through attraction rather than coercion or payments. When you can get others to admire your ideals and to want what you want, you do not have to spend as much on sticks and carrots to move them in your...

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Book Review: One-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse

 In 1940s there were two tendencies within the history of Critical Theory. First, the philosophical-cultural analysis of the trends of Western civilization developed by Horkheimer and Adorno in Dialectic of Enlightenment. Second, the more practical-political development of Critical Theory as a theory of social change proposed by Marcuse and Neumann. For them, Critical Theory would be developed as a theory of social change that would connect...

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Book Review: Bhopal Connections Vignettes of Royal Rule by Shaharyar Muhammed Khan

 Khan, the grandson of the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal writes about the dramatic events, characters, scandals, social practices, culture and history of Bhopal. Specific attention has been given to the four successive women rulers of Bhopal. Some of the social customs are shown through the lens of foreigners including Badcock, and Marjorie Memsahib. The first part of the book covers the history of Bhopal and the second part covers the contemporary...

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