Book Review: Spiritual Quest: Reflections on Quranic Prayer According to the Teachings of Imam Ali by Reza Shah-Kazemi

The Quran holds a very central position in Islam. Throughout centuries it has been recited by Muslims. This monograph is a contemporary insight into the spiritual, intellectual and moral dynamics set in motion by the short Quranic chapters. Shah-Kazemi bases his own philosophical reflections on the teachings of Imam Ali. He focuses on the moral and the mystical aspects of the texts. The authors stresses on the need to acknowledge religious diversity....

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Book Review: Fact and Fiction by Bertrand Russell

Betrand Russell belonged to an influential family of England. His grandfather had once been the Prime Minister of Britain. This book is a compilation of Bertrand Russell’s essays. The first section is on the books which influenced Russell during his youth. The second section is on politics and education. The last section is on divertissements and parables. This section also includes some rare descriptions of Russell’s dreams.    Russell...

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Book Review: Iran: A Revolution in Turmoil (Edited by Haleh Afshar)

Book chapters contributed by the different authors for this book include Ervand Abrahamian, Haleh Afshar, Kamran Afshar, Reza Fazel, Fereidun Fesharaki, Mohamad Hashem Pesaran and Ayatollah Morteza Motahari. In this review I will provide an overview of the chapters. The major focus of this book is the practical reality of the development process in Iran. Safavid dynasty existed from 1500 to 1722. There was an Allied military occupation of Iran from...

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Book Review: Pakistan: The Social Sciences' Perspective (Edited by Akbar S. Ahmed)

Overall this book highlights the complexity and diversity in Pakistani society. It covers the saints of Sind, Afghan refugees in Peshawar, complex social networks of Baltistan, groups in Faisalabad, and tribalism in Faisalabad. This anthology of essays present various anthropological and historical perspectives. Overall there are thirteen contributors to this book. Essays on Afridi of the Khyber Agency, Hazarawal district ethnicity, Transformation...

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Book Review: The Old World: Early Man To the Development of Agriculture (Under the editorial supervision of Robert Stigler)

Reading this book, I learnt that how from the flowers, which were identified by the pollens found in the grave, it was possible to determine the burial month of an individual (p. 61).In southwestern France in Upper Paleolithic times we have the appearance of two cultures, the Aurignacian and the Perigordian, which run almost side by side in the same region (p. 65). Solecki says that the Aurignacian is quite widespread there, through Turkey and the...

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Book Review: The Railway Children by E. Nesbit

I must admit that it took me almost four months to read this book. Not because of the complexity of the novel. In fact while I was reading other books I could not dedicate time for this one. At times I found it dull and boring. I kept reading at a slow pace and now I discover that it is already four months! Anyway, today I congratulate myself on achieving this great milestone. When their father is mysteriously taken away, Roberta, Phyllis and...

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Book Review: Antonio Gramsci: Working-Class Revolutionary- Essays and Interviews (Edited by Martin Thomas)

The essays and the interview collected in this booklet discuss the ideas and the politics of Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), especially in the light of a major recent study of Gramsci, Peter Thomas's book The Gramscian Moment. They argue that Gramsci's ideas are best and most loyally understood as a contribution to working-class revolutionary socialist battle against the capitalist system, which as the financial crash of 2008 and its sequels show, is...

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Book Review: Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature by Ngugi wa Thiong'o

Ngugi says that the very words we use are a product of a collective history (p. x-xi). He says that the present predicaments of Africa are often not a matter of personal choice; they arise from an historical situation. Their solutions are not so much of a matter of personal decision as that of a fundamental social transformation of the structures of our societies starting with a real break with imperialism and its internal ruling allies. Imperialism...

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Book Review: Pakistan: The Economy of the Elitist State by Ishrat Hussain

In this second edition (published in 2019), Ishrat Hussain presents an analysis of the economic development in Pakistan. Hussain compares Pakistan's case with other countries in South Asia and East Asia. He also presents an outline for the economic and social reforms in Pakistan. Hussain believes that the elite in Pakistan continues the unjust accumulation of wealth because the respective roles of the state and the market have been reversed in the...

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Book Review: Critical Theory and Society: A Reader (Edited with an Introduction by Stephen Eric Bronner and Douglas Mackay Kellner)

The Frankfurt School was the first Marxist-oriented research institute in Europe. Its members made an effort to revise both the Marxian critique of capitalism and the theory of revolution, as after the death of Marx new social and political conditions had evolved. The broad themes included in this book are social psychology, cultural criticism, philosophy and political theory. During World War II Marcuse and others went to USA to work for the US...

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Book Review: Desertion by Abdulrazak Gurnah

I first read this interesting novel on the Swahili coast in 2021. The novel covers various aspects of the history, customs and social life of the people living on the coast. Colonialism, racism, trade, merchants, colonizers, biases, politics, minority communities, education, orientalism, ignorance about oral communities and many other themes are discussed in this novel. I find the writing style of the novelist very different from what I have read...

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Book Review: What Went Wrong?: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response by Bernard Lewis

Islam was at the forefront of human achievement for many centuries. This included military and economic power in the world. Europe was considered as something from which there was nothing to learn or to fear from. Europe changed drastically- first on the battlefront and the marketplace. After that it progressed in every aspect of public and private life. Lewis tries to understand how things changed and how the West rose to dominate the rest. At some...

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Book Review: Coming Up for Air by George Orwell

In the novel George Bowling is a forty-five years old man. He is married and has children. He works as an insurance salesman for a company. His worries include an expanding waistline, a new set of false teeth and a strong desire to escape his current life. George decides to return to his village life. When he gets there, things seem to have changes drastically. He fears the war in 1939, because he foresees food queues, soldiers, secret police...

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Book Review: Sex Slaves: The Trafficking of Women in Asia by Louise Brown

Louise Brown states that Japan forcefully recruited 100, 000 girls and women during World War II, as sex slaves. Most of them were Korean women (p. 8). She argues that prostitution is not just about poverty. It is a business founded upon all sorts of inequalities (p. 60). The author stresses that the sex slaves do not have a choice. They cannot resign because of poor working conditions and the unreasonable conduct of their employees and clients (p....

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Book Review: The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (with an Introduction by John Skorupski)

This work of Bertrand Russell was originally published in 1912. In this he covers many interesting themes. Some of them include subjects, such as the distinction between appearance and reality, the existence and nature of matter, idealism, knowledge by the acquaintance and by description, induction, and the limits and the value of philosophical knowledge. I have tried to cover of the points in the book review.All our knowledge, both knowledge of...

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Book Review: Glimpses Into The Corridors of Power by Gohar Ayub Khan

Gohar Ayub Khan's book provides an insight to the upper echelons of power in Pakistan. Basically this book serves as an autobiography. Khan provides details of his grandfather and father. He also briefly traces his family history. Ayub Khan's father was a Risaldar Major, and when he passed away Ayub was away from home. When Ayub returned home he opened his father's grave (p. 8). I am not certain if this is still practiced in Pakistan. The author...

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Book Review: In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell

This collection of Russell contains different essays on social questions in which he scrutinizes many aspects of modern life. Spread over fifteen chapters, Russell makes interesting points, some of which I mention in this book review. Russell believes that formerly there was 'a capacity for light-heartedness and play which has been to some extent inhibited by the cult of efficiency' (p. 22). He also says that the more we know the more harm we...

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Book Review: Property Taxes and State Incapacity in Pakistan by Muhammad Mujtaba Piracha

Piracaha tries to provide answers to some of the most serious questions regarding taxation in Punjab, the most populated province of Pakistan. The author discusses the reasons behind the low property tax in Punjab, inter-governmental politics, low fiscal equilibrium, public service delivery, formal tax collection, questions of enforcement and what can be done to improve the tax collection. In the preface of the book Pircaha writes about the 'fiscal...

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