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ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2003

An essay: THE POWER OF TRADITION IN A HIGH MODERN STORY W. Somerset Maugham's Up at the Villa rises from a vanished world. (4 December 2003)

An essay: REFLEXIVITY: THE MODERN WORLD TURNS BACK ON ITSELF This unseats the idea of progress at the heart of high modernity and gives us a new way to think about the problems of politics, society, and the individual. Detailed reading notes on the book, Reflexive Modernization, by Beck, Giddens, and Lash. (28 October 2003)

An essay: ALL POLITICAL THOUGHT MAY BE PERSONAL, BUT ITS EFFECTS ARE PUBLIC AND POWERFUL Bush II finally forced me to confront the biases of my New Deal boyhood. Jedediah Purdy & Friedrich A. Hayek opened windows on "liberalism" and "conservatism." (3 September 2003)

A review: THE BOUNDARIES OF THE GLOBE BLUR Michael J. Mazarr's global trends for the decade capture the tension between the uncertainties of multiplicity and a holistic approach to global processes. (14 July 2004)

An essay review: IN MULTIPLICITY BEGINS THE OVERCOMING OF THE DILEMMA OF MODERNITY Studying modernity's problems, David Kolb found himself on postmodern terrain. (2 June 2003)

An essay: WHAT DOES MODERNITY OWE TO JEAN-JACQUES ROUSSEAU? His ambitious and comprehensive "project" puts Enlightenment modernity in a new light. (7 May 2003)

An essay: MUSIC MYSTIFIES IN A SPACIOUS PLACE Susanne Langer's theory of musical form illuminates a performance at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (19 February 2003)

An essay review: ESCAPE! WILL ART SAVE WHEN POLITICAL ANGST OVERWHELMS? A short story in The New Yorker gives relief from the darkness descending in the Bush era. (7 February 2003)

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2001-2002

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2000

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 1999

31 March 1999; last modified 4 December 2003 Richard P. Richter

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ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2001& 2002

2002

NEO-BOURGEOISIE OF THE WORLD, UNITE! The middle class survives creatively, as Richard Florida tells us, but it has not grasped its obligation to justice and equity. (31 December 2002)

BIN LADEN MAY BE LIVING, BUT HIS EXPLOSIVE CAUSE MAY BE DYING Gilles Kepel offers the optimistic view that Islamist extremism has failed to fulfill its promise to Muslims and is on the decline. But is America doing all it can to support the aspirations of Muslim moderates who want to replace violent extremists? (25 November 2002)

FOR THE ESSENTIALS OF 20TH CENTURY MODERNITY, LOOK TO VIENNA A search for the meaning of modern selfhood leads to findings in the complex culture of Vienna before and after World War I. (1 November 2002)

A POSTINDUSTRIAL KNIGHT-ERRANT TILTS WITH AMERICA'S ELITES Michael Moore believes that political and corporate chiefs have led us astray and abandoned the ordinary American struggling to deal with the effects of globalization. (21 October 2002)

IDEOLOGY OF GLOBALISM DRIVES THE PROCESS OF GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger crtitically analyzes the promotion of globalization by the Western hegemony. (26 September 2002)

THE ULTIMATE WEAPON AGAINST TERRORISTS: CREATING A GLOBAL OPEN SOCIETY Financier-philanthropist George Soros proposes a moral agenda for a better world. (18 June 2002)

THE ENLIGHTENMENT RAN WILD & WE CALLED IT GLOBALIZATION Anthony Giddens examines the result and searches for remedies. (27 May 2002)

WHAT DID THE MASK OF ENLIGHTENMENT HIDE? WHAT MASK DID NIETZSCHE TRY TO SUBSTITUTE? Stanley Rosen removes all masks and reveals Nietzsche's grand project. (15 April 2002)

WEST & ISLAM: PROSPECTS FOR LIVING TOGETHER LOOK DIM V. S. Naipaul's Beyond Belief makes it hard to see how Muslims ever will adjust to us. (26 March 2002)

CAN ISLAMIC LANDS END THE BLAME GAME AND MAKE A FUTURE THEMSELVES? Bernard Lewis examines what happened and what Muslims could do to make it right. (10 February 2002)

ISLAM & THE WEST: WILL THEY LEARN TO LIVE TOGETHER? Why do resurgent Islamists want to destroy us? Is there hope for an Islam-West accommodation in a future world order? An exploration by one who wasn't thinking about Islam before 11 Sep 01. (7 January 2002)

2001

EMPIRE: BEYOND STRIKES: Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri parody Marx and romanticize the post-proletariat, only to write a non-program for revolution in a non-place. (4 December 2001) Added on 7 February 2002: A WWW link to an interview of Hardt & Negri by two scholars of globalization.

AFTER THE ATTACK ON AMERICA, WE NEED A MORE DEFINITIVE VIEW OF GLOBALIZATION Three differing books on globalization, read in light of 11 September 2001, lead to a reflection on the future of the world. This item includes detailed reading notes on the three books and a reflective essay. (9 October 2001)

WHO AM I? CHINESE QUESTION, GLOBALIZED ANSWER Nobel Laureate Gao Xinjian writes of his homeland in Soul Mountain but his work matters on a worldwide stage. (28 August 2001)

GLOBALIZATION & POSTMODERNISM COMPLEMENT AND CONTRADICT ONE ANOTHER Late capitalism is the common ground for globalization as well as postmodernism. Yet they generate contradictory visions of world culture. What will come of that? (19 August 2001)

VIOLENCE IS A WEAK PROTEST WEAPON Opponents of free trade might learn a lesson from Hannah Arendt's analysis of the violence of the late 1960s. (8 August 2001)

WHY STUDY "GLOBALIZATION"? This is an introduction to the "globalization" homepage. (15 July 2001)

THE WORLD WAITS FOR A RE-VISIONING OF A NEW PERIOD A messy oil deal in Kazakhstan helps frame the question: Whither globalization from here? (15 July 2001)

VALUE THE WORKS OF AN AGING POET FOR WHAT THEY ARE Seamus Heaney's poems in Electric Light illuminate similar experiences of readers able to take the backward view. (22 June 2001)

TECHNOLOGY ENRICHES PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE RELATIONSHIPS Third in a series of columns about the role of technology in the future of education, appearing in CAPE NOTES, published by CAPE, A Community of Agile Partners in Education. (23 May 2001)

LOOKING FOR THE LIGHT ON POSTMODERNISM A "teach yourself" book talks you through an overview of the shocks and aftershocks. (14 May 2001)

GLOBALIZATION BRINGS OUT THE HUMAN GENIUS FOR CONFLICT Many want goods and capital to flow freely around the globe; a growing number of opponents, including these authors, think there is a better way to pursue the happiness of humankind. (30 April 2001)

HOW ARE EDUCATORS RIDING INTO THE FUTURE? Ted McCain and Ian Jukes think that they're moving at the pace of a trolley car while others in our society have boarded a rocket to the future. (8 April 2001)

THUMBS UP A new book by Neil Howe & William Strauss, Millennials Rising, arouses hope that our newest generation may end the disconnects of the postmodern period. (27 March 2001)

THE JOURNALIST & THE ANTHROPOLOGIST GIVE CONTRASTING MODELS OF THE WORLD WE'RE MAKING Where Thomas L. Friedman sees a "globalization system" in operation, Clifford Geertz sees the world in pieces. This is a reference in The "globalization" homepage. (18 March 2001)

Reading notes: ADVENTURES OF THE WORLD-SPIRIT RISING In The Philosophy of History, G. W. F. Hegel gave us one of modernity's grand narratives, and it is summarized here. (12 February 2001)

THE BIG CHANGE IS MAINLY ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS, NOT TECHNOLOGY. Second in a series of columns about the role of technology in the future of education, appearing in CAPE NOTES, published by CAPE, A Community of Agile Partners in Education. (3 February 2001)

NAVITSKY'S MARX, AT LAST The tragic Karl Marx of the 20th century metamorphoses into a comic Marx and promises a continuing afterlife as the 21st unfolds. (14 January 2001)

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2003

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2000

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 1999

31 March 1999; last modified 31 December 2002 Copyright © 2002 Richard P. Richter

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ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2000

DO INTERNAL DISUNITIES IMPERIL EMPIRES MODERN AS WELL AS ANCIENT? Michael Grant's revisit to Gibbon's great text makes one wonder about 1976 CE as well as 476 CE. (17 December 2000)

"GLOBAL LITERACIES" EMPOWER CORPORATE LEADERS Lessons on business leadership show that the globalized postmodern marketplace is here, but globalization still lacks a theoretical explanation. This is a reference in The "globalization" homepage. (25 November 2000)

Reading notes: HEGELIAN OPPOSITIONS HELP EXPLAIN GLOBALIZATION. Fredric Jameson. "Notes on Globalization as a Philosophical Issue." Fredric Jameson and Masao Miyoshi, Eds. THE CULTURES OF GLOBALIZATION. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999, pp. 54-77. This is a reference in The "globalization" homepage. (19 November 2000)

THE WORLD-SYSTEM & THE INDIVIDUALV. S. Naipaul's A Way in the World and The Cultures of Globalization (eds. Jameson and Miyoshi) choreograph a planetary dance of opposites. This is a reference in The "globalization" homepage. (13 November 2000)

HOW SHOULD WE EDUCATE IN THE "POST-EVERYTHING ERA"? First in a series of columns about the role of technology in the future of education, appearing in CAPE NOTES, published by CAPE, A Community of Agile Partners in Education. (16 October 2000)

THE "LITTLE RULES" PLAY A BIG ROLE IN A CHANGING AMERICA C. Dallett Hemphill's study of manners in America from 1620 to 1860 remains relevant to behavior in our lifetime. (24 August 2000)

IS THE "THEORY OF EVERYTHING" SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW? Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe prompts a postmodern reflection on the search for absolute knowledge. (6 August 2000)

THE FINITE SPACE OF THE GLOBE HOLDS THE KEY TO THE HUMAN STORY The daring thought of the Jesuit paleontologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, converges with the postmodern theories of Fredric Jameson. (17 July 2000)

ARTIFACTS FROM THE HEGEL DIG A reading of Hegel's Preface becomes an archaeological search for the shapes of modern consciousness. (26 June 2000)

ACHIEVING OUR GLOBE The rise of global consciousness mutes the modest call from Richard Rorty for "achieving our country." (20 May 2000)

BELIEVE & RESIST...BUT STILL THEORIZE The new protest movement against global capital will not succeed without new postmostmodern theory to reinforce it. (23 April 2000)

LIONEL TRILLING: GUARDIAN OF HIGH MODERN COMPLEXITY A re-reading of Lionel Trilling's essays evokes memories of high modern seriousness and provokes a reassessment. (23 April 2000)

"ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH THE WORD" A novel of Patrick and Osian reveals the complex roots of the Irish character. (1 April 2000)

ORIGINS OF POSTMODERNITY: TRACING THE IDEA TO JAMESON'S CULTURAL LOGIC Perry Anderson's explication of Fredric Jameson's canonical essay situates the turn to postmodernism at the moment when men stopped wearing hats. (12 March 2000)

I, MYSELF, ACCORDING TO HEGEL Alexandre Kojeve's lectures on Hegel are synopsized in the form of an imaginary telling to the folk around the fire. (19 February 2000)

GERMANS: THE QUINTESSENTIAL REPRESENTATIVES OF MODERNITY? A new history of nineteenth century Germany opens windows on twentieth century questions. It also leads me to take a stab at "generic genealogy." (16 January 2000)

HE CONTINUES TO WEAVE THE WEB: Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web and is now developing the Semantic Web. His book tells the technological story but also reveals his humanistic values. (1 January 2000)

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2003

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2001 & 2002

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 1999

31 March 1999; last modified 9 February 2004 Richard P. Richter

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ESSAYS AND REVIEWS 1999

VIRGINIA WOOLF: UNAFRAID OF THE COMPLEXITIES OF THE MODERNIST "SELF": The protagonist of Woolf's first novel, Rachel Vinrace, is a model of the modernist self just before World War I. She is a foil against which we can contrast what has become of the self in the postmodern period. (26 November 1999)

AMERICAN COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES: HOW THEIR CHURCH RELATIONSHIPS WITHERED AWAY A new study traces "the dying of the light" in institutions of higher education and gives a censorious comment on the secular academy. Case studies give comparisons to my essay, Ursinus College 1970-1976. (14 November 1999)

IT COMES DOWN TO HOW YOU FEEL: MODERN SENSIBILITY AND WORLD WAR I Evidence for the deep change in human outlook wrought by WWI seems to lie in one's own family history. (26 October 1999)

BACK TO THE BREAK WHERE OUR WORLD BEGAN Thomas Mann in The Magic Mountain pinpointed World War I as the moment when European culture broke apart and our century of crisis began. (2 September 1999)

"HENCE THE POSSIBILITY OF HUMAN UNDERSTANDING" The final essay by Isaiah Berlin summarizes the main ideas of his career and parallels Michael Ignatieff's Isaiah Berlin: A Life. (6 July 1999)

A VISIT TO KANT'S IDEAL KINGDOM OF ENDS Translator Raymond Blakney takes me on a journey in search of the Kantian roots of modernism. (14 June 1999)

LESSONS AND LIMITS OF THE POSTMODERN PROGRAMME PROJECT I close the Postmodern Programme project with a final assessment. (30 May 1999)

A HAPPY THINKER IN A DARK CENTURY A reflection on the life and career of Isaiah Berlin, occasioned by the appearance of Michael Ignatieff's biography. (25 April 1999)

WHY "WORKS"? The name of this website explained. (21 April 1999)

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2003

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2001 & 2002

ESSAYS & REVIEWS 2000

31 March 1999; last modified 9 February 2004 Richard P. Richter