An Empire of Touch: Womens Political Labor and the Fabrication of East Bengal
Author: Poulomi Saha File Type: pdf In todays world of unequal globalization, Bangladesh has drawn international attention for the spate of factory disasters that have taken the lives of numerous garment workers, mostly young women. The contemporary garment industryand the labor organizing pushing backdraws on a long history of gendered labor division and exploitation in East Bengal, the historical antecedent of Bangladesh. Yet despite the centrality of womens labor to anticolonial protest and postcolonial state-building, historiography has struggled with what appears to be its absence from the archive.Poulomi Saha offers an innovative account of womens political labor in East Bengal over more than a century, one that suggests new ways to think about textiles and the gendered labors of their making. An Empire of Touch argues that women have articulatedin writing, in political action, in stitchingtheir own desires in their own terms. They produce narratives beyond womens empowerment and independence as global and national projects they refuse critical pronouncements of their own subjugation. Saha follows the historical traces of how women have claimed their own labor, contending that their political commitments are captured in the material objects of their manufacture. Her analysis of the production of historical memory through and by the bodies of women spans British colonialism and American empire, anticolonial nationalism to neoliberal globalization, depicting East Bengal between development economics and postcolonial studies. Through a material account of text and textile, An Empire of Touch crafts a new narrative of gendered political labor under empire.**ReviewA brilliant provocation in the debate about female political subjectivity in the Global South, An Empire of Touch is an important and timely book. Going beyond the typical focus on womens empowerment and independence, it demonstrates how women in East Bengal through their symbolic and material labor produce the terms of their own political self-conception. Sahas deft and sophisticated readings of the material particulars of womens labor reveal a relational politics of the self that expands what and who count as political. (Mrinalini Sinha, author of Specters of Mother India The Global Restructuring of an Empire) Saha has given us a thought-provoking, incisive, elegant, and necessary work wherein she recasts and regenerates postcolonial criticism. This book is well written, beautifully researched, creative, and politically vital. (Erin Manning, author of Politics of Touch Sense, Movement, Sovereignty) Saha proposes that the diaphanous nature first of muslin and then of other fabrics constitutes neither a simple product with exchange value nor an ephemeral or affective form of labor we have come to associate with certain kinds of womens work. Forms of touch are woven into the fabric of colonial and postcolonial exchange. And they carry a spectral quality. Rather like the visor effect in Derridas reading of Hamlet in Specters of Marx, fabric casts a shadow on abstracted beings moving through history teleologically, and weaves a different affect. (Ranjana Khanna, author of Algeria Cuts Women and Representation, 1830 to the Present) About the Author Poulomi Saha is assistant professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley.
Author: William Davies
File Type: epub
In winter 2014, a Tibetan monk lectured the world leaders gathered at Davos on the importance of Happiness. The recent DSM-5, the manual of all diagnosable mental illnesses, for the first time included shyness and grief as treatable diseases. Happiness has become the biggest idea of our age, a new religion dedicated to well-being. In this brilliant dissection of our times, political economist William Davies shows how this philosophy, first pronounced by Jeremy Bentham in the 1780s, has dominated the political debates that have delivered neoliberalism. From a history of business strategies of how to get the best out of employees, to the increased level of surveillance measuring every aspect of our lives from why experts prefer to measure the chemical in the brain than ask you how you are feeling, to why Freakonomics tells us less about the way people behave than expected, The Happiness Industry is an essential guide to the marketization of modern life. Davies shows that the science of happiness is less a science than an extension of hyper-capitalism.**
Author: Edward Behr
File Type: mobi
From the bestselling author of The Last Emperor comes this rip-roaring history of the governments attempt to end Americas love affair with liquorwhich failed miserably. On January 16, 1920, America went dry. For the next thirteen years, the Eighteenth Amendment prohibited the making, selling, or transportation of intoxicating liquors, heralding a new era of crime and corruption on all levels of society. Instead of eliminating alcohol, Prohibition spurred more drinking than ever before. Formerly law-abiding citizens brewed moonshine, became rum- runners, and frequented speakeasies. Druggists, who could dispense medicinal quantities of alcohol, found their customer base exploding overnight. So many people from all walks of life defied the ban that Will Rogers famously quipped, Prohibition is better than no liquor at all. Here is the full, rollicking story of those tumultuous days, from the flappers of the Jazz Age and the beautiful and the damned who drank their lives away in smoky speakeasies to bootlegging gangstersPretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie and Clyde, Al Caponeand the notorious St. Valentines Day Massacre. Edward Behr paints a portrait of an era that changed the country forever. **
Author: Arlene Naylor Okerlund
File Type: pdf
This book tells the story of the queen whose marriage to King Henry VII ended Englands Wars of the Roses and inaugurated the 118-year Tudor dynasty. Best known as the mother of Henry VIII and grandmother of Elizabeth I, this Queen Elizabeth contributed far beyond the act of giving birth to future monarchs. Her marriage to Henry VII unified the feuding houses of Lancaster and York, and her popularity with the people helped her husband survive rebellions that plagued his first decade of rule. Queen Elizabeths gracious manners and large family created a warm, convivial Court marked by a rather exceptional fondness between the royal couple. Her love for music, literature, and architecture also helped inspire Englands Renaissance.ReviewThis book is a welcome addition to the sparse literature about one of Englands more dynastically important queens. Illuminating and fascinating.Renaissance QuarterlyArlene Okerlunds lucid biography of Elizabeth of York draws on detailed research to provide a long overdue account of the tumultuous life of one of Englands best loved queens. It is a compelling tale of Renaissance culture and ritual, intrigue and tragedy.-- J. L. Laynesmith, Author of The Last Medieval QueensThis work aims to rescue the queen from the perception that she was a merely marginal player in the establishment of the Tudor dynasty. Forced to negotiate complex family relationships while maintaining a loving relationship with her husband and king, Okerlunds Elizabeth emerges as a figure central to the accomplishments of the first Tudor court, so much so that her early death produced a catastrophe from which Henry never recovered. Okerlunds biography produces a lively narrative and a credible portrait of the queens character together with a meticulous reassessment of the available evidence.--Gordon Kipling, Professor of English, University of California, Los AngelesAbout the AuthorArlene Naylor Okerlund is Professor Emerita of English, retired after a career of teaching Renaissance literature at San Jose State University in California. Her earlier biography Elizabeth Wydeville The Slandered Queen is now available in paperback as Elizabeth Englands Slandered Queen. Her biography of Elizabeth of York, daughter of Elizabeth Wydeville and mother of Henry VIII, continues the story of Englands royal court at the beginning of the Renaissance. At San Jose State University, she served six years as Dean, College of Humanities and the Arts, and seven years as Academic Vice President. In retirement, she teaches with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and continues her research in medieval and Renaissance studies. The author of scholarly articles on Shakespeare, Spenser, Marlowe, Donne, and Dryden, she also writes for popular audiences, including the newsletter of the Peninsula Banjo Band with which she plays tenor banjo.
Author: Mario Biagioli
File Type: pdf
While Russian computer scientists are notorious for their interference in the 2016 US presidential election, they are ubiquitous on Wall Street andcoveted by international IT firmsand often perceive themselves as the present manifestation of the past glory of Soviet scientific prowess. Drawing on over three hundred in-depth interviews, the contributors to From Russia with Code trace the practices, education, careers, networks, migrations, and lives of Russian IT professionals at home and abroad, showing how they function as key figures in the tense political and ideological environment of technological innovation in post-Soviet Russia. Among other topics, they analyze coders creation of both transnational communities and local networks of political activists Moscows use of IT funding to control peripheral regions brain drain and the experiences of coders living abroad in the United Kingdom, United States, Israel, and Finland and the possible meanings of Russian computing systems in a heterogeneous nation and industry. Highlighting the centrality of computer scientists to post-Soviet economic mobilization in Russia, the contributors offer new insights into the difficulties through which a new entrepreneurial culture emerges in a rapidly changing world. Contributors. Irina Antoschyuk, Mario Biagioli, Ksenia Ermoshina, Marina Fedorova, Andrey Indukaev, Alina Kontareva, Diana Kurkovsky, Vincent Lepinay, Alexandra Masalskaya, Daria Savchenko, Liubava Shatokhina, Alexandra Simonova, Ksenia Tatarchenko, Zinaida Vasilyeva, Dimitrii ZhikharevichReview From Russia with Code is a deeply informative book about the diaspora of talented Russian computer scientists who now are working in other countries the United States, Israel, Germany, and elsewhere. It reveals the interaction between Russian computer culture and that of other countries. But it is much more than that it tells us that computer science is not a single thing, but a skill that blossoms differently in different environments. (Loren Graham, Professor of the History of Science Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Russian computer scientists are everywhere heard about, but nowhere studieduntil this book. No other study in English takes up the electrifying topic of information technology and hackers in Russia and grounds it in the hard dirt of evidence. From Russia with Code demystifies a national powerhouse for global computing and will set the standard for years to come in Russia-based science and technology studies. The world needs this pioneering book. (Benjamin Peters, author of How Not to Network a Nation The Uneasy History of the Soviet Internet ) About the Author Mario Biagioli is Distinguished Professor of Law, Science and Technology Studies, and History at the University of California, Davis. Vincent Lepinay is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Medialab at Sciences Po (Paris).
Author: Jae Jung Song
File Type: pdf
Suitable for students of all levels, this book provides a general description of the Korean language by highlighting important structural aspects whilst keeping technical details to a minimum. By examining the Korean language in its geographical, historical, social and cultural context the reader is able to gain a good understanding of its speakers and the environment in which it is used. The book covers a range of topics on Korean including its genetic affiliation, historical development, sound patterns, writing systems, vocabulary, grammar and discourse.The text is designed to be accessible, primarily to English-speaking learners of Korean and scholars working in disciplines other than linguistics, as well as serving as a useful introduction for general linguists. The book complements Korean language textbooks used in the classroom and will be welcomed not only by readers with a wider interest in Korean studies, but also by Asian specialists in general.ReviewSongs book is a great addition to the literature of Korean language and linguistics - Sung-ock Sohn, Acta Koreana, Volume 10 Number 1, 2007 About the AuthorJae Jung Song teaches linguistics at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He has contributed to international journals including Lingua, Linguistics and Oceanic Linguistics. He is the author of Causatives and Causation (1996) and Linguistic Typology Morphology and Syntax (2001).
Author: Kelly Oliver
File Type: pdf
Considers the social and political significance of Kristevas oeuvre.From the Back CoverThe social and political relevance of Julia Kristevas work is perhaps the central question in Kristeva studies, and the essays in this collection provide a sustained interrogation of this complicated problematic from a variety of perspectives and across the various contexts and moments of Kristevas forty-year writing career. Presenting Kristevas thought as the sustained interrogation of a political problematic, the contributors argue that her use of psychoanalysis and aesthetics offers significant insight into social and political issues that would otherwise remain concealed. The collection addresses the entirety of Kristevas oeuvre, from her earliest work on poetic language to her most recent work on female genius, and it includes two previously untranslated essays by Kristeva, as well as original contributions from scholars working in several countries and a variety of disciplines. About the AuthorKelly Oliver is W. Alton Jones Chair of Philosophy and Professor of Womens Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her previous books include Language and Liberation Feminism, Philosophy, and Language and Living Attention On Teresa Brennan, both also published by SUNY Press, along with Reading Kristeva Unraveling the Double-bind and The Portable Kristeva. S. K. Keltner is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Co-coordinator of Gender and Womens Studies at Kennesaw State University.
Author: Fred Czarra
File Type: epub
The scent of oregano immediately conjures the comforts of Italian food, curry is synonymous with Indian flavor, and the fire of chili peppers ignites the cuisine of Latin America. Spices are often the overlooked essentials that define our greatest eating experiences. In this global history of spices, Fred Czarra tracks the path of these fundamental ingredients from the trade routes of the ancient world to the McCormicks brands contemporary domination of the global spice market. Focusing on the five premier spicesblack pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and chili pepperwhile also relating the story of many others along the way, Czarra describes how spices have been used in cooking throughout history and how their spread has influenced regional cuisines around the world. Chili peppers, for example, migrated west from the Americas with European sailors and spread rapidly in the Philippines and then to India and the rest of Asia, where the spice quickly became essential to local cuisines. The chili pepper also traveled west from India to Hungary, where it eventually became the national spicepaprika. Mixing a wide range of spice fact with fascinating spice fablesuch as giant birds building nests of cinnamonCzarra details how the spice trade opened up the first age of globalization, prompting a cross-cultural exchange of culinary technique and tradition. This savory spice history will enliven any dinner table conversationand give that meal an unforgettable dash of something extra.
Author: Eric H. Cline
File Type: pdf
Jerusalem Besieged is a fascinating account of how and why a baffling array of peoples, ideologies, and religions have fought for some four thousand years over a city without either great wealth, size, or strategic importance. Cline guides us through the baffling, but always bloody, array of Jewish, Roman, Moslem, Crusader, Ottoman, Western, Arab, and Israeli fights for possession of such a symbolic prize in a manner that is both scholarly and engaging. -Victor Davis Hanson, Stanford University author of The Other Greeks and Carnage and Culture A beautifully lucid presentation of four thousand years of history in a single volume. Cline writes primarily as an archaeologist-avoiding polemic and offering evidence for any religious claims-yet he has also incorporated much journalistic material into this study. Jerusalem Besieged will enlighten anyone interested in the history of military conflict in and around Jerusalem. -Col. Rose Mary Sheldon, Virginia Military Institute This groundbreaking study offers a fascinating synthesis of Jerusalems military history from its first occupation into the modern era. Cline amply deploys primary source material to investigate assaults on Jerusalem of every sort, starting at the dawn of recorded history. Jerusalem Besieged is invaluable for framing the contemporary situation in the Middle East in the context of a very long and pertinent history. -Baruch Halpern, Pennsylvania State University A sweeping history of four thousand years of struggle for control of one city [An] absorbing account of archaeological history, from the ancient Israelites first conquest to todays second intifada. Cline clearly lays out the fascinating history behind the conflicts. -USA Today A pleasure to read, this work makes this important but complicated subject fascinating. -Jewish Book World Jerusalem Besieged is a fascinating account of how and why a baffling array of peoples, ideologies, and religions have fought for some four thousand years over a city without either great wealth, size, or strategic importance. Cline guides us through the baffling, but always bloody, array of Jewish, Roman, Moslem, Crusader, Ottoman, Western, Arab, and Israeli fights for possession of such a symbolic prize in a manner that is both scholarly and engaging. -Victor Davis Hanson, Stanford University author of The Other Greeks and Carnage and Culture
Author: Peter Good
File Type: pdf
The aim of Language for those who have Nothing is to think psychiatry through the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin. Using the concepts of Dialogism and Polyphony, the Carnival and the Chronotope, a novel means of navigating the clinical landscape is developed. Bakhtin offers language as a social phenomenon and one that is fully embodied. Utterances are shown to be alive and enfleshed and their meanings realised in the context of given social dimensions. The organisation of this book corresponds with carnival practices of taking the high down to the low before replenishing its meaning anew. Thus early discussions of official language and the chronotope become exposed to descending levels of analysis and emphasis. Patients and practitioners are shown to occupy an entirely different spatio-temporal topography. These chronotopes have powerful borders and it is necessary to use the Carnival powers of cunning and deception in order to enter and to leave them. The book provides an overview of practitioners who have attempted such transgression and the author records his own unnerving experience as a pseudopatient. By exploring the context of psychiatrys unofficial voices its terminology, jokes, parodies, and everyday narratives, the clinical landscape is shown to rely heavily on unofficial dialogues in order to safeguard an official identity.**