Category: Book Reviews
Book Review: Empires of the Weak: The Real Story of European Expansion and the Creation of the New World Order
Jason C Sharman Empires of the Weak: The Real Story of European Expansion and the Creation of the New World Order (Princeton University Press, 2019, 216 Pages, $26) This colourful work enjoys tackling the general acceptance of the “military revolution” and “fiscal-military” theses that claim European expansion over the 16th-19th…
Book Review: The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy
Michael George Hanchard The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2018, 280 Pages, Cloth $29.95) Hanchard’s book is a detailed discussion of the concept of race and its evolution, and how it underpins the debate on citizenship and democracy. In order to understand such a…
Book Review: To Dare More Boldly: The Audacious Story of Political Risk
John C Hulsman To Dare More Boldly: The Audacious Story of Political Risk (Princeton University Press, 2019, xiv+ 323 Pages, $29.95) This discursive, interesting, insightful book draws on the claimed list of ten warnings underlying the Pythia’s (never quite clear whether she is singular or plural) wisdom as the Oracle…
Book Review: America in Afghanistan: Foreign Policy and Decision Making from Bush to Obama to Trump
Sharifullah Dorani America in Afghanistan: Foreign Policy and Decision Making from Bush to Obama to Trump (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2019, ISBN: 978-7845-3998-6, 317 pp., £85) As mostly compared to the Vietnam War, America’s Afghanistan War has been profound both regarding the foreign policy of America in general…
Book Review: Small Wars, Big Data
Eli Berman, Joseph H. Felter, and Jacob N. Shapiro Small Wars, Big Data (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN: 978-0-691-17707-6, 386 pp., $ 29.95) In the intentions of the authors, Small Wars, Big Data, is aimed to address the complex issue of civil or intrastate wars and their…
Book Review: A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy
Joel Mokyr (ed.) A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN: 978-0-691-18096-0, 417 pp., $22.95) This book’s primary aim is to discover the reasons why early modern Europe, as it was at that period, became very receptive to novel ideas, theories…
Book Review: The Invention of Religion: Faith and Covenant in the Book of Exodus
Jan Assman The Invention of Religion: Faith and Covenant in the Book of Exodus (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN: 9780-691-15708-5, 392 pp., £ 29.95) Of all the stories told in the Hebrew Bible, the story of Exodus has had the greatest impact in terms of both the message it…
Book Review: Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea
Shiraz Maher Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016, 292 pages, $29.93, Hardcover. ISBN: 978-0190651121) Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea deals with one of the most pertinent and complex questions of our times: the appeal and resilience of Salafi-Jihadi movements despite decades of forced…
Book Review: Islam in Pakistan: A History
Muhammad Qasim Zaman Islam in Pakistan: A History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN: 978-0-691-14922-6, 401pp., N.p.) Recent terrorist attacks in the name of Islam amid President Trump’s approach toward Pakistan highlight the question of the relation between Pakistan and Islamic extremism. Some observers attempt to place all burdens…
Book Review: How to Do Things with International Law
Ian Hurd How to Do Things with International Law (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017, ISBN: 9780691170114., Pp.187, $ 29.95.) Conventional legal scholarship views international rule of law as one ideal in an assemblage of values that governs modern nation-states. They believe that rule of law can transform the chaotic international…
