Michigan Books

Huxley surely was the best evolution defender of his time, even superior to Darwin and Wallace at this feat. This book is a classic to man's evolution literature and should be read by anyone interested in the early foundations of evolution. This were the kind of lectures and essays that destroy competing arguments from other theories. Something that strikes me is how updated this still is (well considering the time that has passed), and how strong are Huxley's arguments and so well founded. Huxley uses various techniques to make his point, he uses a lot of the new branch of science "comparative anatomy", and does so like an expert. Simply a delightful reading, a time travel to the origins of the evolution theory.

Mr. Ayoob has just done readers in the U.S. a great service by writing this book. This book is essential reading for policy makers, students and anyone who really wants to understand what's going on in the Islamic world.

The main problem with many books from the West on Islam and "Islamism" (political Islam) is that they are written from a Western perspective, and so they have inherent biases within them. This is of course a big part of the misunderstandings we have with this part of the world, the fact that we only see these societies and groups through the prism of our own standards and values which is not always concurrent with their own values. Indeed we seem to rarely ever be in synch with the realities of the area. This book puts political Islam into a vernacular that is ready for consumption by a U.S. audience.

One of the most interesting things I found was the author's discussion of the affects that contact with democracy, no matter how limited the democracy, has had on Islamic political groups. The Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Hizbullah and many other groups have had contact with some forms of democratic participation with varying degrees of success. The Muslim Brotherhood went from being a group that was suppressed to being allowed limited participation in elected government. When it became clear how much support they had they were once again violently suppressed. The question becomes will they continue down the path of moderation and participation or will their suppression lead to frustration and a recurrence of violence. The Mubarak and U.S. governments have a lot to say about what happens in the future to this group, if they decide that this group is to dangerous and must be suppressed there is a good chance that parts of the organization will become disillusioned and may resort to violence, but if they are allowed to become an active participant there is a real possibility that participation will have a further moderating affect.

Of course when one looks at the example of how Hamas was treated the prospects do not look good. One of the main points from Mr. Ayoob's is just how much of a moderating affect democratic participation can have on Islamic groups as evidenced by Turkey's AKP party. In a strange twist it is now the secularists in Turkey who have become authoritarian while it is the moderate conservative Islamic parties that have become ingrained in the political system that seems to be the voice of reason and moderation. Unfortunately Hamas' experiment in democracy seems to be heading toward abject failure due to circumstances beyond their control. They have not been given the opportunity to really join in the democratic process since they have been assailed from outside from the very beginning of their electoral victory.

This hypocrisy of the West has not gone unnoticed by the Muslim world. How the West purports to advocate democratization but only as long as the right groups get elected. The U.S. especially is generating ill will from this part of the world while at the same time pursuing policies that inhibit moderation. The rhetoric that comes from the U.S. about the moderating influence of democracy may well be true, but until we honestly pursue democratic change, no matter what the outcome for us, then we will be stuck with the same illegitimate, authoritarian regimes that are breeding grounds for disenchanted and potentially violent people. Islam is not inherently violent as some would have us believe, but just like all human beings given the right circumstances they can be forced into lashing out against the objects of their torment, whether that is authoritarian regimes or governments that back those regimes.

Mr. Ayoob does an excellent in job with very few pages detailing for the reader just how divergent political Islam really is. The author speaks of how we in the West tend to think of political Islam as being a "monolith", and he does an excellent job dispelling that myth and showing how each brand of Islamism, while many times espousing a universalistic agenda, is unique to its on context. Each Islamic group incorporates different aspects and theories of Islam to suit their unique situations. While there may be some violent, extremist elements they are a small minority. Many of these groups such as the AKP have shown themselves ready to join in the representative process and attempt to achieve their aims within the system. The author has given us plenty of examples of how democracy has a pronounced moderating affect on these Islamic organizations. It is up to us to focus our attention from the vocal and violent minority and focus our attention on helping the moderate majority, even when this help seems to be in contradiction to our own interests because in the end when these groups join the democratic process we all win.

This is a fantastic book that needs to be read and reread. I am eagerly awaiting the next publishing from this author.

I completely enjoyed this book. Could not put it down. There were plenty of twists and turns to make the plot very interesting. In fact, I stayed up all night to read it. Marian was an orphan-taking in by a wealthy,kindly man and his son. But her step-father (whom she loved as a father)had a terrible secret that had haunted him for many years. On his death bed he confessed to Marian that all his money and riches , were really her's. He was richest man in Kentucky. His death bed wish was that she marry his son-so all the money would be kept in the family. She was only 16 at the time. His son was rarely at home-being raised in expensive boarding schools and traveling abroad. While Marian liked the idea, because she had been in love with him for many years-Frederic hated the idea! He was in love with a beautiful, scociety woman , and thought Marian to be, an ugly , uneducated, plain female. Marian finds out how Frederic really feels about her and runs away from Kentucky to New York. A romatic novel on the line of "Gone with the Wind".

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It's quite strange that this book, of all Trollope, is so hard to find. Reviewers didn't like it when it was originally published in the late 1800s, and it never shook its reputation as ultra-tedious. This mystifies me. The melodrama between politically radical Lord Jack Hampton and Marion Fay, a non-aristocratic young Quaker woman who's more of a lady than several of the "ladies" in the book, is flirtatious, accessible and fun (Hampton repeatedly teases Marion that he fell for her when she "poked his fire," i.e. tended his fireplace with a poker--a bolder play with innuendo than Trollope usually engages in). It then turns passionate when Marion won't marry Jack because of a secret trouble involving life-threatening illness. T. uses the situation to examine with great depth and sensitivity the desire to consummate the spiritual union of two souls via marriage. This is the most careful look at what marriage means in T.'s ideal world that I have read in his work yet. He makes it exciting and suspenseful, since we're waiting to see if Marion will really get to poke Jack's fire--or if an unthinkable separation will occur. As in all T., there is a hilarious cast of characters who toe the line that separates the comically pathetic from the dangerously antisocial--for example, will Jack's archetypical evil stepmom just grumble her way through life, or will she scheme to kill Jack? The multiple marriage and family plots are very well integrated, unlike in some other T. novels.

If you collect amate art this book is essential. For collectors of outsider art Professor Cowan provides an economic and cultural insight into the motives of the artists and the integral role they play in the culture. Highly readable, with wonderful anecdotes, what could be a dry subject is transformed into a page-turner.

Professor Zahariadis' study of privatization in Britain and France allows students of comparative politics to understand the impetus the drives countries to privatize their resources....it was very informative, but may be confusing to those who know nothing about the subject. Professor Zahariadis' writing style is perfect in terms of the subject matter; it is neither too complex nor too simple.

This book is a lovely treat.

It's also been quite a long time in the making.

These letters, compiled and edited by former Porter student Ted Leigh, served as the basis for part of John Spike's lovely book on Porter back in 1992. This fact is mentioned a couple times at the beginning of the Spike book.

Material Witness came out in 2005, so it's better late than never.

What's the difference between this, the Spike book, and Justin Spring's biography a few years back? Material Witness shows the human side of Fairfield Porter; in particular the letters to his son Laurence and his family.

The most disturbing thing is reading Porter's letters that acknowledge his increasing lack of energy over his final couple of years.

If you have the Spike book, you'll definitely want this book.

An absolute gem. For anyone interested in consciousness a must. The ideas presented are exciting, challenging and will fundamentally alter how consciousness is discussed.

I recently read Vincent Ostrom's "The Meaning of Democracy and the Vulnerability of Democracies" for Pete Boettke's Constitutional Political Economy Class. He wrote up a comment on the Austrian Economists.

I would like to comment on a feature of Vincent Ostrom's proposed research design for the investigation into political economy. As it has been explained to me the Ostroms (both Vincent and Elinore) assert that the proper structure of intensive education in political economy is one of artisanship over repetitions and reiteration. Graduate students learn best by doing and should view their degree seeking years more as apprenticeships in which they hone the tools and skills of their craft.

The craftsmanship theme runs throughout not only their advice and strategic suggestions but also in the messages of their scholarly assertions as well. Take for example the use of the term applied to the tasks of creating good governance, sustaining democratic structures and drafting of successful constitutions. Ostrom refers to such a task as "constitutional craftsmanship."

The implication of the dual presence of craftsmanship in both strategy and investigation is that theories of political economy gain epistemological accuracy by being derived from direct interaction with political dilemma. Political theory is best understood in the context of political economy. This is a very Hayekian point. Say it however you like. The social process in its complexity responds to the needs of diverse individuals by effectively coordinating knowledge through the pricing system. This information is intrinsically time and place contingent. Context matters. Ostrom's point is essentially a methodological point which holds onto the same truism. Interacting within the context of political dilemma is one of "defining" and tracing the "distribution of the problematic."

There are problems in the world, perhaps it has been so obvious for so long that we have forgotten it. As social scientists our essential purpose is to gain understanding of such problems so as to better address them if not solve them entirely. Mises worked in such realism into his cognitional claims about the structure of human decision making stemming from the drive to action as it is understood by an attempt to alleviate felt uneasiness.

Ostrom's description of democracy draws a picture of a disjuncture existing between the perceived problematic with the responsive action addressing the problematic. This disjuncture is perpetuated and perhaps even magnified by the structuring of centralization.

When the knowledge problem is applied to the purely theoretical realm as it is in Hayek's description it serves useful and intuitive to revealing the unintended consequences of centralized collective action. Ostrom's application of the knowledge problem into the methodological realm gives a clearer structure to defining and forming successful research agendas in political economy. In this sense we expand the notions of political economy outside the realm of mere academia and into the realm of industrialism or physical real productivity.

Maybe this is not a methodological point in regards to economics as it is narrowly defined as catallactics but it is certainly integral to forming theories pertinent to political economy. Essentially Ostrom is taking head to the suggestion of the Public Choice School by endogenizing the notion of governance. This endogenization is crucial to understanding the notion of choice and action, critical elements to economics approached as praxeology, a notion much broader than catallactics. For clarity let's just define catallactics as the study of exchange and praxeology the study of purposeful action.

Truth revealed through theory as it bears relevance to our social structure requires a finger on the pulse of society, a toe dipped in the chilly waters of reality, a finger in the pie so to speak. The methodological and epistemological implications of an applied research agenda become even more valuable. The process of research production is no longer an un-romantic drudgery of looking out the window only to quell the demands of a relentlessly competitive profession characterized by elitism. Opening the window means opening oneself to the omnipresence of opportunity for improvement in the conditions of reality.

The development of an accurate description of societal institutions, problems and solutions is a process started by the showing of the unworkable tendencies of existing faulty institutions. By elaborating the characteristics of such inefficiencies, faults, and inhibitions we are forced to recognize the context within which they exist. Restating and continually repeating the characteristics of malfunctioning processes we better understand the unique characteristics of functioning ones.

Combining the knowledge point of Hayek with Ostrom's craftsmanship description of investigating political economy, parallels Kirzner's notion of entrepreneurship as a process of discovery. Building a systematic theory of political economy is a process being in tune to the political happenings. The extent that the political economy is intricately complex is the extent to which division of intellectual labor is needed to investigate the implications of applied policies.

Returning to the concern of motivated professionals in search of placement at top education institutions is a matter of joining the table of mainstream debate. This table is made and set in the area of growth theory, and perhaps rightly so. It forces us to focus our attention back on catallactics within praxeology, not to say we allocate focus away from either field but we retain clarity of both if only because the concept of growth is intrinsically relevant to and dependent upon an understanding of exchange as it concerns real productivity.

The process for designing a research agenda enlightened by Ostrom's notions of political economy is straightforward. First identify an existent social phenomenon with acknowledged negative consequences. Second, describe and explain that which falls within the realm of the negative title. Third, be conscious of the characteristics which are being interpreted as losses and utilize them to describe the hypothetical construction of functioning society absent of those identified negatives. The notion of intelligible and tractable growth becomes one of describing the forgone opportunities of unsuccessful social action. Showing the tractable complexity of coordination that the probability of achieving is enhanced by deregulation is where potential for giving advice to non developed countries lies.

The benefit of being exposed to Ostrom's thesis in the context of a graduate program is the placement of his theory within a broader lineage of thought. The general thread of our class this semester has been the introduction, description and progression of liberty minded constitutional construction. The implications seem to be pointing toward the parallel if not synonymous notions of polycentricism and anarcho-capitlaism. One of the critical elements of sustainable self governance as is all market process theory is the important role played by competition. Critical to maintaining comeptition is free entry and exit, or an open-systemness.

A free competitive environment for the production of self-governance provides the atmosphere for ineffective systems to fail and effective one to maintain, develope and succeed. In a polycentric system institutional boundaries and borders are maleable by the degree to which people opt towards exit and entry similar to the way death is relevant to biological evolution implicitely within all animal survival. In a fucntioning setting of competition we see people getting what they want out of their societal institutions, and we see the" aggregate" appearance of society change from one of exposing the problematic through social planning to one of recognizing and responding to the contingetn problematic entrepeneurially.