A well-written critique of Ferguson and the recent tendency of the media to darling him.
-NiK

Date:29/06/2006
URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/06/29/stories/2006062903831100.htm
Opinion - News Analysis Imperial apologists peddle poisonous fairytale
Priyamvada Gopal

Neocon ideologues are being given free rein by the media to rewrite the history of Britain's empire and whitewash its crimes.

Only the desire to recover some imaginary good from the tragedy that was empire can explain the elevation of the neoconservative ideologue Niall Ferguson to chief imperial historian on the BBC and now the U.K.'s Channel 4 TV station too. His aggressive rewriting of history, driven by the messianic fantasies of the American Right, is being presented as a new revelation. In fact, Mr. Ferguson's "history" is a fairytale for our times which puts the white man and his burden back at the centre of heroic action. Colonialism — a tale of slavery, plunder, war, corruption, land-grabbing, famines, exploitation, indentured labour, impoverishment, massacres, genocide, and forced resettlement — is rewritten into a benign developmental mission marred by a few unfortunate accidents and excesses.

This is a fascinating piece from The Hindu on Yale's recent decision to deny tenure to Juan Cole, author of the incredibly useful 'Informed Comment' blog.


The perils of dissent in U.S. universities
Hamid Ansari
The quest for sanity should begin by undoing thought-control devices such as the Campus Watch in American universities.

According to the Jewish Week report, the move was prompted by Professor Cole's views on U.S. policy in Iraq and on the Israeli policy in the West Bank: "When Cole's potential hiring became publicly known, several of his detractors including the American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin and Washington Times columnist Joel Mowbray, took various steps to protest the decision. They wrote op-ed pieces in various publications and Mowbray went as far as to send a letter to a dozen of Yale's major donors, many of whom are Jewish, urging them to call the university and protest Cole's hiring."

This is the perfect thing to shove in the face of everyone who is jumping up and down for joy about the killing of Zarqawi
-NiK

Unreported: The Zarqawi Invitation
By Greg Palast
t r u t h o u t | Report

Aljibury's main concern was that busting Iraqi collaborators and Ba'athist big shots was a gift "to the Wahabis," by which he meant the foreign insurgents, who now gained experienced military commanders, Sunnis, who now had no choice but to fight the US-installed regime or face arrest, ruin or death. They would soon link up with the Sunni-defending Wahabi, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was committed to destroying "Shia snakes."

I often receive requests to have my final year project from National University of Ireland, Limerick, posted as a .pdf file. The original, as posted here, has received 1000's of hits over the years but does not include the footnotes, making it hard to read for scholars. Here is the original paper complete with footnotes and bibliography. I know many US Civil War and diplomatic history enthusiasts have read it and enjoyed it. I know I enjoyed writing it - though looking over it now it is obviously not that well written or sourced.

Please be careful if you need to cite it. It is by no means the work of a qualified historian.

Nicholas

you can download it here: kiersey 1997 diplomacy US civil war

By Mark Ames, The eXile
Posted on June 1, 2006, Printed on June 1, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/36881/

It seemed crazy at the time, but looking at the big picture... is it? Putin was widely criticized for post-Beslan moves to cancel gubernatorial elections. But put in this context, it seems like a genuine wartime move to consolidate power in the face of an attack. Not Chechen attacks. But American Cold War-II attacks.

[Note: this is a very interesting piece detailing the recent history of US geopolitical involvement in central Asia. Contrary to people like John Mearsheimer, there is actually a LOT of evidence to suggest that the US is pursuing an oil-motivated strategy in the region. That said, I still tend to agree with the Retort group, which argues that the 'blood for oil' thesis is too narrowly focused on key strategic actors. A better thesis, as they suggest, would bring into relief "the imperatives of capital accumulation" as a whole - NiK.]