What kind of world was the Americas, before European colonists arrived? Advances in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, ecology, geography and history have combined to challenge many of the long-held theories about what pre-Columbian America was like, who inhabited it, and their origins. Science writer Charles C. Mann has followed these developments with interest and […]
Jim Crace is both flattered and amused that he’s become the subject of Academic study. “I’m flattered. I’d rather that there were academic books about me than there weren’t any – he says, in a down to earth tone before continuing to outline one of the stranger Academic analyses of his work – a Japanese […]
Felix shoved the gun into his mouth and cocked the hammer. His mind started racing against itself, looking for some reason to eat it or not to. There was nothing – not a single thought, only numbness. The other cars shot past too quickly to notice his dilemma. The seconds ticked past – he didn't […]
“The truth is actually much more buffoonish than most conspiracy theorists believe”, explains Jon Ronson, the author of The men who stare at goats, a book that deals with the psychological branch of the US military machine. “The men who stare at goats deals with one of the maddest conspiracy theories there is, about powerful […]
The following is a response from Yael Stern O’Dwyer to the interview published by Three Monkeys Online with Palestinian author Suad Amiry. Arafat and my hot flashes – an Israeli response to Suad Amiry’s Sharon and my Mother-in-Law. After reading Suad Amiry's novel Sharon and my mother in law I was extremely moved … as […]
What constitutes a healthy, vibrant democracy? It is a question that has been asked repeatedly over the centuries, since the time of Plato's Republic. The Greeks had a view that all men (and that means men only) of property (therefore not including slaves) should have a vote at the highest level, that is, in the […]
The attacks of September the 11th, 2001, on the World Trade Centre in New York have had global implications. The impact of the attacks has manifested itself as the ongoing ‘war against terrorism’. The Global impact of 9/11 though, has, to some extent, hidden the very real local impact of the attacks. Try for a […]
In 1956 M. King Hubbert predicted that oil production in the US states (the 48 lower US states to be precise) would peak in the early 1970s. His pronouncement was greeted with derision but proved quite accurate. He also predicted that world oil production would peak in the 1990s – not knowing then that the […]
When Asne Seierstad wrote The Bookseller of Kabul, she wanted to do something few war reporters do – get personal. Hence she abandoned the front lines to move in with an Afghan family and write a book about their troubled lives. In doing so she provided a poignant insight to the drudgery of the “old […]