tildebooks

possm started reading Maoismus by Felix Wemheuer

Felix Wemheuer: Maoismus (Paperback, German language, 2008, Promedia)

Maoismus by Felix Wemheuer

possm started reading Meeting the Universe Halfway by Karen Barad

Karen Barad: Meeting the Universe Halfway (Hardcover, Duke University Press)

Meeting the Universe Halfway by Karen Barad

possm reviewed Affinität und informelle Organisation (Hourriya. Internationalistische anarchistische Pamphlets, #2)

Affinität und informelle Organisation (Paperback, German language, 2017, Hourriya)

Partly interesting ideas, bad form

3 stars

A small collection of insurrectionalist texts. I found them interesting. One thing I find valuable about insurrectionalist theory is its radical critique of organization. I may not agree with the conclusion they arrive at, but the process of really questioning why we need organization, which aspects of organization are useful and which can be discarded, is valuable in my opinion. The texts are well selected I think. But the form is lacking. Either the translation is really bad, or the texts were badly written to begin with. It's more likely that the problem lies with the translation, since all three texts have this problem.

possm finished reading Affinität und informelle Organisation (Hourriya. Internationalistische anarchistische Pamphlets, #2)

Affinität und informelle Organisation (Hourriya. Internationalistische anarchistische Pamphlets, #2)

possm started reading Affinität und informelle Organisation (Hourriya. Internationalistische anarchistische Pamphlets, #2)

Affinität und informelle Organisation (Hourriya. Internationalistische anarchistische Pamphlets, #2)

possm reviewed Utopie by Alexander Neupert-Doppler

Alexander Neupert-Doppler: Utopie (Paperback, Schmetterling Verlag GmbH)

Good historical overview

3 stars

History of the idea of utopia within (mostly German) leftist thought, from the early socialists to Habermas etc. The focus on German thinkers is justified because the book's target audience is the German Left. I would have liked more connection to political praxis. The intro and the outro reference praxis, but the rest of the book stays within the realm of theory. It's not super fun to read, but pretty good and educative.

possm finished reading Utopie by Alexander Neupert-Doppler

Utopie by Alexander Neupert-Doppler

possm started reading Utopie by Alexander Neupert-Doppler

Utopie by Alexander Neupert-Doppler

possm reviewed Judentum by Dan Cohn-Sherbok (Religionen der Welt)

Dan Cohn-Sherbok: Judentum (Paperback, German language, 2001)

Good primer on the history and practice of Judaism

3 stars

I read this little book hoping to patch up my general knowledge about Judaism, and I feel like my expectations have been met. The larger half of the book is a history of Judaism. It does its job quite well and is reasonably well written. The second, shorter half is concerned with religious practice, this part is a little less entertaining, a little more chaotic, it feels like the author was struggling deciding what to include and what to leave out. All in all this book met, but did not exceed, my expectations. Solid 3/5 stars. Also little sidenote: the author is weirdly concerned with demographics and birthrates. You'll find sentences like: "mixed marriages lead to a loss of thousands of Jews every year" like my guy that is some crazy phrasing. Anyway. I'd like to find a similar little book for the other world religions, especially Islam which I …

I read this little book hoping to patch up my general knowledge about Judaism, and I feel like my expectations have been met. The larger half of the book is a history of Judaism. It does its job quite well and is reasonably well written. The second, shorter half is concerned with religious practice, this part is a little less entertaining, a little more chaotic, it feels like the author was struggling deciding what to include and what to leave out. All in all this book met, but did not exceed, my expectations. Solid 3/5 stars. Also little sidenote: the author is weirdly concerned with demographics and birthrates. You'll find sentences like: "mixed marriages lead to a loss of thousands of Jews every year" like my guy that is some crazy phrasing. Anyway. I'd like to find a similar little book for the other world religions, especially Islam which I feel embarrassingly uneducated about.