Review Essay Research Articles

Book review essay: The modern self in crisis

While the humanities face various impasses and while any of us may sense that our “time is out of joint,” seldom does a book emerge that traces the path of the vanquished leading to our present. Fuoco B. Fann's This Self We Deserve: A Quest After Modernity offers an illuminating inquiry into modern knowledge, language, and the subject, drawing from French poststructuralism, continental and intercultural philosophies, and art theory. This review essay assesses the book's main claims: (1) that Euro-American (i.e., Western) knowledge has, over the past two centuries, lost its sustainability; and (2) that the present instability of knowledge has been bequeathed to us by a continuous modern tradition that we ought to “unlearn and relearn.” Drawing from Foucault, Derrida, Baudrillard, and others, Fann's Quest After Modernity weaves these thinkers’ ideas around a few central themes, including the modern speaking subject, modern phonetic language, ontology as white mythology, and various “post”-modern reversals.

Refining McGee’s Ideograph: Celebrating 45 Years of Ideographic Criticism

This essay reviews various refinements of ideographic criticism. McGee first imagined ideographs as ultimate terms found in political discourse that serve as ideology’s most basic units. Over the last forty-five years, rhetoricians have casuistically stretched ideographic criticism to better fit into postmodernism’s grammars of cultural and textual fragmentation. In this article, I reflect on McGee’s initial deductive framework, harmonize 1980 and 1998 McGee’s divergent philosophies of ideology, and reference creative applications of ideographic criticism to support the method’s four primary generative extensions, which include contemporary, personified, visual, and localized ideographs.

From In(-)formation to Infrastructural Turns: The Digital Futures of Human Rights Law and Practice

Abstract In his book, The Informational Logic of Human Rights: Network Imaginaries in the Cybernetic Age, Joshua Bowsher critiques the human rights movement’s preoccupation with informational practices. Tracing the evolution of informational preoccupation of human rights organizations to the rise of cybernetics and its enmeshment with the neo-liberal project, Bowsher argues that the resulting practice of creating violations as events through capturing, cutting and noise elimination has defanged and depoliticized rights. The quest for objective, stable and predictable knowledge has permeated even the turn to algorithms and machine learning. While denouncing the human rights movement’s resistance to critical and political forms of knowledge making that interrogate subjects, norms, values and power relations, Bowsher nonetheless sees potential for salvaging the promise of human rights. What is needed, Bowsher argues, is a reconfiguration of human rights information from an assemblage of ‘brute facts’ into positional, situated knowledge-making practice that would aim to forge connections between structures of oppression and domination and sufferings of ‘particularly situated human beings’. Picking up on Bowsher’s call for human rights in(-)formation, this review essay examines the infrastructural turn needed to effectuate knowledge-generating practices attuned to the polyvalency of the situated perspectives. Focusing particularly on the growing role of digital data and infrastructures, the essay seeks to illuminate promising paths forward for human rights advocates and practitioners.

‘Too Long a Sacrifice?’: Post-Transitional Justice and the Afterlives of Authoritarianism

ABSTRACT In a field that of late appears beset by crises of confidence, this essay reviews three books that send transitional justice scholarship back to basics. The focus in the books on post-authoritarian settings sheds light on the effects of time on transitional justice expectations, actions and futures. The books also offer rear-view mirror vantage points on the assumptions, teleological and otherwise, that informed early praxis in the field. The common object of interest addressed by these volumes – authoritarian regimes and transitional responses to them, over time – is significant in itself. It also reminds us, firstly, that transitional justice dynamics are not reducible to immediate policy menus, and, secondly, that they do not disappear when intellectual fashions change.

Patterns of injuries in sports groin: Review and pictorial essay

Sports-related groin injuries are prevalent in multidirectional sports and typically present with inguinal pain and localized tenderness. These injuries can be disabling, leading to missed practice and warranting prolonged absences from sports events, potentially compromising a professional athlete’s career. These injuries are difficult to diagnose due to the complex anatomy and pathophysiology. Imaging, particularly high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging, is excellent for evaluating cause, location, and severity of groin injuries. Understanding the anatomy of the groin and recognizing specific patterns of imaging findings is crucial for accurate diagnosis and targeted treatment planning.

Performance Enhancement of Carbon Nanotube in Composites: An Analysis of Key Factors in Mechanical, Electrical, and Thermal Properties

Carbon nanotubes are often utilized as reinforcing materials in composites due to their superior properties and extensive application potential. This essay reviews the current research related to carbon nanotubes and their composites, analyzing their superior mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties, as well as structural characteristics. The essay explores interactions such as interfacial bonding between carbon nanotubes and matrix, load transfer mechanisms, and the effects of small dimensions, which play a crucial role in enhancing the overall composite performance. Furthermore, the essay discusses practical applications of carbon nanotubes, including their use in electromagnetic shielding, flexible sensors, and advanced electronic devices. In addition, the potential for integrating carbon nanotube composites into energy storage technologies, such as batteries and supercapacitors, is considered. Lastly, this essay proposes various improvement strategies to enhance the performance of carbon nanotube composites, such as optimizing synthesis methods, improving dispersion techniques, and enhancing the interfacial bonding between nanotubes and matrix materials.

Review Essay: The flexible or inflexible nature of the international drug control system: drug prohibition regime or drug regulatory regime? A review of John Collins Legalising the Drug Wars: A Regulatory History of UN Drug Control (CUP, 2022)

Review Essay: The flexible or inflexible nature of the international drug control system: drug prohibition regime or drug regulatory regime? A review of John Collins Legalising the Drug Wars: A Regulatory History of UN Drug Control (CUP, 2022)

Fear and Loathing in american politics: A review essay

President Donald Trump’s standing in the polls actually improved in the immediate aftermath of multiple criminal indictments. This development illustrates the phenomenon of affective polarization: intense conflict and ill will across the party divide, and intransigent political preferences that are entirely unresponsive to strong evidence. In this paper, I will provide a brief review of the evidence documenting the intensified state of affective polarization in America, identify possible underlying causes of this phenomenon, and offer some critical commentary on efforts to develop “treatments” that can ameliorate out-party animus.

Association between dietary intake of macro-nutrient and type 2 diabetes mellitus

Diabetes mellitus, a chronic metabolic disorder characterized by hyperglycemia, has emerged as a major public health concern worldwide. From among, type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is the most common type, accounting for 90% of all diabetes cases, and the prevalence is the highest of middle-aged group, but has increased in young adults. Its pathophysiology is multifaceted, but mainly characterized by altered function of pancreatic -cells for insulin production and diminished response of insulin by peripheral tissues. The reasons are heterogeneous, such as family history and age, however, unhealthy diet, inactivity and obesity act as the major modifiable risk factor in onset of the disease. The relationship between dietary factors and type 2 diabetes has been extensively studied, summarizing the components of macronutrients help to modulate insulin balance and glucose homeostasis. So, an effective regulation of dietary intervention is robust related to dieticians and related staff help patients to mitigate insulin balance, T2DM, and several complications. This essay reviews the relationship between intake of major macronutrients (carbohydrates, fat, and protein) and related diet regimen on insulin and glucose regulation. Insight into nutrigenetic interactions will aid in uncovering molecular mechanisms of T2DM and enable practical application of precision nutrition plan for T2DM patients.

How democracies live: a review essay on Shadi Hamid’s The Problem of Democracy

Shadi Hamid’s The Problem of Democracy is the rare book that will be of immense value to both those who agree and disagree with its argument. This essay constructively considers Hamid’s arguments. It suggests that the case for democratic minimalism might be strengthened by considering the role of economic freedom as a source of democratic resilience.

Editorial Note

This issue of the American Journal of Islam and Society (Volume 41 Nos. 3-4) comprises three main research articles, which respectively engage with the themes of political loyalty, justice and the just ruler, and popular preaching. We begin with Abdessamad Belhaj’s study, “Political Loyalty in Reformist Islamic Ethics: Resources and Limits.” We then turn to Fadi Zatari and Omar Fili’s contribution, “Justice and the Just Ruler in the Islamic Mirror of Princes.” For our third research article for this issue, we have Hatim Mahamid and Younis Abu Alhaija’s work, “Popular Religious Preaching as Informal Education and its Impact on Medieval Islamic Culture.” This issue of the AJIS also includes several book reviews, including Iymon Majid’s review essay “Integrating Kashmir.” Majid’s essay considers two recently published and important works, Shahla Hussain’s Kashmir in the Aftermath of Partition and Hafsa Kanjwal’s Colonizing Kashmir: State-Building under Indian Occupation. AJIS Volume 41 Nos. 3-4 ends with two insightful forum pieces. The first is Mohamed Alio’s contribution, “The Mazrui Dynasty: Serving Islam in East Africa” and the second is Shahzar Raza Khan’s piece on the famous Urdu poet Akbar Allahabadi.

Essay review: the fictive history of Victorian science and empire.

In 1820 two French scientists-Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Jean Bienaimé Caventou- discovered and named the active alkaloid substance extracted from cinchona bark: quinine. The bark from the 'wondrous' fever tree, and its antimalarial properties, however, had long been known to both colonial scientists and indigenous Peruvians. From the mid-seventeenth century, cinchona bark, taken from trees that grow on the eastern slopes of the Andes, was part of a global circulation of botanical knowledge, practice and profit. By the 1850s, Europeans eager to bypass South American trade routes to access cinchona plants established plantations across the global South in French Algeria, Dutch Java and British India. Wardian cases-plant terrariums named after British physician Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward-would fuel new imperial efforts to curb malaria, contemporaries argued. And yet cinchona trees proved difficult to transport over land and sea, and did not easily or universally thrive in new tropical climates. As a result of the growing demand and uncertainty around cinchona, as Pratik Chakrabarti has argued, from the late eighteenth century there was 'a global scientific obsession' with finding a 'substitute' for cinchona, particularly local alternatives in India and China.

Social theory, the ecological emergency, and the direction of history: A review essay

The current ecological emergency is sometimes seen as a new epoch in the history of humankind. The expressions Anthropocene and Great Acceleration are two recent proposals for naming this epoch, which have been and are being widely debated. However, this debate found social theory rather unprepared, with attempts at conceptualizing long-term social change having largely been abandoned in the face of conceptual, methodological, and empirical difficulties decades ago. This essay discusses three recent book publications, the coincidence of which may indicate that the reluctance towards addressing the existence and direction of major socio-historical transformations is about to be overcome. From the angle of social philosophy, Rahel Jaeggi's Fortschritt und Regression (“Progress and regression”) explores in a novel way the question of the normative directedness of history. Based in political and economic sociology, Ingolfur Blühdorn's Unhaltbarkeit (“Intenability”) and Jens Beckert's Verkaufte Zukunft (“Future sold”) focus more explicitly on the ecological emergency, in particular climate change. Reading these three books together, the question arises how the long-term irreversibility of global warming relates to the direction of human history over the past two centuries and the future possibility of change of direction.

Non-City: A Review Essay

Non-City: A Review Essay

Kosta Nikolić’s Book Krajina (1991–1995). An Extended Review

Abstract The essay comments on Kosta Nikolić’s voluminous study Krajina 1991–1995, jointly published in November 2023 by the Serb National Council in Croatia and the Fraktura publishing house. Nikolić delves into the ideologically charged story of the failed separatist proto-state of the Republic of Serbian Krajina which existed on the territory of Croatia in the first half of the 1990s. The book was written by a Belgrade-based historian and published by two Croatian publishers, one of which is the national coordinating body of the Serbs in Croatia and the other the country’s leading progressive publisher. This combination unsurprisingly sparked public interest and debate, which the author covers in this review essay, along with an assessment of the book as such. While largely forgotten beyond Croatia and Yugoslavia’s other successor states, the book’s topic is of relevance and provides salient lessons for contemporary separatist and territorial conflicts globally.

Unwilling or Unable: Newfangled Self-Defence Against ISIS in Syria

Abstract Focussing on a sequence of tense, era-defining moments in 2014 as world leaders struggled to comprehend and respond effectively to the dramatic rise of Islamic State forces in Syria and Iraq, this Review Essay is in part a chronicle of the readings (and indeed, on occasion, the significant mis-readings) of a diverse cast of actors seeking legal justification and irrefutable political arguments for the use of force in an escalating situation of geopolitical crisis and unspeakable atrocity. The essay provides a thoughtful, stirring reminder of the abiding value of close, critical reading in human rights and humanitarian practice.

Two vistas on the remaking of Europe: a review essay on two recent books on the history of European integration

Two vistas on the remaking of Europe: a review essay on two recent books on the history of European integration

Essay review: Why we fight about science.

The concept of 'science' occupies a distinctive place within our rhetorical inheritance. Tangential to science's actual practices and institutions, this rhetoric holds that science comprises an arsenal of techniques, or a pervasive mentality, that have broadly shaped and even defined modern society. Such notions have been the subject of more or less constant discussion for two or three centuries, with early critics of scientific thought targeting its links to the religious and political radicalism of the Enlightenment and the troubles of industrialization.

Christian Communities in Lebanon under Ottoman Rule

Abstract This review essay explores the socio-political conditions of Christian communities in Lebanon during the Ottoman Empire’s governance. The study examines the administrative, legal, and social frameworks that shaped the lives of Lebanese Christians under Ottoman rule. It reviews the degree of religious tolerance, the impact of the millet system, and the role of local leaders in mediating relationships between the Christian communities and the Ottoman authorities. By offering a comprehensive historical overview, this work provides a nuanced perspective on the coexistence and conflicts between Christian and Muslim populations, contributing to a broader understanding of interfaith dynamics during this critical period in Middle Eastern history.

Review Essay: The Chinese Brother in Africa, Christina Seyfried, African Bargaining Power with China: Foreign Investment and Rising Influence. Abingdon: Routledge, 2023.

In the context of an often-polarized debate on the Western fear of Chinese presence in Africa, the research presented in this book has interesting and important implications for the future economic development strategies of African countries and the foreign investors who want to work with them. This 227-page book, the result of the author’s 301-page Ph.D. dissertation at Yale University, directed by Professor Ian Shapiro at the Department of Political Science, provides a detailed account of the political economy around investment deal negotiations between African governments and private Chinese investors.