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GORDON PARSONS recommends an entertaining account of the years between Germany’s defeat in WWI and Hitler’s seizure of power
Informed dialogue on the subtleties of Islamic religion
Steve Andrew reviews The Mosaic of Islam: A Conversation with Perry Anderson by Suleiman Mourad (Verso, £9.99)
MIGUEL YOSHIDA explains the evolution and influence of the Cuban Casa De Las Americas in joining culture to the revolutionary struggle
ANDY HEDGECOCK is charmed by a skilful adaptation of Tove Jansson’s lyrical portrait of three generations of a family, overcoming grief
ALEX HALL treads warily through a messy, dialectical struggle fought in the mundane machinery of driving licences, criminal law, and birth registries
MICHAL BONCZA, FIONA O’CONNOR, JAMES WALSH and ANGUS REID review Atlas of Disappearance, Love Me Tender, Bouchra, and This Tempting Madness
Flitting between myth and the modern world, Medusa is determined to steer clear of human affairs. When her resolve crumbles, the result is petrifying in every sense
SULEIMAN MOURAD’S book, in the shape of a lengthy discourse with leftist academic Perry Anderson, is a seminal guide to Islam.
He appreciates that the religion is best analysed by recognising that the centrality of ideas and values in determining the origins, role and contribution of a belief system has to coexist with an understanding of its interaction with more materialistic phenomenon such as political economy, class struggle and anti-imperialism.
Basic Marxism, one might say, but nonetheless in need of reiteration when more idealist interpretations start to claim the ascendancy — something which is certainly the case at the present time.
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