Book Notes
I take personal notes of the books I've read to distill the essence that is relevant to my research.
They represent records of interesting and inspiring ideas that I come across literature and save for later reflection.
Please note that these are my subjective personal notes and are not meant to be understood as a summary or replacement of the books I read. Also, as I read many books simultaneously and take notes while I'm reading, many of the notes are incomplete and will constantly update as I advancing through the books.
Relevant links are marked in red.
My personal comments are marked in smaller, grey, italic font.
HANNA ARENDT - ON VIOLENCE (1970)
An analysis of the nature, causes, and significance of violence in the second half of the twentieth century. Arendt also reexamines the relationship between war, politics, violence, and power.
WALTER BENJAMIN - CRITIQUE OF VIOLENCE (1921)
A key essay on violence, central to current political and philosophical debates on the topic.
RICHARD J. BERNSTEIN - VIOLENCE: THINKING WITHOUT BANISTERS (2013)
In this new book Richard Bernstein examines the work of five figures who have thought deeply aboutviolence - Carl Schmitt, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Frantz Fanon, and Jan Assmann. He shows that we have much to learn from their work about the meaning of violence in our times.
FRANTZ FANON - THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH (1961)
Frantz Fanon provides a psychiatric and psychologic analysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon the individual and the nation, and discusses the broader social, cultural, and political implications inherent to establishing a social movement for the decolonization of a person and of a people.
RENE GIRARD - VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED (1972)
A landmark study that explores violence as it is represented and occurs throughout history, literature, religion and myth. Girard's illustrates his central argument that violence belongs to everyone and is at the heart of the sacred through analyses of Biblical narrative, Greek tragedy and contemporary states.
WOLFGANG SOFSKY - VIOLENCE - Terrorim, Genocide, War (2002)
Wolfgang Sofsky argues that our propensity for violence is a reaction we have evolved as a response to our own mortality, and one which has taken many different forms in the course of human history.
BRAD EVANS & TERREL CARVER - HISTORIES OF VIOLENCE (2016)
An essential introduction to post-war critical thought on the problem of violence.
SLAVOJ ZIZEK - VIOLENCE (2008)
Slavoj Žižek examines the ways we perceive and misperceive violence. Using history, philosophy, books, movies, Lacanian psychiatry, and jokes, Žižek discusses the inherent violence of globalization, capitalism, fundamentalism, and language.
®Athar Jaber 2019