This landmark speech of the Civil Rights Movement is one of the most powerful public orations ever. It was delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. on 28th August 1963 at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. The speech is exceptional for both its logical merit and emotional appeal. Indeed reading the transcript…
Category: History
Response to Critical Essays/Books on Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
There are strengths and weaknesses to the book by Kimnach et al. Its strength is its comprehensiveness and its utility in the classroom environment. The background essays included in the compilation help dispel some of the myths and simplistic caricatures surrounding the personal of Jonathan Edwards. The book’s attempt to link the Sermon with the…
Jonathan Edwards’s Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: Annotated Bibliography of its critique
Wilson H. Kimnach, Caleb J.D. Maskell, and Kenneth P. Minkema, editors. Jonathan Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”: A Casebook. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2010. 204 pages. This book attempts to deconstruct the various dimensions of Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon. In other words, it offers the social, historical and…
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God – Jonathan Edwards – Enfield, Connecticut, July 8, 1741
The sermon issued by Jonathan Edwards in his Church in Enfield, Connecticut is a powerful oratorical work. Delivered on July 8 1741, it is an important work that continues to hold relevance for its theological content as well as literary style. Consistent with founding texts of Christianity, there is a pronounced tenor of Godly retribution…
The Colossal Buddha Statues of Bamiyan in Afghanistan
The Giant Buddha Statues of Afghanistan, also called the Buddhas of Bamiyan, are two of the oldest and culturally significant monuments. But, unfortunately, by decree of the Islamic religious fundamentalist group, the Taliban, they have been destroyed in 2002. Yet, documentary and photographic evidence of the site prior to 2002 offer a rich historical narrative…
The Importance of Being Earnest: How does Wilde satirize the “proper” and the “moral” emphasis the Victorians are known for?
In The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell says about Algernon in Act 3, “He has nothing, but he looks everything. What more can one desire?” (Wilde, 1899, p. 2332) She seems to be saying that looks (or appearances) are more important than reality; in other words, it’s a desirable quality for a person to…
Heaven and Earth (Ten To Chi To) by Haruki Kadokawa
The film in question is a Japanese period film released in 1990. The main theme of the film is war and its impact on warriors and common people. For a student of history, the film presents a fairly accurate presentation of costumes, art and architecture of 16th century Japan. Watching the film was like going…
Book Review: Dust Bowl, USA: Depression America and the Ecological Imagination, 1929-1941 by Brad Lookingbill
During the 1930s, the American Midwest region witnessed one of its most acute agricultural droughts in the history of the nation. But this tragic event does not get as much attention as it deserves in history textbooks. The main reason for this is its coincidence with the Great Depression that precipitated in 1929 with the…
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
The book in question is insightful, thought-provoking and controversial. One of the positive aspects of the book is its elaborateness. Having taken up a challenging thesis, the author goes about proving it with a rigorous scholarly approach. But as with all theses there are problems of omission and commission. The book presents an interesting view…
On the Jewish Question by Karl Marx
Karl Marx’ essay ‘On the Jewish Question’ is elaborate, insightful and addresses a pressing issue in 19th century Germany. First published in his collection of early philosophical writings, the essay considers Jewish emancipation in the realm of politics and civil society. The essay is partly a polemic to Bruno Bauer’s proposal to the Jewish Question….