Daedalus articles from March 2005

Daedalus archives from March 2005

Academic freedom under fire.(Protection to classroom debate; political freedom at reasearch universities)
March 22, 2005... Today, a half century after the 1954 House Un-American Activities Committee held congressional hearings on communists in American universities, faculty members are witnessing once again a rising tide of anti-intellectualism and threats to...

The unconscious colossus: limits of (& alternatives to) American empire.
March 22, 2005... What is an empire? In the words of one of the few modern historians to attempt a genuinely comparative study of empires, it is First and foremost, a very great power that has left its mark on the international relations of an era......

Empire & 'civilizing' missions, past & present.(Modern imperialism; empires)
March 22, 2005... 'Imperialism' is a frustratingly vague term, but a useful one--and not only for outside observers and protesting subjects. (1) Historically, rulers have often sought to make their empires visible as such by following regional--and in recent...

Imperialism, liberalism & the quest for perpetual peace.(Empires, history; American imperialism)
March 22, 2005... For at least two generations, 'empire' and 'imperialism' have been dirty words. Already by 1959, when neither the French nor the British Empire had yet quite ceased to exist, Raymond Aaron dismissed imperialism as a "name given by rivals, or...

Empire: a blunt tool for democratization.
March 22, 2005... On its face, using military occupation as a tool to promote democratization is about as intuitive as forcing people to take a self-improvement class to learn how to be more spontaneous. And yet the two most recent U.S. administrations, though...

Emancipation & empire, from Cromwell to Karl Rove.
March 22, 2005... 'Empire' only became a dirty word in the twentieth century. Prior to this, educated Europeans and North Americans believed that while there were certainly bad empires (usually Eastern and despotic in character), there were also good...

The Ottoman experience.
March 22, 2005... When those states which have been acquired are accustomed to live at liberty under their own laws, there are three ways of holding them. The first is to despoil them; the second is to go and live there in person; the third is to...

Imperialism & the roots of the Great War.
March 22, 2005... In history textbooks, the period from 1871 to 1914 is known as the age of imperialism. During this period, the European powers extended their control over the rest of the world to an extent never seen before. In 1870, Dutch control over the...

Beyond imperialism: the new internationalism.
March 22, 2005... Much has been said about the United States having become, or having to become, an empire. To provide the chaotic world, especially in the wake of the Cold War, with some semblance of law and order, it has been asserted, the international...

Lesson.(Brief Article)(Poem)
March 22, 2005... Because what is outer is inner there is no outer there is no inner-- I am trying to get this straight And what the long sentence assembled by cemetery sparrows said before my presence arrived dispersing them in its brief wake,...

The Choice.(Brief Article)(Poem)
March 22, 2005... When you look at the sky, when you look at the stars, God is not there. Someone in hell is sitting beside you on the train. Somebody burning unnoticed walks past in the street. Sailors in snow-- God can do what is impossible,...

Four short pieces: King Log in exile, post-colonial, Salome was a dancer & Take charge.(Short Story)
March 22, 2005... King Log in exile After he had been deposed by the frogs, King Log lay disconsolately among the ferns and dead leaves a short distance from the pond. He'd had only enough energy to roll that far: he'd been King of the Pond for so long that...

Dialogue between Barry Mazur & Peter Pesic: on mathematics, imagination & the beauty of numbers.(Interview)
March 22, 2005... PETER PESIC: Many intelligent people only see in mathematics a wasteland of dreary formalism, a mind-numbing expanse of theorems and proofs expressed in very abstract language. Doubtless this is partly due to the way it is taught, but such...

Michael Hechter: on the 2004 presidential election.
March 22, 2005... To many observers, the outcome of the recent American election was a shock. Prior to the election, unemployment had been stubbornly high, economic growth was faltering, the chief justification for invading Iraq had been discredited, the...

Morris E. Fine & Peter W. Voorhees: on the evolving curriculum in materials science & engineering.
March 22, 2005... In 1950, materials science and engineering did not exist as a university department. Instead, there were separate departments for metallurgical engineering and ceramic engineering. Polymers were taught in chemistry and chemical engineering...