The Gold Pavilion
The Ashikaga Shoguns oversaw Japan’s tumble into the Warring States Period (Sengoku-Jidai) along with the split in the Imperial family into the Northern and Southern Courts. They also nurtured the Zen Buddhist sect and built the Gold Pavilion in Kyoto while the country starved of hunger, suffered famine, earthquake and disease.
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Thinking Allowed
Liverpool Riots and Political Children
Laurie explores the riots of Liverpool 30 years on with Richard Philips and Diane Frost. He talks about political influence on children with Dorothy Moss.
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Beyond the Book
Aggregation Violation
Whether from misguided practices, or misplaced good intentions, or lack of editorial oversight, the Huffington Post is on the carpet this week for aggregation violations that stop just short of plagiarism and copyright infringement.
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New Books in African Studies
Erin Haney, “Exposures: Photography and Africa”
In Chapter 3 of Erin Haney’s excellent book Photography and Africa (Reaktion Books, 2010) there are seven photos taken in central Africa at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Six advertise progress – from the smartly dressed and armed native troops (though still barefoot) to a posed photograph of a caravan of ivory and a depiction of rubber tapping. These images were taken to show the success, the organization, and the wealth of the Congo to the people of Brussels, Antwerp and beyond. The seventh photo shows a man sitting silently next to two indistinct objects, with a bland backdrop of open ground and two or three palm trees. This photo was also taken to inform public opinion in Europe (mainly Britain), but in this case as part of a movement against Belgian interests (and atrocities) in the Congo. The two indistinct objects in front of the man, incidently, are the severed foot and hand of his murdered five year old daughter.
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