Suchergebnisse

Intro -- Title Page -- Contents -- Epigraph -- One: ARABIA ON THE EARLS COURT ROAD -- Two: ISLAND LABYRINTH -- Three: THE DAY BEFORE TOMORROW -- Four: TEMPORARY PEOPLE -- Five: QUATTROCENTO -- Six: ARABIA DEMENS -- Seven: TWO NATIONS -- Eight: THE ROCK GARDEN -- Nine: THE BIGGEST SOUK IN THE WORLD -- About the Author -- Copyright.

What does the "war on terror" and a new era of religious ferocity look like to an Englishman living in the Pacific Northwest? Jonathan Raban finds that as he reads the source texts that have inspired modern-day jihad, memories of his own rigidly fundamentalist adolescent atheism help him understand why young people suffering from cultural alienation, spiritual emptiness, and moral uncertainty turn to a backward-looking version of Islam to help them resist the upheavals of modernity. Raban reflects on the Bush administration's manipulation of the threat of terrorism to undermine civil rights. In diagnosing what has gone wrong in the Iraq war, he emphasizes the US failure to understand the history of the Middle East and its loyalties of religion and ethnicity. He traces the continuing support for a disastrous war to the legacy of American Puritanism, and he explores the increasing polarization of American politics.--From publisher description

Jonathan Raban: "Gott, der Mensch & Mrs. Thatcher". Eine kritische Untersuchung der Ansprache Mrs. Thatchers vor der Generalversammlung der Church of Scotland. Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 1990. 109 S., br., 16,- DM

In the city we can live deliberately: inventing and renewing ourselves, carving out journeys, creating private spaces. But in the city we are also afraid of being alone, clinging to the structures of daily life to ward off the chaos around us. How is it that the noisy, jostling, overwhelming metropolis leaves us at once so energized and so fragile? In Soft City, Jonathan Raban, one of our most acclaimed novelists and travel writers seeks to find out. First published in the 1970s, his account is a compelling exploration of urban life: a classic in the literature of the city, more relevant to today's overcrowded planet than ever.