The Cause of All Nations
The Cause of All Nations

Author: Don H Doyle

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2014-12-30

Total Pages: 401

ISBN-13: 0465080928

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When Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in 1863, he had broader aims than simply rallying a war-weary nation. Lincoln realized that the Civil War had taken on a wider significance -- that all of Europe and Latin America was watching to see whether the United States, a beleaguered model of democracy, would indeed "perish from the earth." In The Cause of All Nations, distinguished historian Don H. Doyle explains that the Civil War was viewed abroad as part of a much larger struggle for democracy that spanned the Atlantic Ocean, and had begun with the American and French Revolutions. While battles raged at Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg, a parallel contest took place abroad, both in the marbled courts of power and in the public square. Foreign observers held widely divergent views on the war -- from radicals such as Karl Marx and Giuseppe Garibaldi who called on the North to fight for liberty and equality, to aristocratic monarchists, who hoped that the collapse of the Union would strike a death blow against democratic movements on both sides of the Atlantic. Nowhere were these monarchist dreams more ominous than in Mexico, where Napoleon III sought to implement his Grand Design for a Latin Catholic empire that would thwart the spread of Anglo-Saxon democracy and use the Confederacy as a buffer state. Hoping to capitalize on public sympathies abroad, both the Union and the Confederacy sent diplomats and special agents overseas: the South to seek recognition and support, and the North to keep European powers from interfering. Confederate agents appealed to those conservative elements who wanted the South to serve as a bulwark against radical egalitarianism. Lincoln and his Union agents overseas learned to appeal to many foreigners by embracing emancipation and casting the Union as the embattled defender of universal republican ideals, the "last best hope of earth." A bold account of the international dimensions of America's defining conflict, The Cause of All Nations frames the Civil War as a pivotal moment in a global struggle that would decide the survival of democracy.

Failure, Nationalism, and Literature
Failure, Nationalism, and Literature

Author: Jing Tsu

Publisher: Stanford University Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 9780804751766

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How often do we think of cultural humiliation and failure as strengths? Against prevailing views on what it means to enjoy power as individuals, cultures, or nations, this provocative book looks at the making of cultural and national identities in modern China as building success on failure. It reveals the exercise of sovereign power where we least expect it and shows how this is crucial to our understanding of a modern world of conflict, violence, passionate suffering, and cultural difference.

Themes of the Noble Qur'an
Themes of the Noble Qur'an

Author: IDP Research Division

Publisher: Islamic Digital Publishing

Published: 2018-04-26

Total Pages: 99

ISBN-13: 8828315350

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Thematic Tafseer is a form of Tafseer gaining popularity in our time, in which the author tries to illustrate the link between the verses and Surahs of the Qur’an. This approach to Tafseer has evolved as a response to criticism from orientalists who claim that the Qur’an is disjointed and lacking structure. They claim that the Qur’an strangely jumps from one topic to another without any flow or logic and as such they claim it cannot be from God. (We seek Allah’s protection from such thinking) To a beginner reader, the Qur’an does seem to jump from topic to topic without any theme or structure. However, this is because of a wrong approach to understanding the Qur’an. We are accustomed to reading the writings of humans and as such, we expect a certain pattern in writing which almost all humans adhere to. If one approaches the Qur’an with this idea in mind, its format does seem strange. However, the Qur’an is not the writings of a human being. It is the Eternal Uncreated Word of Allah, the Creator of the Heavens and Earth, and as such it is the most unique book on earth. It is unique in every way, its rhythm, its beauty, its depth, its structure and even its themes. The Qur’an flows like a conversation between the Creator and our minds, and when we approach the Qur’an in such a manner, we find its shifts in themes logical and often miraculous. It is common to find someone reflecting on a verse, thinking up a question and then realizing the very next verse addresses that question, making the shift in topic not random, but rather miraculous. In other words, the Qur’an is meant for those who think and reflect, who treat it with honour and who study it using the proper methodology. This approach to working out the themes of the Qur’an is fascinating, hence a dedicated a series of thirty posts to this topic, focusing on the themes covered in each Juz is found in this compilation. Studying the Qur’an in this manner has been truly eye-opening and the resulting work is something worth publishing so others too can benefit from this short summary of the themes of the Qur’an. In terms of resources, there are two primary works which influenced these posts, one is A thematic commentary on the Qur’an by Shaykh Muhammad Al-Ghazali and the other is Al-Qur’an: The Guidance for mankind by Farooq Azam Malik. Shaykh Al-Ghazali’s work is a comprehensive Tafseer focusing on thematic unity which discusses each Surah of the Qur’an in detail. Brother Malik’s book is, possibly, the best translation of the meanings of the Qur’an currently on the market and each Surah is preceded by a short summary of its themes and topics which is extremely useful and beneficial. The above two resources were utilized, as well as the classical commentaries like Al-Qurtubi, Al-Jalalayn and Ibn Kathir as the foundation of this work. Visit our eBook Store at: www.payhip.com/idpebooks Contact us at: [email protected]