Neil > Recent Status Updates

New job = getting paid to read (for now). Very beneficial so far - it has helped me conceptualize care integration as a vehicle for improving health outcomes on a population level.

Although it’s probably the most heart-wrenching book I’ve ever read, the book is hard to put down. Fisk captures so emotion but also inter-connected histories through his writing and interviews with survivors of the Holocaust, Nakba, Armenian Genocide, and of course the Lebanese Civil War.

While past coursework and research have familiarized me with Anderson's constructivist framework on nationalism, reading this book has introduced me to several new concepts and understandings pertaining to the emergence and development of nationalism. I'm only three chapters in, and I now have a lot to think about. A very intriguing, convincing, thorough, and revolutionary read so far.

Five star rating so far, excited to write the review for this book.

A reality that still persists in the region today: "In the Arab world, the Palestine issue thus became a political football exploited at will by opportunist politicians, as each sought to outbid the other in proclaiming their devotion to it. Palestinians witnessed this cynical game eventually and realized that if anything was to be done about their cause, they would have to do it themselves"

Although Khalidi employs familial accounts in outlining the colonization of Palestine, his argument is compelling and nuanced so far.

Because this book is so long, I'm only reading some chapters of it. Eventually, I'll finish it. Anyway, Batatu provides so many details regarding the formation of Iraqi communist circles and different worker/peasant uprisings. The book's greatest use to me is its information on the involvement of minorities, especially Assyrians/Christians - who are unfortunately assigned insanely inaccurate names - in these events.

The second chapter impressively captures the nuances of early Iraq and the formation of its competing parties/ideologies. While it has its faults in regards to the massacres of Assyrians in 1933, it illustrated the longstanding implications of the atrocities committed by the army. In essence, the state would determine that the most effective way for it to deal with its defiant groups was to brutally subdue them.

So far, the first two chapters of this book have been very informative on state-building and the complex dynamics of mandate/early Iraq. However, the book has shortcomings, especially regarding the so-called "Assyrian issue." Franzen fails to capture the Assyrian perspective, which is characterized by insecurity, vilification, and betrayal, as he rather depends on British and Iraqi (mainly Arab) accounts of 1933.