Links to Consider, 5/11
Alice Evans on religious history; Razib Khan on same; Paul Seabright's forthcoming book on the economics of religious organizations; Rob Henderson on rich kid demonstrators.
Before the 6th century, Arabia was a peripheral wilderness: lacking resources, rivers and a state. Against the odds, Muhammad unified the Arab tribes, who then established one of the largest empires in human history - stretching from Spain to the Sindh. Muslim influence continually expanded - spanning Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and South-East Asia. Today, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. What explains its incredible success?
“A History of the Muslim World” is the most revelatory book I’ve read this year. Michael Cook’s thousand page tome carefully traces conquest, sectarian conflict, state-formation, and cultural change over two millennia, across half the world.
…For Cook, “religion.. opens the door to Arab state formation”.
…The first 500 years of Islam were thus characterised by insecure rulers battling for power, invoking religious legitimacy. Cook’s detailed historical analysis is enormously valuable as it casts doubt on earlier claims that Arab conquests entrenched religious authoritarianism.
To understand the emergence of Protestantism and its role in stimulated public and private piety across Europe, you must understand the Reformation. Diarmaid MacCulloch’s The Reformation is the most thorough narrative history on this topic I have ever read. He explains why Spain saw very little success for reformers, the essential role of Italian thinkers in Protestant heterodoxies and social and cultural factors in the success of state-driven reform in Northern Europe. The Reformation maps Europe’s modern cultural geography, which was established during this period, and brings home the geopolitical relevance of what might seem to be sectarian conflicts.
His post includes other recommendations on Western European religious history.
Paul Seabright has a forthcoming book on the economics of religious movements. IIRC, Tyler Cowen once described “self-recommending” as an interesting project by an interesting person. This fits.
Consider the case of James Carlson, described as “one of the most violent leaders of the Columbia University riots.” He’s the son of millionaire parents and owns a $3.4 million townhouse in Brooklyn. Maybe the most absurd thing is that he’s a 40-year-old man leading college campus riots.
…Carlson was charged with burglary and breaking and entering. He destroys property, harasses maintenance staff, and wins accolades from his activist friends. He was also arrested back in 2005 for attacking a police officer at a violent protest and trying to set a patrol car on fire. And in April of this year he was arrested after throwing a rock at a Jewish protestor, taking his flag and burning it. This is something the rich and poor have in common that is absent in the middle class: the cavalier willingness to risk arrest because your life won’t really change (and in some ways might even improve).
Henderson quotes from Jonathan Haidt’s new book.
“Among previous generations, researchers often found that those engaged in political activism were happier. Yet more recent studies of young activists find the opposite: those who are politically active nowadays usually have worse mental health.”
That should remind you of my recent essay on the Hippies vs. the Woke.
substacks referenced above:
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If you want to see the same thing in a slower, more mafia tinged version, the campus union drives are similar.
I came away from "The Reformation" NOT understanding any "Why's" :(