Synopses & Reviews
"What [Willis does], and what he does extremely well, is explain how it all came about...he carefully traces the rise of Algerian Islamism from its early days during the 132 years of French colonial rule, its short moment of glory when it seemed about to take power in the late 1980s, and its subsequent crash...well-written, skillfully presented, and illuminating."
--New York Review of Books
"Integrates a wealth of diverse historical and contemporary data to provide as full an understanding as one can have about political Islam's severe challenge to state and society in Algeria."
--John P. Entelis, author of Sate and Society in Algeria
"A very readable and even-handed interpretation of a complex and controversial topic. The author integrates a wealth of diverse historical and contemporary data to provide as full an understanding as one can have about political Islam's severe challenge to state and society in Algeria . . . Highly recommended."
--John P. Entelis, author of State and Society in Algeria
"An informed and balanced political chronology that is of great utility to any analyst seeking to formulate his or her own interpretation of the Algerian tragedy. Willis has gathered together a wide range of sources allowing him to construct a political chronology that traces how a nation, endowed with political, cultural, and economic assets and moving toward democracy at the end of the 1980s, devolved into chaos through much of the 1990s. The book's careful documentation, multiple perspectives, and thoughtful refelctions willl challenge simplistic explanations of Algeria's latest tragedy."
Journal of World History
In recent years, Algeria has been rocked by social upheaval, protest, and spasmodic violence. Like many countries caught between the tides of fundamentalist religion and secular culture, the very fiber of the nation seems to be fraying.
Michael Willis here charts the meteoric rise of one of the largest and most powerful Islamist movements in the Muslim world. Tracing its origins to the French colonial domination in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Islamism has always played a defining role in both the national struggle against the French and in the newly independent Algerian state.
The primary focus of Willis's book is on Algeria since 1988, when unprecedented social unrest led to political changes that allowed Algeria's Islamists to form political parties and compete in multi- party elections. The largest Islamist party, the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS), after rousing victories in local and national elections in 1990 and 1991, was subsequently crushed by the military regime.
Since then, despite the Rome Accord of January 1995, over 50,000 lives have been lost in an increasingly bloody conflict that threatens to spiral out of control. Banned by the army, the FIS splintered, with various factions arming themselves, leading to the current, ominous state of disarray.
Review
"What [Willis does], and what he does extremely well, is explain how it all came about...he carefully traces the rise of Algerian Islamism from its early days during the 132 years of French colonial rule, its short moment of glory when it seemed about to take power in the late 1980s, and its subsequent crash...well-written, skillfully presented, and illuminating."
"Integrates a wealth of diverse historical and contemporary data to provide as full an understanding as one can have about political Islam's severe challenge to state and society in Algeria."
"A very readable and even-handed interpretation of a complex and controversial topic. The author integrates a wealth of diverse historical and contemporary data to provide as full an understanding as one can have about political Islam's severe challenge to state and society in Algeria . . . Highly recommended."
"An informed and balanced political chronology that is of great utility to any analyst seeking to formulate his or her own interpretation of the Algerian tragedy. Willis has gathered together a wide range of sources allowing him to construct a political chronology that traces how a nation, endowed with political, cultural, and economic assets and moving toward democracy at the end of the 1980s, devolved into chaos through much of the 1990s. The book's careful documentation, multiple perspectives, and thoughtful refelctions willl challenge simplistic explanations of Algeria's latest tragedy."
Review
"With this original and provacative book, Bulkeley has shown what the "new" comparative study of religion at its very best can offer."-Kimberley C. Patton,History of Religions
Review
"The scope of Bulkeley’s knowledge is impressive, as is his skill at synthesizing ideas from a variety of source material."-Publishers Weekly,
Review
"Such a chronological/regional organization, along with the author's careful, scholarly prose, makes this practical as a classroom textbook...for interested readers and students, there are notes and an ample bibliography to stimulate further study. Recommended for academic libraries and public libraries with strong religion collections."-Library Journal ,
Review
"Psychoanalysis and phenomenology combine to understand dreams and dreaming as comprehended by a geographically and temporally wide spectrum of global and regional religions. Bulkeley argues that scientific understandings are not unique in their reflective critique of the nature or value of dreaming, that critical reflection on dreams can be found in a variety of traditions, and that even where evidence for formal analysis is lacking, dreams are categorized by type and value."
-Choice,
Review
"A pleasure to read, well written and full of fascinating examples. It is unique in combining a sensitive and sympathetic understanding of the religious meanings of dreams with a state-of-the-art treatment of the insights that cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology bring to our understanding of them."-Wendy Doniger,author of Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities
Synopsis
In recent years, Algeria has been rocked by social upheaval, protest, and spasmodic violence. Like many countries caught between the tides of fundamentalist religion and secular culture, the very fiber of the nation seems to be fraying.
Michael Willis here charts the meteoric rise of one of the largest and most powerful Islamist movements in the Muslim world. Tracing its origins to the French colonial domination in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Islamism has always played a defining role in both the national struggle against the French and in the newly independent Algerian state.
The primary focus of Willis's book is on Algeria since 1988, when unprecedented social unrest led to political changes that allowed Algeria's Islamists to form political parties and compete in multi- party elections. The largest Islamist party, the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS), after rousing victories in local and national elections in 1990 and 1991, was subsequently crushed by the military regime.
Since then, despite the Rome Accord of January 1995, over 50,000 lives have been lost in an increasingly bloody conflict that threatens to spiral out of control. Banned by the army, the FIS splintered, with various factions arming themselves, leading to the current, ominous state of disarray.
Synopsis
From Biblical stories of Joseph interpreting Pharoh’s dreams in Egypt to prayers against bad dreams in the Hindu Rg Veda, cultures all over the world have seen their dreams first and foremost as religiously meaningful experiences. In this widely shared view, dreams are a powerful medium of transpersonal guidance offering the opportunity to communicate with sacred beings, gain valuable wisdom and power, heal suffering, and explore new realms of existence. Conversely, the world’s religious and spiritual traditions provide the best source of historical information about the broad patterns of human dream life
Dreaming in the World’s Religions provides an authoritative and engaging one-volume resource for the study of dreaming and religion. It tells the story of how dreaming has shaped the religious history of humankind, from the Upanishads of Hinduism to the Qur’an of Islam, from the conception dream of Buddhas mother to the sexually tempting nightmares of St. Augustine, from the Ojibwa vision quest to Australian Aboriginal journeys in the Dreamtime. Bringing his background in psychology to bear, Kelly Bulkeley incorporates an accessible consideration of cognitive neuroscience and evolutionary psychology into this fascinating overview.
Dreaming in the World’s Religions offers a carefully researched, accessibly written portrait of dreaming as a powerful, unpredictable, often iconoclastic force in human religious life.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 397-406) and index.
About the Author
Kelly Bulkeley is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, and is a former President of the Association for the Study of Dreams. His books include The Wilderness of Dreams: Exploring the Religious Meanings of Dreams in Modern Western Culture; An Introduction to the Psychology of Dreaming; Visions of the Night: Dreams, Religion, and Psychology; and The Wondering Brain: Thinking about Religion with and beyond Cognitive Neuroscience.