Books published by World Encounter Institute/New English Review Press

The cultural death of God has created a conundrum for intellectuals. How could a life stripped of ultimate meaning be anything but absurd? How was man to live? How could he find direction in a world of no direction? What would be tell his children that could make their lives worthwhile? What is the ground of morality?Existentialism is the literary cri de coeur resulting from the realization that without God, everything good, true and beautiful in human life is destined to be destroyed in a pitiless material cosmos. Theodore Dalrymple and Kenneth Francis examine the main existentialist works, from Ecclesiastes to the Theatre of the Absurd, each man coming from a different perspective. Francis is a believer, Dalrymple is not, but both empathize with the struggle to find meaning in a seemingly meaningless universe.Part literary criticism, part philosophical exploration, this book holds many surprising gems of insight from two of the most interesting minds of our time.

Springtime for Snowflakes: "Social Justice" and Its Postmodern Parentage is a daring and candid memoir. NYU Professor Michael Rectenwald - the notorious @AntiPCNYUProf - illuminates the obscurity of postmodern theory to track down the ideas and beliefs that spawned the contemporary "social justice" creed and movement. In fast-paced creative non-fiction, Rectenwald begins by recounting how his Twitter capers and media exposure met with the swift and punitive response of NYU administrators and fellow faculty members. The author explains his evolving political perspective and his growing consternation with social justice developments while panning the treatment he received from academic colleagues and the political left.The memoir is the story of an education, a debriefing, as well as an entertaining and sometimes humorous romp through academia and a few corners of the author's personal life. The memoir includes early autobiographical material to provide context for Rectenwald's academic, political, and personal development and even surprises with an account of his apprenticeship, at age nineteen, with the poet Allen Ginsberg.Unlike many examinations of postmodern theory, Springtime for Snowflakes is a first-person, insider narrative. Likening his testimony to that of an anthropologist who has "gone native" and returned, the author recalls his graduate education in English departments and his academic career thereafter. In his graduate studies in English and Literary and Cultural Theory/Studies, the author explains, he absorbed the tenets of Marxism, the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, as well as various esoteric postmodern theories. He connects ideas gleaned there to manifestations in social justice to explain the otherwise inexplicable beliefs and rituals of this "religious" creed. Altogether, the narrative works to demystify social justice as well as Rectenwald's revolt against it.Proponents of contemporary social justice will find much to hate and opponents much to love in this uncompromising indictment. But social justice advocates should not dismiss this enlightening look into the background of social justice and one of its fiercest critics. This short testimonial could very well convince some to reconsider their approach. For others, Springtime for Snowflakes should clear up much confusion regarding this bewildering contemporary development.The book provides a clear and balanced suggestion for unraveling the tangled twine of social justice ideology that runs through North American educational, corporate, media, and state institutions. Never soft-peddling its criticism, however, Springtime for Snowflakes delivers on the promise of the title by also including appendices that collect Dr. Rectenwald's saltiest tweets and Facebook statuses.

Is it time for Jews to leave Europe? cover stories in Atlantic and Commentary magazines have asked."Hitler didn't finish the job!" a mob at San Francisco State University screamed at pro-Israel students. Agitators at the University of Texas forced a visiting Israeli professor to go about in disguise. Progressive students at Oberlin College dismissed the Holocaust as merely "white-on-white" crime. Such examples proliferate as an anti-Zionist/antisemitic indoctrination intensifies.Israel is the only Western-style democracy in the greater Middle East, a world-leader despite its small size in medicine, science and technology and is the effective first-responder in many global humanitarian relief efforts. Yet international public opinion surveys find it ranked as one of the chief threats to world peace; 20 percent of Europeans wish their countries were free of Jews.What happened to the post-1945 world of "Never Again!"? In Jews Make the Best Demons: "Palestine" and the Jewish Question," to be published this October by New English Review Press, Eric Rozenman examines how we got here, the danger posed not only for the Jewish state and Jews everywhere but also for the United States and the rest of the self-doubting liberal West. He outlines what must be done to halt the post-modern propagation of pre-modern beliefs.Theodore Herzl and the other founders of political Zionism expected their Altneuland, the old-new Jewish state, to at long last normalize the status of the Jewish people, so often in their 2,000-year statelessness marginalized and massacred. Instead, Rozenman shows, antisemitism resurrected through anti-Zionism has made Israel the Neualtjude, the new-old Jew, in the process indicting the Jewish people not as demonic "Christ-killer" but rather as demonic "nation-killer" of the Palestinian Arabs.Jews Make the Best Demons illuminates how:*From the Enlightenment on "the Jewish question" troubled Western intellectuals;*The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, despite early exposure as a czarist forgery, became the mother of anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, widely distributed by Henry Ford, Adolf Hitler and today across the Middle East;*The classical and medieval blood libel against the Jews has been incorporated, in newer "water-theft" and "organ-stealing" guises and repeatedly in its original form as part of the anti-Israel "Palestinian narrative;*Twentieth century Palestinian terrorism, especially as tolerated by the West when largely targeting Israel and Jews, served as gateway drug to twenty-first century Islamist terrorism;and*Post-modern, secular fundamentalist Western academics, in their deconstructed denial of objectivity, empiricism and factual history itself, have enabled the return of Jew-hatred from the fringe to the mainstream. As Enlightenment intellectuals tarred the Jews as unassimilable reactionaries, contemporary post-modernists-anti-nationalist, anti-religious and anti-liberal-have demonized Israel. In doing so they've reopened, with malevolent force, the Jewish question. Jews Make the Best Demons recalls journalist Jonathan Rosen's realization, post 9/11, that people again were asking, "What, are you Jews still here?"Rozenman, a former editor of the Washington Jewish Week and B'nai B'rith's International Jewish Monthly magazine, argues that this merger seeks to make of the Jewish state and people what the medieval Church, Marx and Hitler ultimately made of the stateless, oppressed, "wandering Jew"-the Devil incarnate, mankind's perpetual, demonic enemy

In this, Theodore Dalrymple’s second collection of short stories, he begins to let his imagination run. The absurdity of modern life is fully laid bare when taken to extremes. You will laugh through your tears. ***Satire is prophecy.— Theodore Dalrymple 

Theodore Dalrymple, almost singlehandedly, revived the languishing Essay and in so doing became Britain’s answer to Montaigne. In this, his first foray into the Short Story form, he proves himself a rival of Anton Chekhov. His many devoted fans will be delighted.--------------------------------Some truth can be told only in the form of fiction. That is why I chose to write these stories. — Theodore Dalrymple 

An honor killing is the cold-blooded murder of girls and women simply because they are female. Being born female in a shame-and-honor culture is, potentially, a capital crime; every girl has to keep proving that she is not dishonoring her family; even so, an innocent girl can be falsely accused and killed on the spot.Dr. Phyllis Chesler has been studying the nature of honor killings for the last fifteen years. During that time she has published four studies at Middle East Quarterly and is working on a fifth. While this barbaric custom is tribal in origin, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Islam have not tried to abolish it as a crime against God or humanity.Honor killings are also a family conspiracy, one in which women (mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, mothers-in law), as well as men (fathers, brothers, cousins, uncles, grandfathers) play a role. Those girls and women who manage to escape must live in hiding for the rest of their lives as their families will never stop coming after them.A girl's fertility and reproductive capacity is "owned" by her family, not by the girl herself. If a girl is even seen as "damaged goods," her fam¬ily-of-origin will be responsible for her care for the rest of her life. This is a killing offense. Her virginity belongs to her family and is a token of their honor. If she is not a virgin, the shame belongs to her family and they must cleanse themselves of it with blood; her blood.Most Westerners refuse to understand that this crime is not like western-style domestic violence and requires different approaches in terms of prevention, intervention, and prosecution.Honor killings (or femicide) is part of a shame-and-honor tribal culture as is gender apartheid. It is a human rights violation and cannot be justified in the name of cultural relativism, tolerance, anti-racism, diversity, or political correctness. As long as tribal groups continue to deny, minimize, or obfuscate the problem, and Western government and police officials accept their inaccurate versions of reality, women will continue to be killed for honor in the West.The battle for women's rights is central to the battle for Europe and for Western values. It is a necessary part of true democracy, along with freedom of religion, tolerance for homosexuals, and freedom of dissent. Here, then, is exactly where the greatest battle of the twenty-first century is joined.

An outstanding Classic in the great tradition of A.C. Bradley, H.C. Goddard, G. Wilson Knight, and Harold Bloom. Together with the groundbreaking Hamlet Made Simple and Other Essays, UNREADING SHAKESPEARE shakes the foundations of Renaissance studies, breathing new life into Othello, Hamlet, Falstaff, Rosalind, and many other characters. Here is the definitive exposition of Shakespeare in the 21st century. UNREADING SHAKESPEARE ¿ Teaches us how to find the real wisdom of Shakespeare ¿ Shows the major philosophical influence on Shakespeare is not Montaigne but Plato ¿ Introduces Katherine of Aragon as Feminist Hero ¿ Uncovers the comic dimension of Shakespeare's Tragedies ¿ Presents the Socratic 'Apology' of Falstaff ¿ Rescues King Lear from modern oblivion

We are at a critical moment in our nation's history. Never have the differences between our major political parties been greater; never have the stakes been higher. To whom or to what do we turn for guidance? Let's be honest. The Bible, which for many of us has been the source of comfort, inspiration and wisdom, has as many facets as a diamond carved by an expert jeweler. The answers are there, but come in so many disguises, from so many different perspectives, that only a master can lead us through the labyrinth that lies in its pages. Such a master is Kenneth Hanson, professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Central Florida, and such a book is The Eagle and the Bible. Here is a refreshing look at the parallels between holy writ and American history - uncovering the degree to which both are rooted in an eternal battle for lean and limited government, in opposition to top-heavy centralized authority. The thesis, the theme, and the underlying truth is that the struggle for liberty, justice and freedom present from the nation's founding is paralleled in the struggles for liberty, justice and freedom experienced by the heroes of the Bible. Hanson reveals an anti-establishment, anti-big government current in the biblical stories (challenging the "authoritarian" rule of David, Solomon and others) that is today more relevant than ever. The Eagle and the Bible comes to us at a time of great need for insight. It fulfills that need and gives us the courage to meet the challenges of this extraordinary time.