UNDERSTANDING AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE: WHAT BELL HOOKS TAUGHT ME When I returned to the United States in 1996 after being away for almost an entire quarter of a century, I had to shift the focus of my attention. Instead of trying to make sense of Asian, and especially Japanese history…

THE LONG VIEW OF ISLAMIC SOCIETIES This essay will focus on the contributions of the Italian sociologist Armando Salvatore to our understanding of Islamic societies. His dense and complex The Sociology of Islam, a work of vast scope, creative theorizing, and impressive historical analysis appeared in 2016. Besides offering concepts…

ISLAMIC HISTORY IN A NEW KEY: MARSHALL HODGSON’S CONTRIBUTION In this essay, I will examine how Marshall Hodgson’s studies of Islamic history overcame many of the limitations of the prevailing Western academic accounts of Islamic societies. Hodgson’s pioneering work was in many ways a decisive break with previous Western writing…

Gandhi and King As Indispensable Philosophers for Our Time What relevance do the iconic figures of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King have for our time? …