PDF Download Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture

PDF Download Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture

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Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture

PDF Download Rebel Music: Race, Empire, and the New Muslim Youth Culture

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Review

“Fascinating. . . Highly original. . . . Breathtaking.” —The New York Times“A marvel. . . . Hisham Aidi is a brilliant expositor of this powerful planetary cultural phenomenon.” —David Levering Lewis, author of God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215“Impressive. . . . With the confidence of a charismatic professor, Aidi’s discussion wanders through Detroit, Brazil, and ‘Jim Crow’ Arabia.” —The New York Times Book Review“Mohammed meets Malcolm; Gnawa meets Guantanamo; Bandung meets B-boys; banlieues meet Bahia: this is the vibrant, noisy, embattled world Hisham Aidi brings to light. . . . In what can genuinely be described as a tour de force for its global scope, historical sweep, cultural virtuosity, and political sophistication, Rebel Music examines this soundtrack in a global context, from slavery to the latest war on terror.” —Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original “Rebel Music may be the most bafflingly significant book I’ve read in years.  It is a marvel. . . . Hisham Aidi is a brilliant expositor of this powerful planetary cultural phenomenon.” —David Levering Lewis, author of God’s Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570-1215   “A brilliant, utterly unique, effortlessly transnational and wonderfully written account of hip hop and new Muslim youth culture.” —WashingtonPost.com"Rebel Music offers an extraordinarily rich and variegated [musical] map . . . From Paris to Rio, from Philadelphia and Brooklyn to Morocco and southern Spain, Aidi is the peripatetic chronicler of the intricate intersecting musical and political worlds whose shared issues have never before been so cogently crystallized." —American Literary History "Excellent." —Counterpunch"Rebel Music has no antecedent or peer in musical historiography . . . [Aidi] acts as historian, musicologist, journalist and theologian, no easy juggling act . . . It is a virtuoso performance of historical knowledge and cultural observations, as Aidi jams on personalities and communities."—Journal of the American Academy of Religion"Phenomenal." —PopMatters “In this bracing, fascinating, and utterly timely exploration of music, race, and cultural identity, Aidi examines young European and American Muslims and their search for what he calls ‘a nonracist utopia’. . . . This book will be especially appealing to young people who want to better understand the Muslim perspective on war, prejudice, and national identity.” —Booklist (starred) “A multilayered and intriguing story of the mobilization of Muslim youth through music rather than militancy. . . . Moving from jazz to the late Algerian pop star Salim Halali, Aidi’s wide-ranging, dense work persuades by its passionate accretion of detail.” —Kirkus Reviews

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About the Author

Hisham D. Aidi is a lecturer at the School of International and Public Affairs and the Institute of African Affairs at Columbia University. He was a Carnegie Scholar and Global Fellow at The Open Society Foundation and is coeditor, with Manning Marable, of Black Routes to Islam.

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Product details

Paperback: 432 pages

Publisher: Vintage (December 2, 2014)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0307279979

ISBN-13: 978-0307279972

Product Dimensions:

5.2 x 0.9 x 8 inches

Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

3.9 out of 5 stars

7 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#437,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

An absolutely extraordinary book - the author has traveled the world, interviewed hundreds (if not thousands) of people, used an astounding number of primary and secondary sources, and has a great knowledge and appreciation of music and those who create it. He presents this information and his analysis in a way that permits those who are not familiar with the subject to understand it all quite easily. A book of great erudition which reads like a detective novel!

English language media generally totally ignores this and many other subjects... thanks Hisham for doing this research and bringing it out for us!

A historic survey to contemporary commentary that shows how we arrived at this complex and interwoven status of American, European and North African mix of race being exposed and determined by our philosophies in our music . These threads of our historic tapestry are joined with the present to form a panoramic view

Never underestimate the power of music and its ability to bond people. In "Rebel Music," Hisham Aidi explores the cultural and historical connections that Jews, Muslims, North Africans, and African Americans viewed through the lens of music. "Rebel City" provides a rich historical, geographical, anthropological, and sociological context of the role music plays in the modern Muslim society. Furthermore, this book does not villainize Muslim religion and culture; rather, Aidi delves into a culture so rich and loving. I definitely recommend this read for anyone who wants to challenge media representations of Muslims in the 21st century.

Full disclosure, I first heard about this project in 2008 and spoke with Professor Aidi back then. I've followed the project over the years and have eagerly awaited its release.I finally got my hands on a copy and feel proud to give this book a 5 star rating. Professor Aidi does an excellent job of writing in a narrative style that informs and educates, while maintaining a strong pillar of objectivity. He's a gifted writer and a brilliant historian. This book fills a niche that few (no) other books have, and I'm grateful it is now available. Whether you're an American history buff, love jazz music and music in general, or want a stronger understanding of Islam's role in American history and music, this book is time well invested.Kudos Professor, thanks for the great read!

I was very excited when I bought this book because of its very appealing subject, however I was in for a surprise, this is a very dense and extremely boring book, that isn’t even educational or informative, a very big waste of time

Informative.

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Download PDF Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge

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Audible Audiobook

Listening Length: 7 hours and 43 minutes

Program Type: Audiobook

Version: Unabridged

Publisher: Audible Studios

Audible.com Release Date: November 23, 2009

Whispersync for Voice: Ready

Language: English

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this is a good book. i understand that for experts there might be other books that are less "shallow." i am not one to judge whether this book is shallow or superb. I found it a useful book and i can use some of the principles that the author writes about. For me one of the most interesting points was to reconsider the glory and equity of consensus. Given a predilection (by me) to hippie ideas and rainbow gathering ideals of making decisions by consensus--enough information was provided for me to reconsider my own axiom that consensus is always good and decision by authorities bad. The author did not explicitly make that argument. His concern is with how information is used to make decisions and how the organization of decision makers can stifle or encourage important information to be heard and heeded and also to try and do away with one's own identity lense in interpreting information. this is rather simple, perhaps shallow; but as Sunstein shows, without knowledgeable alternative voices who are listened to seriously, bad decisions are often made. Consensus is often gained through the implicit silencing of others by valorizing consensus and portraying those who disagree as malcontents, contrarians and the like. this book, for me, stands as a good corrective to that notion. It's not a great book but its a good informative book for the general inquisitive reader

Even though this book is obviously written for a popular readership, it nevertheless seemed unduly superficial and somewhat fragmented. In my view, an academic with an endowed chair at a very prestigious university ought to produce a rather more substantive book than Infotopia, even if it is directed toward a popular market.At the outset, the Hayek quote in the preface about pooling extant knowledge struck me as profound and promising, so it piqued rather high expectations on my part. Alas I did not encounter anything else very striking until the Conclusion. There, I very much liked the metaphor about the various scientific disciplines actually operating in the fashion of a wiki. To wit, all scientific knowledge and advances are provisional, and not merely subject to later revision, but instead assured of subsequent amendment or extensions by those with valid new discoveries/insights.Clearly, there were some interesting notions/concepts introduced, web-based success stories described, and fascinating anecdotes recounted in this book. Although the caliber of writing was fine (organization excepted), the book on balance contained too much in the way of hype, platitudes, and arguable third-party contentions. Overall, neither a coherent message nor general findings/lessons materialized, at least with any notable impact or sense of closure. In fairness to the author, he deserves credit for emphasizing assumptions that are prerequisites for the proper use of certain of the described information aggregation-enrichment techniques.In all, my disappointment with this book really surprised me. As I read it, I kept thinking that the content just had to improve. Instead, I relearned the lesson to beware of a book written on a topic outside the author’s particular area of expertise.

this book, as its subtitle indicates, is about the production of knowledge by many minds. but the book is less about the fact that many minds produce knowledge than about the ways in which information that is dispersed among many minds can be accessed and the conditions under which those varying methods work best. under discussion are surveys/polls, deliberation, markets, wikis, open source software, and blogs.so, for instance, he starts off the book talking about the surprising ways in which large groups of people can outperform individuals when answers are averaged out. often the average answer -- when guessing the weight of some object, when trying to correlate body weight with gender -- is not only better than the best individual answer, but also better than what a supposed expert can offer. to be sure, aggregating information like this only works under specific conditions, say, when it is reasonable to presume that people might have a general idea about something. it would be useless to rely on the statistical responses of people for information not privy to most people, say, the year of some lesser known historical event or the name of someone's pet (unless that someone is famous, maybe).the reason that this works, Sunstein explains, is due to the Condorcet Jury Theorem, which states that the probability of arriving at a correct answer increases as the size of the group increases provided that there is greater than a 50% chance that people will arrive at a correct answer. the more people you have, the closer you approach to 100%. this is the reason why "ask the audience" usually works well in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? -- because there's a decent chance that some people know the answer, or at least can correctly rule out false answers. in these types of situations, it is beneficial to rely on the responses of a large group of people (as large as possible, in fact) to increase the chances of arriving at the correct answer.the flip side of this math, however, is that if people have less than a 50% chance of knowing the correct answer -- again, when asking about information not widely disseminated -- the probability of arriving at the correct responses approaches 0% as the group increases. so clearly this isn't always (or even often) the best way of arriving at the truth.the second method under review is deliberation. Sunsstein is open about giving deliberation a bad rap here not because it is entirely inefficient, but because it is so often assumed to be the ideal way of accessing dispersed information and thus the truth. deliberation lies at the heart of many practices in this country, from trials by jury to our deliberative democracy. the problem with deliberation, in short, is that it doesn't work very well. Sunstein offers a number of reasons for this, owing to some of the natural shortcomings of the human mind (some familiar terrain after reading Kluge) and to particular behavioral phenomena in group settings, such as the general "groupthink" idea, along with informational cascades (when people factor into their responses the likelihood that other people, who may hold a different opinion, would be wrong and so answer or vote not purely on the basis of information but on what everyone else appears to know as well) and the many pressures on individuals to preserve group harmony (or their own status) by not offering information they may have that goes against the conventional group wisdom. in experiments, people also tend to accord more authority to people in higher positions (including class, gender, and race -- even if those social statuses are irrelevant to the immediate context) and to ignore others, regardless of the value of the information.in one particularly illuminating example, the author discusses an experiment in which individuals of a group are asked to vote for candidates in an imaginary election. the experiment is set up in such a way that Candidate A is clearly the most fit choice for the position. when group members are all given about 2/3 of the relevant information for the candidates, the deliberation usually results in the correct choice of Candidate A (a statistical improvement over the initial poll of individuals -- so here, deliberation helped). however, when the members are all given 2/3 of the information about the other candidates, and the information about Candidate A is dispersed among individual members (even if the total information is more than in the previous scenario), the groups fail to access the relevant information contained by some of its members. as a result, they end up choosing one of the demonstrably inferior candidates. moreover, the percentage of votes for Candidate A fell after deliberation. why? because the information favoring the wrong candidate is that which is held by all the members -- a phenomenon aptly called "the common knowledge effect."the major concern here is that deliberation groups often fail to access the relevant information held by some of its members because of the tendency to favor (and focus on) information shared by all rather than on individual perspectives, even when there was no evident (or stronger than usual) "status" issues or instances of social pressure on conforming to group opinion (indeed, there was no group opinion until the hypothetical information was given out). in other experiments, the success of deliberation groups was also dependent on whether the group members were "primed" to think that arriving at the correct answer was important, as opposed to priming them for getting along. this is cold comfort when thinking of juries and governmental deliberation.this is not to say, however, that deliberation never works -- obviously it worked in the first part of the experiment. indeed, deliberation groups can perform as well as their best member, and sometimes they can even outperform their best member when pieces of relevant information are dispersed and the information, together, helps the group arrive at the correct answer. but deliberation is best limited to instances when an answer is readily available (like problem solving) or "eureka" problems -- when the correct answer can be identified by all as soon as it is made apparent. on more ambiguous matter -- say on social or moral issues, or anything involving ideology of whatever sort -- deliberation groups are fairly terrible, often resulting in the amplification of previous biases (a well-documented event, familiar to anyone who's ever been in a chat room or on a message board -- or even among a group of like-minded friends, really).Sunstein then moves on to markets -- prediction markets, more specifically. on the general level, the author discusses why online review sites (of movies, restaurants, products, etc.) have worked so well on the principle of a market and the establishing of a "price" of a particular commodity. but what is most interesting is his discussion of more recent developments of prediction markets in which people place value (and trade stock) on the likelihood of a certain outcome -- say, the winners of Oscars or the results of a political election. surprisingly, these "markets" have often (but not always) outperformed even the best experts in their predictions. the reasons why these markets work is that they provide an incentive for people with good information to put their money where their mouth is, resulting in predictions made by people who, in theory at least, have relevant information. if you are concerned, as the author is, with how we most efficiently go about accessing widely dispersed information in society, then markets are often an excellent way of bypassing some of the social pressures and dynamics of deliberation groups. these don't always have to be (indeed, they often aren't) open to the public and so can limit the predictions and trading to the relevant individuals. so far, these types of markets have proved excellent within individual companies (e.g., Google and HP) at predicting what products will be the most successful or when a new product or program will be ready for distribution. this new approach undermines conventional wisdom of a board of big wigs -- who couldn't possibly have access to all of the relevant information possessed by all the employees -- making the decision from the top down.to keep the rest of this brief(er), Sunstein then moves on to the various Web 2.0 developments in social media and information aggregation -- including wikis, open source software, and blogs -- and discusses their relative merits, as well as causes for concern. as it turns out, unmediated forums for the sharing and refining of information have proved more effective than many feared. that is not to say there are not problems with, say, wikis -- indeed, Wikipedia is far better on some topics than others, and even then usually as a general guide, not the end-all authority -- or blogs -- here we can find some pretty terrible groupthink behavior, along with more than generous helpings of rubbish -- but overall, they are very effective in ensuring that dispersed information sees the figurative light of day. in fact, Sunstein discusses a few instances where information shared online by bloggers helped to correct statements made by political candidates (leading to apologies) or to debunk a phony document (leading Dan Rather to apologize and retire).the book ends with a few discussions about the situations in which the various methods work best and a few suggestions about how groups and organizations can best make use of them.overall, this is a very interesting book and fascinating information. unfortunately, for even such a short book (225 pages), it was more repetitive than necessary and could have benefited from more individual case studies. also, while I am tempted to say that this book is to groups what Gary Marcus' Kluge is for the individual mind, this book is not nearly as entertaining and engaging as Marcus', which is unfortunate because it certainly had the potential to be as captivating and perhaps even more relevant.

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Free Ebook How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

Free Ebook How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

When reading the title, you can see how the author is very reliable in using the words to create sentences. It will be also the ways how the author creates the diction to influence many people. But, it's not nonsense, it is something. Something that will lead you is thought to be better. Something that will make your feel so better. And something that will give you new things. This is it, the How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

Free Ebook How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

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Audible Audiobook

Listening Length: 4 hours and 41 minutes

Program Type: Audiobook

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Publisher: HarperAudio

Audible.com Release Date: May 19, 2009

Whispersync for Voice: Ready

Language: English, English

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The silent creep of impending doom is the title Collins chose for the first chapter in this excellent review of how companies go astray. As usual, Collins did an in depth research to discover why companies fail and how that failure is shaped. He determined that there are five stages of decline for an organization:* Stage 1 is characterized by hubris born of success* Stage 2 is marked by undisciplined pursuit of more* Stage 3 is the peak of ascendancy and characterized by denial of risk and peril* Stage 4 begins the precipitous decline with the organization grasping for salvation* Stage 5 is the final capitulation to being irrelevant or accepting deathCollins points out that a company does not have to go through all stages of decline, they can determine when they are in decline and can turn things around with some effort and attention. He also points out that not all companies deserve to survive; it's good that some fail. To make his case on the stages of decline and the results, Collins has provided many examples from companies we might know.What stands out most in this book is how we can see that in our very success lie the seeds of our own demise. It makes Andy Grove's view of "only the paranoid survive" one that makes sense. If we are always concerned and afraid that we won't make it to the next year and that competitors are about to best us and customers abandon us then we are not too likely to become victims of hubris and excess. We can learn from that attitude.As an example of Stage 1, Collins recounts the track Motorola is on from about 1983 through the 1990's explaining that their success in growing the company from $5 Billion to $27 Billion lead to arrogance and neglect. He also traced Circuit City's demise and drives home the point that our very success leads us to be blind to the things going on around us. This is true of individuals and organizations of all makes, models and sizes!Collins provides the following as "markers" for Stage 1:* Success entitlement, arrogance* Neglect of a primary flywheel* "What" replaces "Why"* Decline in learning orientation* Discounting the role of luckIn the chapter on Stage 2, Collins discusses Ames and its undisciplined pursuit of growth starting with the acquisition of Zayers. Here he makes the distinction between overreaching and complacency. Collins points out that of the cases he studied only one had a clear cut case of complacency and that was A&P in retail. Because the acquisition of Zayers, Ames destroyed the momentum it had built up over a decade. Meanwhile, WallMart was minding its "p's and q's," relentlessly building its stores across the country. One followed their plan and was content to manage growth, the other was intent on growth for the sake of growth and overreached to the point of failure.Collins provides the following as "markers" for Stage 2:* Unsustainable Quest for Growth, confusing big with great* Undisciplined discontinuous leaps* Declining proportion of right people in key seats* Easy cash erodes cost discipline* Bureaucracy subverts discipline* Problematic succession of power* Personal interests placed above the organizational interestsMotorola makes another appearance in Stage 3. This time it is for making big bets in the face of mounting evidence that you're going in the wrong direction. But Motorola was intent on establishing satellite telephone (recall Iridium?) and disregarded all the signs that they were attacking a market that didn't exist - full on denial of risk and peril. Collins warns "audacious goal stimulate progress, but big bets without empirical validation, or that fly in the face of mounting evidence, can bring companies down, unless they're blessed with unusual luck. And luck is not a reliable strategy."In addition, Collins reviewed the issue with Challenger. "Can you prove that it's safe to launch?" was the traditional guide for a launch decision. However, the frame had inverted to "Can you prove that it's unsafe to launch." If NASA had not made that frame shift, or if the data had been absolutely definitive, Challenger very likely would have remained on the launch pad until later in the day.Collins provides the following as "markers" for Stage 3:* Amplify the positive, discount the negative* Big bets and bold goals without empirical validation* Incurring huge downside risk based on ambiguous data* Erosion of healthy team dynamics* Externalizing blame* Obsessive reorganization* Imperious detachmentAfter a successful run from 1992 through 1998, HP's CEO Lew Platt found himself being described as "struggling, perhaps even failing," as the company ran into the Internet economy. Fiorina joined HP and created a real sense of urgency. They were embarking on a Stage 4 decline where they were grasping for salvation. As a contrast, Collins brings up the Gerstner years at IBM. Gerstner took his time, analyzed what needed to be done, steadily increased profitability and revenues. Fiorina admitted in her book, Tough Choices, "I was in a hurry . . . ." Collins advises that we, "Breathe. Calm yourself. Think. Focus. Aim. Take one shot at a time." He identifies the following as "markers" for Stage 4:* A series of silver bullets* Grasping for a leader-as-savior* Panic and haste* Radical change and "revolution" with fanfare* Hype precedes results* Confusion and cynicism* Chronic restructuring and erosion of financial strengthStage 5 is characterized as being "Capitulation to irrelevance or Death." It's important to remember that a company can be profitable and bankrupt. The case study here is Scott Paper who fell so far behind P&G and Kimberly-Clark that it had little choice but to take on huge debt to reinvest in a series of last-gasp efforts to catch up. The board hired Al Dunlop who slashed 11,000 jobs including more than 70% of upper management.Collins makes it clear that no company they studied was destined to fall all the way through Stage 5. There is hope because companies have figured out that they were headed for disaster and then turned things around. It means a quick culture change, overcoming the panic, the desire for quick fixes, silver bullets and denial of the reality of the situation.This is a must read book for those in leadership and management positions.

The Jim Collins books are well researched academic/scientific approach to answering business questions. His answers are based on a rigorous analysis of real data. The output of the analysis is presented in an easy to consume manor that doesn't require an MBA. Although if you do have an MBA you may be finding yourself asking why didn't they teach me this in school!So don't be a management idiot. If you are starting a business a middle manager of an existing business or leading one of the many name brand businesses covered by the Fortune X Lists you should read these books.If your business happens to be at a high point and everything you touch seems to turn to gold then this is the book you need now. You are likely already sowing the seeds of your economic failure. How the Mighty Fall may help restore the productive paranoia that helped drive your success in the past. You are in trouble and you don't even know it. This book will explain why and what you can do about it.-J

Mr. Collins does some great work as an author and material expert regarding the areas of leadership. His work is very interesting and his methodology is adequate regarding leadership. As a pure enjoyment point of view, the book is a good read, as an educational book, I'd use it to either question methods or as a means of debate-defending various points of view for or against his methods and points of view. Then I'd have discussions and work relating to the companies and methods mentioned and areas of improvement, even process improvement suggestions to the materials, companies and leadership used.

Another excellent book from Jim Collins, which explores the five stages of decline and why businesses decline. This book is an essential must read for any business owner and business culture, because it will help people recognize why businesses fail and what can be done to change course and get the business back on track. Collins maps out each stage and provides examples of how each company went into each stage. The appendices provide further insights that are useful for the business owner. As a business coach, I found this book to be very helpful for me in recognizing where my clients are in these stages, as well as what can d to help them turn their business about and make it successful.

As someone who helps individuals and organizations deal with the unproductive aspects of human nature, I really enjoyed this book. Earlier reviewers have already stated the gist of what I would have shared. You'll likely get value from this book if:*** you're a student of organizations*** you want a book that applies the core principles of Good To Great*** you want a book (think: quick read) that provides you an hors d'oeuvre version of Good To Great*** you enjoy (philosophically) the approach Jim Collins takes to his work*** you appreciate a readers digest version of the book embedded in the appendix (the appendix is 40% the size of the book itself)Enjoy.Bill Wiersma, Author--The Big AHA and The Power of Professionalism (2011)

I'd say that the book gives good clues and good orientation by the companies diagnosis. I read the book "Good to Great" and this new book "How the mighty fall" which shows the opposite side of the Coin. In order to be the # 1 ranking you take a lot of efforts but to stumble is just of matter of relaxing the way you energized your company to sucess. Be humble is a key point to figure out that the competitor is not static and the customer does not want what you offer but what he wants. The inertia to grow or to stumble is definitely different, being the latter much faster than the first. Keep attendance to Collin's book remarks and be aware with the changing of the world, once it is flat and unsecure.

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How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In PDF

How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In PDF

How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In PDF

How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In PDF

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