Re: JWSR review of ReOrient

I find it curious that Chris posts his 'response' now - when i have
been trying to post mine to WSN for about two months, with zero success
but with a note from Chris saying that  the fact that I did not receive
a copy via WSN does not mean that it was not posted because wsn does not
send things back to the sender. That is, Chris led me to believe
that mine was [finally] posted long before x-mas - when it was NOT.

And in re 'making an effort to find another objective reviewer,'
the world 'objective' may be a stumbling point and friendship with Chris
may be such a disqualifier. If not, two of Chris' best buddies from his
Stanford [three musketeers] gradschool days happen already to have
written reviews of this book that to my knowlewge are not yet published.
A number of other qualified people, historians  especially of China, also
have. So not much effort would seem to be required now -
nor was it to to begin with before Terlow either.
  
I am also a bit disappointed that Chris finds what Terlow says
altogether on the up and up [except for his one disclaimer], since it 
definitely is NOT, and his population argument was already in Leiden
shown to be the result of Terlow's total MIS-understanding of both the
book and his own evidence.

I repeat that I welcome any and all disagreement and dispute
of any and all of my thesis/argument/evidence, and since the book
pushes beyond where any of us have been before there is much reason to
suppose that it has incurred in a variety of errors. But a 
Terlow-type review that asks 'HAVE YOU STOPPED BEATING YOUR WIFE/HUSBAND?"
is no help whatsover and can only confuse and obfuscate matters
still more, and my answer to that question is simply
I AM NOT MARRIEDO

I stand by my opinion as a reader of a journal 
that the editor has a certain responsibility to his readers
to reject manuscripts that are pure hokus pocus. Remember the
Sokal hoax in the post-modernist Social Text. The difference is that
Sokal was intentionally putting one over on the editors and readers.
Terlow simply does not even know what he is doing [does Chris?], and 
Terlow has shown himself unwilling to learn, at least between Leiden
and here, not to mention when he failed to read what the books says.

I may not know what I am doing either, but at least this book shows 
that I am still willing to learn and revise my opinions
when confronted by the evidence. What about Dear Chris? You have 
learned a lot in the past, so don't stop now. 


happy new year and good learning
gunder

 5
Jan
1999, christopher chase-dunn
wrote:

> Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1999 09:56:26 -0500
> From: christopher chase-dunn <chriscd@jhu.edu>
> To: agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca, wsn@csf.colorado.edu
> Subject: Re: JWSR review of ReOrient
> 
> My editorial judgment has been impugned in Gunder Frank's comments about
> Kees Terlouw's review of _ReOrient_.  I should state at the outset that
> my own evaluation of Gunder's new book is much more positive than that
> of many readers despite that we disagree on many points. I think the
> explanation of Asian decline and European rise presented in Chapter 6 is
> quite valuable.
> 
> Gunder has indicated to me that he is upset with Terlouw more because of
> what happened in their confrontation at a session in Leiden than in what
> Kees says in the review.  I quote; "i am sorry that we disagree. i could
> go through the review, but as i
> said its not worth it. My letter was less about the review than about
> the revxiwer."
> 
> The only statement in Kees's review that I find unjust is his claim that
> Gunder has not considered any of the contrary evidence.  This is
> rhetorical overkill, but the population evidence that Kees provides is
> indeed germane to Gunder's claims. See
> http://csf.colorado.edu/wsystems/jwsr/vol4/v4n2r1.htm
> 
> I have told Gunder that  Dale Wimberley, the _JWSR_  Book Review editor,
> is making an effort to find another objective review of _ReOrient_.
> 
> Chris Chase-Dunn
> Editor, Journal of World-Systems Research
> 
> 
> 


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ANDRE GUNDER FRANK               CURRENT UNIVERSITY AFFILIATIONS

250 Kensington Ave - Apt 608     University of Amsterdam, Emeritus
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Fax:1-514-933 6445               McGill University
e-mail:agfrank@chass.utoronto.ca   Centre for Developing Area Studies

My home Page is at:       http://www.whc.neu.edu/gunder.html

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