Donate to the The Americana in Arabic Library translation project

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The Americana in Arabic Library
By Juan Cole

The classics of American thought and literature have been little translated into Arabic. Worse, even when they have been translated, they have appeared in small editions (typically no more than 500 copies printed). Worse still, the distribution system for Arabic books is poor, and there are few public libraries, so that many books that have been published in the past are no longer available to most readers.

I have therefore decided to begin a project to translate important books by great Americans and about America into Arabic, and to subsidize their publication so that they can be bought inexpensively. I hope also to subsidize their distribution. This is a non-profit project, but until it grows large enough to become a proper foundation, it will not be tax-deductible.

The project will begin with a selected set of passages and essays by Thomas Jefferson on constitutional and governmental issues such as freedom of religion, the separation of powers, inalienable rights, the sovereignty of the people, and so forth.

I would like to focus initially on works that treat issues in democracy and multi-culturalism. Eventually it would be nice to see in Arabic a good solid book about, e.g., the history of the American Jewish community, about which most Arabs know nothing. Likewise, it would be nice to put into Arabic Western books about Iraq. Our Middle East Studies programs and university presses publish a great deal of interest to the Arab world, and yet little of it gets translated, and even where books are translated they sometimes take a long time to get into print.

Contributions will allow me to locate and fund qualified Arab translators, to arrange for printing (possibly in Baghdad), to subsidize the printing so as to ensure the book is affordable and that there is a paperback version, and to subsidize and ensure wide distribution, to bookstores, street vendors and libraries.

MODS: THIS IS NOT COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

http://www.juancole.com/trans.htm

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1. kick

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2. kick

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3. Nothing like a....

Nothing like a little propaganda project to raise the profits, eh?



If people should be sending anything to Iraq, then send food... and I don't mean to GIs. What's up with that care-for-GI package sending campaign anyways? Buying votes or something? GIs are pretty well feed compared to 1000s of Iraqis dying of hunger and disease right about now.