The Agonist - Book Reviews

Women Stuck in Holy Book Thumping Fundamentalism

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:31:20 -0700

In horribly oppressive theocratic countries, these five remarkable women bust out to find a freedom that many of us in America fear and hide from under the veils of self-imposed constraints. Awake up call to the American fundamentalists who demand more religious based laws and education. Theocracies exist and they often grow into ugly regimes.

The autobiography, entitled Infidel by Ayaan Kirsi Ali, drags gruesome truths out from the shadows of Muslim society that otherwise remain in the darkness of closed circles and communications controlled by Islamic authorities. Ayaan exposes the hidden workings of a backward society gripped tightly in religious fervor.

Book Review: The New American Militarism

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 16:54:18 -0700

Clinton was impeached for lying about sex; George Bush is not impeached for deceiving and misleading Americans and manipulating intelligence which has led to the death of over 4000 US soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians.

Although this book arrived on the market over a year ago, surprisingly few reviews appeared and they do so more as opinion essays based on Bacevich’s work, which only testifies to its influence. His book traces the last few decades of American history focusing on changes in public attitudes and government doctrines regarding the use of military might. Bacevich states his position clearly in the introduction of this seminal work.

Geopolitics on the Frontier

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 03:07:28 -0700

Ahmed Rashid has good timing. His earlier book, on the Taliban, came out just a year before the September 11th attacks and the subsequent US campaign in Afghanistan. His present offering, a look at the present situation in that country and the region around it, comes as the Taliban is reasserting control over the Pashtun south. Descent into Chaos is an excellent account of events in and around Afghanistan and an equally excellent analysis of the failure of nation building there, the role of Pakistani military intelligence in the region, and the greater context of the longstanding Pakistani-Indian conflict.

Rashid is critical of Western failures to foster the development of a state in Afghanistan – a failure he sees as resulting in instability, warlordism, economic stagnation, and the resurgence of the Taliban. A state with even a moderate amount of articulation and funding, he holds, would be able to integrate disparate tribal and militia leaders into a viable consensual framework. He draws here from his colleague (and my former teacher) Barnett Rubin, who looks upon historical examples. The British gave ample sums of money to Afghan monarchs who craftily dispersed it to build a consensual framework. The Soviet Union did the same, prior to its ill-advised and ill-starred invasion in 1979. If a state is too weak, warlordism develops. Too strong, regional rebellions break out. But a state with adequate funding, usually from foreign sources, that refrains from or cannot achieve too much central control, can govern through consensus.

Thinking About Nuclear War . . . and Other Things

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:08:50 -0700

A review of Alex Abella, Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire. (Orlando, Fla.: Harcourt, 2008)

Like many people, Alex Abella first learned of the RAND Corporation amid the passions of the Vietnam War, to which the famous think tank contributed many analyses. He realized then that the period was not conducive to a sound assessment of RAND, and the intervening decades have provided him some perspective. His wait has resulted in a fine study of the renowned and reviled think tank on national security matters.

RAND was created shortly after World War Two, mainly by the military, to bring outside expertise to bear on the various new challenges in the post-WW2 world. No one knew what the new technologies such as ballistic missiles and the geopolitical dynamics of facing the Soviet Union would bring, so notable academics and strategic thinkers were assembled, eventually in Santa Monica, to provide counsel. An assembly of bright people had created the atom bomb, a similar assembly would help us face the age the bomb made. Many of RAND’s studies seem off-putting if not horrifying, but such was the US strategic situation of the Cold War.

Vote for this article at Buzzflash and at Digg.

Salman Rushdie named best Booker Prize winner of all time

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:15:25 -0700

Anita Singh | London | Jjuly 10

The Telegraph - Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie, has been named the best Booker Prize winner of all time.

The Best of the Booker title was bestowed by public vote, conducted to mark the 40th anniversary of the literary award. Rushdie was always the favourite, chosen from a shortlist of six which included works by JM Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer, Pat Barker, Peter Carey and JG Farrell.

Raymond Federman Frenzy

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:07:40 -0700

Since the early 60s, Raymond Federman has been one of the most important American writers. His highly experimental fictions in works that bear such titles as Take It or Leave It, Double or Nothing, and The Twofold Vibrations, he has explored cultural and personal memory, invented intricate narrative strategies, and above all has given readers an experience that exceeds the ordinary. Creating situations that make one really think and really laugh is a tall order for any writer. But Federman did it. He is one of the few writers to truly have achieved this.

One of our contributors at the Atlantic Community, Camelia Elias, has just released a wonderful collection of essays on Raymond Federman. This open source web publication includes four scholarly articles and some previously unpublished texts by Federman. Federman, who just turned 80 is also a blogger.

For more, including links to the free download see, Federman Frenzy. Feel free to leave any comments for Camelia at the link. I'd like to arrange an online discussion with Federman so if anyone else is interested, stop by and let us know.

Need a recommendation – global economics book

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 08:22:27 -0700

Hello all,

I’m hoping someone out there could help me. I’m looking for a good book that discusses the global economy – global macroeconomics or international finance. I want to understand the interactions between: international monetary systems; balance of payments; foreign exchange and exchange rates; institutions (world banks); international bond and equity markets; interest rates; etc.

I’ve seen some books on international financial management that look good, but they are usually written from the perspective of how a financial manager of a corporation should navigate this sea. I’m more interested in how it all works and how changes impact the other components of the system. I also would like the book to be quite current, so issues such as emerging economies and current US financial issues are discussed.

We shall be heard: Images of American activists

Sat, 07 Jun 2008 06:00:25 -0700

The Independent ~ Bud and Ruth Schultz have spent 25 years interviewing and photographing Americans who have stood up to their government in the name of civil rights, from the First World War to the present day. Here are their stories

Globalizers, Neocons, or...?

Mon, 19 May 2008 05:10:13 -0700

Tomgram: Mark Engler, How to Rule the World After Bush
posted May 18, 2008 5:33 pm

A mere eight months to go until George W. Bush and Dick Cheney leave office -- though, given the cast of characters, it could seem like a lifetime. Still, it's a reasonable moment to begin to look back over the last years -- and also toward the post-Bush era. What a crater we'll have to climb out of by then!

My last post, "Kiss American Security Goodbye," was meant to mark the beginning of what will, over the coming months, be a number of Bush legacy pieces at Tomdispatch. So consider that series officially inaugurated by Foreign Policy in Focus analyst Mark Engler, who has just authored a new book that couldn't be more relevant to our looming moment of transition: How to Rule the World: The Coming Battle Over the Global Economy.

The question Engler is curious to have answered is this: If Bush-style "imperial globalization" is rejected in January, what will American ruling elites try to turn to -- Clinton-style economic globalization? Certainly, as Engler points out, many in the business and financial communities are now rallying to the Democrats. After all, while John Edwards received the headlines this week for throwing his support behind Barack Obama, that presidential candidate also got the nod from three former Securities and Exchange Commission chairmen -- William Donaldson, David Ruder, and Clinton appointee Arthur Levitt Jr. The campaign promptly "released a joint statement by the former SEC chiefs, as well as former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, that praised Obama's 'positive leadership and judgment' on economic issues."

The United States, however, is a very different creature than it was in the confident years when these men rode high. Now, the world is looking at things much differently. Let Engler explain... Tom

Globalizers, Neocons, or...?
The World After Bush
By Mark Engler

Picture January 20, 2009, the day George W. Bush has to vacate the Oval Office.

Managed Democracy And The Spector Of Inverted Totalitarianism

Sat, 17 May 2008 01:42:13 -0700

Book Review
Chalmers Johnson on Our 'Managed Democracy'

It is not news that the United States is in great trouble. The pre-emptive war it launched against Iraq more than five years ago was and is a mistake of monumental proportions—one that most Americans still fail to acknowledge. Instead they are arguing about whether we should push on to "victory" when even our own generals tell us that a military victory is today inconceivable. Our economy has been hollowed out by excessive military spending over many decades while our competitors have devoted themselves to investments in lucrative new industries that serve civilian needs. Our political system of checks and balances has been virtually destroyed by rampant cronyism and corruption in Washington, D.C., and by a two-term president who goes around crowing "I am the decider," a concept fundamentally hostile to our constitutional system. We have allowed our elections, the one nonnegotiable institution in a democracy, to be debased and hijacked—as was the 2000 presidential election in Florida—with scarcely any protest from the public or the self-proclaimed press guardians of the "Fourth Estate." We now engage in torture of defenseless prisoners although it defames and demoralizes our armed forces and intelligence agencies.

A Short Introduction to "Multitude"

Sat, 17 May 2008 00:48:54 -0700

I recently picked up a copy of “Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire” by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. I’m only through part one right now, but there are some pretty interesting insights in it I’d like to share here. I’m not fully convinced of the authors’ point of view yet, but it is certainly a different way of looking at the current state of affairs around the globe.

Hart and Negri assert that the globe is, at this moment, subject to Empire. This Empire is not characterized by the old imperialist ambitions of nation states but rather by a “network power” that includes nation states, corporations, supranational institutions, and others. It is a system of influence and patronage that sustains itself, with no single power being dominant (though some are much more powerful than others).

The network power we claim is “imperial” not “imperialist.” Not all the powers in Empire’s network, of course, are equal… but despite inequalities they must cooperate to create and maintain the current global order, with all of its internal divisions and hierarchies.

Wars and influence peddling around the world should not be looked upon as a rehash of the “Great Game” or as a quest for greater sovereignty by individual nation-states. Instead, all this is just the struggle for relative dominance of various actors within the overarching hierarchies of Empire.

There are innumerable armed conflicts waged across the globe today, some brief and limited to a specific place, others long lasting and expansive. These conflicts might be best conceived as instances not of war but rather civil war… This civil war should be understood now not within the national space, since that is no longer the effective unit of sovereignty, but across the global terrain… From this perspective all of the world’s current armed conflicts, hot and cold… should be considered imperial civil wars, even when states are involved. This does not mean that any of these conflicts mobilizes all of Empire… but rather that they exist within, are conditioned by, and in turn affect the global imperial system… [Combatants] are struggling rather for relative dominance within the hierarchies at the highest and lowest levels of the global system.

In The Hands of A Master

Sun, 11 May 2008 18:24:57 -0700

I bought this book Friday evening and am almost finished. Rarely does that happen when I am reading a deep, dense book of what I would call 'high literature.' But it has and I cannot recommend W.G. Sebald's Rings of Saturn highly enough. It is sublime.

In one passage he discusses an English soldier and subsequent country squire who returns from the war.

Not a word is said of the Holocaust, or of LeStrange's thoughts or feelings about it or what he witnessed other than that he was present at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.

And yet, the Holocaust hangs over the passage like a dark brooding cloud while Sebald describes Major LeStrange's lifelong descent into solitude, silence and finally isolation and death. I never thought literature could say so much about something, based on atmospherics alone; the subtle, minatory implications of a master craftsman at work. It is a vivid and moving passage, if terrible in its message.

The book fits into no one genre and pretty much explodes them all. It's one of the strangest, most elegant and well written books I've yet to encounter. If this is the best 'post-modern' literature has to offer then I'm all for it. It is a shame Sebald died in 2001.

Book Review; The Ovum Factor

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:37:04 -0700

Since I was having Marvin L. Zimmerman, the author of The Ovum Factor, on my radio show (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/liberalpro you can hear the podcast of the interview there), it meant that I was obliged to peruse the novel that was sent to me by his publicist. The Ovum Factor arrived at my home, and before I got a chance to look through it, my wife picked it up first and wouldn’t let go of it for three days. During that time my dinner was late, I had to do the vacuuming (the dogs are shedding), and I had no real conversation with her as her head was behind the novel. When she finished it, she just looked at me and said “Wow”. That meant only one thing… I had to read it.

The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 20:27:26 -0700

One long hot summer when I was 10 or so, I went with a friend to an afternoon of Bible camp. Having not grown up a believer in any religion, the experience was fascinating and a bit terrifying. The organizers were ultra-conservative Evangelicals with a very literal, fire and brimstone sort of interpretation of scripture. Everything was "heaven" this, "hell" that. I was one of the younger kids, and I remember that, despite all the talk of being a good and righteous person, the older boys were little tyrants. Rather, I played the Canaanite to their Israelites.

We also sat for prolonged periods (at least to a 10 year-old) in silent prayer, silently communing with God. I remember that the rest of the kids closed their eyes, so I did too. I couldn't stop thinking about snack time, and opened my eyes a few times to see if anyone else was distracted. Sure enough, goodies were more popular than God; kids were shifting in their seats and looking around impatiently as the adult leaders looked on, gently chastising the hungry kids for being kids and not saints.

The Real McCain

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 10:35:57 -0700

Our good Agonist friend, editor and contributor has a new book out.

And it is very timely.

I encourage you to go buy a copy.

This will support progressives and do what we can, whilst our candidates are bashing each other's brains out, to take a chunk out of John McCain.

Also, check out the story at Raw Story while you are at it.

By the way, while we're still not finished with the housekeeping and all, Cliff's old site and community has joined us The Agonist Family. Please give them a warm welcome!