Books Folder - 2008 onwards!!!

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svinayak
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »


Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir
by Mridu Rai (Author)


# Paperback: 320 pages
# Publisher: Princeton University Press (July 6, 2004)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0691116881
# ISBN-13: 978-0691116884

"Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects" covers the macro historical, social, religious, and political highlights in Kashmir from about 1840 to 1950. It is a fascinating view into a world far distant but fearfully close as two modern nuclear armed adversaries seek domination over the mystical lands of Kashmir. This is a book of essential preliminary understandings to the current situation in the region and of the volumes I have encountered is the best. I hope the author contemplates another book dealing with the post 1947 era. For those seeking recent political happenings, I suggest "Kashmir" by Sumantra Bose.


Rai's contribution lies in the extremely thorough and painstaking documentation that she provides when tracing the marginalization of the native inhabitants of Kahmir, the chicanery of the British, and the fecklessness of the Dogra rulers. Her account of the growth of Muslim religio-political consciousness in the early part of the twentieth century . . . unearths a wealth of detail. . . . Rai's book is a useful one. Those interested in understanding the background of the continuing tragedy in Kahmir will find much to consider in her substantial account of the historical backdrop.

Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects is a brilliant work of historical scholarship that will become indispensable reading for all those interested in the modern history and politics of the subcontinent. It a pioneering historical study of rights, religion, and regional identity in Kashmir that could also inspire future studies on other regions of the subcontinent.
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/7637.html
dinesha
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by dinesha »

Has somebody read "B.Raman's : kaoboys of RAW"? Is it worth reading?
Nobody from BRF have reviewed it.
Philip
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by Philip »

Guys,the first aprt of my views on JS's book are in the other thread.
ramana
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

Hinduism and Islam in India
Caste, Religion, and Society from Antiquity to Early Modern Times


by S.V. Desika Char
Introduction by Noel Q. King
While there are numerous books on Islam and the West, this analysis of Islam takes a novel approach by focusing on the Hindu perspective. Islam and Hinduism co-existed in India for hundreds of years, dominating, suppressing, and influencing one another.

This book begins with a detailed analysis of the Hindu caste system from its beginnings in antiquity to a guild-like village caste and professional caste system in the Middle Ages, and its continuance within the Muslim and colonial societies. The author analyzes Muslim society in medieval and early modern India by examining a range of topics including the ashraf-ajlaf divide.

Over the course of centuries, India had two parallel societies, the co-existence of which had consequences for all aspects of administration and culture. The author explains the lack of major efforts by Hindu states to resist Muslim and other invaders, discusses the late emergence of Hindu nationalism in response to Muslim and European invaders and rulers, as well as the concept of 'one India.'



About S.V. Desika Char:
S.V. Desika Char is a researcher and lecturer at the Universities of Mysore and Madras in India, a Fellow of the India Institute of Advanced Studies, an archivist and politician, and author of numerous books.

About Noel Q. King:
University of California, Santa Cruz, is the author of Religion in Africa and numerous other books.

Google Books
ramana
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

svinayak
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

Licensed to Kill: Privatizing the War on Terror
by Robert Young Pelton (Author)


# Format: Kindle Edition
# File Size: 1627 KB
# Print Length: 368 pages
# Publisher: Crown (August 29, 2006)
# Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
# Language: English
# ASIN: B000JMKR84
Licensed to Kill is Robert Young Pelton's broad survey of the modern world of mercenaries. Strike that, of contractors. Mercenaries, after all, as Doug Brooks of IPOA (International Peace Operations Association) said in the movie Shadow Company: anyone convicted as being a mercenary should be shot along with his lawyer (Doug, pardon my paraphrasing). Regardless, Pelton's subtitle captures what these guys are: hired guns. Or as one of the contractors in the book put it: "guns with legs".

Pelton's book is (or can be) a quick read. It's conversational, often with the feel that you're sitting in a pub having a beer while he tells you a story (as you do in his World's Most Dangerous Places books). For me, however, it wasn't a quick read. I found myself highlighting sentences, scribbling in the margins, and applying colored flags for quick and future reference. Pelton may challenge the journalist\ community with how he gets into the action (journos not always being the type who will ride with the bad guy when something might happen), but this is how he gets the facts, the story, and the respect that opens doors later. A perpetual cycle, his access gets him more access and so on. Unlike other others who seek to justify a point of view, Pelton comes off balanced, telling it like it is and, very importantly, with context.

Licensed to Kill is more than a narrative of private operators, it is an almost forensic look into the use of private military forces. High profile actors in the world of hired guns, such as Erik Prince and Blackwater, Tim Spicer, Simon Mann, and Michael Grunburg (profiled deeper in Three Worlds Gone Mad) of various ventures, and even a con-artist who's convinced he's the greatest American hero.

This book is a great resource that pulls the curtain aside to see how PMCs operate, a look into their motivations, and where they are being used. If you're not provoked to learn more, you're not paying attention.

I was the guy that did the threat study that put private military contractors on the official targeting list for the US Government, establishing them as legitimate targets who needed to be understood by all available (secret and open) means as either belligerents or at least relevant actors in any situation.

Robert Young Pelton, whom I know personally and admire as one of the most honest, courageous, and mature investigative journalists and adventurers (see my review of his Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition (Robert Young Pelton the World's Most Dangerous Places), is without question the best reporter and observer in the world of the "dogs of war." He ranks up with and above Robert Kaplan, Seymour Hersh, and John Fialka, three intrepid and intellectual reporters who help define the extraordinary talents and veracity of this author, Robert Young Pelton.

When I received his book I dropped everything and offer here a few of the highlights:

He distinguishes carefully between Mercenaries (soldiers for hire) and Private Military Contractors (PMC) who are security for hire.

Blackwater, the best of the (PMC can train 35,000 men in a year, and delivers a lighter, faster, smaller (and more effective) security force than the U.S. Army.

He recounts the history of CIA money into Special Operations Forces (SOF) black operations, which in turn created PMCs. Just as CIA funded the jihad in Afghanistan, so also has it funded--perhaps ignorantly in both cases--the emergence of the PMCs.


Telling early story: before 9/11, lawyers reduced CIA and other action elements of the US Government to wimpy toast. It took 9/11 to frost the lawyers and unleash the real men in the USG and elsewhere.

EDIT: Prior to 9/11, the lawyers were piss-ants such as those who advised the ABLE DANGER team to destroy evidence discovered pre 9-11 of two hijackers, instead of turning it over to the FBI. CIA lawyers, with a couple of exceptions, are also piss-ants. Real men include the guys that went into Afghanistan (see my reviews of Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander and First In: An Insider's Account of How the CIA Spearheaded the War on Terror in Afghanistan), and the guys at US Special Operations Command who are on their own all over the world. I never imagined that NSA and CIA would simply turn the lawyers off and violate ALL of our civil liberties, including warrantless wiretapping and rendition (kidnapping to export for torture) and the denial of habeas corpus to US and UK and Australian citizens, among others.

His overall account makes it clear that the new breed of PMC warrior is better in all respects (stronger, faster, smarter, better shot, more tech savvy) than the past SOF heroes, but FAILS in one important respect: tactical combat decision-making. He explains that communications has robbed the field men of all initiative, and they are now nothing more than risk takers for fat-assed pasty-faced Rear Echelon Mother Fryers (REMF) with too much rank, too much air conditioning, and not enough character to make it in the field.

This book will be, for some time, the basic reference for those who wish to be PMCs, manage PMCs, or employ PMC companies. On the one hand, he documents the rates and the profits ($500 a day per man, billed at $1500 a day per man, with $500 for overhead and $500 for profit PER DAY), but he also points out that at 24/7 ops tempo, this can come out to $25 an hour, or worse. He points out that SOF and other skilled uniformed professionals earn $50K a year, while PMCs can earn $200K a year--the contrast explains why SOF is hemorrhaging personnel. He discussed the 90 days on, 30 days off, but also notes that a third of the candidates do not make the grade in training, while half of those who are sent to the field do not make the grade under combat conditions and are Ordered Home.

In passing he notes that CIA tends to stink at local level relations, throwing money at locals to get intelligence, which is consequently generally bad and useless.

He also warns those who receive USG funded PMCs that as was the case in Haiti, the withdrawal of US funding for PMC security can be capricious and sudden.

He related the rise of the PMC to the political desire in the US of limiting the uniformed head counts in combat conditions, and this in turn not only supports PMCs with guns instead of uniformed military with guns, but also turning over all logistics to PMCs, some of which are unrealizable (and thus leave our troops without water and food and shower points in the clinch).

The book adds further to the documented view of Paul Bremer as a dictator no better than Saddam Hussein (who at least provided electricity and water and stability).

This thoughtful study notes that the Rules of Engagement (ROE) have not been well developed for PMCs, and that the seam between PMCs and the US military and the US Department of State are thoroughly screwed up to non-existent.

He notes that in addition to Iraqi disdain for Paul Bremer, there is acute Iraqi consciousness for the fact that in Iraq, PMCs are the top of the food chain and have everything, including jobs, which Iraqis have not received in the so-called "peace."

This author and this book SMASHES both the Rolling Stone article on "Heavy Metal Mercenaries" and the self-promoting and largely false book The Hunt for Bin Laden: Task Force Dagger.

Passing comments document the different "tribes" in the PMC world, the fact that many PMCs are paying their US citizens with offshore accounts that evade taxes, that laptops not guns are the focus for many individuals (their lifeline to family and reality), that London is the center of gravity for PMC activity, that over 400 PMCs have been killed in Iraq (contract this with 2,500 from US military), and that the bottom line for PMCs is that they are largely ethical, moral, professional, and committed.

I especially liked the author's closing contrast between the British PMC model "it's about minimum force, Old Boy" and the US model, "high tech max force" approach.

Immortal quote on page 227: "The post 9/11 world opened up a Pandora's box of prospects for adventurers, conmen, and opportunists...."

I will end with three points the author brings out:

1) PMC Blackwater is smart, focused on the bomb makers not the bomb deliverers.

2) Everybody is making money in Iraq (that is a US citizen) EXCEPT the US uniformed soldiers actually fighting the war.

3) PMCs are, like guns, something that can be used for good or bad.


Robert Young Pelton is extraordinary, and this book is the cutting edge of reality: PMCs. He is unique for his preparation and for walking in the PMC shoes.
svinayak
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

Another one
Translated from German

Export Hit Death: German mercenaries as agents of the War
von Franz Hutsch (Autor) by Franz Hutsch (Author)

Image
# Paperback: 288 pages
# Verlag: Econ Verlag (1. April 2009) Publisher: Econ Verlag (April 1, 2009)
# Sprache: Deutsch Language: German
# ISBN-10: 3430200725 ISBN-10: 3430200725
# ISBN-13: 978-3430200721 ISBN-13: 978-3430200721
Does the presentation of the book but like a headline in the tabloid, but the content speaks for itself and shows solid journalistic work.

Hutsch Francis, himself a career officer and therefore the military way of life as a soldier, from every angle known uses a theme to which we always like the finger at others (America -> Blach Water Today (treated Xe)).
Yes they do exist German Contractors (mercenaries) more than 4000 now, they are in use worldwide for private military companies to provide services or operate as a separate one-man company.
Hutsch has visited them, was in Iraq in Afghanistan, and then accompanied the men have learned their trade in the army or the police.
He tells of their lives, their motives, they faced a critical look behind the scenes and always looks back on Germany and the Government that what really knows.

The book is worth reading, it shows a period of many new ways, such as the recruitment of Islamist mercenaries and the many unresolved political problem and the involvement of entire companies in this industry.


From me it gets 5 stars because it is a book on the German book market has been waiting a long time and books such as "Licensed to Kill" by Robert Young Pelton has appeared in English only adds wonderful!

What this book has to do with the Realistaet, I can not recognize. Hutsch warms up in the German press has swept legends of "German mercenaries in the service of American and British PMC's and added his own speculation fragwuerdignen, declared as facts added. Hutsch warms up in the German press has swept legends of "German mercenaries" in the service of American and British PMC's and added his own speculation fragwuerdignen, declared as facts added. As someone who, even in the international security industry working in conflict areas, I can not compatible with it. As someone who, even in the international security industry working in conflict areas, I can not compatible with it.
1800 USD? 1800 USD? The best way I tell my boss the same time that I am underpaid. The best way I tell my boss the same time that I am underpaid. Or better: that he is unterbzahlt. Or better: that he is unterbzahlt.
Hutsch How has the number of 4000 German ex-soldiers in the field? How Hutsch has the number of 4000 German ex-soldiers in the field? The reality is that there are probably 3 dozen German who work in this area. The reality is that there are probably 3 dozen German who work in this area. Claiming German ex-soldiers were in particularly high demand in the industry is simply wrong. Claiming German ex-soldiers were in particularly high demand in the industry is simply wrong. The business is dominated by American and British expatriate countrymen and his staff recruited hence their preference among the. The business is dominated by American and British expatriate and his staff recruited hence their preference among the countrymen. The bulk of the "Contractors" the rest comes from developing countries and not from the West. The bulk of the "Contractors" the rest comes from developing countries and not from the West. About this would be reported but is likely to bring unspectacular and would not provide sales figures. About this would be reported but is likely to bring unspectacular and would not provide sales figures.
Hutsch's prediction that future be performed by Soeldnerarmeen be wars that are beyond state control is also a forecast errors, dramatized the useless. Hutsch's prediction that future be performed by Soeldnerarmeen be wars that are beyond state control is also a forecast errors, dramatized the useless.
For me, it looks like this as if Hutsch eagerly for an "Schmidt Fallujah or Kabul-schulze" searches, which "... the hunt for Muslim dolle ne thing ..." For me, it looks like this as if Hutsch eagerly for an "Schmidt Fallujah or Kabul-schulze" searches, which "... the hunt for Muslim dolle ne thing ..." holds. holds. To have have found this not still quoted, interviewed or filmed, will continue until the old stories that neither found nor quoted, interviewed or filmed, will continue the old stories
The Soeldneragentur the Internet and the famous 1000 USD by Soeldneragentur the Internet and the famous 1000 USD
(now 1800 USD / day) on the day warms up (now 1800 USD / day) on the day warmed up. Just a pity that the mass of readers believe this nonsense. Just a pity that the mass of readers believe this nonsense. The written probably fits very well into the worldview of many readers is therefore accepted as fact without further questioning. The written probably fits very well into the worldview of many readers is therefore accepted as fact without further questioning.

Bis zu 1800 Dollar an einem Tag, bar auf die Hand und somit steuerfrei. Private Military Services are a promising boom industry has become, which benefit from the privatization of the state monopoly of force. Privat Military Services sind eine verheißungsvolle Boom-Branche geworden, die von der Privatisierung des staatlichen Gewaltmonopols profitieren. But as rosy prospects are represented by some advocates of the privatized warfare, they are not true. Doch so rosig die Aussichten von manchen Fürsprechern der privatisierten Kriegsführung dargestellt werden, sind sie freilich nicht. This is especially Blackwater (which recently called Xe) is a term for the dirty side of the Iraq war has become. Dabei ist vor allem Blackwater (das sich neuerdings Xe nennt) ein Begriff für die schmutzigen Seiten des Irak-Kriegs geworden.

As a war correspondent, a political scientist, and especially former captain Franz Hutsch has investigated the question of what is behind it, when in Iraq already has more former members of the British SAS or her duties as an active staff. Als Kriegsberichterstatter, Politologe und vor allem ehemaliger Oberleutnant ist Franz Hutsch der Frage nachgegangen, was dahinter steckt, wenn im Irak bereits mehr ehemalige Angehörige des britischen SAS ihren Dienst versehen als noch aktives Personal. Especially popular are because of their training but also German sergeants and corporals who are to bring a valuable training and look to be too underpaid. Besonders begehrt sind aufgrund ihrer Ausbildung jedoch auch deutsche Feldwebel und Unteroffiziere, die eine wertvolle Ausbildung mitbringen und zudem als unterbezahlt zu betrachten sind. Thus, it is already the world's 4000 German provided for private companies as modern mercenaries - private Miliatry Contractors - their service. So sind es bereits 4000 Deutsche die weltweit für private Unternehmen als moderne Söldner - Private Miliatry Contractors - ihren Dienst versehen.

From interrogation to take over the fight privateers pretty much everything in the activities obtained and for the use of regular troops are often politically would be too expensive. Vom Verhör bis zum Kampf übernehmen die Privatiers so ziemlich alles was an Tätigkeiten anfällt und für die der Einsatz von regulären Truppen politisch oft zu teuer wäre. The costs of private individuals are often irrelevant higher, but not related to the political capital. Dabei sind die Kosten der Privaten nicht selten unerheblich höher, jedoch nicht auf das politische Kapital bezogen. The death of a GI's beating in the press much higher waves, but a flag-bedecked coffin is transferred to the homeland and set up a formal letter from the Pentagon. Der Tod eines GIs schlägt in der Presse deutlich höhere Wellen, wird doch ein beflaggter Sarg in die Heimat überführt und ein formelles Schreiben aus dem Pentagon aufgesetzt. Dahingegen are dead "security forces" a bargains. Dahingegen sind tote "Sicherheitskräfte" ein Schnäpchen. The flexibility arises from this move in part to the legal gray area in which the private forces. Die Flexibilität entspringt dabei zum Teil der rechtlichen Grauzone in der sich die privaten Kräfte bewegen. You're generally not subject to military jurisdiction, and hardly a prosecutor would take the long way from Europe or the United States to determine the place of events. Sie unterliegen ja grundsätzlich nicht der Militärgerichtsbarkeit und kaum ein Staatsanwalt würde den langen Weg aus Europa oder den USA antreten, um am Ort des Geschehens zu ermitteln.

For Hutsch the problems are already starting with the demands placed on future staff. Für Hutsch beginnen die Probleme bereits mit den Anforderungen die an künftiges Personal gestellt werden. For these quality standards to prevent any of the gunmen are hired to capture by British and American companies, at least 20 hours training in ethics, use of weapons and enemy identification, which are rarely provided by the Contractors. Denn diese Qualitätstandards, die verhindern sollen das irgendwelche Pistolenhelden angeworben werden, erfassen bei britischen und US-amerikanischen Unternehmen zumindest 20 Stunden Ausbildung in Ethik, Waffengebrauch und Feind-Identifikation, die jedoch von den Contractors selten erbracht werden.

Nonetheless there are also ethically and legally memorable trade in military and intelligence expertise. Dennoch gibt es hier auch einen ethisch und rechtlich denkwürdigen Handel mit militärischen und geheimdienstlichen Know-how. To own safety to private schools, although not officially offer courses that are reserved for civil servants, but rather the premise here is that whoever is once inside, also has access to everything. So bieten eigene Sicherheitsakademien Privatpersonen zwar offiziell keine Kurse an, die nur für Staatsdiener reserviert sind, jedoch gilt hier eher die Prämisse, dass wer einmal drin ist, auch Zugang zu allem hat. The danger that this knowledge about detours so you can reach into the proverbial wrong hands suggests itself is ignored by the authorities persisted, however. Die Gefahr dass dieses Wissen über Umwege so auch in die sprichwörtlichen falschen Hände gelangen kann drängt sich auf, wird von den Verantwortlichen jedoch beharrlich ignoriert. Finance, these education and training courses from street fighting to aggressive interrogation techniques, pretty much anything that can be imagined, by the way, even out of that pot with the Bundeswehr members should actually be allowed to switch to private life. Finanzieren lassen sich diese Aus- und Weiterbildungskurse für von Straßenkampf bis aggressiven Verhörtechniken so ziemlich alles, was man sich vorstellen kann, übrigens sogar aus jenem Topf mit dem Bundeswehr-Angehörigen eigentlich der Umstieg ins Privatleben ermöglicht werden soll. Without objection, the State assumes the cost of retraining, which is not, and contrary to the objective of the promotion. Anstandslos übernimmt der Staat die Kosten für eine Umschulung, die keine ist und dem Ziel der Förderung widerspricht.

Question of definition? Definitionsfrage? Perhaps because all this is not actually illegal, rather, what however vague definition of "mercenary" is attributable in international law. Vielleicht, denn konkret illegal ist das alles eher nicht, was allerdings der schwammigen Definition des "Söldners" im Völkerrecht anzulasten ist. So we know at the UN that can easily turn the conventions, as mercenary as free and there are not a force known to belong. So weiß man auch bei der UNO, dass sich die Konventionen leicht biegen lassen, da Söldner dort als frei und nicht einer Streitmacht zugehörig bezeichnet sind. For this reason, the Contractors may also be the well-known U.S. company Blackwater as part of the U.S. armed forces and refuse to see the vilification as a mercenary. Aus diesem Grund dürfen sich auch die Contractors des bekannten US-Konzerns Blackwater als Teil der US-Streitkräfte sehen und sich der Verunglimpfung als Söldner verweigern. In reality, however, it is even mostly outside the chain of command and may, at the arbitrary actions still insist on using. In der Realität steht man jedoch selbst dann meist außerhalb der Befehlskette und kann bei eigenmächtigen Aktionen immer noch auf Hilfe pochen.

The dangers of privatization of the monopoly of violence shown on Franz Hutsch impressive because, although modern captains can break unmolested by national parliaments from the fence will be wars, but their soldiers taken prisoner, one turns often for ransom back to the state, with the promise that get rid of so troublesome was lured to problems. Die Gefahren einer Privatisierung des Gewaltmonopols zeigt Franz Hutsch eindrucksvoll auf, denn zwar können moderne Condottieres unbehelligt von nationalen Parlamenten Kriege vom Zaun brechen, werden ihre Soldaten jedoch gefangen genommen, wendet man sich nicht selten mit Lösegeldforderungen wieder an den Staat, der mit dem Versprechen, sich so lästiger Probleme entledigen zu können geködert wurde. Since conflict is at the same time bring profits, it is questionable how far superior morally and ethically it is the manager of military companies against their peers in the mainstream economy. Da Konflikte jedoch zugleich Gewinn bringen ist es fragwürdig inwiefern moralisch und ethisch überlegen denn die Manager von Militärfirmen gegenüber ihren Kollegen in der normalen Wirtschaft sind. For he who seeks to maximize the benefits will not want to bring conflicts to an end quickly and agree on even terms cunning to secure him long-term revenue. Denn wer auf maximalen Gewinn abzielt wird Konflikte nicht gerne schnell zu Ende bringen und selbst dann gefinkelte Vertragsbedingungen vereinbaren, die ihm langfristige Einnahmen sichern.

Apart from his analysis of the macro level, the author also goes on a journey through Iraq and Afghanistan, where he documented the daily lives of some Contractors. Abgesehen von seiner Analyse der Makroebene begibt sich der Autor auch auf einen Streifzug durch den Irak und Afghanistan, wo er den Alltag einiger Contractors dokumentiert. Far from the heroic cliches from the Wild West. Fernab der Helden-Klischees aus dem Wilden Westen. But even in Germany adheres to Hutsch and attends the survivors (wife and 4-year) of a fallen Iraq merc. Aber auch in Deutschland hält sich Hutsch auf und besucht dort die Hinterbliebenen (Frau und 4jährigen) eines gefallenen Irak-Söldners. Five adventurers who on his own in the Afghan-border region pakestanischen find Osama bin Laden, he knows just as much to report. Von fünf Glücksrittern, die auf eigene Faust im afghanisch-pakestanischen Grenzgebiet Osama bin Laden suchen, weiß er dabei ebenso zu berichten. Exactly such volunteers could succeed in what the agents of the CIA fail for years and the ISAF is not capable. Genau solche Freiwilligen könnte gelingen, woran die Agenten der CIA seit Jahren scheitern und die ISAF nicht im Stande ist. Your hunt finance them by hire themselves out for half the year in Iraq. Ihre Jagd finanzieren sie, indem sie sich das halbe Jahr im Irak verdingen.

The shortcomings of the intelligence and the illusion of the military have created a market niche, but also penetrate into the dumping more and more companies deploy and poorly equipped and barely trained cannon fodder, which is training to objects of the jihadists. Die Unzulänglichkeiten der Geheimdienste und die Illusion des Militärs haben eine Marktlücke entstehen lassen, in die jedoch auch immer mehr Dumping-Firmen vorstoßen und schlecht ausgerüstetes und kaum ausgebildetes Kanonenfutter entsenden, das zu Trainingsobjekten der Dschihadisten wird. Again, this enhances Hutsch namely as mercenaries, as the hired guns for their actions in addition to the intangible divine rewards sometimes can also expect pensions to their survivors. Auch diese wertet Hutsch nämlich als Söldner, als hired guns die für ihre Taten neben dem immateriellen göttlichen Lohn manchmal auch Renten für ihre Hinterbliebenen erwarten dürfen. A flooded with weapons black market also facilitated the arming. Ein mit Waffen überschwemmter Schwarzmarkt erleichtert die Bewaffnung zudem. The Al Qaeda is thus private military contractor, but still classic works outside forces. Auch die Al Kaida ist somit Private Military Contractor, sie arbeitet jedoch noch klassisch außerhalb von Streitkräften. Like so many South American guerrillas who find themselves in the service of drug cartels. Ähnlich auch so manche südamerikanische Guerillas, die sich in den Diensten von Drogenkartellen wiederfinden.

An unregulated market with high demand and without recognized standards also invites so many imposters. Ein unregulierter Markt mit hoher Nachfrage und ohne anerkannte Standards lädt auch so manchen Hochstapler ein. In this sense, recall figures such as Jonathan Keith "Jack" Idema, who was chatting his private torture prison in Afghanistan and received support from the ISAF, while in reality he does not even distinguish Shia from Sunnis could, to the real heir to the hero of Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havana ". In diesem Sinne erinnern Gestalten wie Jonathan Keith "Jack" Idema, der in Afghanistan sein privates Foltergefängnis unterhielt und Unterstützung seitens der ISAF erhielt, während er in Wirklichkeit Schiiten nicht einmal von Sunniten unterschieden konnte, an die realen Erben des Helden von Graham Greenes "Unser Mann in Havanna". Wormold shoveling money for questionable information about Cuba in his pockets, tend to self-made agents like Idema torturing civilians and committing those crimes, which was later attributed to the occupiers, thereby ensuring public awareness of plenty of resentments. Schaufelte Wormold für fragwürdige Informationen über Kuba Geld in seine Taschen, neigen Selfmade-Agenten wie Idema dazu Zivilisten zu foltern und jene Verbrechen zu begehen, die später den Besatzern zugeschrieben und somit im öffentlichen Bewusstsein für reichlich Ressentiments sorgen.

Conclusion: Fazit:
An interesting and well-researched depiction of a phenomenon konstroversen from a German perspective. Eine interessante und gut recherchierte Darstellung eines konstroversen Phänomens aus deutscher Perspektive.
Last edited by svinayak on 26 Aug 2009 01:02, edited 3 times in total.
svinayak
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

The Idea of the West: Politics, Culture and History
by Alastair Bonnett
Alastair Bonnett (Author)



# Paperback: 224 pages
# Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (November 4, 2004)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 1403900353
# ISBN-13: 978-1403900357

This book provides a clear, topical and wide-ranging introduction to the idea of "the West." It engages with both Western and non-Western representations and demonstrates that "the West" is not merely a Western idea, but something that many people around the world have long been creating, stereotyping and deploying. Bonnett offers an accessible but provocative portrait of the ambiguities and diverse connotations of "the West," teasing out questions of race, politics and power from the late nineteenth-century to the present day.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West
by Perez Zagorin
Perez Zagorin (Author)



# Paperback: 392 pages
# Publisher: Princeton University Press (September 19, 2005)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0691121427
# ISBN-13: 978-0691121420


Americans who regard Islamic fundamentalists as peculiarly intolerant have much to learn from distinguished historian Zagorin, whose insightful research reminds us that for centuries no religionists persecuted heresy more ferociously than did Christians. In an analysis rich in narrative detail, Zagorin recounts the difficult and often perilous labors of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century advocates of religious toleration, who challenged the West's terrible tradition of coercive orthodoxy. Though most early reformers valued dissent only long enough to create Protestant versions of the Catholic Inquisition, Zagorin's chronicle shows why followers of Luther and Calvin ultimately faced difficult questions about the state's traditional role as guardian of creedal uniformity. It may surprise readers that when oft-lauded cultural heroes such as John Milton, John Locke, and Roger Williams called for state tolerance of religious diversity, they were actually echoing the views of lesser-known religious libertarians, including the fearless French humanist Sebastian Castellio ("the first champion of religious toleration") and the outspoken Dutch patriot Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert. And because Enlightenment thinkers, such as Voltaire and Jefferson, eventually secularized religious toleration in a broader advocacy of intellectual liberty, it may further surprise readers that the first warriors for freedom of belief found their warrant in Scripture. A book to dispel complacency about a priceless liberty. Bryce Christensen

This is a well written concise intellectual history of the idea of religious toleration. This is not a history of the development of toleration per se, which would require more political and social history. Zagorin is concerned particularly with exploring the role of early writers on this topic, most of whom are largely forgotten today. He begins with a sketch of the development of the doctrine of persecution in the early church and intolerance in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Ernest discussions of tolerance then become a major issue with great religious conflicts engendered by the Reformation. Zagorin then traces the development of the idea of tolerance in the writings of pioneering individuals like the French humanist scholar Castellio and a variety of Dutch intellectuals. Zagorin works his way through the 16th and 17th centuries concluding with the works of Locke and Bayle. This is very well done and parts are very informative. For example, Zagorin's concise description of Roger Williams' thinking about church-state separation is the best I've read. A recurrent theme is that these early advocates of toleration were driven by a conception that toleration was mandated by the essential message of Christianity and an appropriate reading of scripture.
While this is quite good, Zagorin doesn't really provide any analysis for the basis of the development of tolerance. Why, for example, were all the major writers on tolerance Protestants? Why Europe at this particular time? Why these particular individuals? There are some reasonable possible answers to these questions. All the early advocates of toleration appear to have been humanist scholars very interested in Classical literature. Surely, the encounter with a powerful non-Christian intellectual tradition and the knowledge of religious pluralism in the Classical world must have had some impact. Similarly, the Protestant emphasis on a personal relationship with God surely influenced the tolerationist emphasis on liberty of conscience. Finally, the practical experience of relatively tolerant societies like Holland, France under the Edict of Nantes, and parts of Switzerland much have had an impact.


Today, Catholics and Protestants are overwhelmingly tolerant of people of other religious faiths and non-believers. They may advocate their values - as the secularists do as well - in the liberal marketplace of ideas and criticize those who oppose them, but in the western democracies and republics, religious differences are usually settled in a courthouse. This religious tolerance, enshrined in the American founding, was won at a tremendous price and in the era of the Reformation, both Catholics and Protestants persecuted those whose views they saw as heretical.
Today, the current battle between the liberal west and the forces of Islamic fanaticism has brought the issue of religious intolerance to the front pages of the worlds newspapers and the top of news broadcasts. So, it is a timely subject for a book like the one Perez Zagorn has written. Historically, Islam had a tradition of tolerance for Christians and Jews who were known as "people of the book" because of their shared biblical heritage, but Sayyid Qutb and other radical Islamic thinkers have turned this idea on its head and now seek to convert or exterminate them.
Zagorin takes readers back to a time when the churches of the west dedicated themselves to crushing all dissent and then introduces the reader to early advocates of tolerance who found the seeds of a more tolerant and pluralistic philosophy in the great religious texts and tradition. It was these deep philosophical thinkers -Erasmus, Sir Thomas More, John Locke - who advanced the notion that challenge and pluralism was actually good for their religions, not simply an effective political policy than enhanced trade and diplomacy. The most important single figure in the book is Sebastian Castellio, an early advocate of pluralism and tolerance who dueled with the Protestant reformer John Calvin, the man who was largely responsible for the burning of Michael Servetus, the controversial doctor and theologian. Zagorin writes about the origins of religious tolerance in the Netherlands, which played a vital role in the founding of some of America's colonies and the growth of tolerance here. He concludes his book with chapters on religious tolerance in England and the figures of John Locke and Pierre Bayle. Much of the history that Zagorin writes of here has not been widely disseminated and his very readable account of the men and ideas that advanced tolerance and pluralism should be widely read
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by SSridhar »

Another book on J&K
Review by Praveen Swami
JAMMU AND KASHMIR, THE COLD WAR AND THE WEST
D.N. Panigrahi;
Routledge, 912 Tolstoy House, 15-17 Tolstoy Marg, New Delhi-110017. Rs. 595.

Western support for Pakistan, Panigrahi shows, played a key role in shaping the India-Pakistan contestation on Jammu and Kashmir. The military and diplomatic assistance to Pakistan, his argument suggests, sustained its long-running offensive to take control of the State.
Formulation of policy

The author’s account locates the formulation of the United States’ and the United Kingdom’s policy on J&K in the context of their evolving post-World War II strategic concerns in West Asia.

British civil servant Olaf Caroe, who had served for many years in the North-West Frontier Province, Punjab, and the United Provinces, saw the new state of Pakistan as a key asset in the defence of West Asia’s oil resources. Caroe, whose ideas carried a lot of weight not only with Britain’s policy establishment but also with the Pentagon, believed the region’s oil could best be protected from the northern rim — that is, Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Pakistan — rather than through control of the Suez.

Echoes of these ideas figured in a 1949 address by Field Marshal Archibald Percival Wavell, commander of the British forces in West Asia during World War II and the penultimate viceroy of India. “The next great struggle for world power,” Wavell argued, in an address whose ideological relevance is evident even today, “if it takes place, may well be for the control of these oil reserves. It may centre on Western Asia, the Persian Gulf, the approaches to India both on the north-west and on the north-east. This may be the battleground both of the material struggle for oil and air-bases, and of the spiritual struggle of at least three great creeds — Christianity, Islam, [and] Communism — and of the political theories of democracy and totalitarianism.”

Pro-Pakistan stand

Ideas like these, as well as the British hopes of salvaging their Palestine-battered reputation among Muslims, Panigrahi argues, drove the U.K. to adopt a pro-Pakistan position on Jammu and Kashmir.

Back in 1935, Britain had leased the Gilgit Agency from the princely State, in a strategic response to the Soviet Union’s occupation of parts of Xinjiang. The lease ended after India’s Independence. But instead of handing Gilgit back to J&K, local troops led by British officer Major W.A. Brown annexed the province for Pakistan. Major Brown was rewarded both by the British government and Pakistan for his enterprise.

From the outset, Panigrahi shows, Britain supported Pakistan’s case that it was in no way involved in the 1947 assault on J&K it now administers — a myth the Pakistani commentators, including Major-General Akbar Khan who commanded the assault, have long laid to rest.

Military aid

For its part, the post-World War II policy establishment in the U.S. saw India and Pakistan in stark Cold War terms. Much to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s alarm, the U.S. committed itself early to military aid for Pakistan, in return for stationing its personnel at Babader airbase outside Peshawar. In June, 1953, Dulles told the National Security Council of the United States that Pakistan was the “one country that has [the] moral courage to do its part [in] resisting communism.” By 1955, Pakistan had become a part of the South East Asia Treaty Organisation.

Foreign policy commentator Walter Lippman discussed the issue with Dulles. “The only Asians who can fight,” Dulles insisted, “are the Pakistanis. That’s why we need them in the Alliance. We could never get along without the Gurkhas.”

Lippman responded that the Gurkhas were neither Pakistani nor Muslim. “No matter,” he recorded Dulles as saying, before launching into a protracted lecture on the benefits of the United States’ military relationship with Pakistan.

Indian policy-makers today confront many of the same pressures they did five decades ago — this time, without the support of the erstwhile Soviet Union to ward off the West.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by Rahul M »

http://www.amazon.com/Orientalism-Race- ... 0333963601

Orientalism And Race: Aryanism in the British Empire

by Tony Ballantyne

This study traces the emergence and dissemination of Aryanism within the British empire. The idea of an Aryan race became an important feature of imperial culture in the nineteenth century, feeding into debates in Britain, Ireland, India, and the Pacific. The global reach of the Aryan idea reflected the complex networks that enabled the global reach of British imperialism. Tony Ballantyne charts the shifting meanings of Aryanism within these "webs" of empire.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by Paul »

http://www.amazon.com/After-Tamerlane-G ... 1596913932

was skimming through this book at BN on the weekend and though to relate an interesting anecdote. I find it a curious coincidence that these stories are coming out of the woodwork as the decline of the western dominance gathers speed.

+++++++++++++++
When Vasco Da Gama came to Kochi in 1498, he thought he had come to the legendary eastern Xtian king Prester John’s realm. He considered the local Brahmins to be local Xtian priests and asked them to take to the virgin mary so that he could pay his respects. The Brahmins took him to a local temple….to have him prostrate before Parvati…..I almost was on the floor and :rotfl:
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

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After Tamerlane: The Global History of Empire Since 1405
by John Darwin (Author)



Hardcover: 592 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury Press; 1st US edition (February 5, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1596913932
ISBN-13: 978-1596913936

Was Europe's domination of the modern international order the inevitable rise of a superior civilization or the piratical hijacking of an evolving world system? A little of both, and a lot of neither, this ambitious comparative study argues—because world history's real center of gravity sits in Eurasia. Historian Darwin (The End of the British Empire) contends that an ascendant Western imperialism was a sideshow to vast, wealthy and dynamic Asian empires—in China, Mughal India, the Ottoman Middle East and Safavid Iran—which proved resistant to Western encroachment and shaped the world into the 21st century. Europe's overseas colonial empires as well as the expansions of the United States across North America and Russia across Siberia—was not inevitable, but rather a slow, fitful and often marginal enterprise that didn't accelerate until the mid-19th century.
Darwin analyzes the technological, organizational and economic advantages Europeans accrued over time, but shows how dependent their success was on the vagaries of world trade (the driving force of modern imperialism, in his account) and the internal politics of the countries they tried to control. Nicely balanced between sweeping overview and illuminating detail, this lucid survey complicates and deepens our understanding of modern world history. Photos. (Feb)

John Darwin explores three themes in "After Tamerlane:"

1. The growth of global connectedness that results in the globalization as it is known today;
2. The key role that Europe and later on the West played in that process;
3. The resilience of many of Eurasia's other states and cultures in the face of Europe's expansionism.

Darwin pushes his audience to rethink the history of Europe's expansion by making four assumptions:

1) Europe did not progressively rise to preeminence, then fall and rise again as part of the West. The pace of European advance was spasmodic at best in the 250 years following the arrival of Christophe Columbus in the Americas in 1492 C.E. The subjugation of the Americas did not offer Europe a decisive advantage over the rest of Eurasia during that period. Asians were not interested in most of what the Europeans had to offer, resulting in a flow of American silver to South and East Asia. After 1750 C.E., this pattern progressively changed with the subjugation of India and the advent of the industrial revolution that allowed Europeans to impose a trade of manufactured products against raw materials and foodstuffs in the region.

The great expansion of trade in the 19th century C.E. and the globalization that it helped to promote were possible for two main reasons. Firstly, there was no general war between the major European powers between the Congress of Vienna in 1815 C.E. and the outbreak of the WWI in 1914 C.E. Secondly, industrialization allowed culturally self-confident Europeans to colonize far faster and on a far larger scale than was previously possible. For example, think about the scramble for Africa among European powers at the end of the 19th century C.E.

In contrast, Asian empires showed a remarkable cultural and political resilience in the face of Europe's expansionism. Despite all foreign encroachments, China ultimately lost only Outer Mongolia. A fast-industrializing Japan became quickly a match for its Western alter egos before losing all its colonies at the end of WWII. The victors of WWI failed to partition the Anatolian core of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1920s C.E. Finally, Iran comprises to this day most of "historic" Persia. The great exception to that rule was India because of its openness and accessibility, and because of the sophistication of its financial and commercial life.

2) A global proto-economy came into existence in the 16th century C.E. once the Americas had been connected to Eurasia and Africa. Without the exploitation of American resources, and the commercial integration of North East America and North West Europe to form an "Atlantic" economy, the eventual creation of a global economy in the late 19th century C.E. might not have happened at all. The increased protectionism against free trade that started in the 1880s C.E. did not stop the growth in international commerce before the outbreak of WWI. Globalization remained mostly in limbo during the Europe's second Thirty Years War.

The second wave of globalization that started after the end of WWII under the leadership of the U.S. has gone far beyond the limited promise of the pre-1914 world. The "great divergence" in wealth and economic performance between the Euro-Atlantic West and most of the rest of Eurasia has given way instead to the "great convergence," which should, if it continues, restore the balance to the rough equilibrium of half a millennium ago in the next fifty years.

3) Reducing the history of Europe's global expansion to that of Britain, the Low Countries, northern France, and western Germany is misleading for three reasons. Firstly, the quarrels and conflicts of the European states were a constant limiting factor on their collective ability to impose Europe's domination on the rest of the world. Secondly, this reductive approach ignores the territorial expansionism of tsarist Russia that was a European power. Finally, that analysis ignores the contribution of the early colonies to Europe's global expansion.

4) Empire has been the default mode of political organization throughout most of history. However, European imperialism stood out for two main reasons. Firstly, Europe was the main driver behind modernity in political, economical, and cultural terms. Secondly, Europe had a superior capacity for organized violence through expropriation by subjugation, and if necessary, by exclusion, expulsion, or liquidation.

Despite these strengths, European imperialism was inherently both unstable and unsustainable. The long interregnum of competitive coexistence that existed since the peace of 1815 C.E. crumbled for good in 1914 C.E. Furthermore, the Europeans lacked the resources and sometimes the motive to parcel out, or, if kept in existence, to reduce the remaining Asian empires to semi-protectorates before 1914 C.E. After 1918 C.E., their divisions were greater and the task even harder. Equally important, these Asian empires displayed tenacious traditions of political and cultural resistance in the face of Europe's expansionism.

To summarize, Darwin succeeds in his endeavor to encourage his audience to go beyond the received wisdom about European and Western expansionism.

Last edited by svinayak on 21 Sep 2009 01:17, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by csharma »

The book talks about ideas of Olaf Caroe.


The Future Of The Great Game (International, Political, and Economic History) (Hardcover)
by Peter John Brobst

Product Description
The Great Game originally described Britain's efforts to maintain India as a base from which to defend the Persian Gulf and southeast Asia against rival Empires. As British India's leading geostrategist during the end of the imperial rule, as well as the last British governor on the Afghan frontier, Sir Olaf Caroe saw the future of the Great Game. He predicted with remarkable acuity how the struggle for mastery in South Asia's borderlands would play out beyond the end of the Raj.
In the aftermath of 9/11, much as Caroe foretold, flashpoints continue to light up from Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf to Nepal and Burma; threats range from terrorism and insurgency to naval expansion and nuclear rivalry. India commands the vital center, its power key to the overall stability and defense of Asia.The book examines Caroe's thinking to illuminate both the geopolitics behind India's independence in 1947 and the historical precedents of contemporary South Asian Strategy.
http://www.amazon.com/Future-Internatio ... 1931968101
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

Nemisis

Chalmers Johnson
By the subtitle, I really do mean it. This is not just hype to sell books—“The Last Days of the American Republic.” I’m here concerned with a very real, concrete problem in political analysis, namely that the political system of the United States today, history tells us, is one of the most unstable combinations there is—that is, domestic democracy and foreign empire—that the choices are stark. A nation can be one or the other, a democracy or an imperialist, but it can’t be both. If it sticks to imperialism, it will, like the old Roman Republic, on which so much of our system was modeled, like the old Roman Republic, it will lose its democracy to a domestic dictatorship.

I’ve spent some time in the book talking about an alternative, namely that of the British Empire after World War II, in which it made the decision, not perfectly executed by any manner of means, but nonetheless made the decision to give up its empire in order to keep its democracy. It became apparent to the British quite late in the game that they could keep the jewel in their crown, India, only at the expense of administrative massacres, of which they had carried them out often in India. In the wake of the war against Nazism, which had just ended, it became, I think, obvious to the British that in order to retain their empire, they would have to become a tyranny, and they, therefore, I believe, properly chose, admirably chose to give up their empire.

As I say, they didn’t do it perfectly. There were tremendous atavistic fallbacks in the 1950s in the Anglo, French, Israeli attack on Egypt; in the repression of the Kikuyu—savage repression, really—in Kenya; and then, of course, the most obvious and weird atavism of them all, Tony Blair and his enthusiasm for renewed British imperialism in Iraq. But nonetheless, it seems to me that the history of Britain is clear that it gave up its empire in order to remain a democracy. I believe this is something we should be discussing very hard in the United States.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation
by Barbara Ehrenreich (Author)


Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks (April 27, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0805090150
ISBN-13: 978-0805090154

Despite long national claims to being a classless society, the U.S. has a growing gulch between the haves and have-nots and what used to be the middle class. Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed (2001) and Bait and Switch (2005), catalogs the many ways that the rich are getting richer and the rest of us are getting poorer. The new top of the polarized social order has “pay in the tens of hundreds of millions, a private jet and a few acres of Nantucket,” and the new bottom is virtual slavery—captive domestics, sweatshop workers, and sex slaves exploited by their employers. She details the huge compensation gaps between CEOs and other management, top-ranked professors and adjunct professors, law firm partners and temp lawyers. In separate sections, Ehrenreich analyzes how wealthy individuals and corporations maintain the gap by engineering social, political, and economic policies that continue to disadvantage the middle class and poor, and our accommodation to it. Ehrenreich’s sharp analysis and engaging writing make the litany of misery enlightening, if not more bearable, reading. --Vanessa Bush

Ehrenreich points out that people are out of work, losing their homes, losing their health care, and no one is speaking up. Why aren't people complaining? We're letting our government and our businesses, such as Wal-Mart, control the country. And, they do a very good job of distracting us from the bad conditions in this country by pointing us in the direction of side issues, such as gay marriage and pro-life and pro-choice disagreements. She isn't the first one to say that illegal immigration is the latest distraction. "But it wasn't a Mexican who took away your pension or sold you on a dodgy mortgage." We're afraid for our jobs. We're afraid to lose our houses and our health care. It's not the first time in our country's history that a minority group has been selected as a scapegoat to distract us from the actual social conditions in this country.

The dictionary defines satire as "The use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc." Barbara Ehrenreich successfully uses sarcasm to do all of those things. She exposes the vices, follies and deceit behind our business practices, our health care practices, and our employment. She does a wonderful job in ridiculing our fascination with business success books, when the only people getting rich are the authors of those trite books. We could all take lessons from This Land is Their Land in denouncing the wrongs in this country.


America is in big trouble, asserts Ehrenreich. Greed is in the saddle and rides roughshod over democratic principles. The rich are getting richer; the poor are getting poorer; a once-healthy middle class has become an endangered species.

Whether writing of "Chasms of Inequality," "Meanness on the Rise," "Strangling the Middle Class," "Hell Day at Work," "Declining Health," "Getting Sex Straight," or "False Gods," Ehrenreich pulls no punches, gives no quarter, takes no captives.

The most serious threats to a deep morality, argues Ehrenhreich, are not abortionists, stem cell researchers, or matrimonially minded gays, but those who wage an unnecessary war and ruthlessly oppress the poor.

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Pat Robertson will hate this book. Many grossly overpaid corporate CEO's and HMO bigwigs won't care much for it either.

One need not be a devotee of Karl Marx's Das Kapital to perceive (unless one is willfully blind) the dark underside of capitalism, which thrives on the cynical creed: "Every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost!"


Is Ehrenreich's book agitprop or solid sociopolitical criticism? The reader's reaction will depend on his or her political stance. I believe This Land Is Their Land is right on point: a devastating critique of capitalism run amok. It's a wake-up call concerning the looting and fleecing of America.

If Ehrenreich sounds angry, outraged, and fighting mad, it's because she is. Hers is a righteous indignation against those who are destroying everything that moral and compassionate people hold dear.

Like an ancient prophet, she issues scathing indictments against plutocrats who trample on the poor. In her book one hears the thunderous voice of Amos: "Let justice roll on like a mighty river and righteousness like an everflowing stream."

An excerpt from the book: "How many 'wake-up calls' do we need, people--how many broken lives, drowned cities, depleted food pantries, people dead for lack of ordinary health care? We approach the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century in a bleak landscape cluttered with boarded-up homes and littered with broken dreams. . . . Why don't we dare say it? The looting of America has gone on too long, and the average American is too maxed out, overworked, and overspent to have anything left to take. We'll need a new deal, a new distribution of power and wealth, if we want to restore the beautiful idea that was 'America.'"
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America
by Barbara Ehrenreich (Author)


Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Metropolitan Books; 1 edition (October 13, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0805087494
ISBN-13: 978-0805087499
With "Bright-Sided" Barbara Ehrenreich delivers the same sharp assessments she delivered in Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, in this case a trenchant look into America's obsession with presenting a "positive" image at all times and at all costs. Spurred by her own reaction to a bout of breast cancer Ehrenreich came face-to-face with the near obsessive culture of positivity, which led to her questioning not only what purpose it serves, but how it came to exist. While Americans like to project a "positive" cheerful, optimistic and upbeat image we seldom reflect on why our culture insists upon this particular norm. Ehrenreich traces the origins of this "cult of optimism" from its origins in 19th Century American life up to the present prevalence of the "gospel of prosperity" in churches, "positive psychology" and the "science of happiness" in academia and in literature. Ehrenreich points out it is most pervasively rooted in business culture where the refusal to deal with negativity (potential and real) has resulted in a rash of negative outcomes, from the S&L crisis of the 1980s/1990s to the current mortgage led economic downturn. As with "Nickel and Dimed" Ehrenreich revels in not just mythbusting but in exploring corners of society seldom plumbed or contemplated. For Ehrenreich this lack of introspection and dealing with negativity in an appropriate manner has led us individually and as a society to "irrational exuberance" and now near disaster. Ehrenreich is at her best poking fun at the pseudo-science of positivity and poking holes in positivist theory.

Obviously Ehrenreich isn't for everyone and certain some people who insist on positivity in their lives will simply refuse to read such a potentially negative book. But Ehrenreich isn't a "negative Nelly" as some would fear; she's speaking truth-to-power and to a certain extent satirizing society. She seeks to question why we are so relentlessly positive, even when that positivity is unwarranted, and to get us to see what the true cost is when we are too accepting and nowhere near critical enough. It you set aside your preconceived notions about positivity and positivism you might just find this a richly rewarding book!

A sharp-witted knockdown of America’s love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism

Americans are a “positive” people—cheerful, optimistic, and upbeat: this is our reputation as well as our self-image. But more than a temperament, being positive, we are told, is the key to success and prosperity.

In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. Evangelical mega-churches preach the good news that you only have to want something to get it, because God wants to “prosper” you. The medical profession prescribes positive thinking for its presumed health benefits. Academia has made room for new departments of “positive psychology” and the “science of happiness.” Nowhere, though, has bright-siding taken firmer root than within the business community, where, as Ehrenreich shows, the refusal even to consider negative outcomes—like mortgage defaults—contributed directly to the current economic crisis.

With the mythbusting powers for which she is acclaimed, Ehrenreich exposes the downside of America’s penchant for positive thinking: On a personal level, it leads to self-blame and a morbid preoccupation with stamping out “negative” thoughts. On a national level, it’s brought us an era of irrational optimism resulting in disaster. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best—poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream
by Barbara Ehrenreich (Author)



Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st edition (July 25, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0805081240
ASIN: B001GQ3DTW
Barbara Ehrenreich's latest work of social commentary, "Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream," is an indictment of the "magisterial indifference of the corporate world." Posing as an unemployed white-collar worker, Ehrenreich adopts an alias and markets herself as a public relations person and event planner. Her goal is to obtain a corporate job that pays approximately fifty thousand a year with health benefits. She plans to keep the job for three or four months, write about her experiences, and then quit. The author sets aside five thousand dollars for travel and other expenses connected with her job search.

During her odyssey, Ehrenreich pays for career coaching, attends a job fair, posts her resume on Internet sites, enrolls in a boot camp for job seekers, and networks extensively. She learns to sell herself, treat job searching as a full-time job, always maintain a winning attitude, put her faith in God, and dress for success. Much to her surprise, Ehrenreich's efforts do not land her a suitable job. She asks herself: Do I lack charisma? Am I too old? Is it unrealistic in today's market to look for a decent job with health benefits?

The author acknowledges that any or all of the above may have been factors in her failure to find work. However, she wrote the book because she believes that there is a bigger problem holding job-seekers back--corporate America's indifference to the needs of its workers. Ehrenreich maintains that human resources departments rarely even acknowledge receiving a resume anymore. Even worse, when an applicant sends in a bid for a job, he is often the victim of "bait and switch" tactics. Instead of offering the advertised job, the company rep tries to convince the job seeker to settle for a lesser job with no benefits or job security. In desperation, some white-collar workers take "survival jobs" such as housecleaning, cab driving, and retail sales in order to put food on the table. When the income from these jobs does not cover the bills, these stressed-out individuals max out their credit cards, seek help from relatives, and downsize their lifestyles as much as possible. Without health insurance, workers are terrified of becoming become ill because they have no money to pay for medical care and prescription drugs.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by Hiten »

not read this book but posting it cause according to the review, it is supposed to have said some pretty damning things


Who Killed Karkare? The Real Face of Terrorism in India

Author: S.M Mushrif, ex-IG Maharshatra

Publisher: PHAROS MEDIA & PUBLISHING PVT LTD

Review
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World


Carl W. Ernst, "Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World"

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press | 2003-10-27 | 273 Pages | ISBN: 0807828378 |

Unlike many "Islam 101" books published since September 11, 2001, Following Muhammad avoids the traps of sensational political expose and specialized scholarly Orientalism. Carl Ernst introduces readers to the profound spiritual resources of Islam while clarifying diversity and debate within the tradition.

One out of five people in the world are Muslim; only 18 percent of those, however, are Arab. Ernst moves away from a Middle Eastern bias, addressing the pluralistic nature of Muslim societies and thought. Framing his argument in terms of religious studies, Ernst describes how Protestant definitions of religion and anti-Muslim prejudice have affected views of Islam in Europe and America. Ernst also covers the contemporary importance of Islam in both its traditional settings and its new locations and provides a context for understanding extremist movements like fundamentalism.

With translations of selections from Islamic texts, some appearing in English for the first time, Ernst offers access to Muslim voices and key themes, particularly the central role of the Prophet Muhammad. He concludes with an overview of critical debates on important contemporary issues such as gender and veiling, state politics, and science and religion. A concise selected reading list provides a helpful guide for future study. This engaging introduction to Islam should be every non-Muslim's first resource for learning about a religion that is a major presence in the world.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
~ Jeff Sharlet (Author)


Paperback: 464 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (June 2, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060560053
ISBN-13: 978-0060560058

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =106115324

Checking in on a friend's brother at Ivenwald, a Washington-based fundamentalist group living communally in Arlington, Va., religion and journalism scholar Sharlet finds a sect whose members refer to Manhattan's Ground Zero as "the ruins of secularism"; intrigued, Sharlet accepts on a whim an invitation to stay at Ivenwald. He's shocked to find himself in the stronghold of a widespread "invisible" network, organized into cells much like Ivenwald, and populated by elite, politically ambitious fundamentalists; Sharlet is present when a leader tells a dozen men living there, "You guys are here to learn how to rule the world." As it turns out, the Family was established in 1935 to oppose FDR's New Deal and the spread of trade unions; since then, it has organized well-attended weekly prayer meetings for members of Congress and annual National Prayer Breakfasts attended by every president since Eisenhower. Further, the Family's international reach ("almost impossible to overstate") has "forged relationships between the U.S. government and some of the most oppressive regimes in the world." In the years since his first encounter, Sharlet has done extensive research, and his thorough account of the Family's life and times is a chilling expose.

A compellingly brilliant account of power in America and how it's shaped by religion. 'The Family' chronicles the ideas advanced by the elite Christian fundamentalist group of that name at the highest levels of government during the past half century. Through its White House and congressional connections, the Family has influenced the deployment of US power, especially in foreign policy during the Cold War and beyond. Led by the talented and Machiavellian Doug Coe, the group has operated sub-rosa in the corridors of power unhindered by democratic accountability.

Jeff Sharlet, a scholar-writer on the nexus of religion & politics, pursues three goals in this remarkable book: (1) To trace elite fundamentalism's lineage from Jonathan Edwards in the 18th c. through the 19th c. religious leader Charles Finney to the present; (2) To demonstrate the Family's behind the scenes role in deployment of American power; and (3) To challenge the purely secular American historical narrative by arguing the role of religion behind the facade of formal power.

Sharlet accomplishes the first objective with verve, the Finney chapter alone is worth the price of the book. Based on his research in the Family's archives, the second goal is achieved, especially on the group's involvement in blunting US de-Nazification policy in postwar Germany, facilitating Indonesia's Suharto's crushing of East Timor, and encouraging the Somalian dictator and other similar types. The author's third challenge is the most ambitious, but I believe he meets it.

In fact, if the critical sociologist C. Wright Mills who wrote the influential 'The Power Elite' (1956) were alive today, I expect he'd be among the first to welcome 'The Family' revelations on the secretive role of Coe's elite "followers of Christ in government, business, and the military" in the projection of American power.

A journalist's penetrating look at the untold story of christian fundamentalism's most elite organization, a self-described invisible network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful

They are the Family—fundamentalism's avant-garde, waging spiritual war in the halls of American power and around the globe. They consider themselves the new chosen—congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a "leadership led by God," to be won not by force but through "quiet diplomacy." Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside its walls.

The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power—not its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the far right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host Prayer Breakfasts; in private, they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, the Family's current leader, Doug Coe, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."


Sharlet's discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the cold war, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"

Part history, part investigative journalism, The Family is a compelling account of how fundamentalism came to be interwoven with American power, a story that stretches from the religious revivals that have shaken this nation from its beginning to fundamentalism's new frontiers. No other book about the right has exposed the Family or revealed its far-reaching impact on democracy, and no future reckoning of American fundamentalism will be able to ignore it.

Jeff Sharlet provides a fascinating account of how part of American Christianity has gone off on a dangerous tangent. It should worry everyone—maybe especially those of us who understand the Gospels to be a call to help the powerless, not prop up the powerful."
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

The Return of History and the End of Dreams (Vintage)
~ Robert Kagan (Author)


Paperback: 128 pages
Publisher: Vintage (May 5, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 030738988X
ISBN-13: 978-0307389886
“In this important, timely, and superbly-written book, Robert Kagan shows that the ‘end of history’ was an illusion. Today’s global challenges pose a stern test for the world’s democracies. This book is a wake-up call and should be read by policymakers, politicians, pundits and all who want a guide to the dangerous waters of 21st century geopolitics.”
—Senator John McCain

“Robert Kagan has once again written a provocative, thoughtful, and vitally important book that will reshape the way we think about the world, the special purpose that America must play in it, and the principles that must guide us. The Return of History and the End of Dreams is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of American foreign policy–and a reminder of why Robert Kagan is one of our nation’s most indispensable strategists.”
—Senator Joseph Lieberman

“Robert Kagan gives us a picture of the world today in all its complexity and its simplicity. This is a world where America is dominant but cannot dominate, where the struggle for power and prestige goes on as it always has. Power is at the service of ideas, but the key ideas are also ideas about power: democracy and autocracy. All this in a hundred pages, with style, energy and panache.”
—Robert Cooper, Director-General for External and Politico-Military Affairs at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union


Robert Kagan's "The Return of History And The End Of Dreams" is a sobering, trenchantly written analysis of contemporary international affairs. In it, Kagan takes aim at the largely unwarranted optimism widespread in western democracies following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many at that time thought the world had arrived at "the end of history," that the future would be confined to one inevitable shape (liberal democracy), that nations in the wake of a new geo-economics and globalization would now just peacefully engage in commerce, with nationalism and geo-political confrontation things of the past.

Kagan looks at the current scene without such blinkers, reminding his readers of the competitive nature of human beings and of the "stubborn traditions" now once again clearly resurgent in many nation states. Far from presenting a world in which the triumph of liberal democracy is inevitable, he draws attention to the resurgence of its increasingly powerful rivals, autocracy (in Russia and China principally) and to a lesser degree Islamist radicalism (in the Middle East). In short, Kagan reveals the allegedly post-modern world to be a place where power politics still obtains and war is not out of court. The post-Cold War world, then, should be understood as one containing a large measure of "backward-looking" geo-political competition, and that the great conflict now taking shape within it, if one has the courage to see, is the one between democracy and autocracy.

Following his demolition of the simple faith in a new international liberal order presumably automatic upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kagan goes on to call the western democracies to a new vigilance. As he puts it, "the future international order will be shaped by those who have the power and the collective will to shape it. The question is whether the world's democracies will again rise to that challenge."

During the 1990s, after the fall of communism, it appeared that democratic capitalism had triumphed with no serious ideological challengers on the horizon. It was famously designated by Francis Fukuyama as "the end of history." Enlightenment had reached its final stage, there was no longer any beyond toward which progress marched. Most of the pundit class believed that China and Russia were well on their way to becoming liberal democracies. The theory was that once their respective middle classes reached a certain level of wealth they would be demanding the legal and political rights that are required of constitutional liberalism.

Robert Kagan does not believe this will happen. Autocracies such as China and Russia will not make the transition to liberal democracy on their own, nor will they change if they are safely embedded in the international liberal order. Kagan argues that the Chinese and the Russians do not view democracy as competitive elections, rather elections are something that asserts the popular will, which becomes the will of the ruling class. The ruling classes are not so much concerned with human rights as they are with satisfying public needs. In both countries a relatively small ruling class controls all the levers of power. Even though they line their own pockets, they have served their populations rather well, compared to the kleptocrats of smaller autocracies. The majorities of their populations actually seem content with this "style" of democracy.

Fareed Zakaria has argued in The Post-American World that autocracies do not hold beliefs other than becoming part of the global economy. They are simply pragmatists who will eventually become stakeholders in the system. Kagan begs to differ: He writes that autocrats believe in autocracy and will continue to reject the demands of meddlesome Western governments and NGOs. The higher cause they believe in is that they are providing economic success for their people and by extension getting international respect.

Autocracies seek to make the world safe for other autocracies as well. Their so-called respect for other nations' sovereignty and policy of noninterference sits well with lesser dictatorships such as Myanmar and North Korea. Autocrats prefer to do business with each other. After the successes of democracy in the 1990s, Russia and China would like to roll back those advances by promoting thier own successes. Kagan thinks that only dreamers would believe that China and Russia could become part of the liberal international order.

Interestingly enough, one of the most provocative and consequential foreign policy statements made by John McCain was in Kagan's neoconservative mold. McCain proposed that international organizations should only allow democracies as its members, as in a league of democracies, setting themselves against such countries as China and Russia. This would be the end of dreams and possibly the beginning of a nightmare. Although Kagan's point is well argued, I am more inclined the agree with Zakaria in that greater efforts should be made to make these important players part of the system rather than enemies of the system. The ideology of autocracy is inherently weak because power is too concentrated. Better to weaken it from within.

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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

The Global Resurgence of Religion and the Transformation of International Relations: The Struggle for the Soul of the Twenty-First Century (Culture and Religion in International Relations)
~ Scott M. Thomas (Author)


Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (January 13, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1403961573
ISBN-13: 978-1403961570


The main rationale for this book is that there are many people who still do not believe a book like this one needs to be written. This book is about the global resurgence of culture and religion in international relations, and how these social changes are transforming our understanding of IR theory, and some of the key policy-related issue areas in world politics. It is evident in the on-going debates over the 'root causes' of the tragic events of 11 September that there are many scholars, journalists, and members of the public, who still believe culture and religion can be explained away by appeals to more 'basic' economic, social, or political forces in society. Therefore, this book presents an argument for taking culture - and, particularly, religion - as social forces that are important for understanding world politics in the post-Westphalian era.

The scope of this book is broader than religious extremism or fundamentalism because of the importance of the second aspect of the global resurgence of religion: it is occurring not only in countries with different cultures and religions, but also in countries with different levels of economic development. If this is the case, then the global resurgence of religion can not be explained away as a reactionary protest against modernization, nor as a feature of world poverty caused by globalization. Instead, it should be interpreted as a part of a cultural, more wide-ranging, crisis of modernity in both the Western industrialized countries and in the developing world.

"The Global Resurgence of Religion and the Transformation of International Relations" not only counts the global resurgence of faith to be authentic but also counts it as integral to public life. Instead of buying into a whole-sale rejection of faith, this book suggests that we need to rethink religion on the basis of the empirical evidence presented to us in globalization. This question actually challenges a great deal of liberal theories of religion that would have us believe the faith is something that stops-up the political process rather than promotes it. I think that Thomas's insight into how religion has offered transnational identities to those marginalized peoples of the world is important and begs for more attention. In response to the first review given of this book I would also add that 'faith identities' are far from static, but are living traditions in which people participate and transform. It is not as though faith only transforms politics but politics has also transformed faith--they inform each other. This view would suggest that the influence of faith in global politics might open up new areas of conversation and promote better relationships, relationships that are built on respect for each other's faith/political situation. I highly doubt that this is an unpromising investigation!
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

Am currrently reading "Psychoanalysis And The Challenge of Islam". The book takes of from Freud's "Moses and Monotheism" and is fascinating so far.

LINK

Psychoanalysis and the Challenge of Islam

Fethi Benslama
Translated by Robert Bononno



Unveils the psychoanalytic undercurrents of contemporary Islam.

Fethi Benslama is a psychoanalyst who, although a secular thinker, identifies himself as a person of Muslim culture who rejects ready-made explanations for Islamic fundamentalism. In that spirit, Benslama demythifies both Islam and Western ideas of the religion by addressing the psychoanalytic root causes of the Muslim world’s clash with modernity and subsequent turn to fundamentalism.

Tracing this ideological strain to its origins, Benslama shows that contemporary Islam consists of a fairly recent hybridization of Arab nationalism, theocracy, and an attempt (both naïve and deadly) to ground science in faith. Combining textual analysis and Lacanian and Freudian psychoanalysis, he examines Islam’s foundation, providing fresh readings of the book of Genesis, the Koran, The Arabian Nights, and the work of medieval Islamic philosophers.

Refreshingly, Benslama writes without ideological bias and undoes the simplistic, Western view of Islam while refusing to romanticize terrorism or Muslim extremism. This is a penetrating work that reveals an alternate history of the Islamic religion and opens new possibilities for its future development.

Fethi Benslama teaches at the University of Paris VII and is the editor of the psychoanalytic journal Intersignes.

272 pages | 2 b&w photos | 6 x 9 | 2009


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

1. The Torment of Origin

2. The Repudiation of Origin

3. Destinies of the Other Woman

4. Within Himself

Epilogue

Notes
Index
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present
Publisher: Princeton University Press | ISBN: 0691135894 | edition 2009 |

The first complete history of Central Eurasia from ancient times to the present day, Empires of the Silk Road represents a fundamental rethinking of the origins, history, and significance of this major world region. Christopher Beckwith describes the rise and fall of the great Central Eurasian empires, including those of the Scythians, Attila the Hun, the Turks and Tibetans, and Genghis Khan and the Mongols. In addition, he explains why the heartland of Central Eurasia led the world economically, scientifically, and artistically for many centuries despite invasions by Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Chinese, and others. In retelling the story of the Old World from the perspective of Central Eurasia, Beckwith provides a new understanding of the internal and external dynamics of the Central Eurasian states and shows how their people repeatedly revolutionized Eurasian civilization.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

Immortal: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces
Publisher: Georgetown University Press | ISBN: 1589012585 | edition 2009 | 380 pages |

"Immortal" is the only single-volume English-language survey of Iran's military history. CIA analyst Steven R. Ward shows that Iran's soldiers, from the famed Immortals of ancient Persia to today's Revolutionary Guard, have demonstrated through the centuries that they should not be underestimated. This history also provides background on the nationalist, tribal, and religious heritages of the country to help readers better understand Iran and its security outlook."Immortal" begins with the founding of ancient Persia's empire under Cyrus the Great and continues through the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) and up to the present.
Drawing on a wide range of sources including declassified documents, the author gives primary focus to the modern era to relate the build-up of the military under the last Shah, its collapse during the Islamic revolution, its fortunes in the Iran-Iraq War, and its rise from the ashes to help Iran become once again a major regional military power. He shows that, despite command and supply problems, Iranian soldiers demonstrate high levels of bravery and perseverance and have enjoyed surprising tactical successes even when victory has been elusive. These qualities and the Iranians' ability to impose high costs on their enemies by exploiting Iran's imposing geography bear careful consideration today by potential opponents.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by Rampy »

I have read threee books recently would recommend them

1) Beyond Khyber Pass - Excellent book on British east india companies 1st Afghan war and loss. It details about Abdali and Dost Mohammed, with detail analysis of what went wrong. After reading it seemed beyond conincedence that who ever invaded afghan perished within years
e.g. Kauravas (Gandhar), Alexander, East India Company, Russians.

2) 1967 and Sand Storm - Based on 6 day arab war. Same story written from two completely different angles
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »


Beyond the Khyber Pass: The Road to British Disaster in the First Afghan War
~ John H. Waller (Author)



Hardcover: 329 pages
Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (May 5, 1990)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0394569342
ISBN-13: 978-0394569345
A nice little history of the First Afghan War of 1839-1842. As the British East India Company started to worry about Russian incursions into Central Asia, the British became involved in the politics of Sind, the Punjab, and Afghanistan. Thus started the Great Game between Russian and British interests in Central Asia. The First Afghan War was the result of this competition. The British decided to foist a deposed Afgan Shah onto the country and depose Shah Mohammed Dost. The first third of the book details the lead up to the war and the politics. The second third details the British occupation of Afghanistan and last third detail the death of the Kabul occupation army as it retreats through the Khyber. Only one man returned from this occupation army.
This is a good read, and something to remember with our current situation in Afghanistan. The British were trying to install a pro-British government in Kabul during this war. It is a wonder how history repeats itself.

Rich in adventure, intrigue and treachery, this is the story of the British failure in Afghanistan in the 1840s, as England competed with czarist Russia for strategic advantage in Central Asia. Waller relates how the womanizing ways of garrison troops in Kaul (amid a xenophobic, deeply religious society where such behavior was punishable by death) was the "last straw" that caused the tribal chiefs to abandon their bloody feuds and declare a holy war against the infidel invader. The war found the vaunted British square formation, cavalry and artillery virtually useless in the high mountain passes where most of the fighting took place. The great set piece of the book is the awesome description of the near destruction of the 4500-man British Kabul garrison and its 12,000 camp followers as they attempted to fight their way to Peshewar. This first-rate history by the author of Gordon of Khartoum captures the savage grandeur of the First Afghan War. Photos not seen by PW.


From Library Journal
The Khyber Pass, Kabul, "Bokhara" Burns--these are storied names and places in what Rudyard Kipling dubbed "the great game." The struggle for control of the gateway to the heart of Asia preoccupied both Russia and Britian in the 19th century, but the massive tragedy at Kabul (Britain's single greatest setback in Victoria's reign), was a reminder that there were other players in the game, too. Waller provides a splendid re-creation of the First Afghan War, told with verve and flair; he knows the terrain (and the relevant sources) at first hand. Exciting, gripping reading, this is also a solid addition to the literature on the British in India and Afghanistan. For general readers as well as specialists.
- James Casada, Winthrop Coll., Rock Hill, S.C.

http://pajamasmedia.com/richardfernande ... yber-pass/
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

From Telegraph, Kolkota....

REASONS BEHIND THE RETURN OF THE CARAVAN OF TERROR

Better prepared
Decoding the New Taliban: Insights from the Afghan Field
Edited by Antonio Giustozzi, Foundation, Rs 795


The editor of this book does not mince words. The book, in fact, is not only an acknowledgement of the growing strength of the neo-Taliban, but also a polite admission of the West’s failure at grasping the intricacies of the Afghan problem. Antonio Giustozzi tries to set right some of the misconceptions by drawing on the vast experiences, mostly first-hand, of specialists who have, because of their professional or academic interests, either travelled extensively in Afghanistan or researched particular issues. The contributors to this volume are well-known journalists, academics, social workers and members of the think-tank who remain involved with the ever-changing social and political realities in Afghanistan and provide the most contemporary insight possible into specific regions or issues.

Giustozzi’s overriding concern is to unearth the command-and-control structure of the neo-Taliban, as they have evolved since the Taliban, in their previous incarnation, was pushed out of power by the West-backed operation in Afghanistan post-9/11. The picture is diverse for each of the regions under investigation. The specific reasons for the return are also different, although there are significant overlaps. An indifferent government, the corruption among the Afghan police and State officials, the growing distance between the administration and the populace and wrong war tactics of the Nato forces seem to have hastened, and even encouraged, the Taliban’s comeback. But to blame bad governance entirely for the turn of events would be to misjudge a very complex situation. Taliban efforts to regroup were, in many instances, given a fillip by tribal infighting (Alokozai versus Ishaqzai in Helmand) or by a more unholy concern to secure the drug traffic across Afghanistan’s borders. While discussing Taliban networks in Uruzgan, Martine van Bijlert, in fact, reiterates an earlier observation on the Taliban movement by comparing it to a “caravan” to which different people attached themselves for various reasons.

Whatever the reason for the attachment, neo-Taliban groupings have grown in strength over the past few years. In their assessments of the past and recent Taliban organizations in Kabul, Andar, Uruzgan, Herat, Farah, Baghdis, Ghor, Helmand and in north Afghanistan, the contributors have shown how from small, unwelcome fighting units, the Taliban have come to establish parallel governments and courts in many of the districts. The Taliban, of course, have not met with equal success in all the provinces. In a number of provinces, they remain disorganized or confused units of fighters under self-aggrandizing commanders or unruly men uncontrolled by the central leadership. But in many, they are already a coherent unit with an established hierarchy and command structure, and this is what Giustozzi tries to establish by papering over what he believes to be minor aberrations to this conclusion.

In his study of the insurgency in Helmand, Tom Coghlan delineates the basic structure of the command. The basic military formation, he says, is the mahaz or front. It would typically consist of around 20 fighters under a single charismatic leader. It would “arrive” in the Taliban as a formed band with fighters connected to each other (andiwals or comrades) through blood ties, or tribal, village, locality or madrasa links. The commander is still not a full mahaz commander and would require some more experience in combat to be acknowledged by the leadership (the Quetta shura or the Taliban Leadership Council) to qualify for independent charge. Till that happens, he is only sub-commander. The Taliban claim there are as many as 25 mahazes in a single district.

What Giustozzi tries to put a finger on is the development of the hierarchy with a definite command. Strict control, apparently, is maintained by the central leadership over commanders, who are transferred regularly and rested, along with the fighters, at certain intervals. The command structure has a lot to do with the financial control maintained by the leadership. Commanders, as Gretchen Peters points out in her study of the importance of the drug trade in financing the insurgency, are required to give to the leaders a steady amount through their collection of drug money via taxation at several junctures. The money comes back from the high command in the form of cash or weapons or other assistance.

Giustozzi does not seem to completely agree with this assessment of the importance of the drug money in retaining the command structure or estimates of how much it amounts to. And that leaves the readers with some discomfort. Contributors repeatedly point to the fact that the organization of the Taliban are “far from unified”, and at times even chaotic. Yet Giustozzi seems to insist that the Taliban have crossed a certain threshold in the development of the command structure, with definite ideas about the use of resources. They may have. But this growth is definitely not uniform or consistent. Moreover, without a more comprehensive explanation of how the leadership executes its command (they seem to be putting heads together only in planning major offensives) and how it reins in its diverse and diffuse force down the line, the fog will remain about the structural organization of the Taliban, who give remarkable freedom to their men to seek personal revenge and do anything possible to keep the State and society in a perpetual limbo.

The book otherwise provides some remarkable insights into how the neo-Taliban, a more radicalized breed than their progeny, are adapting to the changed circumstances of battle. Earlier reservations about pictures, television and the media have been thrown to the winds to promote the global image of the Taliban as an organization that transcends the limits of tribal and national linkages. The Taliban are also fast changing their harsh ways to co-opt the public in their drive for an Islamic Emirate, especially those who believe that the Taliban are a “castle of butter”, which will melt as soon as the harsh responsibility of governance falls on them.

CHIROSREE BASU
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by Bharath.Subramanyam »

Lot of unpublished works of Dharampal which he has collected from British Archival material on India from London is now available in

http://samanvaya.com/dharampal/

Nearly 20 volumes all in PDF files giving exhaustive material on
i. how Britishers wanted to loot and plunder India.
ii. details of EIC , torture,
iii. correspondence between various EIC administrators, British ministers, Prime ministers etc
iv. Observations about India from various foriegn visitors
Paul
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by Paul »

1) Beyond Khyber Pass - Excellent book on British east india companies 1st Afghan war and loss. It details about Abdali and Dost Mohammed, with detail analysis of what went wrong. After reading it seemed beyond conincedence that who ever invaded afghan perished within years
e.g. Kauravas (Gandhar), Alexander, East India Company, Russians.
It is manufactured history to say Afghans have never been successfully invaded. The Mauryas, Afshars, Mughals etc. all made these regions provinces of their empires. The Brits retained this region as a buffer but within their zone of influence to avoid a conflict with czarist russia.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

B. A. Roberson, "Shaping the Current Islamic Reformation (Cass Series--History and Society in the Islamic World.)"
Publisher: Routledge
| 2003 | ISBN 0714682802 | 277 pages |

This book goes beyond the media presentation of the impact of Islam in the Middle East to consider the reality that lies behind it. The author considers the West's understanding of of the Islamic revival, the development of Islamic politics and the attempts of some Islamic intellectuals to modernize Islamic society. A feature of much of the recent writing has been a focus on the violent aspects of the Islamic phenomenon. This book presents the opportunity to look beyond these surface issues to the more fundamental and conceptual aspects of the Islamic revival. At the same time, it informs us more realistically about our current world and Islam's role within it.
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

The Global Gamble: Washington's Faustian Bid for World Dominance
280 pages Verso (August 1999) 1859842712


In The Global Gamble, Peter Gowan argues that, since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, the US government has been pursuing an attempt to construct a global empire--a unipolar world in which Washington can control and shape the pattern of economic and political change in all regions of the globe. Only by understanding this ambition can we grasp the dynamics of international politics and economics in the contemporary world. Gowan explores the origins and distinctive forms of Washington's imperial project, from the collapse of the Soviet bloc through to the Gulf War of 1991, developments in the European Union, the enlargement of NATO and East Asian financial collapse. He also explores the efforts of various neo-liberal intellectuals to legitimate the American project in terms of liberalism. He concludes that the US Faustian project is almost certainly doomed to failure and unless plans are made now for such an eventuality, the world could face grave and possibly catastrophic breakdowns early in the next century.
ramana
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

Columbia Uty Press

Global Salafism

This is the new 'ism' to watch for. The old 'Islamism' is passe.
svinayak
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by svinayak »

The real secrets are here


The Re-Emergence of Global Capital (Hardcover)
~ Gary Burn (Author)
Gary Burn examines how in 1950s London, City bankers invented a new form of money and escaped offshore, beyond the jurisdiction of monetary authority. This most momentous financial innovation since the bank note, paved the way for globalization. It was a first shot in the neo-liberal counter-revolution against the Keynesian welfare state. This is the story of the Eurodollar and the re-emergence of global capital. It tells how the City discarded sterling and reclaimed its historic role as the world's foremost financial centre.

This book explores how in 1950s London, City bankers set up an unregulated international financial market unde the nose of the British Government that would undermine Keynesian settlement and herald the rise of global finance.
rohitvats
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by rohitvats »

Paging Shiv:

When can we expect the review of the book by Sajjad Haider? Also, is it available in Bangalore?

Thanx.
ramana
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by ramana »

To understand the madness of Socialist economies in 20th century read

The Commanding Heights: Daniel Yergin & Joseph Stanislaw.
D A N I E L Y E R G I N i s t h e author of The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and
Power and Shattered Peace and a coauthor of Energy Future and Russia 2010. H e is
chairman of Cambridge E n e r g y Research Associates.
J O S E P H S T A N I S L A W is the president of Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
ramana
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

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Michael H. Hart "Understanding Human History: An Analysis Including the Effects of Geography and Differential Evolution"
Washington Summit Publishers | English | 2007-07-15 | ISBN: 1593680260 | 496 pages
Understanding Human History is a history of humanity, beginning about 100,000 years ago and going through the 20th century. It includes discussions of developments in every major area of the world. Unlike other books on world history, it explicitly discusses racial differences in intelligence, and explains how, why, and when they arose. The book also discusses the many consequences that those differences have had on human events, starting in prehistoric times and continuing to the present. The book includes an abundance of data and tables, together with sixteen maps, three tables, an extensive bibliography, and a thorough index.
Anujan
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Re: Book Review Folder - 2008/2009

Post by Anujan »

Book review for Superfreakonomics.

So I read Superfreakomics because it is the successor to freakonomics--by the same authors Levitt and Dubner (which I liked -- the circumstances which surrounded my reading it is Nukkad worthy, but that's for later). The books have identical style -- bringing principles of economics to perform deductions on every day phenomena to arrive at startling conclusions, followed by a rational explanation of the conclusions. Don't expect to be deeply educated, it is a good light read during a plane or a vacation.

For example -- The book starts off by examining prostitution (a bit too long for my tastes even though I am far from being a prude). Turns out (adjusted for inflation) annual wages for prostitutes have fallen from $80,000 from a century ago to about $16,000 now. The reason ? Lack of demand. Not for sex, that's still robust, but for prostitutes. Also the lack of demand for certain acts not available at home then, but available at home now. You can thank women's liberation and casual sex for the lack in demand for prostitutes.

So an anecdote about a researcher who teaches capuchin monkeys about money, giving them coins and letting them exchange it for food and treats. The aim is to see if basic laws of economic behavior are uniquely human. As you might guess, it is not. Monkeys respond to pricing and risk (sometimes irrationally) just like humans. But more humorously...
Then out of the corner of his eye, Chen saw something remarkable. One monkey rather than handing his coin over to the humans for a grape or a slice of apple, instead approached a second monkey and gave it to her...had he just witnessed an unprompted act of monkey altruism ? After a few seconds of grooming -- bam ! -- the two capuchins were having sex. :lol:


My greatest criticism is that the sense of novelty has worn off (a great part of the appeal of the original book was undoubtedly it's novelty). The lack of novelty is not offset by a more rigorous approach to explanation, but hey this is not an economics textbook.

The most controversial part of the book would be about global warming. Not that the authors doubt it, in fact they believe it. What is interesting is the solutions they recommend (or atleast the type they favor). I won't spoil it for you, go read the book.

Three stars out of five. Four out of five if you are looking to relax or destress or have not read "Freakonomics".
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