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Islam: A Short History
Karen Armstrong
Modern Library, 2000
A must read for every thinking westerner
+ A great way to introduce yourself to Islam
+ Good/Bad in "ALL," Religions PERIOD
+ Fascinating Book
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Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Chalmers Johnson
Owl Books (NY), 2001
A fascinating book.
+ Amazing and informative
+ The Best of Johnson's Trilogy!
+ American Empire Triology
+ Fascinating
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A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East
David Fromkin
Holt Paperbacks, 2001
Still Sorting Out the Ottoman Empire
+ The law of unintended consequences
+ Lessons Learned on Events from Past that Apply to Current Ops of US Foreign Policy
+ This brilliant book - an historical thriller through and through!
+ Fromkin's A Peace to End All Piece
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Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent
Mamoun Fandy
Palgrave Macmillan, 2001
Cutting-edge scholarship
+ Great. Accurate. Insightful.
+ Scholarly, watertight
+ as heard on Fresh Air (NPR) 9/27/01
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Others Unknown : The Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy
Stephen Jones, Peter Israel
PublicAffairs, 1998
Eye opener.
+ An Important Analysis
+ Good on the facts but needs to go deeper
+ The Government Given Way to "Power, Venality, and Display"
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Cartels of the Mind: Japan's Intellectual Closed Shop
Ivan P. Hall
W. W. Norton & Company, 1997
gaijin, longnosed, ignorant smiling devil!
+ Good for the power elite, but not good for the citizens/consumers
+ Humble Enough to Learn the Language?
+ Exposing Japan
+ Useful account of Japanese economy
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The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
Samuel P. Huntington
Simon & Schuster, 1998
Confirmed predictions
+ Engrossing analysis of world order
First published in 1996, this scholarly discussion of future international relations has been a classic from the beginning and will remain so for decades to come. From among the seven most important civilizations the author selected three, which may collide in conflict. Thus, in Moslem eyes ...
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The Battle for God
Karen Armstrong
Ballantine Books, 2001
Science's Dark Twin
+ A compelling and necessary read
+ Outstanding, Lucid, most helpful
I enjoyed this book even more than Armstrong's "History of God", if only because far more of the contents were unfamiliar: I would guess that few English-speakers know much about the evolution of Jewish and Islamic "fundamentalisms", or how Shi'ite political thought has changed over time. Once I ...
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Stupid White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!
Michael Moore
Harper, 2002
RIght - Right -Right
+ The Wrath of Moore
+ IT'S STILL THE ECONOMY, STUPID PART II
He was 100% right on everything. Time is the true judge and it show Michael 100% right about Bush. He picked his buddy to run government. How many have resigned, been indicted, be convicted? Remember FEMA and Katrina?
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The Developmental State (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)
Meredith Woo-Cumings
Cornell University Press, 1999
Excellent collection of developmental litarature
Grand theory tends to be disorderly. This book has re-examined the concept of the developmental state that has been rather messy, and successfully shown the dangers and usefulness of the concept in analysing/explaining the relationship between economic growth and political institution. One of ...
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9-11
Noam Chomsky
Open Media/Seven Stories Press, 2001
Important Context for 9/11 that's Hard to Find Elsewhere
This is a collection of talks and interviews so it lacks the political models and theories that Chomsky applies to U.S. politics and media that are found in his larger and more in depth works.
This book is probably best suited for the moderate dissident or progressive who has read only ...
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The Quiet American (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics)
Graham Greene
Penguin Classics, 1991
I was a reporter, I had no real opinions about anything
+ A Bird's Eye View of 1950's French Colonial Vietnam
+ The Quiet American
+ I Read it while in Vietnam! What are the chances?
+ Leaves you with a good bad taste
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Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
Gore Vidal
Nation Books, 2002
America's most astute political observer
+ Perpetual War+ Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace - Well Named
+ A fantastic read, highly recommended!
+ Bottom Line: '...a MUST READ for patriotic Americans...'
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Day Of Deceit: The Truth About FDR and Pearl Harbor
Robert Stinnett
Free Press, 2001
The Truth Hurts
+ AN AMERICAN TRADGEDY-FROM WITHIN(the day ole glory cried
+ A pretext for war; Pearl Harbor
Negative reactions to this book here reiterate the enormous capacity that Americans share for abject denial.
Human behavior is as simple and uncomplicated as it could be. People have left reviews here who have not read this book, so horrified are they that they may be forced to accept that this ...
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Secrets: The CIA's War at Home
Angus MacKenzie
University of California Press, 1999
The saddest part is why they did it
+ National Security government gone tragically astray
+ And "How!!!!!"
+ Primer on importance of the Bill of Rights
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