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Definitely worthwhile
First off, there is no anti-Israeli propaganda in this book.Instead, it does an incredible job of detailing the complixities of the situation. One of these is that many of the Palestinian militants that the author interviews do not hate Jews and want them expelled from the land; they want an end to the Israeli occupation. In a conflict, it is important to know both sides; by profiling the lives of young Palestinian militants, this book gives insights into aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict rarely seen in mass media, withoutcondemning either side. My only complaint is that the translation is slightly strained at times, but I highly recommend this book.

Could have been much better
Well, let's start with what is wrong with this book.First of all, it begins with a false assumption, namely that Israel's problem is Greed.With a capital G.Yes, that must be it.After all, the Israelis (well, a few of them, anyway) want a vast Empire of over 10,000 square miles! The author fails to detect the fact that there are over 5 million Jews in Israel.And even more in the Jewish Diaspora.That means that Israel can indeed be both a democracy and have a solid Jewish majority, just as Hungary can have a Hungarian majority and the Netherlands can have a Dutch majority.In short, she fails to notice that Israelis are trying for maybe a quarter or less of what they would have if the world were color-blind, let people buy land, and acknowledged property rights.And she fails to notice that the Arabs, with millions of square miles, are just a teensy bit on the greedy side in this respect.

Next, she seems to imply that the Arabs who are fighting Israel have a positive cause, maybe freedom and human rights.But if they truly had that as a cause, this war would have been over long ago.The cause has been, for a century or so, anything but freedom and human rights for Arabs.It has been the denial of freedom and human rights to the Jews.

Bucaille does say that both sides want victory.But she does not exactly explain what a victory might mean.Suppose the Israelis did win?Suppose they got the Big Apology from the Arabs for all the slanders, lies, and aggression?Suppose they got the Arabs to give up all the incitement, aggression and slander.Suppose they got the Arabs to live in peace with them.That's the Big Victory. Would that be so awful for the Arabs?

On the other hand, what if the Arabs get the Big Victory?Suppose they do get all the Jews in Asia to leave for other continents.There will be plenty of Jewish survivors.They'll probably put their lives back together eventually.Meanwhile, the Arabs will be left with nothing to show for their big crime.Israel is small.It has few natural resources.The only thing of much value is its people.But all the Jews will leave, and many Arabs may do so as well.Worse, the Arabs may then try more military adventures.And just as Germany eventually lost World War Two, the Arabs will lose if they keep fighting their neighbors.Would this be good for anyone?

The book does have some interesting things to say about Gaza.It's just that it is permeated with anti-Israeli propaganda.

Well, what does the author conclude?She says that real reconciliation between the Arabs and Jews is necessary, unavoidable, and the only rational outcome.That is an exaggeration, of course.But only a mild one.I would say real reconciliation is desirable, likely, and reasonable.But the problem is that Bucaille does not take her own advice.She never dreams of a solution in which there is actually Truth and Reconciliation.Or equal Rights for Jews and Arabs to buy land throughout the Middle East (which might mean that Jews could finally buy land just over the border in Petra and Arabs could buy land in Beersheba).She does not talk about Jews being allowed to live in Arab lands.She does not talk about Jews living in Arab nations but voting in Israel or Arabs living in Israel but voting in Arab nations.She does not talk of having loyalty be a requirement for residents who wish to be citizens with voting rights.

I do not recommend this book. ... Read more

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Since 1988, New York-based architect Michael Bell has created a series of projects and essays that explore architectural and urban design for California, New York, and Texas -- the three most populous regions of the United States and, coincidentally, the three states in which he has lived and practiced. The first monograph on the architect, Michael Bell: Space Replaces Us; Essays and Projects on the City, includes both design work and writings.

Bell has organized and designed two important installations, both of which include his work: "Endspace: Michael Bell and Hans Hofmann," at the University Art Museum, Berkeley, and "16 Houses: Owning a House in the City," at DiverseWorks in Houston, which featured his seminal Glass House @ 2 Degrees. Other projects included are an urban renewal scheme for a huge site in Far Rockaway, New York, and a series of residential projects, including the Ghent House, a modernist glass house currently under construction in upstate New York. Complementing the design projects are three major essays: "Having Heard Mathematics: The Topologies of Boxing," "Eyes in the Heat: RSE," and "New York City." ... Read more

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This is an interdisciplinary analysis of the interaction between today's globalisation and Americanisation. Transnationalism involves a loosening of boundaries, a deterritorialisation of the nation-state, and higher degrees of interconnectedness among cultures and peoples across the globe. As people make transnational voyages and live lives of flexible citizenship in two or more cultures, they adhere to a new type of nationalism that creates an exclusionist discourse and builds the Other as conservative defenders of cruder territorial loyalties. This transnational solidarity -- a new communitarianism beyond the loyalties to any one place or ethnic group -- threatens the old order with its conceptions that assimilation and integration will remake the foreigner into a particular national citizen. The authors address the complex issues of globalisation, American mythology, Christian proselytising, modern slavery, conspiracy theory, apocalyptic terrorism, Vietnam stories, international feminism, changing gender roles, resurgent regionalism and the changing definitions of place. ... Read more

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This informative collection of essays by journalists, activists, and political theorists provides the historical, political, and intellectual context for understanding the events and the consequences of September 11 and America's "War on Terrorism." ... Read more

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A Tour de Force
This book is a compilation of short essays written by highly intelligent analysts who attempt to account for the root causes of terrorism and the lingering implications of the U.S. foreign policy. Contrary to the popular albeit naïve belief, terrorists do not target Western modernism. Instead it is the U.S. foreign policy which makes certain individuals inimically disposed towards the U.S. government. Driven principally by imperialistic motives, the U.S. foreign policy makers seek to defend their strategic and economic interests even at the expense of human lives. Furthermore, U.S. punishes certain regimes which are oppressive and belligerent while it simultaneously aids and protects other which are equally if not more corrupt. In order to protect its strategic and economic interests, U.S. supports Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt, countries known for their extensive records of human rights violations. Also it is unanimously recognized in this book that the chief motive of the U.S. interference in the Middle East is its effort to control the enormous oil resources of the region. Oil thus plays a crucial role in U.S. foreign policy. Oil is the main reason why the U.S. keeps protecting Saudi Arabia. Also oil is the principal reason U.S. aided the Mujahideen in Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion and not as is generally assumed to protect the people of Afghanistan. Soviet posed a serious threat to U.S. economic interests in the region. When it furthers the U.S. strategic and economic interests, cooperation with terrorists is morally justifiable. However, when other countries harbour terrorists they need to be severely punished. This is extremely hypocritical and cynical as the U.S. does not judge its own actions by the same standards it applies to others. Not many people know that U.S. government was charged with state terrorism against Nicaragua in 1986 by the International Court in the Hague. The International Court urged the U.S. to immediately put a stop to its terrorist activities in Nicaragua but U.S. did not comply. At this point Nicaragua still has not received any restitution from the U.S. government. Furthermore, U.S. is the only country in the world which has refused to acknowledge Palestinian rights, to prohibit nuclear test explosions, to ban the use of cluster bombs, to give increased aid to developing countries, to condemn apartheid in South Africa, to forbid the use of chemical and biological weapons, to take adequate measures against Nazi and Fascist activities, to study the underlying causes of terrorism, to vote for "a right to food", to accept a resolution stipulating that education, work, health and national development are fundamental human rights. In 1998, U.S. destroyed a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan which produced approximately 90 % of the most important medicines. According to U.S. the plant was secretly used to manufacture chemical warfare. However, no evidence was produced in support of this accusation and the leading world experts almost unanimously rejected this assertion. U.S. still has not paid any restitution to the owner of the plant let alone apologized for the abhorrent act. Had it been the other way around, Sudan would have been attacked within minutes. U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983 received much international condemnation but Reagan arrogantly dismissed the criticism. Indonesian invasion of East Timor was directly sanctioned by the U.S. government. U.S. also impeded all efforts of the U.N. to put a stop to the invasion. 200,000 people were killed as a result of the invasion. U.S. was one of the few countries in the world giving both diplomatic and military support to Indonesia. Following the invasion, U.S. officials referred to General Suharto as "our kind of guy". U.S. and its allies depleted a great amount of uranium in Iraq during the Gulf War resulting in a drastic increase in serious illnesses such as leukaemia, carcinoma, lung cancer etc. When it suits U.S. strategic and economic interests, then tacit collaboration with Saddam Hussein is legitimate and justifiable, even though the U.S. government was aware of his gruesome atrocities against the Kurds. When he no longer wants to be a puppet for the U.S. interests in the region, then he has to be removed. Unlike other books which purport to account for the origins of terrorism, this book explains what the real causes of terrorism are. Needless to say, understanding why terrorism emerges does by no means mean that it is justifiable. Trying to curb and obliterate terrorism without examining its root causes is like treating a patient and having a wrong diagnosis. As long as the U.S. government keeps viewing itself as the world's hegemony (exempt from all international laws and moral obligations) hatred for U.S. foreign policy will grow stronger. U.S. demands that other countries abide by international law and in case they do not comply, they might be severely punished. On the other hand, U.S. displays a flagrant disregard for all international laws. U.S. is infallible, omnipotent and acts with impunity. When criticized for his unjust and discriminatory foreign policy, George Bush replied: "I will never apologize for the United States of America. I do not care what the facts are". These are only some of the vital facts found in this extremely important book. I recommend this book especially to jingoists but also others who think that the U.S. government cares for the oppressed and the victimized.

The answer to "Why do they hate us?" is here
This book has left me utterly drained.I'm exhausted and all cried out, quite frankly.The book is comprised of some 30 essays from many sources each elucidating on the atrocities of 9/11 and comes a long way in explaining "why they hate us?"US Foreign policy has systematically been self-serving, and though it might often have resulted in greater freedom and greater wealth for those of us living in this fabulous country, this has come at a non-negligable cost.September 11 marks the crime against humanity in New York City, Washington, and in Pennsylvania, but it also marks a crime against humanity which occurred in 1973 in Chile where Pinochet, backed by US, killed thousands of civilians there and overthew a democratically elected leader in Santiago.Did you know that the Bush administration gave $20+ million to the Taliban in May of 2001 as thanks for their "war on drugs".Osama Bin Laden and the mujahideen were praised as freedom fighters by Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.This book brings to light a lot of topics which are quite hush-hush these days.Unfortunately, if we do not understand the past and try to remedy our failures (and every single one of us on this planet is partially to blame for what came to be on such a horrible day) we are doomed to repeat it.Quite frankly, I pray that the world never see such a dark day in its future.

America and American's are not the problem
This book is fantastic, because it gives the reader a thorough grounding on the background behind the September 11 attack on America. Although, the book is a critical examination of the facts, and does not often paint American foreign policy in a positive light, American's should not feel defensive about the book. American people are some of the warmest and nicest people you could ever hope to meet (apart from the few exceptions we find in every country) and America is a fantastic country. However, what soon became clear from reading this book, was that, some people and countries seem to have a major problem with American foreign policy, which often appears to them, to centre around America's own needs, at the total exclusion of the needs and rights of others (e.g. in the case of the pursuit of oil and gas supplies) Further, there often appears to be a double standard in many of America's foreign policies. The reader will learn that America is hated in some parts of the world, not because America stands for freedom, or loves freedom, but instead because of perceived injustices carried out in the single minded persuit of American interests overseas. The American author's of the essay's in this book have highlighting this point (and many others), clearly and thoroughly. I enjoyed reading the many essay's in the book, and I discovered many interesting and disturbing facts, that I did not previously know. This book gives us the knowledge to ask important question's, and that can only be a good thing in any democracy. ... Read more

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A gripping and inspiring book, Civic Passionsexamines innovative leadership in periods of crisis in American history. Starting from the late nineteenth century, when respected voices warned that America was on the brink of collapse, Cecelia Tichi explores the wisdom of practical visionaries who were confronted with a series of social, political, and financial upheavals that, in certain respects, seem eerily similar to modern times. The United States--then, as now--was riddled with political corruption, financial panics, social disruption, labor strife, and bourgeois inertia.

Drawing on a wealth of evocative personal accounts, biographies, and archival material, Tichi brings seven iconoclastic--and often overlooked--individuals from the Gilded Age back to life. We meet physician Alice Hamilton, theologian Walter Rauschenbusch, jurist Louis D. Brandeis, consumer advocate Florence Kelley, antilynching activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, economist John R. Commons, and child-welfare advocate Julia Lathrop. Bucking the status quo of the Gilded Age as well as middle-class complacency, these reformers tirelessly garnered popular support as they championed progressive solutions to seemingly intractable social problems.

Civic Passions is a provocative and powerfully written social history, a collection of minibiographies, and a user's manual on how a generation of social reformers can turn peril into progress with fresh, workable ideas. Together, these narratives of advocacy provide a stunning precedent of progressive action and show how citizen-activists can engage the problems of the age in imaginative ways. While offering useful models to encourage the nation in a newly progressive direction, Civic Passions reminds us that one determined individual can make a difference. ... Read more

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Charles Pierce Roland ranks as one of the most distinguished and respected historians of the Civil War and the American South. A former president of the Southern Historical Association, Roland is the author of nine books, including An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War, the definitive biography of Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston, and a history of the South since World War II.

History Teaches Us to Hope collects Roland's most important work--some previously unpublished--on secession and the Civil War, Civil War leadership, and the South in fact and myth, and also includes personal reflections by Roland about his own life and career. ... Read more

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In Running Towards Us, 31 contemporary authors offer literary responses to the end of apartheid, demonstrating what the creative imagination in South Africa has to offer at the turn of the 21st century. ... Read more

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Outstanding new writings from South African authors.
Running Towards Us presents new writings from South Africa from both established and new writers, revealing new subjects and concerns from writers who are now beyond the focus on apartheid. How does one define history and plan for the future? This turns to accepted masters of South African literature and new voices to consider changed themes and perceptions. ... Read more

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Here, for the first time, David St John has selected from essays and reviews written over the course of his career -- about many of the major figures of our time: W S Merwin, Philip Levine, Mark Strand, Charles Wright, Donald Hall, Marvin Bell, Donald Justice, Jorie Graham, and dozens of others -- and brought them together with six uncompromising and refreshingly candid interviews about the craft of poetry and the state of poetry today. ... Read more

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Culture.Politics.Thick, impenetrable tension.Post-1945 America.Robert Bresler broaches these interwoven themes in Us vs. Them:American Political and Cultural Conflict from WWII to Watergate.Offering a broad overview of the interrelationship of culture and politics in the second half of the twentieth century, Us vs Them is an exploration of the historical roots of Americans current cultural wars.

Bresler offers a seamless introduction to the intermingling of American politics and culture, from the rise of American consensus in the immediate postwar period to its inevitable decline in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The book also includes documents and readings that illustrate and buttress Breslers argument including political manifestos and excerpts from the works of major essayists such as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., Mary McCarthy, and Norman Podhoretz.Lending a flavor of contemporary debate, this documentary material allows an integrative approach to politics and culture. ... Read more

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The American Jewish Committee (AJC), founded by wealthy men of German-Jewish descent in 1906, has a long-term mission to protect the civil and religious rights of Jews in the U.S. and around the globe. The AJC has also been distinguished for its outstanding staff and superb library, for its importance as a research center, and for its efforts to bring about social change through public education. Marianne Sanua's volume offers a full-scale history of this important organization, which will shortly celebrate its centennial. ... Read more

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Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and October 12, 2002 in the United States and on Bali, the US seems to have made the most sweeping shift in its foreign policy since the beginning of the Cold War. It is once again committed to leading the world in a battle against a global enemy. The US relationship with Indonesia - the country with the world's largest Islamic population - could prove to be of decisive importance for the success of this global mission. Timo Kivimaki's analysis of the dynamics and background of US-Indonesian relationship is aimed at all those concerned with American foreign policy, Asian studies, peace studies, and conflict resolution and negotiation. Kivim ki sheds light on the question of how the American commitment to global leadership affects US-Indonesian relations. The paradox of the bargaining strength of the weak Indonesia vis-a-vis the global hegemon is studied by examining US-Indonesian negotiations from the end of World War II up to the end of the millennium. ... Read more

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"What is Asia to Us", now available in paperback, looks at the uneasy relationship of Russia and Soviet Central Asia. It examines both the significance of Asia to the Russian mind and the place that Asia has occupied in Russian geopolitical thinking over the last hundred years, showing that recent outbreaks of violence are only the latest manifestation of long-standing tension. Hauner surveys events from the conquest of Turkestan to the invasion of Afghanistan and beyond in order to reassess existing theories about Russia's aims in Asia. He also examines the views of Russians themselves and explores the place of Eurasia in Mikhail Gorbachev's vision of a "common European house". This book should be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and academics in the fields of Russian and Soviet history and politics, international relations and geography. ... Read more

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A Bridge Too Far
Mr. Ruoff, the editor of these essays, states that his goal is to demonstrate that the Romantics, in particular Wordsworth (it turns out in most of the essays) still influence "modern" poetry in ways in which even those who disavow their influence are unaware of.-Some of these essays are downright bad.You just can't reconcile the sublimity of Wordsworth with the current mush by quoting, over and over again, his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads that poetry should consist of the speech of the common man...Yes, but it still has to be poetry!...But let's not dwell on these (in my opinion) futile endeavors to reconcile Wordsworth with modern poetry...There are two excellent essays here: one by Louis Simpson, the other by Robert Pinsky. The Simpson essay draws the felicitous (and well-documented) connection between Wordsworth and Proust while Pinsky's is a masterful piece on how the Romantics shaped our view of the spiritual life of a modern city.Simpson simply states the obvious to anyone with poetic and spiritual sensibilities, that great literature is about transcendent experiences that, well, intimate immortality.Simpson explains how Proust's fascination with Ruskin brought him in contact with Wordsworth.And to Simpson belongs my favorite sentence in the entire book: "It is for want of contact with the infinity Proust speaks of that the theory of literature is, at the present time, in such a dreary state."...Good Show Louis!...Pinsky's essay is easily the best of the lot, seemingly effortlessly demonstrating, in fifteen short pages, by quoting at length from Blake, Wordsworth, Baudelaire, and Hart Crane how the Romantics have more or less, consciously or not, established in our minds what the modern city is, spiritually and physically.-This book gets four stars for these two essays and a couple bright spots in some of the others.Sadly, though, I think it mostly a failure.Modern literature is a far cry from the Romantics.I don't think they would even recognize it as literature.The bridge the book attempts to build is an admirable attempt.But collapses in its very inception. It is, indeed, a bridge too far. ... Read more

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After the unpredicted collapse of the Soviet Union, the global, regional and domestic changes raised theoretical and practical issues, particularly in regard to security and foreign relations. The effects on the US-Israeli "special relationship" are examined here. ... Read more

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This work explores how Soviet analysts interpret American domestic politics and social movements by examining their answers to such questions as: "Who rules America?" "How do these rulers stay in power?" and "How do the major classes interact in the American social and political arenas?"Mills demonstrates that, despite growing Soviet understanding of the American political system and their increasing interpretive emphasis on elites rather than classes, Soviet analysis continues to be constrained by an intricate "mindset" that resists modification. An intimate look at Soviet political thinking, this study also considers recent changes, and the prospects for the evolution of a more refined framework under perestroika. ... Read more

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During the Harlem Renaissance, several literary periodicals encouraged African American women to submit poetry, short stories, essays, or other literary contributions for publication. Opportunity magazine was one such periodical that made immeasurable contributions to the careers of many female African American writers. This anthology collects all of the short stories published in Opportunity by African American women during the magazine's 25 years of publication. It includes works by both well-known authors (Zora Neale Hurston, Marita Bonner) and more obscure writers. It also includes an introduction which contextualizes the short stories historically in light of the overall development of African American writing. ... Read more

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Farm women of the twentieth-century South have been portrayed as oppressed, worn out, and isolated. Lu Ann Jones tells quite a different story in Mama Learned Us to Work. Building upon evocative oral histories, she encourages us to understand these women as consumers, producers, and agents of economic and cultural change.

As consumers, farm women bargained with peddlers at their backdoors. A key business for many farm women was the "butter and egg trade"--small-scale dairying and raising chickens. Their earnings provided a crucial margin of economic safety for many families during the 1920s and 1930s and offered women some independence from their men folks. These innovative women showed that poultry production paid off and laid the foundation for the agribusiness poultry industry that emerged after World War II. Jones also examines the relationships between farm women and home demonstration agents and the effect of government-sponsored rural reform. She discusses the professional culture that developed among white agents as they reconciled new and old ideas about women's roles and shows that black agents, despite prejudice, linked their clients to valuable government resources and gave new meanings to traditions of self-help, mutual aid, and racial uplift. ... Read more

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More than eighty vivid photographs demonstrate how America's entry into the nuclear age has endangered Native American uranium mine workers who have unwittingly exposed themselves to extremely dangerous levels of radiation. 15,000 first printing. Tour. IP. ... Read more

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Environmental Justice
This book explains in great detail the injustices committed agains the Dineh (Navajo) people in the last century.The book explains the connection between Uranium mining and ill effects on the Dineh people.Itexplores issues like the health effects, environmental effects, and workerscompensation for uranium mining.It has firsthand accounts of victims ofradiation exposure.This book was very helpful for a paper I wrote for acollege course.I would reccommend this book for those interested.It iswell written and explains the uranium issue in a understandable way. ... Read more