Had they not become leaders in the field of exposing government spin doctoring and propaganda, you suspect that Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber would make pretty effective PR consultants themselves.
I recently spotted Weapons of Mass Deception riding high in the best-seller lists in a mainstream British bookstore. How many of those buying it were seduced by the snappy title and the Saddam/Bin Laden comic-strip on the cover? Those expecting the Michael Moore approach to US…
At times worryingly naïve this is a book that goes some way to readdress the myth of “transition” in Post Soviet Russia.
Packed with tables and charts there is no doubt that Mssrs Haynes and Hasan have done serious research, and it shows. They avoid many of the cliche's that appear in books about Russia: centuries of endurance, the mysterious Russian Soul etc, and for anyone new to that part of the world, the facts and figures of (Post)Soviet life and death will be truly horrific.…
The essays in this volume address the tension between two widely held principles. The first is that a nation's borders should be respected, the second is that human rights should be protected.
The tension obviously arises when it is thought that in order to uphold the latter, it is necessary to override the former. The individual contributions to this debate (all originally conference papers) approach this central issue in a number of ways, with different emphases and varying degrees…
As its title suggests, Norman Finkelstein's Myth and Reality explodes a series of myths about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Among the myths tackled are: that the dispossession of the Palestinians in 1948 was “born of war, not by design”; that the 1967 war was a “live or perish” battle for Israel's national existence; and that Israel's victory in the 1973 war forced Sadat to sue for peace with Israel (in fact the reverse is true). In each case Finkelstein's analysis, backed by prodigious…
As its subtitle suggests, this ain't exactly bedtime reading.
But if you've ever wanted a clear, concise guide to how exactly peace processes work, this is it. Who gets to be involved? What do they talk about, and how is that agenda set? How are these decisions translated into practice? And how are transparency and ethical process observed?
Illustrated by examples from Tajikistan to Guatemala via Burma and Mozambique, the book looks at the common themes of success and failure…
At first sight, this book looks exciting and compelling. The blurb focuses on its relevance to debates about warfare and world security post-S11. And the title, to my mind, conjures up images of nuclear tests, Agent Orange, dirty bombs and the spraying of dangerous fungicides over Colombian hillsides. Inside, however, one finds a lost opportunity - or perhaps a cynical attempt to grab a marketing opportunity by the judicious addition of current buzzwords to a historical study of fairly…
Both Wainwright and Monbiot are in search of a way out of the world's neo-liberal quagmire. Both are concerned with an expansion of democracy, yet their searching takes quite different directions. While Monbiot presents a blueprint for a different world order, Wainwright heads to Brazil, and through England, finding practical grassroots “experiments” that may give sustainable roots to a global movement for social justice.
Wainwright sets off with more than airline tickets and a bus…
It's not often you read a book which does just what it says on the cover, but in this excellent little book - based on his years of research and activism in the UK based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) - Gideon Burrows has succeeded in providing a very useful guide to “the arms trade for beginners”.
Masses of statistical information is threaded through chapters on the countries and corporations which control the arms trade; the impact of arms sales on conflicts, human rights and…
Tatamkhulu Afrika, 83 this year, had his first novel obliterated by the Blitz. Of Middle Eastern origin, he fought the Nazis in World War Two and apartheid in South Africa. In German prison camps he performed with Denholm Elliott. And in South Africa he is a renowned poet.
Now, finally, his prose is available in print. It's powerful stuff, based on his experiences as a PoW in North Africa and Occupied Europe. In content and style, though, the book is less a standard WWII…
The reality of US foreign policy has been dissected by a large range of analysts (Gabriel Kolko, Michael Klare, etc) but the grim realities of British foreign policy appear to have received comparatively little attention. Mark Curtis is one of the few to have subjected Britain's post-WWII role to proper critical scrutiny.
The basic thesis of Web of Deceit is that “Britain's basic priority - virtually its raison d'etre for several centuries - is to aid British companies in…
Steve Schofield is one of the foremost experts on demilitarisation and the conversion of military resources to civilian use. He is a kind of practical utopian, someone who has always used his specialist knowledge and rigorous analytical approach to inform his pursuit of a world without war.
In his latest book he takes a clear look at how the search for the twin goals of peace and prosperity - through the three pillars of federalism, international trade and comprehensive disarmament…
The value of this book, published through a radical history series, lies in the collection of essays, speeches, photographs and well known quotes of some of the protagonists and victims in Salvador Allende's socialist government which was overthrown by Pinochet's brutal dictatorship (as sponsored by the CIA). It also includes opinions and comments by well-known people who have expressed solidarity with the struggle against impunity.
As a Chilean who feels close to this history, it…
In 1985, at the height of the Iran-Iraq war, all-round American patriot Colonel Oliver North met with Iranian businessmen in a hotel room in Frankfurt: “...one of the things that we would like to do, okay, is we would like to become actively engaged in ending this war in such a way that it becomes very evident to everybody that the real problem in preventing peace in the region is Saddam Hussein, and we'll have to take care of that...“
With this introduction, images…
As war is becoming more and more of a reality, surrealism and madness characterise the pro-war lobby just as they continue to characterise the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. In the midst of heightened passion, political debates that have turned personal, not to forget the plagiarism by British officials, Milan Rai's Book War Plan Iraq: 10 Reasons Why We Shouldn't Launch Another War Against Iraq comes as a relief.
The book provides well-researched background information,…
The five chapters of this book were originally part of a longer book, And justice for all, published in1963 (the other five chapters can be found at http://www.oceanbooks.com.au ). The author, William Kunstler, who died in 1995, was a radical US defence lawyer whose clients included Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.
The reissue is in response to the current attack on civil liberties in the US in the wake of 11 September 2001, and…
