Review

If it weren't for the generous injection of black humour, this book would feel almost unbearable. There's no doubting it's a great read, full of revelatory investigation into a huge array of issues, but it's enough to bring you out in a sweat every time you pick it up, with its extensive evidence on how every corner of corporate life is riddled with systemic abuse, and every self-declaring bastion of democracy is hiding some big secrets.

Few of the bigger stories are new in…

War and Peace addresses the prime question of the moment, something which has been shaping itself threateningly into a mushroom cloud over South Asia during the past few months (or should we say decades - see the interview with Anand Patwardhan on p22-23 of this issue).

Patwardhan's three hour long film is epic in its scale through its rich collage of small voices from four different countries -- India, Pakistan, US and Japan. Despite fears to the contrary, the film turned…

Could it be that cities get the literary detectives they deserve? What does Ian Rankin's Rebus tell us about contemporary Edinburgh, or even Colin Dexter's Morse about Oxford's dreaming spires?

Well, it's time to add a new name and metropolis to the pantheon, and this guy is distinctive in that he manages to occupy an unlikely middle-ground when it comes to attitude and inclination.

Jean-Claude Izzo's complex creation, the Marseille-dwelling Inspector Montale, is a bon viveur…

Perhaps if I had known who half the (predominantly) men in this book were before I read it, Marc Estrin's novel could have been quite irritating. Thankfully my ignorance of famous 20th Century male thinkers, scientists, inventors and so on, probably saved me!

In fact, I rather liked this book. Its main character is one Gregor Samsa - half-man, half-cockroach. Samsa is an escapee from a Kafka novel (Metamorphosis) and this is a tale which reflects on some of the last century'…

This is not normally something I would purchase out of choice, as I had never heard of the artists, but from the first play there is something intriguing about Dreams and Secrets. It becomes clear that this is not something that you can dip into and come back and listen to; it really needs to be listened to as a whole.

Much like a dream there are lots of different levels to it. And much like a secret you're never quite sure where it started or where it's going! Each track…

Palestine, Palestine is an unusual creature, a film about this beautiful and terrible land which shows something of everyday life in the West Bank.

It is not a documentary as such, although it deals with real people and their day-to-day existence. It has more life and lyricism than that. But it is also grounded in reality and makes inescapable the way that the Israeli presence is not just a matter of the brutal incursions which hit the Western news but a daily challenge to the…

This powerful play received its first British production at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester last year. It tells, through the experiences of a small group of characters, of the pivotal events in the liberation struggle of an unnamed African state.

The beginnings of armed struggle are met by the British authorities not with dialogue but violent oppression, including the arrest of moderate leaders. These tensions are played out through the characters of Tshembe Matoseh, an…

The name Arthur Wragg will no doubt be familiar to some of PN's more senior readers. He joined the Peace Pledge Union in 1935, and contributed regularly to Peace News in the late 1930s. Later, he would design posters for the PPU, and his pacifism and social radicalism would inform much of his work during a career which spanned over five decades.

It is difficult now to fully appreciate the impact that Wragg's drawings would have had on contemporary audiences. Yet…

A familiar subject by now for this slim new volume in the sharp, intelligent publisher's personal and polemical strand FOCI (Focus on Contemporary Issues) it maybe, but Open University social scientist Tim Jordan's exploration of alternative ways of being, interacting, protesting and resisting is heartfelt and wide-ranging.

Employing a global reach, he considers the actions of groups as diversely motivated as eco-activists, squatters, anti-vivisectionists, neo-fascists and anti-…

In his novel Slowness, Czech writer Milan Kundera makes the astute remark that we slow down to remember and speed up to forget. If this is true then, according to Norwegian Social Anthropologist Eriksen, we might be in danger of becoming an amnesiac species sooner rather than later, due to our fixation with acceleration.

His thesis here is simply and lucidly put: the exponential growth in “time-saving” communication technologies is leading paradoxically to less time being…

Diana Francis' book appears at a time when it seems almost impossible to stop the war-machine. In the face of this reality, her book gives us some hope that people determined to achieve lasting peace can make a difference.

It is fascinating and instructive to see how she handles both uncertainties and certainties and how she extends the scope of conflict transformation by introducing nonviolence not only as a means but also as a philosophy and a way of life.

She…

This 348-page anthology contains the most significant documents of the last 30 years of MOC - the Spanish movement for conscientious objection. The story begins with the pioneer conscientious objector, Pepe Beunza, declaring his refusal to join the military back in 1971 - still in the days of General Franco's dictatorship. It comes right up to the date with MOCs response to the end of conscription in 2000 and a chronology that goes right up to 2002. The texts are mainly short and peppered…

Peter Brocks copious writings on the history of pacifism are well known. However, this book marks a slight departure from his previous output in that its subject is Brock himself, and the six months he spent in British jails as a conscientious objector during World War II.

At the time of his imprisonment Brock was a diffident young pacifist in his early twenties, educated first at an English Public School, and then at Oxford University. His mother was a generals daughter, and his…

War's Offensive on Women catalogues the failure of the international humanitarian community to address the needs - and rights - of women in war, and provides that community with concrete recommendations for respecting women's human rights in war.

Mertus makes a useful addition to the debate on gender-sensitive approaches to both the protection of refugees and internally displaced persons, and the administration of humanitarian and development assistance.

Identifying…

Ever wondered what's the best way to practically disarm the military? Well, this helpful little book is full of tips on how to cut, crush, burn, melt and bend weapons to the point where they no longer present a menace to society.

There are sections containing practical information and diagrams with details of what equipment and personnel are required, plus helpful hints on where to cut or bend. However, the section on deep-sea dumping is probably best avoided! As the book says, “The…