Book Description
The astonishing, uplifting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his humanitarian campaign to use education to combat terrorism in the TalibanÂ's backyard
Anyone who despairs of the individualÂ's power to change lives has to read the story of Greg Mortenson, a homeless mountaineer who, following a 1993 climb of PakistanÂ's treacherous K2, was inspired by a chance encounter with impoverished mountain villagers and promised to build them a school. Over the next decade he built fifty-five schools—especially for girls—that offer a balanced education in one of the most isolated and dangerous regions on earth. As it chronicles MortensonÂ's quest, which has brought him into conflict with both enraged Islamists and uncomprehending Americans, Three Cups of Tea combines adventure with a celebration of the humanitarian spirit.
Customer Reviews:
Couldn't put it down.......2007-10-18
This amazing story will capture your heart and keep you glued to your chair turing page after page. Hats off to Dr. Greg and all who help allieviate the worlds problems one person at a time.
Great Book.......2007-10-18
This is a great novel, I also recommend "Detained Differences" by J. Robert Rowe. That is also a great Afghanistan novel as well.
Three Cups of Tea.......2007-10-17
It was a book required to read in an English class. The book has a good message.
Admire the Commitment and Accomplishments, but..........2007-10-15
What Mortensen accomplished with commitment and perseverance is undoubtly a great humanitarin effort. However, the book is irritating to read. Mortensen's name is used so many times over and over it is distracting. "Mortensen this" and "Mortensen that"! It reads like Mortiensen is a demi-god and it really presents like this when you realize he is a coauthor. Why not write this inspiring story in "first person"?
The humanitarian effort is inspiring if you can get through the book!
A book every American should read.......2007-10-15
An excellent story and very well written. It is particularly timely today given what is going on in that part of the world. It certainly gives much to think about. I would recommend this to everyone I know.
Average customer rating:
- Attempts At Understanding Rural Afghanistan
- Interesting but not what I thought it would be
- Left in limbo by The Places in Between
- The Places In Between
- Highly recommend - a Bold look at a slice of Afghanistan
|
The Places In Between
Rory Stewart
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Afghanistan
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Middle East
| History
| Subjects
| Books
20th Century
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Afghanistan
| Asia
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| India
| Asia
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Essays & Travelogues
| Reference & Tips
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Middle East
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Travel Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Prince of the Marshes: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq
-
Suite Francaise
-
Special Topics in Calamity Physics
-
The Emperor's Children (Vintage)
-
Absurdistan: A Novel
ASIN: 0156031566 |
Book Description
In January 2002 Rory Stewart walked across Afghanistan-surviving by his wits, his knowledge of Persian dialects and Muslim customs, and the kindness of strangers. By day he passed through mountains covered in nine feet of snow, hamlets burned and emptied by the Taliban, and communities thriving amid the remains of medieval civilizations. By night he slept on villagers' floors, shared their meals, and listened to their stories of the recent and ancient past. Along the way Stewart met heroes and rogues, tribal elders and teenage soldiers, Taliban commanders and foreign-aid workers. He was also adopted by an unexpected companion-a retired fighting mastiff he named Babur in honor of Afghanistan's first Mughal emperor, in whose footsteps the pair was following.
Through these encounters-by turns touching, con-founding, surprising, and funny-Stewart makes tangible the forces of tradition, ideology, and allegiance that shape life in the map's countless places in between.
Customer Reviews:
Attempts At Understanding Rural Afghanistan.......2007-10-11
When I picked this book off the bookstore table, I really only had a vague idea that it was one man's story about traveling through Afghanistan. Beyond that, I didn't know what to expect.
The book tells the story of Rory Stewarts walk across Afghanistan, from Herat to Kabul, and some of the people, villages, and feelings he had along the way. He states he wanted to walk across Asia, and this part helped to complete this quest. He managed to do this shortly after the Taliban were defeated in 2002, which is a bit interesting.
I can't say that I was fascinated by this book, yet I can't say that I was disappointed, either. I am glad I read it. I've a few books about Afghanistan that were centered in Kabul, and it was interesting to find out more information regarding the rural parts of Afghanistan and to find out just how drastic the difference between the two are. We here in the US always hear about how difficult it is fighting a war in rural Afghanistan because of the geography and because of tribalism. This book really helped to bring an understanding of those concepts to me. In that, I found the book fascinating.
The book does seem to drag, however. And the villages do seem to be strikingly similar until they all seem to fade together. Chapter after chapter of villages one cannot find on a map filled with nothing but mud huts gets a bit tedious to read about. Yet, for me, anyway, when Mr. Stewart speaks to the historical parts of Afghanistan, I found it be very interesting. And when he spoke of the people he met along the way, I was fascinated. He did seem to dwell on those individual who were less than savory, though. It would have been refreshing to read more about people he'd met who had been nice, helpful, and thoughtful. I'm sure there must have more than just 3 or 4?
I did enjoy reading about the various customs within some of the different tribes. I thought that to be very interesting. Some of the items Mr. Steward writes about were amusing, some were shocking to my Western mindset, and some were just outright disturbing (the Afghan Islamic view on the treatment towards dogs was especially difficult for this dog lover!). In all it was an interersting book, but there were some flaws.
Interesting but not what I thought it would be.......2007-10-11
Kind of interesting to learn what life is currently like in rural Afghanistan. But I was expecting more of a "World's Most Dangerous Places" type of travelogue which this book isn't. Very meditative with interesting "smaller" observations.
Left in limbo by The Places in Between.......2007-10-01
If you are into a lot of facts about history and culture, then this might be the book for you. As for myself, I felt like I was reading college history and sociology textbooks. So many facts, with little or no human connection to Rory Stewart, or the people who accompany him on his trek across Afghanistan. Stewart writes early on in the book, "I feel like I have been preparing for this all my life". To me that is a powerful statement, which in my opinion Stewart never really expounded on, and in the end could have made this book a little more interesting.
The Places In Between.......2007-09-28
Well written and exciting journey that a brave man wrote about. Very good reference to the differences between villiages and provinces encompassed by the overarching history of the country.
Highly recommend - a Bold look at a slice of Afghanistan.......2007-09-08
This book is a fascinating and easy read for anyone looking to learn about Afghanistan.
The audacity of what Rory Stewart does in this book is amazing. Walking from Herat to Kabul across central Afghanistan relying on the hospitality of the local in each village he passes through. It is not a comprehensive look at Afghanistan but a first hand micro level look at life in a select few Afghan villages. At the same time, he throws in larger historical and research perspectives. Like all books that I've read about the country, there is a pointient sadness to what these people have been through.
Book Description
India remains a mystery to many Americans, even as it is poised to become the world’s third largest economy within a generation, outstripping Japan. It will surpass China in population by 2032 and will have more English speakers than the United States by 2050. In In Spite of the Gods, Edward Luce, a journalist who covered India for many years, makes brilliant sense of India and its rise to global power. Already a number-one bestseller in India, his book is sure to be acknowledged for years as the definitive introduction to modern India.
In Spite of the Gods illuminates a land of many contradictions. The booming tech sector we read so much about in the West, Luce points out, employs no more than one million of India’s 1.1 billion people. Only 35 million people, in fact, have formal enough jobs to pay taxes, while three-quarters of the country lives in extreme deprivation in India’s 600,000 villages. Yet amid all these extremes exists the world’s largest experiment in representative democracy—and a largely successful one, despite bureaucracies riddled with horrifying corruption.
Luce shows that India is an economic rival to the U.S. in an entirely different sense than China is. There is nothing in India like the manufacturing capacity of China, despite the huge potential labor force. An inept system of public education leaves most Indians illiterate and unskilled. Yet at the other extreme, the middle class produces ten times as many engineering students a year as the United States. Notwithstanding its future as a major competitor in a globalized economy, American. leaders have been encouraging India’s rise, even welcoming it into the nuclear energy club, hoping to balance China’s influence in Asia.
Above all, In Spite of the Gods is an enlightening study of the forces shaping India as it tries to balance the stubborn traditions of the past with an unevenly modernizing present. Deeply informed by scholarship and history, leavened by humor and rich in anecdote, it shows that India has huge opportunities as well as tremendous challenges that make the future “hers to lose.”
Customer Reviews:
Beating the Odds.......2007-10-13
edward luce's journalistic writing style makes this book an easy read. it does a good job of putting into context the "hindu rate of growth" that existed for so long after india regained her independence. but just as a big ship takes longer to change direction than a smaller boat, so does a large, diverse country that has been steeped in tradition and religious constraints for so many centuries.
similarly, just as greed and selfishness are unfortunate bi-products of capitalism gone wild in the new world, so is "caste-ism" and corruption of an economic system based on social classes which has been the rule for thousands of years. yet, as the author points out, it is this very tradition and sense of history that will keep the balloon of prosperity which has been unleashed, to remain tethered to the ground as it finds it's way into the modern skies.
in summary, the book is a good bridge from the old to the new and a good primer for anyone interested in understanding the paradox of modern india.
A must read for anyone trying to understand modern India.......2007-09-18
This is an important book on modern India. Edward Luce has been a foreign correspondent in India for many years and knows the country well. He provides a comprehensive survey of the politics and economics of India going into the 21st century. I was initially disappointed by the opening pages dealing with a few new-age types living in luxury and marveling at the spirituality of India while completely ignoring the poverty. Reading on I was pleasantly surprised to discover that this was only an introduction to demonstrate what is wrong with many Westerner's perception of India. The book provides an unflinching look at India, warts and all. While some sections may seem overly critical, we live in an imperfect world and the same things are wrong in many other countries, to a greater or lesser extent. The rest of the world continues to function and even prosper and India does so too. The book also discusses the huge untapped potential of the country and the things that need to happen to assure future growth and development. I found the chapters on recent changes in religious practices and the rise of fundamentalism very eye-opening. The significance of attributing the domestication of the horse to the Indus Valley civilization is fascinating (I won't give this one away). In Spite of the Gods is a must read for anyone trying to understand modern India.
To spite the Gods?.......2007-09-15
I picked up this book when I was on a trip, mainly because of the intriguing title. I thought, well, here is someone who will tell us how our Gods hold us back economically. Especially, as many of us worship Lakshmi ji, the Goddess of prosperity, every day!
As it turns out, I was quite wrong. The title has absolutely no connection with the contents of the book, except perhaps to insinuate that India has progressed economically despite being religious. Or to help along sales. [Do note the rhyming with the original expression 'in spite of the odds'. Possibly Mr. Luce thinks that Hindu Gods were holding back India's progress, or that perhaps they are the real odds?]
The book is more or less a compilation of wisdom received from the author's Indian friends, and select social circle. I was unable to find any original insight or conclusion in the book. However, Mr. Luce does present the old and tired wisdom of assorted Indian intellectuals in a refreshingly witty way. In the end, the book is just a large collection of articles, such as you would find in any weekly or fortnightly newsmagazine or in any mainstream English language newspaper published in India. This is understandable, given the fact that Mr. Luce, after all is merely a journalist, used to regurgitating what others tell him. There is some useful information though, including tidbits about the high and mighty of Indian establishment.
Expectedly, Mr. Luce is most positive about and impressed with the economic side of Indian growth. He cites any number of examples of the growing economic strength and its implications. There may not be anything new in this, but the endorsement sounds nice, coming from a Western journalist.
However, his views on the cultural and religious aspects are a different thing altogether. He mostly holds the majority community as being directly responsible for India's perceived cultural backwardness, for the condition of the women and children, and for the distressing law and order situation. He also suggests that Bajrang Dal has been responsible for two out of three major riots in the last 25 years (the third being laid at the door of Congress). However, this is mere reductionism - he conveniently ignores hundreds of small riots which break out every year across India, on the slightest pretext.
This liberal confusion continues: when it comes to dealing with Muslims, he suddenly switches the canvas to South Asia, from just India! This serves two purposes: first it helps him cover the pre-1947 developments. Second, it allows him to include Kashmir in the discussion. Dealing with Kashmir within the framework of India would have perhaps been sacrilegious?
That said, it is therefore surprising to see an endorsement of the book by Mr. Mark Tully, whose work is as close to Mr. Luce's as North Pole is to South Pole. Perhaps Mr. Tully was merely helping along a fellow Briton. Or perhaps he was made to sign the endorsement using some frightfully sinister threat...
The book is very nicely bound, and the printing and paper is quite pleasing. So is Mr. Luce's writing style, humorous and engaging. However, sometimes it is a little tiring also, as you (as an Indian) sometimes feel that you are the [...]. of his jokes and gratuitous insinuations.
Buy this book if you quickly want to update yourself on the current perceptions of the fashionable and the intellectual. Skip it if you want to learn anything worthwhile.
Bad statistic.......2007-09-10
In discussing the low ratio of girls to boys, the author states that, in the West, there are 105 girls born for every 100 boys. That is not true. Even in the West, there are more boys born than girls. The numbers should be reversed.
Highly Recommended. Witty. Insightful. Modern. .......2007-08-22
I think some of the reviewers have done a good job of breaking down the book, so I'll just offer an opinion.
This is by far my favorite book this year, and not because I agree with everything the author has to say, but because I felt it was a good starting point for someone with little knowledge of India. It's filled with insightful information, humor, and does not read like some monotonous-tedious-textbook that drags on longer than it should.
I like that the author asks questions I would have liked to have asked, had I been there to do the interview. And I was impressed with the number of high positioned people he was able to interview. I appreciate that it's a modern book, and it deals with today's issues, explaining events that have happened in recent years that have been in the news, or haven't been. I didn't mind the author's opinionated views, and I don't quite understand why people think books have to be written from a neutral standpoint, which is a difficult thing to do, and most of the time leaves a book sounding dry.
This is a great book and I would recommend it to anyone. It's easy to read, filled with a lot of information, and gives you a good overview of what's going on with India. It certainly sparks an interest to read other books on the subject.
Book Description
"Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world." Napoleon's words seem eerily prescient today, as the shock waves from China's awakening reverberate across the globe. In China Shakes the World, the former China bureau chief of the Financial Times, James Kynge, traces these tremors from Beijing to Europe to the Midwest as China's ravenous hunger for jobs, raw materials, energy, and food -- and its export of goods, workers, and investments -- drastically reshape world trade and politics.
Delving beyond mere recitation of by-now-familiar statistics, Kynge's on-the-ground reporting provides alternative explanations for China's explosive transformation, revealing many of the usual reasons given for its growth to be myths. Most important for the future, he details China's deep, systemic weaknesses -- rampant fraud, crippling environmental crises, a corrupt banking system, faltering government institutions, a rapidly aging population -- that threaten even greater global disruptions. And he demonstrates the profound consequences of those weaknesses for American manufacturers, oil companies, banks, and ordinary consumers.
Through dramatic stories of entrepreneurs and visionaries, factory workers and store clerks at the heart of this global phenomenon, China Shakes the World explains how China's breakneck rise occurred, the extraordinary problems the country now faces, and the consequences of both for the twenty-first century.
Customer Reviews:
It is shaking me up now.......2007-10-16
I am Chinese, and of course I am attracted by the title. Finally, China get to shake the world a little too, what an accomplishment. Well, as I read the book, it is making me less and less proud of my motherland. The counterfeit product, the stealing of high-tech information, degradation of environment and the insitutionalized corruption are making my stomach turn. When 1/2 of the population is going at 80 miles an hour in the globalized world, the other half is being left behind by their own country. It makes me wonder, what will happen if the economy slow down in China? What will the people who had already tasted the fast world will do, and what will the ultra-dictatorship of the Ruling Communist party do, and what will the other half of the population that had been left behind do. This is a question worth pondering. Maybe, China is not as rosy as it projected to the rest of the world, and maybe people, or investors should listen to not just the official talking head, but what the people are doing. This is a good read, it will help with my school project too.
An enormous shift in geopolitical power.......2007-10-08
James Kynge analyzes and illustrates brilliantly the emergence of China as a major geopolitical power. He shows that the drastic shift in economic policies under Deng came from rural farmers who used creatively the concept `collective' to found private capitalist companies. The result is now a schizophrenic one party communist State with a capitalist economy. Its social stability can only be maintained with fast economic growth and job creation for its enormous population created by Mao's demographic policy.
The actual industrialization process causes massive population and gender shifts (urbanization resulting in a higher status for women), colossal energy demands (one Italy every year) and huge environmental problems (water, air). In a one party State, corruption and nepotism (with stolen identities) cannot be eradicated and provoke a declining trust in government.
Economically, corporations are mainly concerned with market share, not profits. They continue to (over) produce for the next surge in demand after every dip. They are also beginning to build consumer loyalty by branding their own products.
Internationally, the Chinese voracity created energy and commodities price surges worldwide. The end is not in sight. On the other hand, the bulk of the profits made with China's low cost factory army (no welfare) goes into the pockets of Western retail giants and their shareholders, leaving only 10 to 15 % for their Chinese counterparts. In the meantime, the deindustrialization of the Western world continues with massive job losses in the textile, car, computer and even the service industry.
Overall, however, China's economic development continues to benefit enormously world trade, notwithstanding the regularly surfacing accusations of protectionism, currency manipulation and rampant piracy. Politically, the problem of Taiwan is still not solved.
Mencius''ren' (benevolence) is not a basic ingredient of Chinese foreign policy, but the author believes that ultimately pragmatism and flexibility will have the upper hand.
This book is a must read for all those who want to understand the world we live in.
MBA Mom.......2007-07-15
I am full time Mom and just recently visited Beijing with my 2 young children and husband. As a result of our travels, all the news in the media regarding China, and my own personal experience with respect to my shopping purchase power and selection in the last many year, I was very interested in the "China story." This book is an easy read, and provides a good big picture. It reminds me of the center column in the Wall Street Journal... Too boot, well written, and excellent use of vocabulary.
Mom
Well written, informative book.......2007-06-01
This book is money and time well spent if you're interested in a contemporary survey of China.
Kynge really does an outstanding job with a complex topic. He has a journalist's nose for a story, is well connected in China, and the length of time he lived in the country allows him to really portray his observations in a sophisticated cultural and historical context. He nicely weaves in statistics and facts throughout the book without distracting from the narrative.
A Journalist's Eye.......2007-05-24
I've loved the lyrical quality of this book. It looks at the many problems facing China from the ground up and individual journalist's eyes. For a big picture view that is based more on economic analysis, see my own book: The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought and How They Can Be Won
Book Description
On a hazy November afternoon in Rangoon, 1862, a shrouded corpse was escorted by a small group of British soldiers to an anonymous grave in a prison enclosure. As the British Commissioner in charge insisted, “No vestige will remain to distinguish where the last of the Great Moghuls rests.”
Bahadur Shah Zafar II, the last Mughal Emperor, was a mystic, an accomplished poet and a skilled calligrapher. But while his Mughal ancestors had controlled most of India, the aged Zafar was king in name only. Deprived of real political power by the East India Company, he nevertheless succeeded in creating a court of great brilliance, and presided over one of the great cultural renaissances of Indian history.
Then, in 1857, Zafar gave his blessing to a rebellion among the Company’s own Indian troops, thereby transforming an army mutiny into the largest uprising any empire had to face in the entire course of the nineteenth century. The Siege of Delhi was the Raj’s Stalingrad: one of the most horrific events in the history of Empire, in which thousands on both sides died. And when the British took the city—securing their hold on the subcontinent for the next ninety years—tens of thousands more Indians were executed, including all but two of Zafar’s sixteen sons. By the end of the four-month siege, Delhi was reduced to a battered, empty ruin, and Zafar was sentenced to exile in Burma. There he died, the last Mughal ruler in a line that stretched back to the sixteenth century.
Award-winning historian and travel writer William Dalrymple shapes his powerful retelling of this fateful course of events from groundbreaking material: previously unexamined Urdu and Persian manuscripts that include Indian eyewitness accounts and records of the Delhi courts, police and administration during the siege. The Last Mughal is a revelatory work—the first to present the Indian perspective on the fall of Delhi—and has as its heart both the dazzling capital personified by Zafar and the stories of the individuals tragically caught up in one of the bloodiest upheavals in history.
Customer Reviews:
A poisenous book.......2007-09-25
Exquisitely researched and well written, describing past lives and events that appear as real as if the reader had been a material witness, this book's quality of writing reminds me of Dalrymple's "White Mughals", dealing with British servants of the East India Company who "went native" by adopting Muslim customs in the early decades of the Raj. In "The Last Mughal", however, Dalrymple has gone native himself, by trumpeting Muslim culture as superior to all things Western at every turn. Especially irritating are the infrequent but none-too-subtle parallels he draws with the present : it seems America is the new Raj, whose "undisguised imperial arrogance" rose after the fall of the Berlin Wall - a gratuitous opinion lacking any bearing on this book's subject, the end of the Mughal Dynasty in India. Dalrymple rants between the lines, describing the West - then and now - as nothing but a bunch of rapacious pilferers and murderers, who uproot delicately balanced, refined, pacifist, tolerant, and multicultural Muslim societies, composed solely of courtiers, courtesans and poets. This was, to use a British understatement, a trifle at variance with reality, as both Hindu and Muslim ruling classes of the period wallowed in disgusting wealth while their subjects lived miserable lives in abject poverty. The imperialist, but now long gone Raj at least curbed the worst excesses of the Indian princes and laid the foundations of modern India, from the civil service to railroad infrastructure, but not a word of this is whispered here. One virtue of the book is that it shows the true character of the disciples of the Prophet, who managed to turn a Hindu mutiny into a jihad in no time. Also instructive is Dalrymple's enthousiastic, gushing descriptions of sword-wielding jihadis "duly dispatching" helpless British women and children during the "Uprising", in stark contrast with the "brutal killings" by British "psychopaths". No doubt atrocities were committed on both sides, but the double standard in describing them rankles, while references to present "Western arrogance and imperialism" reveals the bias of the author who, by the way, prefers living in the arrogant West over residing in a delicately balanced, refined, pacifist, tolerant, and multicultural Muslim society. This is a poisonous book, unworthy of being termed objective historical writing.
no dry history book.......2007-09-15
A surprisingly readable history of a dark and troubled time in India's history. Britain rode roughshod over thousands of years of civilisation on the sub-Continent seeking to impose Christianity on an unwilling populace. The invaders believed that their way of life was simply superior to that of that of the subjugated masses. History continues to repeat these terrble crimes into the 20th and 21st centuries.
Simply Magnificent.......2007-09-07
Live in the Delhi of 1857. Watch and feel the vibrancy of the sophisticated and cultured life of Delhi. Read the most understandable account of the whats and whys of the Indian Mutiny. Literally watch an entire city of 150,000 people destroyed. Move along the roads and alleys of Delhi as its citizens are slaughtered by the avenging British Army greatly assisted by Indians themselves with a substantial part of the genocide underwritten by Indian moneylenders. You will get a first hand view of the end of the 300 year old Mughal rule on the subcontinent, and understand why religious extremism (represented in this book largely by evangalical christians) has done the world no good for centuries. You will be reminded about how very thin is the veneer of civilization and tolerance and that when it comes to slaughtering their own species there is no parallel to us humans.
A book of great beauty based on immaculate research with great relevance to today's world.
The standard by which all books on this subject will henceforth be judged.
timely.......2007-08-29
a fascinating commentary on british colonialism. dalrymple makes a convincing case for the mutiny being a harbinger of the empire's collapse. there are some clear parallels with the united states' current embroglios in afghanistan and iraq.
this is a must read, and is made much more enjoyable by an abundance of newly presented (and translated) historical documents that provide insight to ongoings of zafar's court and east india company. such documentation sheds light on the diverse religious/social dynamics of both sides of the conflict. i was astounded to hear that 60 % of the soldiers used by the british to control the sepoys were of indian descent (mostly sikhs, if memory serves).
"The light has gone out of India. The land is lampless.".......2007-08-12
A great strength of 'The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857' by William Dalrymple (White Mughals: Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth-Century India) is its use not only of more familiar British sources, but also many Indian (Urdu and Persian) sources on one of pivotal events in the history of both India and the British Empire, the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 or the First War of Indian Independence as it is also sometimes called.
Dalrymple describes his excitement at discovering some 20,000 Persian and Urdu documents in the Indian national Archives. A particularly important source was the 'Dihli Urdu Akhbar' a principal Urdu newspaper that continued to publish during the revolt. These sources allow Dalrymple to give voice to the Indian as well the British point of view.
In 1857 the sepoys of the British Raj's Bengal Army mutinied (the reasons are explored in the book, but were at least partly due to a clash of newly arrived Christian evangelicals and adherents of Islam and Hindu). What began as mutiny became something larger at least in part because the Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II endorsed it.
Dalrymple centers his telling of the tale on Zafar, the man destined to become the last Mughal emperor. By 1857 the Mughal Emperor possessed no real tangible power and was nothing more than the King of Delhi as he was derisively called. An aesthete himself, Zafar was singularly well-suited to his role as head of a court that elevated culture, poetry in particular, but wholly unsuited by temperament and age (he was 82 years old) to a role as leader of an armed revolt.
Delhi before 1857 was a remarkably tolerant mix of Hindu and Islam - roughly a 50/50 split - in part because of Zafar's manner of ruling. Zafar's acceptance of a titular leadership in the revolt meant that both Muslims and Hindi rallied to the cause. That symbolic role, however, was about all Zafar brought to the war.
The revolt began to flounder almost immediately due a lack of proper direction and discipline. The Sepoy regiments each acted independently and allowed a much smaller British force (ostensibly come to lay siege to the city) to survive repeated but serial attacks. The early stages of the revolt also saw horrific slaughter of noncombatant and unarmed British residents.
Eventually the British took the city and the revenge they took is described by Dalrymple in bloody detail. The killings were nothing short of mass murder and heartily endorsed by nearly every Britisher with any knowledge of it (William Howard Russell was one exception). Men who had lost family in the initial outbreak were allowed to massacre at will for months - Theo Metcalfe is the most notable example. Those locals not killed were left homeless and starving.
The British executed nearly the entire Mughal royal family and would have done so for Zafar, but for the promise that his life would be spared if he surrendered. It was a promise that the British determined they were bound to keep even though they didn't like it much.
One supposes this example represents Victorian attitudes about rectitude that the British somehow held in their heads at the same time that they authored unspeakable murdering sprees. In a somewhat lighter example, Dalrymple quotes a British soldier's letter written to his mum on the eve of battle in which the youth expresses his fear that engaging in the fight may cause him to swear!
As stated at the outset the rich sources give 'The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty: Delhi, 1857' its strength, but Dalrymple's over-reliance on the raw materials makes the book drag to its conclusion. For the last 100+ pages, Dalrymple sometimes gives over the narrative to his primary sources as page after page consists substantially of quotes from letters, reports, or memoirs. Dalrymple also spends only the briefest time placing the events of 1857 in a larger historical framework.
Nonetheless, the book is a triumph of research and offers that rarity in historical writing, the truly fresh perspective. Dalrymple gives voice to the Indian perspective of the fall of Delhi. As the great court poet Ghalib so poignantly expressed it, "The light has gone out of India. The land is lampless."
Highly recommended.
Book Description
Evan Thomas takes us inside the naval war of 1941-1945 in the South Pacific in a way that blends the best of military and cultural history and riveting narrative drama. He follows four men throughout: Admiral William ("Bull") Halsey, the macho, gallant, racist American fleet commander; Admiral Takeo Kurita, the Japanese battleship commander charged with making what was, in essence, a suicidal fleet attack against the American invasion of the Philippines; Admiral Matome Ugaki, a self-styled samurai who was the commander of all kamikazes and himself the last kamikaze of the war; and Commander Ernest Evans, a Cherokee Indian and Annapolis graduate who led his destroyer on the last great charge in the last great naval battle in history.
Sea of Thunder climaxes with the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the biggest naval battle ever fought, over four bloody and harrowing days in October 1944. We see Halsey make an epic blunder just as he reaches for true glory; we see the Japanese navy literally sailing in circles, torn between the desire to die heroically and the exhausted, unacceptable realization that death is futile; we sail with Commander Evans and the men of the USS Johnston into the jaws of the Japanese fleet and exult and suffer with them as they torpedo a cruiser, bluff and confuse the enemy -- and then, their ship sunk, endure fifty horrific hours in shark-infested water.
Thomas, a journalist and historian, traveled to Japan, where he interviewed veterans of the Imperial Japanese Navy who survived the Battle of Leyte Gulf and friends and family of the two Japanese admirals. From new documents and interviews, he was able to piece together and answer mysteries about the Battle of Leyte Gulf that have puzzled historians for decades. He writes with a knowing feel for the clash of cultures.
Sea of Thunder is a taut, fast-paced, suspenseful narrative of the last great naval war, an important contribution to the history of the Second World War.
Customer Reviews:
No Bull..........2007-09-29
It's no wonder were in the mess we are, when myoptic vision clouds reason.
This was not a hit on Halsey..Duoh! This was a very good read. Maybe Ken burns took some info here?
I see a lot of whinners(on other forums) saying the Japanese never had a plan to sue for peace if they took Hawaii..(?)
Any way Good book.
Thanks, Mr Evans
Non-Fiction Thriller.......2007-09-12
A non-fiction historical work of serious scholarship that can compete with any thriller. An absolute page turner that's hard to put down. When Thomas finds the time to do this kind of research with his TV panelist and news magazine gigs is a mystery. He is an absolutely first rate writer and story teller, and Sea of Thunder is not to be missed.
Good Read, but............2007-08-06
I got this book on Friday and finished it Saturday night. A decent book over all but as other reviewers have stated I find the revisionist aspect a bit much. I think the 'slam' on Halsey tended to be over-kill. The author even goes as far as mentioning the two occasions where Halsey sailed into typhoons to further his knocks on Halsey. Interesting, but not in the scope of the book. The author does point out the reasons behind Halsey's choice to go after Ozawa but only in passing. I found the study of Japanese vs. American admirals a bit slanted in the Japanese admiral's favor. As far as the 'racist' aspect of Halsey's statements "Kill Japs, Kill Japs. Kill more Japs" & etc. We only need to look at quotes by other Admirals and Generals to understand the purpose behind these statements. I gave it three stars only because it was a page-turner, I think what kept me reading was to see if the author was going to go into a more in-depth study of the choices made by the admirals and why they made them. I was left with the impression that the Japanese admirals made the choices they made mostly because of the training received at Eta Jima and the choices made by American admirals were due to some personal flaw as in Halsey's 'need' to get the Japanese carriers at all costs. What I wasn't left with was the stunning victory by the Americans and how important it was in shortening the war. I am just starting to read 'The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors' by James D. Hornfischer so I can compare two different author's views on the Leyte Gulf naval battles.
CORRECTION to Thomas' text.......2007-07-27
Evan Thomas incorrectly states that Admrial Spruance's son married Admiral Halsey's daughter. In fact, Margaret Halsey married Preston Lea Spruance who was only distantly related to Admiral Spruance.
- Halsey Spruance, a decendant of Margaret Halsey and Preston Lea Spruance
A good story.......2007-07-11
I did not know as much about the battle before this book. Thomas gives an excellent perspective of all sides of the battle. I felt I was a bit oversold on the book and it did not live completely up to expectations which is why I only give it 4 out of 5.
Book Description
With the publication of her landmark bestseller Paris 1919, Margaret MacMillan was praised as “a superb writer who can bring history to life” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Now she brings her extraordinary gifts to one of the most important subjects today–the relationship between the United States and China–and one of the most significant moments in modern history. In February 1972, Richard Nixon, the first American president ever to visit China, and Mao Tse-tung, the enigmatic Communist dictator, met for an hour in Beijing. Their meeting changed the course of history and ultimately laid the groundwork for the complex relationship between China and the United States that we see today.
That monumental meeting in 1972–during what Nixon called “the week that changed the world”–could have been brought about only by powerful leaders: Nixon himself, a great strategist and a flawed human being, and Mao, willful and ruthless. They were assisted by two brilliant and complex statesmen, Henry Kissinger and Chou En-lai. Surrounding them were fascinating people with unusual roles to play, including the enormously disciplined and unhappy Pat Nixon and a small-time Shanghai actress turned monstrous empress, Jiang Qing. And behind all of them lay the complex history of two countries, two great and equally confident civilizations: China, ancient and contemptuous yet fearful of barbarians beyond the Middle Kingdom, and the United States, forward-looking and confident, seeing itself as the beacon for the world.
Nixon thought China could help him get out of Vietnam. Mao needed American technology and expertise to repair the damage of the Cultural Revolution. Both men wanted an ally against an aggressive Soviet Union. Did they get what they wanted? Did Mao betray his own revolutionary ideals? How did the people of China react to this apparent change in attitude toward the imperialist Americans? Did Nixon make a mistake in coming to China as a supplicant? And what has been the impact of the visit on the United States ever since?
Weaving together fascinating anecdotes and insights, an understanding of Chinese and American history, and the momentous events of an extraordinary time, this brilliantly written book looks at one of the transformative moments of the twentieth century and casts new light on a key relationship for the world of the twenty-first century.
Margaret MacMillan is the author of Women of the Raj and Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World, which won the Duff Cooper Prize, the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction, the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History, a Silver Medal for the Arthur Ross Book Award of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction. It was selected by the editors of The New York Times as one of the best books of 2002. Currently the provost of Trinity College and a professor of history at the University of Toronto, MacMillan takes up the position of warden of St. Antony’s College, Oxford, in July 2007. She is an officer of the Order of Canada, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and a senior fellow of Massey College at the University of Toronto.
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing book about a historic event.......2007-07-09
Margaret MacMillan, previously known for her book on the Paris peace negotations ending the first world war, has given us an interesting look at Nixon's historic trip to China in 1972.
The trip was only a week in duration, and hardly seems worthy of an entire manuscript unless the historian is able to provide a comprehensive analysis of the ramifications of Nixon's visit. MacMillan, however, does not provide us with this evaluation.
She writes a rich story, filled with wonderful images and colorful characters, but fails to fully analyze the significance of Nixon's journey. Her book provides us with a nice portrait of Mao Tse-Tung, the Chinese leader whom Nixon met with (only once) during his journey to China, Henry Kissinger, Nixon's national security advisor, and Chou En-Lai, Kissinger's primary contact in Beijing.
MacMillan's details about the trip are amazing, and certainly indicative of strong research abilities - she profiles Nixon in such a way that his paranoia and self doubt are on full display (see chapters 1 and 2 for a nice discussion on how nervous Nixon was as he prepared for the meetings). She also throws in lively quips to remind us just how human the participants were (giving us an image of Nixon parading around his hotel room in his undergarments, or a request made by Nixon for the phone number of ladies in a black book - not for himself, but for Kissinger). This is the highlight of her writing, and she does a fantastic job of giving us the details that allow us to remember the participants as people rather than just politicians.
Overall, however, the book is incomplete - it just does not explain why the meetings changed the world in enough depth to justify the title ("Nixon and Mao: The Week that changed the world"). I recommend the book to anyone looking for a biographical evaluation of the participants in these historic talks, but if one is seeking a profound scholarly analysis of the topic, this is not the right book to read.
Everything included.......2007-06-15
The book is quite complete and covers all the aspects of nixon's trip to china. She remains however a litle too factual.
Very interesting details and anecdotes.
Only Nixon could go to China.......2007-06-04
This is Margaret MacMillan's second book about an event that "Changed The World", and one hopes that she's going to find a new subtitle soon. How long before she runs out of signature 20th century events, and resorts to chronicling more frivolous historical footnotes like "Coolidge Goes To Havana"?
All kidding aside, MacMillan does a worthy job of recreating the mid-Cold War and late Vietnam era of President Nixon's first term, which is perhaps less well known than events that occurred in and after June 1972. "Nixon and Mao" takes place during Nixon's trip to China in February 1972, while frequently stepping back in time to chronicle four decades' worth of Sino-American relations, as well as goings-on in China, Indochina and the Soviet Union during the earlier decades of the Cold War.
The four principals here are Nixon and Kissinger on the U.S. side, and an ailing Chairman Mao as aided by the more vibrant Chou En-Lai for the Chinese. It's Chou who benefits the most from this analysis, and he's the most interesting character in this book: both beholden to and smitten with a failing political system, yet shrewd and quick-witted enough to arguably get the better of Kissinger, his U.S. counterpart, during the week-long debating sessions.
As a writer not from the U.S., MacMillan brings a different perspective than had this book been written by an American historian or ideologue. For example, her elevation of President Clinton as a model of foreign policy isn't necessarily wrong -- it's just not an idea that's going to catch on here in the U.S. until both the current set of prevailing political beliefs, and the overtly opinion-driven nature of current TV journalism, have a chance to evolve and turn over.
The book's structure is logical, and therefore a bit frustrating. The author can't tell her story in a straight timeline beginning with the Long March -- otherwise Nixon wouldn't get to China until page 250. Therefore, she chooses to open each chapter with a two-page description of events during Nixon's week in China, before jumping back in time for the rest of the chapter to explain how the two countries and their principals got to the that point. This means that it takes a long while to generate any momentum from the 1972 scenes. I wonder if MacMillan first tried to write this book in alternating chapters before settling on her final approach.
The book's conclusion is also perhaps a bit too quick, as the author touches on but doesn't really highlight China's ongoing emergence on the international and financial scenes. Spending more time on China in 2007 rather than on Nixon's well-chronicled disgrace would have been an effective counterpoint to the earlier scenes showing how technologically backward and ideologically stunted China really was in 1972.
However, there's little doubt that without Nixon's trip in 1972, China would not be where it is today. What forces would have prevailed in China had Mao and Chou both died before opening up their country to the West? MacMillan, amusingly, shows how much the world was changed by Nixon's trip, by concluding her narrative 500 years from now, with a quote from the post-Cold War science-fiction movie "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country".
The book to read about Nixon's visit to China.......2007-05-31
Richard Nixon's trip to the Peoples' Republic of China in 1972, after nearly 25 years of silence between the US and Communist China, was a worldwide historic event. Of course, it started the long thaw between the US and the PRC, but it also had repercussions around the world: it worried the Soviets, who pursued SALT and détente with more interest in the aftermath, it terrified the leadership on Taiwan who rightly believed they were being abandoned by the US, it emboldened the North Vietnamese, who felt they had been betrayed by their ally. It raised Nixon's approval rating significantly and contributed to his landslide reelection in 1972.
It's also a story that has never been fully told because of security concerns in both the US and the PRC. But now we have Margaret MacMillan's detailed history of Nixon's visit with lots of historical context to make it understandable: the careers of Nixon, Kissinger, Mao, and Zhou Enlai are profiled in some detail; the state of US opinion in the aftermath of WWII is described, and the history of China in the 19th and 20th centuries is explained. There's also a concluding chapter that follows the story after the visit through full normalization of relations with the PRC in the late 1970s and even beyond.
The author's research appears to have been very detailed, although of course the American point of view is more fully explicated, since access to Chinese source materials is still restricted.
I do have a few minor complaints: the book skips back and forth between Nixon's visit and the historical context repeatedly, making it hard to follow the logic of events in a few spots. And, the author seemed to repeat herself when describing the Chinese obsession with Taiwan, although the repetition did bring home the fact that Taiwan was far more important to the Chinese than Nixon and Kissinger believed initially.
Nixon has said that he will be remembered for 2 events: Watergate and his opening of relations with China. This is the book to read if you want to find out about the second of these.
Really Did Change the World.......2007-05-25
Very interesting - highly recommended. An inside view of a diplomatic event of far reaching significance for the 21st Century.
Amazon.com
If the 20th century was the American century, the 21st century may be a time of reckoning for the United States. Chalmers Johnson, an authority on Japan and its economy, offers a troubling prognosis of what's to come. Blowback--the title refers to a CIA neologism describing the unintended consequences of American activity--is a call for the United States to rethink its position in the world. "The evidence is building up that in the decade following the end of the Cold War, the United States largely abandoned a reliance on diplomacy, economic aid, international law, and multilateral institutions in carrying out its foreign policies and resorted much of the time to bluster, military force, and financial manipulation," writes Johnson. "The world is not a safer place as a result." Individual chapters focus on Okinawa (where American servicemen were accused of raping a 12-year-old girl in "Asia's last colony"), the two Koreas, China, and Japan. The result is a liberal-leaning (and Asia-centric) call for the United States to disengage from many of its global commitments. Critics will call Johnson an isolationist, but friends (perhaps admirers of Patrick Buchanan's A Republic, Not an Empire) will say he simply speaks good sense. All will agree he is an earnest voice: "I believe our very hubris ensures our undoing." --John J. Miller
Book Description
The term 'blowback,' invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended results of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. From a case of rape by U.S. servicemen in Okinawa to our role in Asia's financial crisis, from our early support for Saddam Hussein to our conduct in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster. In a new edition that addresses recent international events from September 11 to the war in Iraq, this now classic book remains as prescient and powerful as ever.
Customer Reviews:
Astonishingly good.......2007-10-10
I came across this book when I was looking for the recently published book by Profs. Mearsheimer and Walt on the Israeli lobby. I was familiar with Chalmers Johnson's name, but knew nothing about his work. I just read Blowback and am eager to read the other two in his trilogy. I have a generally good awareness of the idiocy of most American foreign policy simply from reading newspapers regularly and well-researched books occasionally on foreign policy or political science or history - as well as from spending some time outside the USA at various times and in various roles.
The disparity between how the USA as an entity and through the citizens (mostly soldiers) it sends abroad to perform official roles behaves outside the confines of its borders and how the average citizen goes about his/her daily life and therefore perceives his/her country is frighteningly wide. However, I was truly stunned at the well-written, clearly well-researched and even-handed account that Prof. Johnson gives of USA policy and USA actions in regard in particular to Asia. I do not doubt the accuracy of his analysis and reporting. In support of his recounting of the utter waste of citizens' tax dollars on most military and military-related activity (so-called intelligence-gathering, covert undermining of non-dictatorial governments and the like) I noted that the Bush Administration recently (summer 2007) had one of its flunkies start blathering about the fact that the USA maintains bases throughout the world, notably in Western European countries, Okinawa and Korea even though there are no "hostilities" there.
The inadvertent raising of a pertinent issue regarding the USA military presence (in less polite words, occupation) in those countries was quickly excised from the arguments for establishing a permanent military presence in Iraq. Good point. Why does the USA maintain a military presence in these countries? Mr. Johnson's book admirably traces the why and thereby makes clear the horrible impact our presence in these countries has had on many people in the world and in turn on innocents in the USA, such as those who died at the hands of Tim McVeigh and the suicide airline pilots. It is books like Mr. Johnson's that should be on the forefront of discussion among politicians, editorial-writers and any others who attempt to make or debate policy. As the inanities, nonsense and outright lies that have no basis whatsoever in fact emanating from the current roster of right-wing, know-nothing Republicans in Congress - abetted on occasion by poorly informed Democrats - attest, the current unending propaganda regarding events and conditions in the rest of the world, notably in Iraq and in the Middle East in general, is likely to continue to overwhelm outstanding analyses such as this. I wish it wouldn't. I hope that those with some curiosity about the wonders and diversity of the world - not to mention facts about how the USA and other countries behave in the world - will discover this book as I did.
Blowback? Nah---mainly just Blow........2007-08-23
Chalmers Johnson might very well have entitled this manifestly overrated little jeremiad of gloom, doom, and rice-paddy Manchurian manifest destiny "Everything I know about Geopolitics I learned from the Golden Rule".
That's "Blowback": do unto others, O Mighty Great Satan, as you would have them do unto you. Or as the learned geo-strategist and member of the Council on Foreign Relations grandmaster funk-flash rapper extra-ordinaire Jay-Z once put it (in verse, and to a funky hip-hop beat, which is *way* more than Johnson accomplishes in this nearly cranium-anesthetizing snoozer):
"now you shoot my my dog/
I'ma gonna kill yo' cat/
just the unwritten Laws/
in Rap."
Word. Basically, Johnson is saying that all those nasty, naughty, uber-meanie things the U.S. did (or might have done, deniability, baby, deniability) in the last century (and now, yes, tiresomely the first part of the 21st century) are gonna come back to haunt us. Payback's a bizzle, fo shizzle.
Or, to dip deeply into the cliche snuffbox, what goes around, comes around. Or better still, if you're up for Chinese---4th BC Chinese---: "if you sit by the River long enough, you will see the bodies of all your enemies float by."
There: in this review, you've gotten the gist of Johnson's 'argument', and you've saved yourself the misery of having "Blowback" inflicted on you. You should be grateful.
OK: so example---we helped supply, feed, & train the Mujahadeen to fight a nasty and ultimately successful insurgency against the Soviets. The Jihadis won, kicked the Soviets out, and replaced a doddering, backward, socially repressive & economically retarded 19th century system with a---get this---doddering, backward, socially repressive & economically retarded 7th century system.
Progress? Yes. Blowback? NO! Not Blowback, not that bit anyway. Blowback was what happened when the Taliban and their buddies (including our Bon Ami et Frere Amicable Osama bin "Gin & Juice" Laden) got tired of crushing homosexuals beneath stone walls, blowing up ancient Buddha statues, and strangling dogs. Those crazy Talibs! We got 9/11, the ultimate "blowback.". Or blowup. Or something like that.
Now, it's true that Chalmers Johnson's 'idea' has a nice, simple symmetry to it, in the same way the delightful childrens' potty book "Everything Poops" does: it's, well, true. And obvious.
But seen from a different angle (say, that of adulthood), it's a bit retarded. Or, let's be kind, simplistic. It says, if you, as an Empire, or Republic, or whatever you are---if you do something, something's going to happen. Man, go tell it to the Spartans! (or Newton). Actions have consequences. If you read "Blowback", for instance, the blowback might be that you hear your brain cells scream as they die.
Take the British, who for years now have done everything they can to pretend to be a stodgier, duller, more moldy version of Canada, & what has that gotten them? Flaming gate crashers at Glasgow airport and having their Royal Marines publicly humilated and dressed by Tehran's answer to Today's Man.
But like Paul Kennedy yammering, with yen besotted yuppies back in the early eighties, that the Land of the Rising Sun was about to make us all eat sushi and do Shinto devotionals before our morning calisthenics prior to ruling the World---well, Blowback is just not all that. It's too elementary, man: it's thermodynamical.
And in politics, in affairs of state, in war and manipulation & sabotage, in all of that, it's not even necessarily true. The point being: if you're brutal enough, there will be no blowback.
Think about that for a moment: you don't even have to consult antiquity for examples where if you're willing to play around in a little bit of blood and crack some skulls, there will be no real `blowback'. Russia has ruthlessly crushed & decimated Muslim movements in its former Asian provinces and puppet states, the latest being the pathetic instance of Chechnya. And for all that, I have yet to hear Russia denounced by any imams as even a moderate-sized Satan. Hell, Russia & Iran are great buddies, so long as the latter keeps those rent checks coming on the old Bushehr reactor.
China is another great example: for more than five decades, China has occupied Tibet and taken every step possible to destroy its society and culture. For all of that, wanna know China's "blowback" from this merciless, honestly fascist occupation? The 2008 Olympic Games, a few thousand pathetic "Free Tibet" bumper sticker affixed to the bumpers of liberals' Priuses, & Richard Gere.
To dragoon Orwell's delicious little phrase, if you stomp on a man's face long and hard enough---you know, until you hear bone snap & soft tissue turns to jelly and the eyeballs pop out---there ain't gona be enough to---well, blow back.
In summary: Chalmers gets a big fat F for his stupid "Blowback" and should wear a duncecap in public.
That said, I can find one example---right here, right now!---that supports Johnson's thesis. Are you ready?
Johnson writes his tired, pathetic, dull little ratturd of a book.
In return, I gut his book like a sick fish in a quick and deadly online review.
Now that's what I call blowback.
JSG
Enlightening.......2007-08-17
The book's idea is that US foreign policy, made to win the cold war, has consequences. For instance, in '53 when we installed the Shah of Iran to act as a puppet for the West (overthrowing the democratically elected Mosaddeq because of oil) he repressed the people until he was overthrown in Jan. 1979. We'd be crazy to believe that the people who overthrew Persia's most ruthless dictator not be anti-American (since we installed that dictator). To this day I see people asking why Iran's government dislikes the US - "Do they hate us for our freedoms?" Taking this idea of "unintended consequences," Johnson talks specifically about East Asia and its history during the Cold War and after. In particular, he mentions Indonesia, Korea, China, and Japan.
I found the book very enlightening. Since 9/11 the US news and media's idea of international news coverage has been Middle-Eastern news coverage (except for natural disasters around the world and other frivolous events). Also, I went to public-school - I didn't know anything about Asia in the 19th and 20th centuries (and I took all AP history classes). So, there was this vacuum of knowledge about East Asia I had, which this book filled quite nicely.
Also mentioned in the book, briefly, are neoclassical economics, WTO, IMF, World Bank, 1997 economic crisis, Hungarian revolution, and the '73 Chilean coup as well as some other US interventions in the Middle-East.
Very informative, but drawn out and wordy............2007-08-04
This book is very informative and the first and last chapters are worth paying for the entire thing just to read them. Not the most Pro-American book I've ever read, but will give you an interesting take on things. Very in depth and revealing. Certainly shows how our American Empire can throw our weight around when necessary - and when not. Not bad, but a bit too wordy for me. Still good though.
Pull Your Head Out or Die With It In The Sand.......2007-07-17
This book deserves five stars, but I can tell you it's nothing like listening to this man speak in person. As in "Blowback" he lays it all out on the table. Sadly he says, "We just may have gone pass the point of no return." Americans now know that authors like Chalmers Johnson, Norm Chomsky, Webster Griffin Tarpley and Paul Waldman are not just over-educated nay sayers. We know that we're in real trouble, we just don't know what to do about it. If 9/11 proved nothing else, it proved that aircraft carriers, F16's, and smart bombs are useless against terrorists and apathy.
Dr. Johnson summarizes the status quo: "We have a strong civil society that could, in theory, overcome the entrenched interests of the armed forces and the military-industrial complex. At this late date, however, it is difficult to imagine how Congress, much like the Roman senate in the last days of the republic, could be brought back to life and cleansed of its endemic corruption. Failing such a reform, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution and vengeance, the punisher of pride and hubris, waits patiently for her meeting with us."
I am without the education to travel in the circles of the aforementioned authors, but I can in my own way address my fellow blue collar workers... The media has dubbed me one of America's most controversial writers. I think it's because I criticize my own party, the Republican Party, instead of the Democrats. This unorthodox approach of mine gives people the wrong idea about me. I don't hate predators. If there weren't hawks in this country, those in other countries would show up here. Do not misinterpret "Hawk" to mean I approve of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney and their Hermann Goering protégés in the Pentagon. Bush is a mouth and a pen; he's in a different league altogether than his vice president. Cheney is a vulgar, immoral, sadistic subhuman. Does that make me a Libertarian?
Book Description
Charlie Wilson's War was a publishing sensation and a New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times bestseller. In the early 1980s, a Houston socialite turned the attention of maverick Texas congressman Charlie Wilson to the ragged band of Afghan "freedom fighters" who continued, despite overwhelming odds, to fight the Soviet invaders. Wilson, who sat on the all-powerful House Appropriations Committee, managed to procure hundreds of millions of dollars to support the mujahideen. The arms were secretly procured and distributed with the help of an out-of-favor CIA operative, Gust Avrokotos, whose working-class Greek-American background made him an anomaly among the Ivy League world of American spies. Avrakotos handpicked a staff of CIA outcasts to run his operation and, with their help, continually stretched the Agency's rules to the breaking point. Moving from the back rooms of the Capitol, to secret chambers at Langley, to arms-dealers' conventions, to the Khyber Pass, this book presents an astonishing chapter of our recent past, and the key to understanding what helped trigger the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union and ultimately led to the emergence of a brand-new foe in the form of radical Islam.
Customer Reviews:
Hopefully, the movie doesn't screw up this story.......2007-10-05
There will be three main kinds of people who won't read this book. The first are those who see no reason for military intervention anywhere, ever. The second are those who are hypersensitive to any speaking of ethnicity, race, gender, etc., within a kilometer of earshot. The third are those who don't like long books, and "Charlie Wilson's War" is certainly longer than most. All this would be too bad, because the book is a wealth of little known and critical current history, as well as a real rip-snorting adventure. The most intriguing icing on the cake is that Charlie Wilson, one of the boldest and effective national-interest congressmen of the last century, was a Democrat. He was a Democrat who pushed Republicans forward for a decade, mostly to do the right things. How many right things, of course, remains to be seen in coming decades.
Much of the book is written in colloquial style, as the author reproduces many discussions among a very wide variety of people. This sometimes comes out sounding a little coarse, but the reader should see this quickly as a writer trying to be accurate. Charlie Wilson, the man himself, also might turn many readers off. He abused his body with food and drink, mostly drink; he was a maverick to the point of almost being a loose canon; wild, he certainly was. No one, though, can deny that he was one of those rarest of politicians. Here was a man who did not stop with saying what he wanted to do, he found ways to do what needed to be done. Then he kept at it, and at it. Here was a man of his word.
This interesting story suffers only a small weakness as a narrative, and only if the reader minds. The action chapter by chapter, even section by section, does not always tell us what was happening at the same time with other people, and at other places. Rather, the author likes to keep a thread of a theme or thought and follow it to the end. This can be irritating and a little confusing if you are trying to keep things straight for any particular group of years at a time. If this does not make a problem for reader, then so much the better. A last suggestion: this book goes down especially well by audio CD, and the voice narrator does well with dialogs and accents.
A great true story.......2007-10-04
This is a truly amazing tale. Never told until now and soon a movie. Buy this book and read the true story about how a "wild" congressman and a rogue CIA agent changed history. Better by far than all those fictional adventures!
four and 1/2 stars........2007-10-01
steve coll's excellent book "ghost wars" whet my reading appetite for more on the soviet war in afghanistan. since that military action, with the unanticipated consequences it spawned for the united states, was such a catalyst for the 9/11 attacks, it seems essential for an american to get a grip on what took place there. "charlie wilson's war" is a thrilling account of that international drama. though much of the book deals with funding america's covert involvement through congressional appropriation subcommittees, and with CIA office politics, the narrative is interesting page for page throughout this long work. not once did i find it a chore to continue, or feel an urge to skip past anything. george crile brings the colorful personalities of those involved to vivid life through his clear prose. he actually makes appropriation subcommitees, and their methods of work, interesting. and his portraits of afghanistan and pakistan, and their respective political environments and key political players, is brilliantly executed. the story is told completely from the american perspective, true. you will have to seek elsewhere for a more balanced view (by this i mean one that takes into account the soviet soldiers side of things). but this book being what it is, is a fascinating read, and one you can learn much from.
Great.......2007-09-08
One of the most intriguing stories of American foreign policy making. This book was recommended to me by a staffer for a military oriented Congressional committee. He was quite emphatic in stressing that this book, better than any other, offers a great perspective on the influence Congress can have on foreign and war policy. I don't know how representative it is of the day to day activities of members of Congress, but it certainly shows how a dedicated member of Congress CAN get seriously involved in an issue.
Charlie Wilson is one of the most interesting politicians to have walked on the stage in the past 50 years. Part JFK, Nixon, LBJ, and Clinton - both good and bad parts - Wilson was a smart and dedicated defender of CIA efforts to support the mujaheden in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. More than any supposed hardline conservative, including President Reagan, Wilson, a socially liberal Democrat from Texas, was the most agressive elected official to back the CIA in its anti-Soviet effort in Afghanistan. Wilson was also wildly able to get in the worst kinds of trouble: womanizing, drunk driving, and questionable uses of public money. I guess it goes to show that people are incredibly complex and contain a much more dynamic mix of good and bad within them. Kind of like the Incredible Hulk, but with less green.
Hard to read.......2007-08-29
Content was OK, I'm sure acurate, but about 210 pages into this 500+ page book I had to give in - I just couldn't make myself want to read it. I am only 31, so I do not know of Charlie Wilson, or the political temperature in the 80s, but this book was recommended to me so I tried, but couldn't make myself do it.
Books:
- Three Plums In One: One for the Money, Two for the Dough, Three to Get Deadly
- Three Worlds Gone Mad: Dangerous Journeys through the War Zones of Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific
- Tonight On The Titanic (Magic Tree House 17, paper)
- Turquoise Girl (Ella Clah)
- Victorian Costume for Ladies
- When the Dancing Stopped: The Real Story of the Morro Castle Disaster and Its Deadly Wake
- Whoosh Boom Splat: The Garage Warrior's Guide to Building Projectile Shooters
- World Cultures: A Global Mosaic
- World Cultures: A Global Mosaic
- 30 Days of Night
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Industrial Cowboys: Miller & Lux and the Transformation of the Far West, 1850-1920
- Encyclopedia of War and American Society
- Accounting for Managers: An Introduction to Financial and Management Accounting
- Black Is Still OK!
- Designing and Managing the Supply Chain w/ Student CD-Rom
- Feud: Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900
- CCEL Classics CD: works by Saint Augustine, John Calvin, John Donne, Julian of Norwich, Brother Lawr
- Miller International Accounting / Financial Reporting Standards Guide 2005
- Child support in Kentucky: Calculate the payments
- Chasing Cezanne: A Novel
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Water for Elephants: A Novel
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
