• Email
• Print
• Text size: A A A

On MADRE's Bookshelf:

A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide
Eric Reeves
The Key Publishing House Inc.; First Edition, 2007
Toronto, Canada

No one has covered the Darfur genocide more thoroughly and knowledgeably than Eric Reeves has. He has been the thorn in the conscience of policymakers, scholars, journalists and readers of The New Republic for several years with his erudite and provocative writings. This book collects the best of them with highly readable essays. Historians will rely on A Long Day's Dying for the in-depth analyses and critical judgments of every step taken, and not taken, during the years of atrocious crimes in Darfur.

Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer
By Phyllis Bennis
Olive Branch Press, 2007
Northampton, MA

If you have ever wondered "Why is there so much violence in the Middle East?" "What is Hamas?" "What are the occupied territories?" "Why do Nobel Peace Prize laureates Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter and others describe Israel's policies towards the Palestinians as 'apartheid'?" then this book is for you. With straightforward language, Phyllis Bennis, longtime analyst of the region, answers basic questions about Israel and Israelis, Palestine and Palestinians, the US and the Middle East, Zionism and anti-Semitism, and complex issues ranging from the Oslo peace process to the election of Hamas. Together her answers provide a comprehensive understanding of the longstanding Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Amnesty After Atrocity? Healing Nations after Genocide and War Crimes
Helena Cobban
Paradigm Publishers, 2007
Boulder, CO

In Amnesty after Atrocity?, veteran journalist Helena Cobban examines the effectiveness of different ways of dealing with the aftermath of genocide and violence committed during deep intergroup conflicts. She traveled to Rwanda, Mozambique, and South Africa to assess the various ways those nations tried to come to grips with their violent past: from war crimes trials to truth commissions to outright amnesties for perpetrators. She discovered that in terms of both moving these societies forward and satisfying the needs of survivors, war crimes trials are not the most effective path. This work provides strategic historical context and includes interviews with a cross-section of the panoply of humanity that makes up any post-atrocity society: community leaders, victims, policymakers, teachers, rights activists, and even some former abusers. These first-person accounts create a rich, readable text, and Cobban's overall conclusions will surprise many readers in the West.

The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World
By Vijay Prashad, edited by Howard Zinn
The New Press, 2007
New York, NY

In The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, Vijay Prashad offers a comprehensive narrative about the growth of the developing world as both a reality and a concept from the end of World War II—when former colonies were granted sovereignty—to the rise and fall of nationalist regimes. Though Prashad details major nationalists of the developing world, such as Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, emphasis is also placed on intellectual, artists, and other participants of the postcolonial development of these countries.

Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States and the Rise of the New Imperialism
Greg Grandin
Henry Holy and Company, Inc., 2006
New York, NY

Empires Workshop is the first book to show how Latin America has functioned as a laboratory for American extraterritorial rule. Historian Greg Grandin follows the United States imperial operations, from Thomas Jefferson's aspirations for an empire of liberty in Cuba and Spanish Florida, to Ronald Reagan's support for brutally oppressive but US-friendly regimes in Central America. He traces the origins of Bush's policies to Latin America, where many of the administration's leading lights John Negroponte, Elliott Abrams, Otto Reichfirst embraced the deployment of military power to advance free-market economics and first enlisted the evangelical movement in support of their ventures. With much of Latin America now in open rebellion against U.S. domination, Grandin concludes with a vital question: If Washington has failed to bring prosperity and democracy to Latin Americans' own backyard workshop what are the chances it will do so for the world?

The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power
James Traub
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2006
New York, NY

In The Best Intentions, James Traub recounts the dramatically entwined history of Kofi Annan and the UN from 1992 to the present. In Annan he sees a conscientious idealist given too little credit for advancing causes like humanitarian intervention and an honest broker crushed between American conservatives and Third World opponents—but also a UN careerist who has absorbed that culture and can not, in the end, escape its limitations.

Transforming the Revolution: Social Movements and the World-System
Samir Amin, Giovanni Arrighi, Andre Gunder Frank, and Immanuel Wallerstein
Aakar Books, 2006
Delhi, India

In this volume, the authors engage in a provocative discussion of the history and contemporary dilemmas facing the movements that are variously described as antisystemic, social or popular. The authors believe that these movements, which have for the past 150 years protested and organized against the multiple injustices of the existing system, are the key locus of social transformation. While the authors' points of agreement are many, so are their points of divergence. In the final chapter, they outline both, and discuss the ways in which these movements are transforming the revolutionary process itself.

Faces of Latin America
Duncan Green
Monthly Review Press; ed. 3, 2006
New York, NY

Faces of Latin America celebrates the vibrant history and culture of Latin America's people. Duncan Green takes the reader beyond the conventional media coverage of the drug trade, corrupt politicians and military leaders, death squads, or guerrilla movements familiar to us on the nightly news. Faces of Latin America examines some of the key forces—from conquest and the growth of the commodity trade, military rule, land distribution, industrialization and migration to civil wars, the debt crisis, neoliberalism and NAFTA—shaping the region's political and social history. Green also analyzes the response to these transformations—the rise of freedom fighters and populists, guerrilla wars and grassroots social movements, union organizing and trade movements, liberation theology, and the women's movement, sustainable development and the fight for the rainforest, popular culture and the mass media—providing a fascinating and unparalleled portrait of the continent.

Humanitarian Imperialism
Jean Bricmont
Monthly Review Press, 2006
New York,NY

Since the end of the Cold War, the idea of human rights has been made into a justification for intervention by the world's leading economic and military powers—above all, the United States—in countries that are vulnerable to their attacks. The criteria for such intervention have become more arbitrary and self-serving, and their form more destructive, from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan to Iraq. Until the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the large parts of the left was often complicit in this ideology of intervention—discovering new "Hitlers" as the need arose, and denouncing antiwar arguments as appeasement on the model of Munich in 1938. Jean Bricmont's Humanitarian Imperialism is both a historical account of this development and a powerful political and moral critique. It seeks to restore the critique of imperialism to its rightful place in the defense of human rights. It describes the leading role of the United States in initiating military and other interventions, but also on the obvious support given to it by European powers and NATO. It outlines an alternative approach to the question of human rights, based on the genuine recognition of the equal rights of people in poor and wealthy countries.

Socialist Register 2006: Telling the Truth
Leo Panitch and Colin Leys
Monthly Review Press, 2006
New York, NY

Socialist Register 2006: Telling the Truth examines how contemporary social and political debate is structured, how ideas and ideologies come to inform policy making, research, education, and our conceptions of truth more generally. It also discusses the role of the state in intellectual life and the media, and the role of think-tanks, foundations, political parties and global institutions such as the World Bank in the dissemination of knowledge and ideas. Such questions are not always at the center of public debate, but are essential to establishing freedom for critical thought and reflection and for the formation of a new generation of intellectuals.

The Cold War and the New Imperialism: A Global History, 1945-2005
Henry Heller
Monthly Reivew Press, 2006
New York, NY

The Cold War and the New Imperialism is an account of global history since 1945, which ties together the narrative of the Cold War to that of neoliberalism and the new imperialism in ways that illuminate and clarify the dilemmas of the present moment. Written for the general reader, it draws together scholarly research on a huge range of events, countries, and topics into an intelligible whole. The sixty-year period since the end of World War II has seen the world remade. The war itself mobilized the political and social aspirations of hundreds of millions of people around the world. The contest between the United States and the Soviet Union for global dominance drew every country into its field of force. Struggles for national liberation in the Third World brought an end to colonial empires. Since the end of the Cold War the forces of the capitalist market have overwhelmed social institutions that have given meaning to human existence for centuries.But the end of the Cold war has created as many problems for the world's remaining superpower, the United States, as it has solved. With its political, economic, and financial hegemony eroding, the United States has responded with military adventures abroad and increasing inequality and authoritarianism at home. The Cold War draws all these threads together and shows vividly that the end of history is not in sight.

The Progressives' Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now, Vol. 1
Heather Wokusch
BookSurge Publishing, 2006
Charleston, SC

In two powerful volumes, Heather Wokusch explores contemporary attacks on US democracy, providing hard facts and targeted action tips. Volume 1 focuses on US Weapons of Mass Destruction, Women's Issues, Education and Mainstream Media. The book covers topics including the linking of military psy-ops with daily news, incompetence and unaccountability in US biological weapons programs and at nuclear-weapons plants, the hiding and distorting of information critical to women, taxpayer dollars being used to produce reactionary propaganda and educational cutbacks and rollbacks. Wokusch connects dots the mainstream media ignores and provides concrete tips on locating domestic WMD facilities, supporting reproductive rights, fighting educational cutbacks, promoting progressive media and a whole lot more.

The Progressives' Handbook: Get the Facts and Make a Difference Now, Vol. 2
Heather Wokusch
BookSurge Publishing, 2006
Charleston, SC

In two powerful volumes, Heather Wokusch explores contemporary attacks on US democracy, providing hard facts and targeted action tips. Volume 2 focuses on Elections & Voting, Environment and Foreign Policy. The book covers topics including corruption and vote-rigging in the US electoral system, assaults on domestic environmental protections, war crimes charges against Bush and Blair, the systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans and the marginalizing of female candidates, tactics used to keep the US public unaware of environmental rollbacks and causes behind the sharp increase in global terrorism. The Progressives' Handbook Volume 2 fills in blanks the mainstream media ignores and provides solid tips on protecting your vote, helping the environment, counteracting the Bush administration's war-based foreign policy and much, much more.

The Struggle for Sovereignty: Palestine and Israel, 1993-2005
Edited by Joel Beinin and Rebecca L. Stein
Stanford University Press, 2006
Stanford, California

Joel Beinin's and Rebecca L. Stein's The Struggle for Sovereignty brings together essays from prominent scholars and journalists who analyze the social and political changes in Palestine and Israel from the Oslo Accords. From the uneven social, security, and economic impacts after the Accords to the second intifada to Yasser Arafat's death, the essays address the political economy of the Oslo process, United States foreign policy, social movements and political activism, and the interplay between cultural and political-economic processes.

The Foreign Policy Disconnect
By Benjamin Page
University of Chicago Press, 2006
Chicago, IL

With world affairs so troubled, what kind of foreign policy should the United States pursue? Benjamin Page and Marshall Bouton look for answers in a surprising place: among the American people. Drawing on a series of national surveys conducted between 1974 and 2004, Page and Bouton reveal that—contrary to conventional wisdom—Americans generally hold durable, coherent, and sensible opinions about foreign policy. Nonetheless, their opinions often stand in opposition to those of policymakers, usually because of different interests and values, rather than superior wisdom among the elite. The Foreign Policy Disconnect argues that these gaps between leaders and the public are harmful, and that by using public opinion as a guideline policymakers could craft a more effective, sustainable, and democratic foreign policy

Page and Bouton support this argument by painting a uniquely comprehensive portrait of the military, diplomatic, and economic foreign policies Americans favor. They show, for example, that protecting American jobs is just as important to the public as security from attack, a goal the current administration seems to pursue single-mindedly. And contrary to some officials' unilateral tendencies, the public consistently and overwhelmingly favors cooperative multilateral policy and participation in international treaties. Moreover, Americans' foreign policy opinions are seldom divided along the usual lines: majorities of virtually all social, ideological, and partisan groups seek a policy that pursues the goals of security and justice through cooperative means. Written in a clear and engaging style, The Foreign Policy Disconnect calls, in an original voice, for a more democratic approach to creating such a policy.

Foreign Aid: Diplomacy, Development, Domestic Policies
By Carol Lancaster
University of Chicago Press, 2006
Chicago, IL

A twentieth-century innovation, foreign aid has become a familiar and even expected element in international relations. But scholars and government officials continue to debate why countries provide it: some claim that it is primarily a tool of diplomacy, some argue that it is largely intended to support development in poor countries, and still others point out its myriad newer uses. Carol Lancaster effectively puts this dispute to rest here by providing the most comprehensive answer yet to the question of why governments give foreign aid. She argues that because of domestic politics in aid-giving countries, it has always been—and will continue to be—used to achieve a mixture of different goals. Drawing on her expertise in both comparative politics and international relations and on her experience as a former public official, Lancaster provides five in-depth case studies—the United States, Japan, France, Germany, and Denmark—that demonstrate how domestic politics and international pressures combine to shape how and why donor governments give aid. In doing so, she explores the impact on foreign aid of political institutions, interest groups, and the ways governments organize their giving. Her findings provide essential insight for scholars of international relations and comparative politics, as well as anyone involved with foreign aid or foreign policy.

Global Biopiracy: Patents, Plants, And Indigenous Knowledge
By Ikechi Mgbeoji
The New Press, 2006
New York, NY

In Global Biopiracy: Patents, Plans, and Indigenous Knowledge, Ikechi Mgbeoji considers the oft-studied cultural cleavage between Western corporations and developing countries by studying the effects of Western biotechnological patents on the agricultural sectors of the developing world. Mgbeoji bases his research in an assertion that the West and the Third World are fundamentally different, with the former having misconceptions and biases that shapes its treatment of the latter.

Accusing Western corporations of engaging in biopiracy, or the appropriation and subsequent destruction of local agricultural knowledge and techniques, Mgbeoji argues that such actions result in the marginalization of local cultures. MgBeoji also examines the interplay between what he deems an unfair patent process and established international law, thereby condemning not only Western corporations but also international organizations for the loss of human cultures and plant diversity in the Third World.

Unexpected Power: Conflict and Change among Transnational Activists
By Shareen Hertel
The New Press, 2006
New York, NY

In Unexpected Power: Conflict and Change among Transnational Activists, Shareen Hertel writes about the consequences of the globalization of human rights on issues of economic exploitation. Using an anti-child labor campaign in Bangladesh and an anti-discrimination campaign in Mexico as his case studies, Hertel examines the interactions between local grassroots organizations and foreign non-governmental and activist organizations.

While local organizations are grateful for powerful foreign allies, they are increasingly selective about the types of campaigns exported into their countries. What Hertel finds is that the ensuing dialogue between the global and local organizations often causes a reevaluation of human rights norms and a greater understanding of the needs of developing countries.

Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dialogues on Terror, Democracy, War, and Justice
Edited by Noam Chomsky, Gilbert Achcar, and Stephen R. Shalom
Paradigm Publishers, 2006
Herndon, VA

Noam Chomsky and Gilbert Achcar, two leading scholars of US foreign policy and the Middle East enter into a dialogue about current issues concerning the Middle East in Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dialogues on Terror, Democracy, War, and Justice. Chomsky and Achcar use their knowledge of the history and politics of the region to shed light on a broad range of topics, including the Iraq War, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and religious fundamentalism in the region, as an introduction to understanding the Middle East.

Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth about North Korea, Iran, and Syria
By Bruce Cumings, Ervand Abrahamian, and Moshe Ma'Oz
The New Press, 2006
New York, NY

In Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth about North Korea, Iran, and Syria, Bruce Cumings, Ervand Abrahamian, and Moshe Ma'Oz, each an expert on one of the aforementioned countries, seek to explain the history and politics of three countries that, despite their prominence in current US foreign policy, are unfamiliar to US citizens. Cumings, Abrahamian, and Ma'Oz provide factual evidence as a counterargument to the fear-mongering propaganda that currently pervades the perceptions US citizens have about North Korea, Iran, and Syria.

The Health of Nations: Why Inequality is Harmful to Your Health
By Ichiro Kawachi and Bruce P. Kennedy
The New Press, 2006
New York, NY

In The Health of Nations: Why Inequality is Harmful to Your Health, Ichiro Kawachi and Bruce P. Kennedy use research on the links between social structures and health to illustrate the effects of economic inequality on the health and personal welfare of US citizens. Despite the prosperity of the capitalist United States, Kawachi and Kennedy argue that the poor remain poor while the rich, though extremely wealthy, have turned into an isolated, idle class; the former do not have access to proper healthcare, while the latter unsuccessfully try to buy their happiness.

When the Rivers Run Dry: Water—The Defining Crisis of the Twenty-First Century
By Fred Pearce
Beacon Press, 2006
Boston, MA

In When the Rivers Run Dry, Fred Pearce offers a sweeping look at the complex scientific, economic, and historical issues behind the global water crisis. In his interviews with engineers, hydrologists, biologists, conservationists, economists, academics, and everyday people, Pearce reveals the impulse behind and the harm caused by unrestrained damming and diverting of rivers. Pearce chronicles not only the drying of rivers, but the lengths gone in order to control and use water.

Empire's Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism
By Greg Grandin
Metropolitan Books, 2006
New York, NY

In his new book, Empire's Workshop, Greg Grandin argues that it was in Central and South America where the current governing elite and leaders of the New Right came to embrace the cause of "nation-building." Grandin shows that Latin America has functioned as a laboratory for America's rise to global power.

Human Rights: Concepts, Contests, Contingencies
By Austin Sarat and Thomas Kearns
University of Michigan Press, 2006
Ann Arbor, MI

In Human Rights, Austin Sarat and Thomas Kearns compile essays that explore the attraction and criticism of human rights. Their book addresses questions about human rights that help us to rethink some of the basic concepts of human rights.

Dark & Light: A Love Story
By Michael Laser
Permanent Press, 2006
New York, NY

In Dark and Light, Michael Laser examines the complexities of America's prejudices through the love story of Carese and Edmund. As the novel unfolds, Laser's brutally honest depiction of race relations and bridging the gap exposes Carese's and Edmund's hidden prejudices, weaknesses and strengths. Their story becomes and exploration of the social, racial and cultural divides in America.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
By John Perkins
Plume Trade Paperback, 2006
New York City, New York

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man exposes the little-known inner workings of a system that fosters globalization and leads to the impoverishment of millions of people across the planet. It is a compelling story that also offers hope and a vision for realizing that the American dream of a just and compassionate world that will bring us greater security.

The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
By Chalmers Johnson
Metropolitan Books, 2006
New York City, New York

In The Sorrows of Empire, Johnson takes a historical look at the roots of American militarism, the rise of the military–industrial complex, and the close ties between arms industry executives and high–level politicians. Johnson claims that, unlike past global powers, the US has built an empire of bases rather than colonies, creating in the process a government that is obsessed with maintaining absolute military dominance over the world. He examines how the military has extended the boundaries of national security in order to centralize intelligence agencies, and how statesmen have been replaced by career soldiers on the front lines of foreign policy—a shift that naturally increases the frequency with which we go to war. Johnson's persuasive book evinces copious research and adds much to the debate about the direction of US influence in the world.

The Anarchy of Empire in the Making of the U.S. Culture
By Amy Kaplan
Harvard University Press, 2006
Cambridge, Boston

In her book, The Anarchy of Empire, Amy Kaplan shows how US imperialism—from "Manifest Destiny» to the "American Century»—has profoundly shaped key elements of American culture at home, and how the struggle for power over foreign peoples and places has disrupted the quest for domestic order. In literature, journalism, film, political speeches, and legal documents, Kaplan traces the undeniable connections between US efforts to quell anarchy abroad and the eruption of such anarchy at the heart of the empire.

Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
By Stephen Kinzer
Times Books, 2006
New York City, New York

In Overthrow, Stephen Kinzer examines American foreign policy through an important and timely perspective—a cautionary tale as the United States struggles to define its role in today's world.

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community
By David C. Korten
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006
San Francisco, California

In The Great Turning, David Korten argues that corporate consolidations of power is merely a contemporary manifestation of what he defines as "Empire"—the organization of society by hierarchies of domination grounded in violent chauvinisms of race, gender, religion, nationality, language, and class. He aruges that we could turn a potentially terminal crisis into an opportunity to bring forth a new era of Earth commmunity grounded in life-affirming cultural values.

Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power
By Phyllis Bennis. Forward by Danny Glover
Olive Branch Press, 2006
Redford, Michigan

In Challenging Empire, Phyllis Bennis lays out the historic context for the war in Iraq and the Bush administration's quest for empire. At the same time, she offers a framework for success in the global movement against war and examines the potential challenges ahead in reclaiming the UN as part of the global peace movement.

Dilemmas of Domination: The Unmaking of the American Empire
By Walden Bellow
Metropolitan Books, 2006
New York, New York

From the acclaimed globalization critic comes a far-reaching analysis of America's military, economic, and political vulnerability. A clear and prophetic examination, Dilemmas of Domination reveals a not-too-distant future in which the empire's hidden weakness will yield fatal challenges to America's omnipotence.

Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism
Edited by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans. Forward by Alice Walker
Inner Ocean Publishing, Inc., 2006
Maui, Hawaii

Stop the Next War Now is a reflective look and call to action to end violence, by acclaimed peace activists, experts and visionaries, including Eve Ensler, Barbara Lee, Arianna Huffington, Janeane Garofalo, Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Hong Kingston, and many more. The book shares insights on the issues concerning the interconnectedness of war and the media, politicians, global militarization, and the pending scarcity of natural resources.

Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out
Edited by Fawzia Afzal-Khan
Interlink Publishing, 2006
Northampton, Massachusetts

Muslim women writers and scholars from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds—most working in the US in the humanities and social sciences—offer their own representations of Muslim women in through essays, poems, journalism, religious discourses, fiction, and plays.

Fundamentalism and American Culture, 2nd Edition
By George M. Marsden
Oxford University Press, 2006
New York City, New York

George Marsden's classic, Fundamentalism and American Culture, has never been more relevent than it is now. His carefully researched and engrossing history of American Protestant fundamentalism provides invaluable insight into the motivations of our rapidly polarizing nation.

The New Citizenship: Unconventional Politics, Activism and Service
Craig Rimmerman
Westview Press, 2005
New York, NY

The New Citizenship builds on the participatory democratic vision of the 1960s. Arguing that civic effort must go beyond merely voting, Craig Rimmerman examines grassroots mobilization, community activism, service learning, and the Internet as potential tools for confronting the breakdown of civility in US politics. At the heart of The New Citizenship are the questions: Why do so many Americans fail to participate in their communities' affairs? What role should the citizenry play in our political system? In addressing these concerns, the text both evaluates the dilemma of participation, civility, and stability at a time when civic indifference is a national problem and outlines its sources, suggesting ways in which Americans can conquer their apathy toward government.

Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace
Vandana Shiva
South End Press, 2005
Cambridge, MA

Boldly confronting the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, world-renowned physicist and activist Vandana Shiva responds with Earth Democracy, or, as she prophetically names it, "The People's Project for a New Planetary Millennium." A leading voice in the struggle for global justice and sustainability, here Shiva describes what earth democracy could look like, outlining the bedrock principles for building living economies, living cultures and living democracies. From struggles on the streets of Seattle and Cancun and in homes and farms around the world, a set of principles has grown based on inclusion, nonviolence, reclaiming the commons and freely sharing the earth's resources. These ideals, which Shiva calls "earth democracy," will serve as unifying points in our current movements, an urgent call to peace and the basis for a just and sustainable future.

Recovering the Sacred
Winona LaDuke
South End Press, 2005
Cambridge, MA

Using a wealth of Native American research and hundreds of interviews with indigenous scholars and activists, LaDuke examines the connections between sacred objects and the sacred bodies of her people-past, present and future-focusing more closely on the conditions under which traditional beliefs can best be practiced. Describing the plentiful gaps between mainstream and indigenous thinking, she probes the paradoxes that abound for the native people of the Americas. How, for instance, can the indigenous imperative to honor the Great Salt Mother be carried out when mining threatens not only access to Nevada's Great Salt Lake but the health of the lake water itself? While Congress has belatedly moved to protect most Native American religious expression, it has failed to protect the places and natural resources integral to the ceremonies.

The New American Empire: A 21st-Century Teach-In on U.S. Foreign Policy
Edited by Lloyd C. Gardner and Marilyn B. Young
The New Press, 2005
New York, NY

A collection of essays, The New American Empire: A 21st-Century Teach-in on U.S. Foreign Policy explores the development of unilateralism in US foreign policy. Approaching the topic from many angles, the featured scholars explain the history of US unilateralism, the uniqueness of the current administration's policies, and the benefits certain groups reap from modern US imperialism.

Speaking of Empire and Resistance: Conversations with Tariq Ali
By Tariq Ali and David Barsamian
The New Press, 2005
New York, NY

In Speaking of Empire and Resistance: Conversations with Tariq Ali, Ali himself, a political thinker and activist, is interviewed about several topics concerning the Middle East, including terrorism, the war in Iraq, and US militarism and imperialism in the region.

War Without End: America Ensnared?
By Bruno Tertrais, translated by Franklin Philip
The New Press, 2005
New York, NY

In War Without End: America Ensnared?, Bruno Tertrais traces the development of neoconservatism as the predominant force behind US foreign policy and the war in Iraq. Examining the assumptions of the neoconservatives Tetrais concludes that the US's misperceptions about the Middle East and about its own military and political power have trapped it in a war that cannot be won and tarnished the relationship between the US and Europe.

Bush-League Spectacles: Empire, Politics, and Culture in Bushwhacked America
By Fran Shor
Factory School, 2005

Shor's discourse focuses on spectacles—those of empire, of politics, and of culture—used by the Bush administration to control the debate, fashion opinion with a messianic, evangelical mission of "civilizing" the world, class exploitation, political repression, and the hyper-militarization of US society. Rigorous connections are made among disparate events such as sexploitation on TV, the commodification of sexuality, the culture of deadly violence at home and abroad, and the ever-present corporate profits. Shor shows the links between the military-industrial complex and the seemingly unquenchable drive to control natural resources worldwide.

Where Human Rights Begin: Health, Sexuality, and Women in the New Millennium
By Wendy Chavkin and Ellen Chesler
Rutgers University Press, 2005
Piscataway, New Jersey

This book brings together eight wide-reaching and provocative essays that examine the practical and theoretical issues of reproductive health policy and implementation. Contributors assess the impact of policies that have been initiated and consider future directions that governments must take in order to translate visionary ideas into actual achievements.

Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War
By Retort
Verso Press, 2005
New York City, New York

A radical Bay Area collective delivers a comprehensive analysis of the new phase of America's imperial project since September 11, 2001. Equal parts analysis and manifesto, Afflicted Powers looks at the world and finds resonant themes in the spectacle of September 11, blood for oil, permanent war, the US-Israel alliance, revolutionary Islam, modernity, terror, and consumerism.

Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East
By Rashid Khalidi
Beacon Press, 2005
Boston, Massachusetts

Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University, offers a concise look at the modern history of western intervention in the Middle East and how this troubled course has affected the perspectives of the people who live there. He examines how the people of the Middle East have come to regard foreign influence, and how years of European occupation have led to a deep-seated suspicion that associates western rhetoric about democracy with ulterior imperialistic motives. Khalidi underscores how these long-standing attitudes might effect the newest phase of American involvement there.

The Dispossessed: Chronicles of the Desterrados of Colombia
By Alfredo Molano. Preface by Aviva Chompsky
Haymarket Books, 2005
Chicago, Illinois

Here in their own word are the stories of the desterrados, or "dispossessed," the thousands of Colombians displaced by years of war and state-backed terrorism, funded in part through US aid to the Columbian government.

The Liberal Virus
Samir Amin
Pluto Press, 2004
London, UK

Samir Amin's ambitious new book argues that the ongoing American project to dominate the world through military force has its roots in European liberalism, but has developed certain features of liberal ideology in a new and uniquely dangerous way. Where European political culture since the French Revolution has given a central place to values of equality, the American state has developed to serve the interests of capital alone, and is now exporting this model throughout the world. American imperialism, Amin argues, will be far more barbaric than earlier forms of imperialism, pillaging natural resources and destroying the lives of the poor. The Liberal Virus examines the ways in which the American model is being imposed on the world, and outlines its economic and political consequences. It shows how both citizenship and class consciousness are diluted in "low-intensity democracy" and argues instead for democratization as an ongoing process—of fundamental importance for human progress—rather than a fixed constitutional formula designed to support the logic of capital accumulation.

Against Empire: Feminisms, Racism and the West
By Zillah Eisenstein
ZED Books, 2004
London, England

In Against Empire, Zillah Eisenstein extends her critique of neoliberal globalization in the face of an aggressive American empire. She looks to a global anti-war movement to counter US power and expose the fiction of the so-called West. Hope for a more peaceful, more just, and happier world lies, she believes, in the understandings and activism of the women of the world.

Towards an Open Tomb: The Crisis of Israeli Society
Michel Warschawski
Monthly Review Press, 2004
New York, NY

Since the breakdown of the Oslo peace process in 2000 and the beginning of the second Intifada, conflict has escalated in Israel/Palestine and come to seem irreversible. The overwhelming power of the Israeli military has been unleashed against a largely defenseless population in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza, driving Palestinians to despair and to desperate measures of retaliation. Warschawski focuses especially on the effects of the occupation on the occupiers—that is, on Israeli society—rather than its victims. He describes the atrocities of the occupation—from the sack of Ramallah to the massacre in Jenin, the razing of houses and refugee camps, shooting at ambulances and hospitals, the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields—showing how each of these pushes back the boundaries of what was previously thinkable. He documents the resulting shifts in Israeli political thought, citing Ariel Sharon, army officers and even rabbis who begin by describing Palestinians as Nazis and end by relying on the German army's tactics for subjugating the Warsaw ghetto. Toward an Open Tomb seeks to explain the forces within Israeli society and culture that are leading to this self-defeating result.

The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq
By Christian Parenti, photographs by Teru Kuwayama
The New Press, 2004
New York, NY

Writing about a post-war Iraq few media outlets portray, Christian Parenti uses his own first-hand experiences with US troops, Coalition Authority officials, citizens, and insurgency groups in Iraq for the journalistic account in The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq. Parenti's interviews with and infiltration into key groups in Iraq illuminates a side of the occupation that includes working-class soldiers who don't support the war in which they are involved, corrupt officials presiding over the rebuilding of the country, and the reactions of Iraqi citizens to the US occupation.

The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex
By Helen Caldicott
The New Press, 2004
New York, NY

A revised edition with a new introduction, Helen Caldicott's The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex provides a comprehensive overview of the costs of nuclear proliferation and war in general and the Iraq War specifically. Exposing the ties between corporations and military build-up, including the conflict of interest that arises when Bush administration members with investments in weapons manufacturing corporations push for more war, Caldicott seeks not to attack the military but to question the strong, codependent connection between the military and arms industry.

The Maze of Fear: Security and Migration after 9/11
By John Tirman
The New Press, 2004
New York, NY

In The Maze of Fear: Security and Migration after 9/11, John Tirman approaches the topics of migration and national security from a range of angles: the threat to civil liberties, the status of refugees, terrorist states, and the impact of 9/11 on immigrants and the Arab and Muslim communities in the US. Because the government has only recently realized the safety issues and problems posed by relatively unchecked migration, Tirman argues, the debate between national security and freedom of migration will be a constant in domestic policy for years to come.

Empire of Capital
Ellen Meiksins Wood
Verso, 2003
New York, New York

Ellen Meiksins Wood, a professor at York University in Toronto and an orthodox economic determinist, argues that the source of an empire's wealth drives its military, administrative and ideological practices. She distinguishes between the Roman "empire of property," a land-based system that stimulated unending territorial conquest; the Arab, Venetian and Dutch "empires of commerce," dedicated to the protection of trade routes and market dominance; and the British "empire of capital," marked by the imposition of market imperatives on conquered territories. The book culminates with a study of what Wood describes as the "new imperialism we call globalization." Challenging those critics of globalization who emphasize the role of corporations and international institutions like the World Bank, Wood says that the capitalist system is more than ever reliant on nation-states to maintain order, with the United States acting as the great imperial enforcer. Wood believes that the inevitable end of a system of universal capitalism is a system of universal war, which is how she sees the new doctrine put forth by the Bush administration in the name of fighting terrorism.

Politicide: The Real Legacy of Ariel Sharon
By Baruch Kimmerling
Verso Books, 2003
New York, NY

One of Israel's well-known leftist academics, Baruch Kimmerling trains his polemical sights here on Ariel Sharon. Israel's prime minister, he argues, is pursuing "politicide," which he defines as activities designed to "destroy the political national existence of a whole community of people and thus deny it the possibility of self-determination." This policy, Kimmerling says, has long been Sharon's goal, whether as a daring commander in retaliatory raids during the 1950s, in the 1982 Lebanon war or in his policies as prime minister. Sharon, he argues, is using the latest peace plan—the Bush administration-backed "road map"—as a pretext: he is counting on the Palestinians to give him an excuse to further his aims. The 1967 Six-Day War is the critical moment in Kimmerling's analysis. Israel's victory in that war gave it control over the West Bank and emboldened nationalists and messianists to blind themselves to the Palestinians and their fundamental rights. As a result, both sides have become locked into mindsets that preclude a satisfactory peace treaty.

Imperial Brotherhood: Gender and the Making of Cold War Foreign Policy
By Robert D. Dean
University of Massachusetts Press, 2003
Amherst, MA

In Imperial Brotherhood: Gender and the Making of Cold War Foreign Policy, Robert D. Dean reconsiders the motives for the Vietnam War in economic and gender terms. Considering the shared background of the nation's policymakers, Dean argues that US foreign policy during the Cold War was a product of masculine bravado and upper-class ideals.

Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water
By Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke
The New Press, 2003
New York, NY

In Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water, Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke expose how large corporations are rapidly monopolizing and depleting the world's fresh-water supply. With profits in mind, these corporations have raised prices and turned water into a commodity, causing untold effects on the world's population and ecological situation. Recognizing that the water industry is unregulated and lacks any effective oversight, Barlow and Clarke argue that this natural resource must be protected against corporate intrusion.

Valiant Women in War and Exile: Thirty-Eight True Stories
By Sally Hayton-Keeva
Washington State University Press, 2003
Pullman, Washington

This timeless collection of women's personal accounts poses powerful questions particularly relevant today. The stories come from women with diverse political loyalties and range from pre-World War I Europe to Central America in the 1980s. They are told by women in combat, social workers in refugee camps, nuns and nurses; but also by mothers, daughters, and wives who have been victims, survivors, and leaders by women who took active command of their lives, dealt with grief, terror, and loss, and did what had to be done.

Loving in the War Years
By Cherríe Moraga
South End Press, 2000
Cambridge, MA

Cherríe Moraga has added a new generational perspective to her classic collection of essays and poetry, Loving in the War Years. The four new essays in this expanded edition are written in a voice nearly a generation older than that which echoes off the pages Moraga first wrote in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The original section of Loving paints a vivid portrait of Moraga's coming-of-age as a Chicana and a lesbian at a time when the political merging of those two identities was severely censured. The new section is testimony to the complexity of identity politics in the time of the Right, as Leftists of all stripes aimed to harness their hard-won self-knowledge and safe territory in the struggle to build power across their constituencies. Maintaining her focus on issues of race, sexuality, ideology, and political power, Moraga's posture is now closer to that of a zen warrior than a street-fighter, but her passionate engagement with life remains as intimate, insightful, and controversial as ever. Weaving together poetry and prose, Spanish and English, family history and political theory, Loving in the War Years has been a classic in the feminist and Chicano canon since its 1983 release. The war years continue, and loving still resides in the uncensored word. The silenced sentence—lo que nunca pasò por sus labios—once spoken, inspires insurrection.

Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars
By Kristin L. Hoganson
Yale University Press, 2000
New Haven, CT

In Fighting for American Manhood: How Gender Politics Provoked the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars, Kristin L. Hoganson seeks to answer the question of why the United States would start a war with imperialist Spain to liberate Cuba, to only a few years later become imperialists themselves in the Philippines. While other authors have considered political, economic, and racial reasons, Hoganson uses gender and its influence on US culture to argue that both wars were a proving ground for American masculinity.

Between Woman and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms, and the State
Edited by Caren Kaplan, Norma Alarcon, Minoo Moallem
Duke University Press, 1999
Durham, NC

Leading scholars explore the constructions of nationalism, homeland, country, region, and locality through a gendered lens in Between Woman and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms and the State, edited by Caren Kaplan, Norma Alarcon, and Minoo Moallem. The collection of essays begins with the examination of constructions of nationalism and communities whose practices complicate these constructions. The following section discusses regulations of specific nation-states and how they affect the lives of women; while the final section offers studies of transnational identity formation. Between Woman and Nation tackles controversial topics such as "multicultural nationalism" and "global feminism," arguing that such movements and concepts inadequately represent women's interests.

Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Vandana Shiva
South End Press, 1999
Cambridge, MA

In Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking Of The Global Food Supply, renowned environmental activist Vandana Shiva charts the impact of globalized, corporate agriculture on small farmers, the environment, and the quality of the food we eat. Shiva writes about genetically engineered seeds, patents on life, mad cows (and sacred cows), shrimp farming, and more. Stolen Harvest is a passionate, articulate, highly recommended "wake up" call to the public regarding the role of genetic engineering in commercial agriculture, the growing domination of agribusiness with respect to world food supplies, and the need for sound environmental thinking with respect to feeding the burgeoning populations of the world.

Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations
By Katharine H. S. Moon
Columbia University Press, 1997
New York, New York

Sex Among Allies is a contemporary historical narrative that demonstrates how Korean prostitutes in the 1970s served as hidden instruments of US-Korean high level military policies. Relying on US and Korean archives, and interviews with government officials, social workers, and prostitutes, Moon outlines how the US and Korea manipulated Korean sex workers—controlling where, when, and how they worked and lived—and used them to create and reinforce joint security arrangements and international negotiations. Moon's work details how a Cold War alliance was maintained without concern for women's personal security or physical well-being.

Fundamentalism and Society: Reclaiming the Sciences, the Family and Education
Edited by Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby
University of Chicago Press, 1997
Chicago, Illinois

Fundamentalisms and Society shows how fundamentalist movements have influenced human relations, education, women's rights, and scientific research in over a dozen nations. Drawn from the fields of anthropology, sociology, history of religion, and history of science, the contributors cover topics such as the educational structures of Hindu revivalism, women in fundamentalist Iran and Pakistan, and the creationist cosmos of Protestant fundamentalism.

The Making of Iran's Islamic Revolution: From Monarchy to Islamic Republic
Mohsen Milani
Westview Press, 1994
New York, NY

In this fully revised and expanded second edition, Mohsen Milani offers new insights into the causes and profound consequences of Iran's Islamic Revolution. Drawing on dozens of personal interviews with the officials of the Islamic Republic and on recently released documents, he presents a provocative analysis of the dynamics and characteristics of factional politics in Islamic Iran. Among the new issues covered are the events leading up to the Teheran hostage crisis, Ayatollah Khomeini's life and writings, President Rafsanjani's activities against the Shah, Rafsanjani's recent reforms, Iran's involvement in the Kuwaiti crisis, and the domestic and foreign policy challenges facing Iran in the post-Cold War era.

Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in a Modern Muslim Society
By Fatima Mernissi
Indiana University Press, 1987
Bloomington, Indiana

Drawing on popular source material, Mernissi explores the disorientating effects of modern life on gender relations, looks at the male-female unit as a basic element of the structure of the Muslim system and analyses the sexual dynamics of the Muslim world.

Teen Voices
Women Express, Inc
Boston, Massachusetts

Notice that Teen magazines don't have much to say? There is an alternative! Written by and for teen women with more on their minds than fashion and celebrity gossip, Teen Voices has been promoting social change and a healthier self-image for over ten years.