Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Demon in Democracy -...

  Ryszard Legutko

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Ryszard Legutko lived and suffered under communism for decades—and he fought with the Polish ant-communist movement to abolish it. Having lived for two decades under a liberal democracy, however, he has discovered that these two political systems have a lot more in common than one might think. They both stem from the same historical roots in early modernity, and accept similar presuppositions about history, society, religion, politics, culture, and human nature.In The Demon in Democracy, Legutko explores the shared objectives between these two political systems, and explains how liberal democracy has over time lurched towards the same goals as communism, albeit without Soviet-style brutality.Both systems, says Legutko, reduce human nature to that of the common man, who is led to believe himself liberated from the obligations of the past. Both the communist man and the liberal democratic man refuse to admit that there exists anything of value outside the political systems to which they pledged their loyalty. And both systems refuse to undertake any critical examination of their ideological prejudices.

  Show book

• 

  Kill Khalid - The Failed Mossad...

  Paul McGeough

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  “Meticulously researched . . . This is the definitive chronicle of the Middle East crisis during the Clinton years and in the post-9/11 era” (Publishers Weekly).   “Providing a fly-on-the-wall vantage of the rising diplomatic panic that sent shudders through world capitals,” Kill Khalid unfolds as a masterpiece of investigative journalism (Toronto Star). In 1997, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad poisoned Hamas leader Khalid Mishal in broad daylight on the streets of Amman, Jordan. As the little-known Palestinian leader slipped into a coma, the Mossad agents’ escape was bungled and the episode quickly spiraled into a diplomatic crisis. A series of high-stakes negotiations followed, which ultimately saved Mishal and set the stage for his phenomenal political ascendancy.   In Kill Khalid, acclaimed reporter Paul McGeough reconstructs the history of Hamas through exclusive interviews with key players across the Middle East and in Washington, including unprecedented access to Mishal himself, who remains to this day one of the most powerful and enigmatic figures in the region. A “sobering reminder of how little has been achieved during 60 years of Israeli efforts in Palestine,” Kill Khalid tracks Hamas’s political fortunes across a decade of suicide bombings, political infighting, and increasing public support, culminating in the battle for Gaza in 2007 and the current-day political stalemate (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).   “A pacey, riveting, and controversial book that has all the compulsion of a Le Carré novel.” —John F. Burns, The New York Times   “[A] gem of leave-no-stone-unturned reporting.” —Foreign Affairs

  Show book

• 

  Gaddafi's Harem - The Story of a...

  Annick Cojean

  • 0
  • 1
  • 0

  This international bestseller is a “horrifying inside look at the lives of Libyan women under the Gaddafi regime . . . Powerful and compelling” (Booklist, starred review).   Soraya was just fifteen, a schoolgirl in the coastal town of Sirte, when she was given the honor of presenting a bouquet of flowers to Colonel Gaddafi, “the Guide,” on a visit he was making to her school the following week. This one meeting—a presentation of flowers, a pat on the head from Gaddafi—changed Soraya’s life forever. Soon afterwards, she was summoned to Bab al-Azizia, Gaddafi’s palatial compound near Tripoli, where she joined a number of young women who were violently abused, raped, and degraded by Gaddafi. Heart-wrenchingly tragic but ultimately redemptive, Soraya’s story is the first one of many that are just now beginning to be heard. But sex and rape remain the highest taboo in Libya, and women like Soraya (whose identity is protected by a pseudonym here) risk being disowned or even killed by their dishonored family members.   In Gaddafi’s Harem, an instant bestseller on publication in France, Le Monde special correspondent Annick Cojean gives a voice to Soraya’s story, and supplements her investigation into Gaddafi’s abuses of power through interviews with people who knew Soraya, as well as with other women who were abused by Gaddafi.   “A moving and disturbing wake-up call to the personal costs of totalitarianism.” —Publishers Weekly

  Show book

• 

  Plagues and Their Aftermath -...

  Brian Michael Jenkins

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  From a plague in Athens during the Peloponnesian War in 430 BCE, to another in 540 that wiped out half the population of the Roman empire, down through the Black Death in the Middle Ages and on through the 1918 flu epidemic (which killed between 50 and 100 million people) and this century's deadly SARS outbreak, plagues have been a much more relentless fact of life than many realize. The legacy of epidemics, Brian Michael Jenkins observes, is not only one of lives lost but of devastated economies and social disorder, all of which have severe political repercussions. Thus, each chapter of Plagues and Their Aftermath draws on those historical precursors to focus on one particular aspect of their aftermath: What happens to political systems? What happens in the area of crime and terrorism? Do wars happen? What are the effects on cultures? What was the impact of widespread fear and public hysteria, of increased suspicion and scapegoating, of the spread of rumors and conspiracy theories? Jenkins's sobering analysis is riveting and thought-provoking listening for general listeners and specialists alike, and throws welcome light into what many fear is a dark future.

  Show book

• 

  Red State - An Insider's Story...

  Wayne Thorburn

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A political scientist and Republican party insider examines how Texas made its dramatic shift from Democratic stronghold to GOP dominance.In November 1960, the Democratic party dominated Texas. Democrats held all thirty statewide elective positions as well as the entire state legislature. Fifty years later, this stronghold had not only been lost—it had reversed. In November 2010, Republicans controlled every statewide elective office, as well as the Texas Senate and House of Representatives. The state’s congressional delegation in Washington was comprised of twenty-five Republicans and nine Democrats.Red State explores why this transformation took place and what these changes imply for the future of Texas politics. Wayne Thorburn analyzes a wealth of data to show how changes in the state’s demographics—including an influx of new residents, the shift from rural to urban, and the growth of the Mexican American population—have moved Texas through three stages of party competition, from two-tiered politics to two-party competition, and then to the return to one-party dominance, this time by Republicans. Thorburn reveals that the shift from Democratic to Republican governance has been driven not by any change in Texans’ ideological perspective or public policy orientation—even when Texans were voting Democrat, conservatives outnumbered liberals or moderates—but by the Republican party’s increasing identification with conservatism since 1960.

  Show book

• 

  Enemy of the People - Trump's...

  Marvin Kalb

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Shortly after assuming office in January 2017, President Donald Trump accused the press of being an "enemy of the American people". Attacks on the media had been a hallmark of Trump's presidential campaign, but this charge marked a dramatic turning point: Language like this ventured into dangerous territory. Twentieth-century dictators - notably Stalin, Hitler, and Mao - had all denounced their critics, especially the press, as "enemies of the people". Their goal was to delegitimize the work of the press as "fake news" and create confusion in the public mind about what's real and what isn't; what can be trusted and what can't be.  
   
  That, it seems, is also Trump's goal. In Enemy of the People, Marvin Kalb, an award-winning American journalist with more than six decades of experience both as a journalist and media observer, writes with passion about why we should fear for the future of American democracy because of the unrelenting attacks by the Trump administration on the press.  
   
  As his new audiobook shows, the press has been a bulwark in the defense of democracy. Kalb writes about Edward R. Murrow's courageous reporting on Senator Joseph McCarthy's "red scare" theatrics in the early 1950s, which led to McCarthy's demise.

  Show book