GOOD BOOKS BOOK REVIEWS
Have you read any good books lately? Send us a review. Are you happy to lend it to other people? Or maybe it’s in the CEC library or the Grafton library.
Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq
by Tariq Ali (Verso, 2003)
Available on loan Clara 66 433 937
Iraq has been at the centre of world attention for more than a year. But how much do we know about the past? Tariq Ali places Iraq’s present woes firmly in the context of colonial history, starting with the British taking over the three Ottoman provinces of Baghdad, Basrah and Mosul in 1917 as the spoils of war. The new state was run by Britain behind an Arab smokescreen. It has been a colonial state from birth. Ali tells of opportunists, collusion, and the ‘accidental’ death of an uncooperative king. He tells of dissenting poets in exile, afraid to return, their works memorised and whispered at home. He shows how the anti-imperialist movement gathered pace to seize the moment in the 1958 popular military-initiated revolution, to be followed by strife between nationalists and communists. The nationalists won out. They were the Ba’ath Party – a party originally formed to resist imperialism. The Iraqi Communist Party has been murdered several times over. Ali’s perspective on the 2003 US invasion of Iraq is set in the context of this country’s tradition of resistance to imperialism. He shows clearly how colonialism set the conditions for what has happened to Iraq from 1917 to the present day, and how the 2003 invasion is more of the same. Using poetry and elegant prose, he conveys a sense of Iraq’s longing for freedom from the greedy fingers of empire, sometimes invisible, always present. Tariq Ali is an editor of New Left review. He’s a journalist and writer and a long-time commentator on politics and world history. . Another good book of his is "The Clash of Civilisations," available in the Grafton Library.
Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism
Sharon Beder
(Chelsea Green Publishing Company; Revised edition, April 2002)
ISBN: 1931498083 available Grafton Library
This well researched book examines the way corporations are using their financial resources and power to counter the gains made by environmentalists, to reshape public opinion, and to persuade politicians against increased environmental regulation. It details the methods used, including employing specialized PR firms, artificially created grassroots support for corporate causes, deterring public involvement, industry-funded research, and getting corporate-based "educational" materials into schools. From the use of fronts, think tanks and the public relations industry, the book shows how public opinion, has been consistently thwarted by the massive onslaught of opinion-manipulation. A number of Australian case studies are cited making this book particularly relevant for Australian activists. Sharon Beder is Professor of Science, Technology and Society at the University of Wollongong. She heads an environmental education program at the University of Sydney. Beder is also the author of Toxic Fish & Sewer Surfing, The Nature of Sustainable Development, The New Engineer, Selling the Work Ethic: From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PR, and Power Play: The Fight for Control of the World's Electricity.
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
by Chalmers Johnson
ISBN: 0805062394 available : Grafton Library
(The term "blowback," invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended consequences of U.S foreign policy)
Blowback is an informative and entertaining read focusing on U.S foreign policy and its effects on East Asia since WWII. The nub of the author’s argument is that an 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, produces disastrous unintended consequences. The focus on Asia makes it particularly interesting for Australian readers. Written in the Clinton years, the book could do with an update. You may not agree with the author’s conclusions but he leaves you with some interesting stuff to think about.
Chalmers Johnson is a specialist on Japan. He first visited Japan in 1953 as a U.S. Navy officer and has lived and worked there with his wife, the anthropologist Sheila K. Johnson, virtually every year since 1961. He has written numerous articles and reviews and some fifteen books.
Quotes from the book:
On the IMF; ... is staffed primarily with holders of Ph.D.s in economics from American universities, who are both illiterate about and contemptuous of cultures that do not conform to what they call the American way of life." They offer only "one size (or, rather, one capitalism) fits all" remedies for ailing economic institutions. The IMF has applied these over the years to countries in Latin America, Russia, and East Asia without ever achieving a single notable success.
1997 Asian economic crisis; On the economic front, the arrogance, contempt, and triumphalism with which the United States handled the East Asian financial crisis guarantees blowback for decades to come. Capitals like Jakarta and Seoul smoulder with the sort of resentment that the Germans had in the 1920s, when inflation and the policies of Britain and France destabilized the Weimar regime
On Empire; In the long run, the people of the United States are neither militaristic enough nor rich enough to engage in the perpetual police actions, wars, and bailouts their government's hegemonic policies will require.
