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Pomp
and Porn during the Qing Dynasty
Decadence Mandchoue. by Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse
In an erotic romp through the twilight years of the Qing Dynasty, these memoirs
recount among other trysts the Victorian Orientalist author's subservient
servicing of the Empress Dowager Cixi, then 69, and adventures with the eunuchs
and catamites of Peking's bathhouses. Intermingled with fantastical imperial
palace intrigue, the work has faced charges of fraudulence and obscenity; this
belies its charm and historical significance. - Kent Ewing
(Jun 17, '11)
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Moral
war compass fails to point West
Moral Combat: A History of World War II by Michael Burleigh
This books succeeds perhaps too well in detailing just how repugnant the German
and Japanese regimes were in World War II, and is especially strong on the
Pacific theater, an area one-volume histories tend to neglect. Where it fails
is in its resort to slippery tactics to avoid confronting the dirt that was on
the Allies' hands. - Jim Ash (Jun 10, '11)
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Crisis
of American international thought
Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World
Order by G John Ikenberry
A liberal pro-United States bias permeating the book sees the US's
resource-oriented military gambits and imperial behavior conveniently papered
over and rising states dismissed as challengers to the global order. By
presenting US power as benign, with no nefarious core-periphery or hegemonic
dimensions, the author undermines his own views on the rapidly changing state
of world affairs. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May
27, '11)
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War
and taxes
Development Disparities in Northeast India by Rakhee Bhattacharya
In insurgent-run areas of northeast India the penalty for not paying "tax" is
final: death. But as this book reveals, revenue collections systems put in
place by rebels there are surprisingly sophisticated. By investigating exactly
how the "taxation" takes place, the author offers an excellent glimpse into how
other shadow insurgent economies are likely run elsewhere in Asia. - Bertil
Lintner (May 20, '11)
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Wages
of peace
Cambodia's Curse: The modern history of a troubled land by Joel
Brinkley
This searingly accurate depiction of how Western aid in post-Khmer Rouge
Cambodia helped create the corrupt, impoverished and lawless state of today is
undermined by its premise: that Cambodians will never rise up against bad
leadership due to a "curse" of feudal subservience. History suggests internal
rebellion is more likely to spark change than the weak-kneed efforts of foreign
donors. - Sebastian Strangio (May 12, '11)
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When
Attlee met Mao
Passport to Peking, A very British mission to Mao's China by Patrick
Wright
This colorful account of British delegations sent to communist China in the
1950s intersperses valuable insights into the early Cold War period with a
humorous culture clash as a typically eccentric English band led by prime
minister Clement Attlee meets a rapidly transforming China. Beyond the gayety
lies a fascinating account of a forgotten era. - Michael Rank
(May 6, '11)
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Obama's
hidden radical past
Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism,
by Stanley Kurtz
Detailed organizational charts, histories, and smoking-gun documentation about
the world of left-wing organizations in which Barack Obama circulated early in
his career make this book required reading for anyone who wants to pierce the
veil of a self-constructed enigma. It also shows the US president is not the
man he claimed to be in the 2008 campaign. - Spengler
(May 2, '11)
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Conservative
reappraisal of the Afghan war
The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing
West
The United States war effort in Afghanistan is failing, says this authoritative
- and usually supportive - voice on US military affairs. While implacable
Afghan resentment of foreigners is undermining the counter-insurgency,
inter-ethnic divisions are killing "Afghanization". Throw in the financial
crisis, an apathetic American public and the vague objectives of Washington's
revolving-door leadership, and you have a recipe for quagmire - Brian M Downing
(Apr 29, '11)
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The
president as a public intellectual
Reading Obama by James Kloppenberg
James Kloppenberg's intellectual biography of Barack Obama finds the United
States President 's political philosophy and style of politics owes a lot to
the pragmatic tradition in American philosophy. That will disappoint those on
the right who paint him as an extreme leftist radical. Missing from this
otherwise outstanding analysis are the ideas the younger Obama acquired from
his global travels. - Dinesh Sharma (Apr 21,
'11)
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Seeing
the forest for the leaves
Family of Fallen Leaves by Charles Waugh and Huy Lien
The Invention of Ecocide by David Zierler
These books take separate approaches to the United States' defoliation campaign
in the Vietnam War. One focuses on US scientists who realized there were
horrendous implications to using chemicals such as Agent Orange; the other
tells heart-rending tales of birth defects, sickness and death inflicted on the
Vietnamese. Neither fully captures the horrific impact of "ecocide" on an
agrarian society. - Nick Turse (Apr 15, '11)
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The
good old days
Reporter Forty Years Covering Asia by John McBeth
An absorbingly detailed account of the major stories that shook Southeast Asia
during the 40 years the author was a reporter, from Thailand's five coups to
the "secret war" in Laos and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge massacres. Evoking an era
when journalists were cut from a different cloth, the book also recounts the
death of one of Asia's most influential news magazines. - Robert Tilley
(Apr 8, '11)
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Asians
can't have it all
Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet
by Chandran Nair
Western consumerism in the developing East will have an irreversible climate
impact, according to Nair, who observes that climate change is an example of
massive market failure, so the world can't rely on markets to fix it -
authoritarianism is his preferred alternative. The challenge is finding an
appealing alternative to steak and SUVs. - Muhammad Cohen
(Apr 6, '11)
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Asians
can't have it all
Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet
by Chandran Nair
Western consumerism in the developing East will have an irreversible climate
impact, according to Nair, who observes that climate change is an example of
massive market failure, so the world can't rely on markets to fix it -
authoritarianism is his preferred alternative. The challenge is finding an
appealing alternative to steak and SUVs. - Muhammad Cohen
(Apr 6, '11)
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The
trouble with China's brands
The Brutal Truth About Asian Branding: And How to Break the Vicious Cycle
by Joseph Baladi
China has failed to nurture compelling consumer brands and largely remains a
factory for the West. Blaming the rigid confines of Confucian leadership and a
lack of awareness that "brands fundamentally define people", this book argues
that if China can't make the transition to home-grown brands, the process of
globalization will falter. - Benjamin A Shobert
(Apr 1, '11)
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The
privatization of US foreign policy
Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized
Foreign Affairs by Laura A Dickinson
Since the Vietnam War, the United States has steadily shunted foreign policy
responsibilities onto private contractors, with no hope now of closing the
Pandora's box. This legal look into how privatization has seeped into the
Pentagon and why serious abuses take place outlines how a flawed organizational
and monitoring structure can be reformed to not threaten human rights and
democratic accountability. - David Isenberg (Mar 25,
'11)
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Davids
in a world of Goliaths
Small Acts of Resistance: How Courage, Tenacity, and a Bit of Ingenuity Can
Change the World by Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson
These heroic tales of non-violent, game-changing defiance by individuals or
small groups in repressive states like Iran, Myanmar and communist Poland are a
reminder that all authority, even at its very worst, exists only with the
consent of those it commands. By illustrating the bravery of those facing
imprisonment without trial, torture or extra-judicial murder just to enact
change, the book makes a mockery of political apathy in the West. - Jim Ash
(Mar 18, '11)
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Smoking
out Vietnam War truths
Search and Destroy: The Story of an Armored Cavalry Squadron in Viet Namby
Keith Nolan
As the United States marks 50 years since the start of the Vietnam War,
revisionism is as rife as ever. This one-year account of an armored cavalry
squadron, however, offers a clear-eyed appraisal of atrocities inflicted on the
Vietnamese people as well as a three-dimensional, sensitive portrayal of the
American troops that suffered bravely in the conflict. - Nick Turse
(Mar 11, '11)
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Islam
and democracy debate revisited
Democracy in Modern Iran: Islam, Culture, and Political Change by Ali
Mirsepassi
This critique of political Islam's evolution in Iran attempts laboriously to
apply Western philosophical and political perspectives to the issue, with an
uncritical embrace of the opposition "Green" movement also apparent from the
start. While there are useful chapters on Iranian intellectuals, the
generalizations and borrowed terminologies undermine any serious exploration of
Iran's part-theocratic, part-republican system. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Mar 4, '11)
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Oil
poisoning humankind
Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil by Peter Maass
For the author, oil is a curse - from the moment it is extracted until the
moment it is poured into the oversized gas tanks of sports utility vehicles.
The book takes no pot-shots at companies, nations or people, instead using
snapshots of badly affected counties to show that Peak Oil will be a blessing.
- Jim Ash (Feb 25, '11)
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The
lighter side of the Tibet issue
Waiting for the Dalai Lama: Stories from all sides of the Tibetan Debate
by Annelie Rozeboom
Not a run-of-the-mill portrayal of the Free Tibet love camp, this book draws on
an eclectic cast of characters to flesh out the debate, including a former serf
and a nomad, a state oracle and a Tibetan Mao Zedong impersonator. While the
author's ability to highlight the funny and bizarre ensures an easy read, this
limits analysis of meaningful subjects such as evolving views towards the
Chinese. - Dinah Gardner (Feb 18, '11)
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Unmasking
British intelligence
MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949 by Keith
Jeffery
Tracing the history of the British Secret Intelligence Service (now known as
MI6) from its birth in 1909 until the post-World War II years, this book
focuses on the spy service's trailblazing founder, its emergence and early
triumphs, and political battles the organization faced for its survival.
Replete with detail, the work rehabilitates the SIS's contribution to the
British war effort. - Mahan Abedin (Feb 11,
'11)
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One man's Korean war
Yin Yang Tattoo by Ron McMillan
This novel follows the sexual and drunken exploits of Scottish photojournalist
Alec Brodie as he is sucked into the shady attempt of a bankrupt South Korean chaebol
to save itself through a corporate scam involving the Hermit Kingdom. As a work
of expatriate escapism, the book is a great success. But as a cautionary tale
it may fall a little short. - David Simmons (Feb
4, '11)
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The
party principle
Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China's Extraordinary Rise
by Carl E Walter and Fraser J T Howie
Is China headed for a fall? Can it cope with the crises its rapid growth and
uneven development might spark? Walter and Howie attempt to answer these
questions by focusing exclusively on the country's financial system. They
conclude that China’s embrace of the free market is merely a ploy to keep the
Communist Party predominant, and question whether this approach can work in the
long term. - Reviewed by Benjamin A Shobert (Jan
28, '11)
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The
neo-Renaissance man
How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance by
Parag Khanna
Khanna tells us that an informal network of committed individuals can end the
new feudal age we toil in, and usher in the next Renaissance. The book bristles
with good ideas, and Khanna's heart is in the right place. But he fails to
explain how his vision will survive the plutocrats and Pentagonistas who
currently run the world. - Pepe Escobar (Jan
21, '11)
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Not
so special
The Eurasian Face by Kirsteen Zimmern
This photographic exploration of the Eurasian experience treads too lightly on
a tumultuous history of discrimination, violence and stigma, dismissing the
identity crisis many Eurasians still feel as an amusing reminiscence. While its
subjects are young and old, and drawn from all walks of life, their shallow
portraits make the reconciling of ethnicities sound far too easy. - Kent Ewing
(Jan 14, '11)
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The
last American Caesars
Dismantling the Empire: America's Last Best Hope by Chalmers
Johnson
The late author's last book encapsulates his previous themes of how America's
empire-building since World War II, epitomized by base-building sprees,
stage-managed coup d'etats and illegal killings and torture, has filled a "pond
of hatred" set to cause pernicious "blowback" and financial ruin. It offers
little hope for the empire's future, predicting a hubris-fueled demise similar
to that of Rome. - Jim Ash (Jan 7, '11)
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Reconfiguring
the Middle East
Reset: Iran, Turkey and America's Future by Stephen Kinzer
The book argues the United States' morass in the Middle East could be improved
by "reseting" relations with Turkey and Iran, who with their histories of
popular democratic struggle are an ideal US "soul mate", while inching away
from traditional ties with Saudi Arabia and Israel - relationships built on
"dirty war" contracts and "Biblical traditions" that have hurt US interests. - Sreeram
Chaulia (Dec 22, '10)
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The
driving force behind empires
When Empire Meets Nationalism by Didier Chaudet, Florent
Parmentier and Benoit Pelopidas
When Empire Meets Nationalism by Didier Chaudet, Florent Parmentier and Benoit
Pelopidas The authors attempt to deconstruct the ideologies that inform foreign
policy and the creation of empires, particularly in relation to the United
States and Russia. This is an informative exercise, but overlooked are other
important factors, such as economic policies. - Dmitry Shlapentokh
(Dec 17, '10)
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Eastern
promise
The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means
to You by Helen Wang
The author argues that the mainland's rising middle class is essential to the
economic health of both China and the United States, as well as to China's
future political liberalization. Underneath all this, her book also strikes a
poignant note about America's lost optimism. - Benjamin A Shobert
(Dec 10, '10)
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Myanmar's
ageless ethnic question
The Shan of Burma: Memoirs of a Shan Exile by Chao Tzang Yawnghwe
The intensifying clashes between Karen rebels and government forces along
Myanmar's border with Thailand make the re-release of this seminal account and
overview of the Shan resistance all the more timely. Written by a late Shan
activist and prince, the two-decade-old book's plea for a solution to the
state's deadly ethnic divisions is equally powerful and relevant today. - Bertil
Lintner (Dec 3, '10)
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Book Reviews Archive
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