Book Reviews
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If Republicans Win, Have “the Terrorists” Already Won? (Review of ‘American Taliban,’ by Markos Moulitsas)
” … American Taliban is bound to infuriate the Rush Limbaughs and Glenn Becks, because it exposes them as frauds. ‘These aren’t people who love America and what she stands for,’ says Moulitsas. ‘These are people who only love America when they have control and can impose their authoritarian ideology.’ … ” By Paul Hogarth California Progress Report | September 2, 2010 When Markos Moulitsas asked me to review his new book, (after I had reviewed his two earlier ones), he said he had the most fun writing it. And it’s abundantly clear why. American Taliban hit the bookstores yesterday, and it’s a very entertaining and enjoyable read. The founder of Daily Kos is now a well-known personality, and his new book reads very much like he speaks – and blogs. My one major criticism is that it reads too much like a blog – with over-the-top rhetoric that is not appropriate for a 233-page book with a serious message. But that should not deflect from Moulitsas’ thesis – which
The Obama Backlash: Taking on the Radicals (Book Review)
” …Television is doing our thinking for us, and ‘people medicate themselves into bliss’ … by believing anything they see and hear on television, as evidenced by the fiction that is accepted as fact on Fox News. … “ By Geri Spieler Book Review — The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama, by Will Bunch. This review first appeared in the New York Journal of Books, www.nyjournalofbooks.com It would be easy to write an Obama-backlash book using buzzwords with cliché’ ridden accounts of the right-wing talk show blather-babblers. Fortunately, Will Bunch does not resort to such pedestrian style bloggisms. As an experienced and award winning journalist, Bunch does his homework and reports on what he has learned in this straightforward accounting of the paranoid fringe tilting at delusions of conspiracy. Stories about the “Oath Keepers,” “Birthers,” the Tea Party, Knob Creek militia, FEMA internment camps, the resurrection of the John Birch Society and Sarah Palin is all here in Bunch’s over-the-top horrific telling
WW II: Meeting Evil with Evil (Book Review)
Moral Combat: A History of World War II By Michael Burleigh HarperPress, 650pp, $69.99 (HB) WHEN the Nazis invaded Denmark in April 1940, having steamrolled through Poland, the German commander, general Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, issued the following instructions to his troops: “Do nothing to offend their national honour! “The Dane is self-confident and freedom-loving. He rejects every form of pressure and subjection . . . Therefore: fewer commands, no shouting . . . More will be achieved by adopting a humorous tone.” Not “no shooting” but “no shouting”. Confronted by a conquering army of softly spoken, humorous Nazis, the presumably bemused Danes capitulated in 90 minutes. Compare this with Hitler’s speech to his military commanders on the night before the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. “Annihilation of Poland in foreground . . . Close your hearts to pity. Act brutally. Eighty million people must obtain what is their right . . . The stronger man is right. The greatest harshness.” Hitler’s reasons for invading Denmark were largely economic: Danish
The SS: A New History (Book Review)
” … Not only did ’[the SS] supply forced labour from the camps it ran, making money from the hundreds of thousands of prisoners it supplied to major manufacturing firms, it also owned and ran housing corporations, cement works, textile factories, munitions producers and much more besides. In pursuit of his crusade against alcoholism in the SS, Himmler even acquired the Apollinaris mineral water company after it had been expropriated from its British owners. … “ The SS: a New History Adrian Weale Little, Brown, 480pp, £25 Reviewed by Richard J. Evans | New Statesman | August 23, 2010 This history of the “engine room” of Hitler’s attempt to conquer the world is a good general introduction to the subject, but adds to our knowledge of how the SS functioned in Nazi Germany. Hitler’s little helper We still know far too little about the SS. Astonishingly, the most detailed and reliable history, by the German journalist Heinz Höhne, was published over 40 years ago. Since then, there have been detailed scholarly studies of
Charles Hill’s Fake Study of George Schultz (Book Review)
What Politics Does to History By Jim Sleeper | TPMCafe | August 13, 2010 Foreign Policy has just posted one of the more difficult and damning reviews I’ve ever written, of Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order, by Charles Hill, the former executive assistant and speechwriter to Reagan Secretary of State George Shultz. As I was reading Hill’s book last month in Frankfurt and Istanbul, PBS was broadcasting a documentary based on Shultz’s 1993 memoir, Turmoil and Triumph, which was written mainly by… Charles Hill. Liberal critics and PBS’ own ombudsman criticized the film’s hagiographical, conservative slant and its heavy funding from donors close to the Hoover Institution, where both Shultz and Hill are fellows. But the deeper problem is Hill’s crafting of Shultz’s memoir, which reveals, unintentionally, what can happen when former statesmen try to write or teach history. We are not talking here about Winston Churchill’s magisterial A History of the English-Speaking Peoples but about two wily old duffers trying to cover their butts. Hill is also
Conspiracies and the Mass Psychology of Partial Disclosure (Book Review)
Article printed from speakeasy: http://blogs.alternet.org/refugee URL to article: http://blogs.alternet.org/refugee/2010/07/31/they-want-us-to-know-on-conspiracies-and-cover-ups/ The Transparent Conspiracy by Michael D. Morrissey: A Review The Mass Psychology of Partial Disclosure The Transparent Conspiracy is a collection of essays written between 2006 and 2010, mainly about the 911 and JFK conspiracies and cover up, with a short collection of poems on the same topic. Morrisey’s latest book is a definite departure from other conspiracy literature. Morrissey has no interest in proving or disproving either the 911 or the JFK conspiracy – he feels this territory is well-covered by other authors. The topic of this book is mass psychology. Morrissey believes our government’s propaganda arm (whatever they call it now) is fully aware that a well-managed conspiracy cover-up can have a very intimidating effect, which can be very effective in keeping the public docile and obedient. The Government Wants Us to Know Specifically he argues there is major value (from the government point of view) in disclosing a limited amount
Berman’s “Flight of the Intellectuals”: The Lastest Quack ‘Conservative’ History of ‘Islamo-Fascism’ Intended to Divert Attention from America’s Own Fascist Governance and Inflate Justifications for War
Mark Lynch in Foreign Affairs: ” … Many of the valuable debates that The Flight of the Intellectuals could have sparked are drowned out by Berman’s ludicrous efforts to construct an intellectual and organizational genealogy linking Nazi Germany and contemporary Islamism. His insistence on the usefulness of the concept of ‘Islamic fascism’ … is one of the surest clues to his indifference to Muslim reality in favor of intellectual gamesmanship. … ” Righteous and Wrong by Malise Ruthven | New York Review of Books | August 19, 2010 The Flight of the Intellectuals by Paul Berman Melville House, 299 pp., $26.00 Nomad: From Islam to America by Ayaan Hirsi Ali Free Press, 277 pp., $27.00 Terror and Liberalism by Paul Berman Norton, 220 pp., $13.95 (paper) Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents by Ian Buruma Princeton University Press, 132 pp., $19.95 Facts Are Subversive: Political Writing from a Decade Without a Name by Timothy Garton Ash Yale University Press, 464 pp., $35.00 (to be published in September) At Yad
Roots of the Holocaust: Drawing a Line from Africa to Auschwitz
ROBERT GERWARTH Irish Times | July 31, 2010 ‘ … In their new book, The Kaiser’s Holocaust, David Olusoga and Casper Erichsen offer a passionately narrated account of the gruesome events that occurred in German South-West Africa between 1904 and 1907. More controversially, perhaps, the authors argue that Trotha’s vengeful destruction of the Herero and Nama peoples was a precursor of the Holocaust. According to Olugosa and Erichsen, the idea of carving out a “living space” for Germany’s surplus population and the concept of concentration camps originated in German South-West Africa; and the Nazis adopted racist practices and methods of extermination that were first tested in the colonial realm. … “ HISTORY: The Kaiser’s Holocaust: Germany’s Forgotten Genocide and the Colonial Roots of Nazism, By David Olusoga and Casper W Erichsen, Faber and Faber, 379pp. £20 IN AUGUST 2004, the German Minister for Development Aid, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, travelled to Namibia to apologise on behalf of the German government for a genocidal massacre that had been committed 100 years earlier. The
The Publicist: Henry Luce, Time Inc., and “The American Century” (Book Review)
Editor’s caveat: Henry Luce was an American fascist from the Hitler-financing Morgan syndicate, and after the creation of the CIA in 1947, a ranking Operation Mockingbird propagandist. Typically, in the period between the “Great” wars, George Seldes noted in Facts and Fascism: “In its July, 1934, issue, a song of praise for fascism, Fortune magazine (owned by Henry Luce, a Morgan partner, and other powerful and wealthy Americans) told of the great corporations and how they progressed under Mussolini. … ” (Actually, Seldes reported, Mussolini flourished under the control of the corporate sector, as the dictator himself acknolwedged.) The book under review here, The Publicist, was written by the son of Mockingbird David Brinkley, and is a slickly-spun, elitist tribute to one of America’s most sinister perception managers. – AC ” … [Time magazine's] editors defined their audience as people who were unwilling, or unable, to understand complex issues. By catering to that inclination, Time – and its imitators and successors — no doubt also perpetuated and enabled it, producing a reading public that was increasingly lax and
Putzi Hanfstaengl on Adolf Hitler (Nov. 1957 Time Magazine Book Review)
Time Magazine | Nov. 11, 1957 UNHEARD WITNESS (317 pp.)—Ernst Hanfstaengl—Lippincott ($4.95) Schicklgruber just laughed when Hanfstaengl sat down at the piano, but when he started to play . . . . . . Hitler was delighted and Naziism began to take shape. That, at any rate, is the way Ernst (“Putzi”) Hanfstaengl tells it. A sometime Harvard student (his grandmother was a New England Sedgwick) and longtime Hitler crony, Putzi* began supporting the Nazi Party in 1922 and labored to make it palatable to Germany’s “best people.” With this aim in mind, Putzi excitedly told Adolf about the hypnotic effect of college cheering sections at U.S. football games and, at the piano, demonstrated the “buoyant beat” of U.S. brass bands. Recalls Putzi: “I had Hitler fairly shouting with enthusiasm. ‘That’s it, Hanfstaengl, that is what we need for the movement, marvelous,’ and he pranced up and down the room like a drum majorette.” The “Rah, rah, rah!” refrain of Harvardmen, by Putzi’s account, became the thunderous “Sieg Heil!
Operation Paperclip, Otto Skorzeny & the Murder of Big Band Leader Glenn Miller (Book Review)
” … Known as Operation Paperclip this was one of the most daring operations of the war. … The man who ran the team of rocket scientists was General Walter Dornberger and it was Miller’s task to convey a secret message to him from Eisenhower outlining the nature of Operation Paperclip and guaranteeing the safety of the scientists and their families once delivered into American hands … “ DID THE GESTAPO MURDER ‘SUPERSPY’ GLENN MILLER? By Neil Norman | Express.co.uk | June 24,2010 A new book claims Miller was killed after he tried to help Nazi scientists escape from Germany AN EXTRAORDINARY new book claims the bandleader didn’t die in a plane crash but was tortured and then killed after he tried to help Nazi scientists escape from Hitler’s Germany. IF VERA Lynn was the Forces’ Sweetheart for the British in the Second World War then bandleader Glenn Miller was the male equivalent for Americans. The unique sound of the Glenn Miller Band poured out of radios and jukeboxes
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (Book Review)
” … Scientists and others concerned with the environment began debating the value of nuclear weapons. The tobacco industry recruited several scientists out of the faction that saw US weapons programs as the vanguard of democracy against the tyranny of communism. The stage was set for industry apologists to proclaim themselves freedom-loving, red-blooded patriots and denounce anyone who questioned them as socialist-loving traitors. … “ By DarkSyde | Daily Kos | Jun 06, 2010 Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming By Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway Publisher Bloomsbury Press $16.00 – $26.00 Ever wonder how the terms liberty and freedom got all tangled up in fake science, how industry friendly think-tanks got their start, or what motivates scientists to sell out beyond the obvious? Merchants of Doubt expertly follows the historical twists and turns to answer all those questions and more in exquisite detail translated into entertaining narratives easily digested by readers from all backgrounds. Beginning at the
‘Mr. Big’: A Knight of Malta was the Core of Corruption at the Port of NY Depicted in the Film ‘On the Waterfront’ (Book Review)
” … Throughout the struggle, his theme was the presence of “Christ on the waterfront,” being exploited along with his fellow workingmen. His protector was the New York Jesuit provincial, John McMahon, S.J.; and his nemesis was William J. McCormick, the New York multimillionaire businessman, prominent Catholic, Knight of Malta, and the “Mr. Big” behind the docks’ corruption. … “ THE PRIEST ON THE WATERFORNT By Raymond A. Schroth NJ.com | May 11, 2010 He was tall, tough, balding, with a take-charge presence, someone this idealistic 18-year-old Fordham freshman in 1951 might want to identify with. He was John M. “Pete” Corridan, S.J., standing on the platform in the large philosophy lecture hall in Keating Hall in 1951, spelling out to his rapt audience the depth and breadth of corruption on the New York Waterfront — including the “shapeup” system where the hiring boss glances over over the hundred men desperate for work and plucks his favorites, some of whom have paid bribes and others
Stephen Ambrose’s Falsifications of the Rosenberg Execution
By Lori Clune | History Channel | 5-17-10 Lori Clune is a lecturer in history at CSU Fresno and a PhD candidate at UC Davis. Her dissertation is entitled “Executing the Rosenbergs: A Transnational History.” I met Stephen Ambrose when I was a young, idealistic graduate student attending my first American Historical Association conference in the late 1980s. He graciously shared his paper – and enthusiasm – with the groupies he attracted. Years later, his Rise to Globalism was on my coffee table so often that I have a photo of my then two-year-old son “reading” it. It is safe to say his work played a role in my decision to study history. The New Yorker’s recent allegations that Ambrose manufactured interviews with – and likely quotes from – Eisenhower (“Channeling Ike,” by Richard Rayner, April 26), combined with earlier accusations of plagiarism, have tarnished his reputation. In my research on the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (arrested for conspiracy to commit espionage in 1950 and executed in 1953),
‘Hellhound on his Trail’ – Another Fake Book about the Murder of Martin Luther King
From: Hampton Sides,” a Wikipedia bio: Hampton Sides (born 1962) is an American historian and magazine journalist. He is the author of Hellhound on His Trail … a media fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution … Ooooooohhh … of course – why this book is just another anemic and transparent surrogate of an investigation, a hard-cover whitewash to conceal the embarrassing circumstances surrounding Martin Luther King’s murder – the Hoover Institute, that ultra-conservative, goose-stepping propaganda mill, home base of Condoleeza Rice and a spew of far-right, corporate-pocketed GOP poseurs. Sides isn’t the lone assassin here. There is also “PBS”: … Hellhound on His Trail is about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the largest manhunt in American history to capture James Earl Ray, who was never tried but pled guilty as his lawyer told him that if he did not he would get the death penalty. His then lawyer gave his brother money so that after he pled guilty he could immediately hire a new one and appeal. Sides’ research on this subject forms