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A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gülen’s Islamic Ideals and Humanistic Discourse (Uncorrected Advance Reading Copy)
Author: B. Jill Carroll: Forward by Akbar S. Ahmed. ISBN: 13: 978-1-59784-110-8. Who Speaks for a Civilization? Theologian, B. Jill Carroll, a lecturer in Humanities and Religion at Rice University, presents a laudable idea. Dr. Carroll wants to set up a hypothetical dialog between civilizations. On one of her hands is the Muslim world; on her other the rest of humanity. Because of her respect for a very prolific Islamic cleric named Fethullah Gülen, Dr. Carroll would like to...
(No rating) 5-8-2007 Views: 4420

A Woman in Charge
Click Here To Purchase From Amazon A Woman In Charge Author: Carl BernsteinISBN: 9780375407666After perusing a review in a major daily newspaper of Carl Bernstein’s book about Hillary Clinton, I expected to read what is known in the trade as a “hatchet job” on her. Instead, the 554 pages of text read more like an extended puff piece, and far too long at that. It is not that Bernstein avoids the seamy aspects of Hillary’s character and career. He deals with those, but the trouble is that the...
(No rating) 8-16-2007 Views: 1484

Depression, War, And Cold War
Author: Robert HiggsISBN: 0-19-518292-8I know you're not supposed to give away a books plot in a review, however, the Depression ended, we won World War II, and then the Cold War began and lasted for almost fifty years, though not necessarily in that order. When I began reading Depression, War, And Cold War, a collection of essays and articles spanning almost two decades, my first thought about Robert Higgs was that he has an ax to grind. In the introduction he elaborates the Military...
(No rating) 12-22-2006 Views: 2012

50 Facts That Should Change the World
Autor: Jessica WilliamsISBN: 0972952969The following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen & CLICK TO VIEW Paul Lappen's ReviewsHere is another example of the bad job done by themainstream media in informing Americans about thestate of the world. This book presents a number offacts, with accompanying essays, that will not becovered on the evening news.In 2002, more than 80 percent of the world'sexecutions took place in just three countries, China,Iran and America. Black men born in the...
(No rating) 4-16-2005 Views: 2817

50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right
Earthworks PressISBN: 0977689700The following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen: CLICK TO VIEW Paul Lappen's Reviews As the title states, this book describes a number of things that anyone can doto counteract the Right's strong influence in present-day America.Some of the actions included require little or no effort. Join a progressivegroup, be it local or international. Take back control of the American politicalvocabulary. Donate a subscription to a progressive magazine to your...
(No rating) 6-23-2006 Views: 1877

9/11 Synthetic Terror
Author: Webster Griffin TarpleyISBN: 0930852370Third editionI live in a country in which real power is wielded behind the scenes and which, late last year, organised a military coup to depose the democratically elected government. It is a country where disappearances can take place and large numbers of killings take place without proper investigation. It is also a country in which the majority of the people fail to question the conditioning they have been given since school days and who have...
(No rating) 2-3-2007 Views: 2118

Armed Madhouse
Author: Greg Palast, 2006,ISBN: 0525949682 The following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen: CLICK TO VIEW Paul Lappen's ReviewsHere is another compendium of political and corporate con men who would sellyour future and your children's future to the highest bidder (or give it away totheir political friends).Everyone thinks that George Bush had a secret plan to seize Iraq's oil.Actually, there were 2 secret plans. The neo-con/Pentagon plan involvedprivatizing, or selling off, Iraq's vast...
(No rating) 7-11-2006 Views: 1306

CAFTA and Free Trade: What Every American Should Know,
Author: Greg Spotts ISBN: 1932857168The following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen & CLICK TO VIEW Paul Lappen's ReviewsThis book looks at CAFTA, the Central American FreeTrade Agreement, the newest attempt to bring "freetrade" to the Western Hemisphere. A companion to therecently released DVD called "American Jobs," thisbook shows that the reality of free trade is nowherenear as bright as the promise.If free trade in general, and CAFTA in particular, issuch a...
(No rating) 4-22-2005 Views: 2975

Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization and Human Rights
Author: Andrew Coyle et al (ed.), 2003: ISBN 0932863353, (Non-fiction/politics - 9/10)The following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen & CLICK TO VIEW Paul Lappen's ReviewsPrison privatization has become a major public policyissue over the last few years, in America and aroundthe world. Advocates say that private corporations canrun prisons better and cheaper than the state.According to the contributors to this book, thepromise is much greater than the reality.Prison corporations...
(No rating) 4-14-2005 Views: 2009

Chasing Ghosts
Author: Paul RieckhoffISBN: 978 -0- 451- 22121- 6 In Chasing Ghosts, the author, Paul Rieckhoff, eloquently shares with us his experiences, fears and frustrations while fighting the questionable war in Iraq. Paul was emotionally torn between "fighting the good fight" and as to whether or not the war should be fought at all. When the weapons of mass destruction are no where to be found, he, like many others, begin to question the whole premise of the war. However, regardless of...
(No rating) 6-18-2007 Views: 4065

Cobra II - The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
Authors: Michael R. Gordon and General Bernard E. TrainorISBN: 9781400075393 "Cobra II" was the code name for the land operations plan formulated for the invasion of Iraq. In the Vintage paperback version of the book by that title, 569 pages are devoted to the authors' minute detail of every military aspect of what happened to that plan, with much lesser space devoted to political aspects. The reader who is not a military buff probably will not be interested enough to wade...
(No rating) 5-7-2007 Views: 2254

Conspiracies, Conspiracy Theories, and the Secrets of 9/11
Author: Mathias BroeckersISBN: 0930852230The most recently concluded report on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, has again demonstrated that she was killed when her driver, who was legally drunk at that time, crashed the car in which she was being whisked away from a hotel where she felt her privacy being infringed. Blood tests show that she was not pregnant at the time; no one saw the supposed stroboscopic light that was shone in the driver’s eyes or else the other mystery cars that...
(No rating) 12-18-2006 Views: 2880

Eyes of Africa
Click Here To Purchase From Amazon Eyes of AfricaAuthor: Victorine Ngangu ISBN: 978-1-4327-1403-1Publisher: Outskirts Press Eyes of Africa is a book that discusses the many issues Africa is facing today. For example African politics and poverty is explored with pictures to illustrate these topics. Did you know each year hundreds of thousands of people die and are dying because of diseases caused by poor sanitation? The lack of unity continues to discourage Africans from doing the right thing,...
(No rating) 2-19-2008 Views: 2023

Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World
Author|: Noam Chomsky as interviewed by David BarsamianISBN: 080507967XThe following review was contributed by: John Walsh: CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's ReviewsHow has the USA accumulated an empire? Why does it have an empire and what does it plan to do with it? These questions are at the heart of this penetrating and important collection of interviews with Noam Chomsky, one of the clearest-thinking American intellectuals. The answers to the questions are derived from carefully analysed...
(No rating) 10-25-2005 Views: 2969

Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World
Authors: Noam Chomsky and David BarsamianISBN: 080507967X The following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen: CLICK TO VIEW Paul Lappen's Reviews In this new set of interviews, America's foremost intellectual activist looks atnew questions of US domestic and foreign policy.In September 2002, the American government announced a new national securitystrategy. Instead of pre-emptive war, which might be covered by the UN Charter,the new strategy will be one of preventive war, which is not...
(No rating) 6-13-2006 Views: 1873

Letters From Afghanistan
Author: Eloise Hanner ISBN: 0828320837 The following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen & CLICK TO VIEW Paul Lappen's ReviewsIt was the year 1971. The author, a recent collegegraduate from Idaho, and her fiance (soon to be herhusband) decide to join the Peace Corps. They aren'tqualified to do much except teach English, so theyapplied for somewhere in the South Pacific, and had towait several months for an opening. After a weekend ofmore intense interviews in Chicago, they finally...
(No rating) 7-8-2005 Views: 2564

Minutemen: The Battle to Secure America’s Borders
Authors: Jim Gilchrist & Jerome R. CorsiPublisher: World Ahead Publishing, Inc.ISBN: 0-9778984-1-5 The following review was contributed by: Evelyn Sears. Click here to read more of Evelyn's Review:
(No rating) 8-30-2006 Views: 2027

One Nation Under George
Author: Z.M. WagnerISBN: 0-7414-2540-8 The following review was contributed by: Sue Vogan: To read more of Sue's reviews Click HereZ. M. Wagner resides in Arizona, "where he enjoys playing sports outside in the winter and anything that keeps him inside during the summer." He has written four other books and "several volumes of poetry, and plans to continue writing until he can no longer hold a pen." Since President Bush's approval ratings have almost bottomed out, (only...
(No rating) 5-4-2006 Views: 2418

Pearls, Politics and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead
Click Here To Purchase Pearl, Politics & Power Author: Madeleine M KuninISBN: 1933392924Madeleine Kunin became the first woman governor of the American state of Vermont and was both Deputy Secretary of Education and Ambassador to her country of birth Switzerland under the Clinton administration – the former president provides one of the very co
(No rating) 7-10-2008 Views: 2348

Politics and Patriotism: The Fisk Conspiracy
Author: Justin OldhamISBN: 1933538325The following review was contributed by: John Walsh: CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's ReviewsThere will probably always be a market for fast-moving political thrillers with shady organisations conspiring against each other and using violence and technology to achieve their unexpected goals. To that extent, Politics and Patriotism: The Fisk Conspiracy has the makings of a good book. Set in Washington a few years in the future, the author combines a number of...
(No rating) 4-10-2006 Views: 2719

Quo Vadis, Israel?
Click Here To Purchase From Amazon Quo Vadis, Israel?Author: H. Peter Nennhaus Publisher: Outskirts PressISBN: 978-1-4327-1459-8 The book begins by saying if the reader finds it impossible to contemplate a negative prognosis for the land of Israel you might as well not continue to read. Well I have read because there was such a lot I didn’t know or understand about Israel and I discovered quite a lot of interesting facts along the way. The Jews have been expelled continuously throughout...
(No rating) 1-28-2008 Views: 1574

Robbing Us Blind: The Return of the Bush Gang and the Mugging of America by Steve Brouwer
The following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen This book looks at the myriad of ways that average and lower-income Americans have been systematically robbed of their monetary wealth through deliberate government policy. That wealth has been given to the top 1 percent of the people, in terms of income, by a group of elites and super-rich that the author calls the Bush Gang. The Bush family has been at, or near, the seat of American power for 16 of the last 24 years. To give one...
(No rating) 10-19-2004 Views: 3501

Samson Blinded: A Machiavellian Perspective on the Middle East Conflict
Author: Obadiah ShoherISBN: 1419621165The following review was contributed by: John Walsh: CLICK TO VIEW John Walsh's ReviewsThere have been many approaches to the Middle East situation, with many people aiming to find ways in which the Palestinian and the Jewish people can live together without violence. The situation is complex and needs to take into account a variety of viewpoints. There are those on all sides of the conflict who favour outright confrontation and physical action to...
(No rating) 5-23-2006 Views: 2070

Sinking the Ship of State
Click Here To Purchase From Amazon Sinking the Ship of State Author: Walter M. BraschPublisher: BookSurge PublishingISBN: 978-1-4196-6950-7Walter M. Brasch, a professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, has followed George W. Bush’s career from his first presidential campaign in 2000 until the present day. Brasch has listened to the president’s speeches, observed his policy formation and political appointment processes, and been dumbfounded by the press’s widespread refusal, until...
(No rating) 11-20-2007 Views: 2025

Such Men are Dangerous: The Fanatics of 1692 and 2004
Title: Such Men are Dangerous: The Fanatics of 1692 and 2004Author: Frances HillISBN: 0942679288The Following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen: To view Paul Lappen's other reviews click here: Paul Lappen's ReviewsThis book compares the men behind the Salem WitchcraftTrials of 1692 to the Bush II Administration. Thecomparisons are distressingly close.Massachusetts of the 1690s was a very rigid sort ofplace. Those in power were ideologues who believedthat their version of Calvinism...
(No rating) 10-12-2004 Views: 2477

Such Men are Dangerous: The Fanatics of 1692 and 2004 by Frances Hill
The following review was submitted by: PAUL LAPPEN This book compares the men behind the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 to the Bush II Administration. The comparisons are distressingly close. Massachusetts of the 1690s was a very rigid sort of place. Those in power were ideologues who believed that their version of Calvinism was the only way and the only truth. Everyone who came to Massachusetts was required by law to attend Puritan services. Belonging to any other church was...
(No rating) 1-1-1970 Views: 1556

The Coming China Wars
Click Here To Purchase The Coming China Wars: Where They Will Be Fought And How They Can Be Won Author: Peter NavarroISBN: 0132281287
(No rating) 1-5-2007 Views: 3244

The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers and the Media That Love by Amy Goodman and David Goodman
The following review was contributed by: Paul Lappen This book exposes the lies, crimes and corruptions of the American elite, aided and bolstered by big media conglomerates. One of the reasons for the American invasion of Iraq was because Saddam Hussein used poison gas in 1988 against the Kurdish town of Halabja. The US Senate overwhelmingly passed sanctions against Iraq in response. The sanctions were squelched by the Reagan and Bush I Administrations, because Saddam...
(No rating) 1-1-1970 Views: 1268

The Intellligence Files: Today's Secrets, Tomorrow's Scandals
Author: Olivier SchmidtISBN: 0932863426 This is a collection of articles from a European online journal calledIntelligence. They deal with that netherworld where national and internationalpolitics, the military and the spy business intersect.It sounds like a good thing for developing countries to put aside large tractsof land for "nature." Such a practice has now become required to receive Westernaid. The poorer a country is, the more land they have to take out of production.How can...
(No rating) 10-20-2006 Views: 1771

The Making of a Civil Rights Lawyer
Michael MeltsnerISBN: 0-8139-2501-0 The following review was contributed by: *Sue Vogan: To read more of Sue's reviews Click HereMichael Meltsner claims that he “applied to law school because it postponed the need to decide anything, because it would keep me out of the armed services for at least a year, and because, broke and fatherless, I couldn’t turn my back on the full-tuition scholarship Yale offered me.” He didn’t seem to have a clue about being a lawyer, but states, “at the time...
(No rating) 5-20-2006 Views: 2327