Current Events Books

I am the author of the foreword for Liars for Jesus (The Religious Right's Alternate Version of American History, vol.1)

For years segments of the religious right have been speaking out against what they have perceived as the historical revisionism of the Bible. This makes their attacks and distortions on the real history of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the United States very ironic and it would be funny if it wasn't doing so much damage to the religious freedom this country was built upon.

Chris Rodda works to set the record straight and she does it with extensive documentation showing how these distortions are intentional and aimed at leading many well intentioned Christians into false conclusions about the faith and the intentions of our Founders. Reading this book you will be amazed by how far these distortions go ranging from creating false rationizations to carefully cropped quotes ripped from their context to repeating known undocumented and questionable quotes as reliable truth. All these and more are used by the Liars for Jesus to create a psuedo-history of the birth of our nation. Alerted by the evidence of Rodda's detailing of the recorded history you may angered by the fact that this pseudo-history is being marketed to home-schoolers who will never learn the truth and by the fact these lies are making their ways into textbooks for public classrooms.

Liars for Jesus by Chris Rodda is one of the best written and most important books about contemporary American politics that I have read in years. The only problem with this book is that it was apparently published with the author's own money, making its availability somewhat limited. This book should be widely read and discussed, because it helps explain why the Christian Right seems so incomprehensibly loony to most of us who are not part of that movement, and, conversely, why they attack the rest of us with such unfettered zeal.

There has been a series of revisionist "history" books published since the end of WWII which give a "Christian" version of American history that attempts to paint the Founding Fathers and subsequent American culture in a way that is in agreement with contemporary Fundamentalism. We have now had a couple of generations of conservative Christians who have been buying into this version of history and reacting angrily to an America that assumes fundamental principals like the separation of church and state to be at the core of what America stands for.

Author Rodda systematically lists and then busts a series of myths that these spurious history books have generated. She leaves no stone unturned in doing so.

Things get really scary when she starts quoting Supreme Court opinions written by Rennquist, Thomas and Burger, and it becomes apparent that members of our highest court do not know the difference between real history and Fundamentalist wishful thinking.

The book is a fascinating study in how the desire for a different set of facts can, over time, morph into an alternative if deluded "reality".

Ms. Rodda has presented an intelligent, well-written expose on the nonsense spewed by the religious right over the internet and in boooks.

Lies for Jesus abound. This is not a new phenomenon, as Ms. Rodda points out in her book, but the lies have greatly proliferated in the age of the Internet. It is sometimes difficult for concerned citizens and concerned Christians to refute the lies which appear to come from authority. Ms. Rodda takes the words of those so-called authorities and shows them for what they are. Her sources are impeccable.

As an Episcopalian, I was quite shocked to learn that the Liars for Jesus have stolen words out of my own Book of Common Prayer to further their questionable agenda.

Those liars do great damage to our religious freedom, a freedom that generations upon generations have fought and died to protect.

"Liars" seems a harsh term to apply to professed Christians and until lately I had--admittedly without paying too much attention--assumed that Christian fundamentalists were engaged in wishful thinking and selective quotations when they complained about activist judges subverting both the Constitution and the clear intent of the Founding Fathers to establish a Christian government. But after reading Ms. Rodda's book I realize that there is something going on far beyond taking words out of context. When she digs out the words and records that clearly demolish the assertion that no "wall of separation" between church and state was ever intended, "liars" does seem the appropriate word. Those of us who fear that the intrusion of "faith based" activities into our government and the flow of subsidies, in the guise of "contracts", to favored churches, is a step toward a theocracy, will find much useful and carefully documented information in "Liars for Jesus".

I highly recommend this book. It covers the psychological aspect of living under the current regime in Burma, which many people studying and following the events in Burma forget to cover at times. I even recommended this to my parents. We're Burmese. It's well written and thought out, and the author is knowledgeable about the people.

Cristina Fink's book Living Silence: Burma Under Military Rule is a hard-hitting examination of what life was (and perhaps still is) like under the repressive rule of the Burmese military. Using an extensive set of interviews, and the underground writings of dissidents, Fink outlines and looks at the real psychological consequences of years of repression. Perhaps the closest real world example of what Michel Foucault would call a "carceral society". Fink brings the Panopticon to life. My understanding of the issues in Burma was greatly enhanced by reading this book and I recommend it highly.

Miguel Llora

The book can provide an insight of Burma under military rule.
The author has learned much about real concerns and issues in the country. The interesting is that the author was able to inform the rarely known rituals of the Junta. Many interviews were done and good and first-hand informations can be seen on the book.

This book takes one to a country that is "a world apart" in a multitude of ways from what we know here in America. A fascinating read that is sure to captivate and enrich the reader with newfound knowledge and awareness. A brilliant debut by an author I hope we'll see much more of in years to come.

A facinating, well written book that sheds light on an area of the world I knew little about. I usually find scholarly works somewhat dry and hard to get through. This book was hard to put down. I won't launch into a lecture on why you SHOULD read this or try to impress with my newfound knowledge of the struggles of the Burmese people. I will tell you that this a great, readable book that will educate you and hold your interest. Buy it.

A wonderful eye-opener for any blind patriot who believes everything on TV and movies, and takes it all at face value. This book points out the hidden agenda of mass, corporate-owned media...

Parenti's critical review of the Rambo movies really made an impression on me. I used to like the Rambo movies, but now watch them mainly for laughs. Each subsequent Rambo release is, as Parenti describes it, worse than its predecessor. There was talk of reviving the Rambo character now that the U.S. is at war against terrorism. Let's hope it doesn't happen.

I'm not sure if working people are portrayed as negatively as Parenti has described it. If we only take Archie Bunker as an example, then yes, but filmmakers love to advance the theme of the powerless versus the powerful, because the opposite doesn't go well with audiences. Perhaps Parenti knows something I don't on this issue.

Parenti's favorable ratings of two films - JFK and Salvador - made me want to see them - over ten years after they had been released. I managed to see JFK, and it was great. I am still looking to see Salvador.

What I would like to see is an updated version of this book, since there has been more Hollywood propaganda released since the original version came out.

To hear newscasters avoid talk about class in America, you'd think the concept is as obsolete as the Soviet Union.Yet Michael Parenti continues to insist that class bias not only spreads out from the heart of society, but shapes it. Here he looks at TV's entertainment role in preserving social privilege. From popular stereotypes such as the Lone Ranger and his third-world flunky Tonto, to the invisible world of labor, to the well-meaning but misunderstood plutocrat, Parenti exposes capitalism's self-serving myths as portrayed on the little screen. Sure it's fun to kick around TV and a lot of people do it, but Parenti does it in a highly informative way that confronts our last remaining taboo - the role of wealth and power in American life.

Maybe the best chapter concerns profits and censorship. It's no news to point out that the networks and advertisers are in it for the money. But it is news to point out those instances when producers actually forego profits for the sake of respectability. Parenti details instances when industry has eaten losses rather than jeopardise the system of wealth and power it serves. For example, Procter & Gamble, TV's biggest advertiser, makes this allegiance clear by banning all content critical of Wall Street and the Pentagon from scripts it sponsors. In fact, most scripts - as Parenti shows - go through not 1, but 4 levels of censorship. No wonder, the public walks around in an ideological haze wondering why the world hates us -- and so much for the dollar sign's being more important than the system of which it is a part.

Another telling chapter concerns one of entertainment's most popular myths: "We only give 'em (the audience) what they want." Sounds good. But, as Parenti documents, despite this appeal to democratic ideals, the entertainment marketplace is anything but democratic. He sketches out control points or nerve centers that reduce real choice to pseudo choice, sort of like a multiple choice question whose options are narrowed to a desired range of outcome. All this is made sorrier by indications that American audiences respond to forbidden topics on those rare occasions when they seep through.

No book that debunks the FBI's screen role in the civil rights movement, or points out the class conditioning behind TV's version of Treasure Island, can afford to be overlooked. Whatever the book lacks in depth is more than made up for in focus. Despite his unperson status, Parenti remains a key figure among dissident academics banished to the book-selling fringes. Recommended to all those who understand TV viewing as anything but a passive pastime.

Propaganda is basically found in every modern society, so it should come as no surprise to find it in a movie like "Red Dawn," which Parenti refers to. He brings up such interesting facts as that all the TV networks have a department devoted to censorship, such as CBS's euphemistically named "Standards and Practices Department"; that companies like Procter & Gamble often have inordinate veto power over broadcast content considered subversive; and that PBS, which is actually anything but a "public" organization, has been dubbed the "Petroleum Broadcast Service" due to the large influence of the oil companies that help fund it. He who pays the piper..., you might say. I highly recommend this book.

Parenti does an excellent job in exposing how lopsided the entertaiment industry is, and how Right it is centered. He looks at aspects as diverse as Oscar winning movies to WWF wrestling, and how politically oriented they are, more often then not the Right. The Cold War did a number on American movies and it tainted the industry to this day in producing mediocre films that did not threaten or offend anyone high in power. I feel that today the situation is improved just a little bit, with more accurate portrayels of minorities and women and so forth, but we still have a long way to go in the entertainment industry. An excellent book for anyone at all interested in the entertainment industry and an eye opener as well.

As a nation we have just closed a trying chapter on American Government in action. A determined Special Prosecutor, with an unlimited budget, turned loose with no one holding the reigns, almost brought the Presidency crumbling to the ground.

Many people railed against the depth of intrusion that was imposed on the first family. But if you stop to think about it, perhaps government was only getting a dose of their own medicine: being repaid for their intervention and intrusion into the private life's of its citizens.

In Edmund's book this intrusion is explained and outlined in such a fashion that readers can understand and follow. In the early part of this century America experienced huge creative and inventive leaps. These advances made the inventors and the producers (makers) rich, giving birth to the American Dream.

Seeing this, government decided they needed more of a share- "for the greater good". Contoski details how the takers (government and big business) have since intervened and taken a larger piece of the pie by passing laws that benefit them and which keep the "makers" plodding along a treadmill, chasing after an "American Dream" that as been quietly stolen away from us bit by bit. Never a fan of economics or finance- I wondered if I could provide a good or objective review of this publication. Edmund has made this easy to understand and an interesting read. You'll find yourself nodding your head as you read his examples, and saying to yourself, " Yeah, I can see that now."

He fully explains the origins of the American system and how it fed and nurtured an unprecedented number of "makers.Then, just as deftly he highlights the subtle changes in our political belief system and orientation. These changes often so subtle that they have, until now, remained unnoticeable.

This book should be required reading for every registered voter in the U.S.

Amazing facts you can read about in the book MAKERS AND TAKERS

1200 people die unnecessarily because of the Food and Drug Administrations 5 year delay in approving the drug nitrazepam;

Over 100,000 people die from the FDA's 7 year delay in approving beta blockers;

The federal government-while posing as the protector of the environment-is the nation's largest polluter. The Defense Dept. alone generates more hazardous waste than the five largest chemical companies combined. Other sources of pollution include federal prisons, hospitals-and even the EPA itself.

A million Peruvians became infected with cholera-and 10,000 died-after chlorination of drinking water was stopped because of EPA policy.

Read how EPA falsified sulfur dioxide emission studies in order to force stringent regulations on utility companies and other coal-burning industries. Leslie Blanchard

Editor A Writer's Choice Literary Journal ISSN: 1521-2319 http://members.spree.com/writer/ & The Bear's Den- Spoken Word Poetry http://members.tripod.com/bearpoet icq# 33958401

Contowski marshalls an astonishingly usefull array of facts (from taxation to environment) in support of human freedom and agaist governmental intervention. Especially good at explaining why human ingenuity trumps fears of resource depletion.
This is the book that Bjorn Lomberg needs to read to understand why the statistics he understands so well, support a wholly different world view than he still clings to.

I read this last year, and have been trying to buy extra copies from Amazon ever since to send to friends. This is a book that could convert a lot of people from statists to Libertarians, if they would only read it. I rank it with my favorites from Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek and Henry Hazlitt.

There are an astounding number of facts on health, the environment, industry, education, economics and practically everything classical liberals and libertarians need to refute arguments for increased government control over every aspect of our lives.

In spite of the huge amount of information, it's exceptionally well-organized, and it's also fun reading, with "Ahaas!" on every page. I couldn't put it down. In fact, some of the descriptions of government bungling, unintended consequences and dirty dealing are entertaining enough to make you laugh (or cry) depending on your mood.

I'm going to try again to order several copies for Christmas presents, because I have a few friends who have been seduced by the dark side who could be saved by this book, and a few friends who already "get it" who could use the ammo.

The book makes understandable the essense of the struggle between the left and right in the United States and throughout the world. It starts with the beginning of civilization and leads right up to today.

Contoski review

Assigning a single rating to any book, let alone this one, is an exercise in frustration. Does one go with thematic-informational integration (5 stars), wealth of detail (5 stars), reference potential (5 stars), breadth of scope (4 stars), level of readability (4 stars), or documentation of facts (3 stars, maybe 4)? Or does one consider prose style (2 stars or at best a "C" for "clear"), conciseness, particularly in setting forth the unifying thesis (2), or usefulness as a reference as derived from the quality of the index (sorry, Amazon's system doesn't provide for minus grades)? Or does one demonstrate one of the author's points about egalitarianism by assigning an average (3.6 points), thereby slighting a valuable and frequently fascinating book?

Mr. Contoski has achieved an admirable synthesis from myriad historical and economic facts and observations, adding up to both a moral and a practical affirmation of individual freedom as the source of progress in all its aspects, spiritual, intellectual, and economic. Readers of Ayn Rand will quickly recognize the theme of the mind as the "mover" in human advances. Indeed, the statement of the author's overall theme could be described as "Galt's Speech"-- and indeed, his own "Manifesto of Infividualism" -with supportive facts and without the poetry, but also without Rand's unfortunate shrill moralizing and didacticism. (That being the case, I would have liked to see Rand given a bit of credit in the text.) Without the poetry, however, the thematic statement is very tough going indeed-first because this section is so repetitious and second because Mr. Contoski, obviously by choice, excludes my half of the audience by persistent use of "man" and "men" when in 99.44 percent of the cases "humans" or "people" would serve more accurately and grate less on the millennium-tuned ear. I confess I made it through the theory eventually by reading only the topic sentence of each paragraph.

But sticking with it pays off bigtime. Most of the book-and certainly the most riveting part--is devoted to a once-through-each-type-of-purpose-defeating interventionism from currency manipulation through environmental regulation through education in a staggering demonstration of its counterproductivity in every guise and every sense of the word. Here are facts in profusion. One could wish that more statements had been documented with footnotes (though many have been), and that more had been obtained from primary sources. But as an act of synthesis, "Makers and Takers" is a marvel in its marshalling of the facts that support its thesis. Many of these facts are little known. For example, that private industry spends more annually on training and education than the entire U.S. budget for same--$240 billion versus $210. Or that rain is more acid over the ocean and some uninhabited places. Or that only one kind of asbestos is dangerous. Or the original intent and design of the Electoral College. Or ... If only the index permitted my re-finding more examples in the time I can allot to writing this review.

Lillian R. Rodberg, Allentown, PA lrrodberg@rcn.com

This book is a must for the library of every liberal arts professor across our nation. George Autry has contributed a meal toi debate about. Thank you. Check out HILLARY for further musing: Hillary

I have done my homework and this author is right on target. It is easy to read and each page gets better. I would like to see more about the Muslims in our country and more organizations that are corrupt. KEEP WRITING 'GEORGE'.

I have never heard of this author but I picked up his book and all I can say is WOW. I never knew half of what American organizations and government have been hiding. You won't hear this stuff with the public media. Every American needs to read this. Keep writing.

Wow, Mr. Autry doesn't hold anything back in this book. He throws out all political correctness and tells it like it is. I truly believe that he puts into words what the majority of this country feels. This book is sure to be extremely controversial and the Liberal Nut-Jobs will go crazy when they read this.

Mr. Autry tackles everything from Islamic Radicals to Media Bias and pretty much everything else that drives most of us crazy.

If you want to read a "no spin" book, this is a good one to get.

Wow, Mr. Autry doesn't hold anything back in this book. He throws out all political correctness and tells it like it is. I truly believe that he puts into words what the majority of this country feels. This book is sure to be extremely controversial and the Liberal Nut-Jobs will go crazy when they read this.

Mr. Autry tackles everything from Islamic Radicals to Media Bias and pretty much everything else that drives most of us crazy.

If you want to read a "no spin" book, this is a good one to get.

I also recomend Murray Rothbard's "Education: Free and Compulsory" for in depth historical analysis of government involvement with education. Any politicians that truly give a darn should be reading these books. Democrats rhetoric about "helping the poor" is sickening when you realize how much government involvement in education has specifically hurt the poor.

Many people have proposals for what should be done about education today. Few have looked into history to see what has been successful in the past. This book does that. Few have hard data to back up their theories. This book does. It cites more than one thousand authentic historical and statistical sources. Half of these are original documents (or translations thereof).

The bibliography alone is worth the price of this book. I had been searching for statistics on literacy, and I found so much more here! This book is not only an excellent survey of educational methods throughout history, but also a comprehensive list of sources for future research.

The author is biased toward completely privatized education, and in this book he explains why. He starts where democracy started, in Ancient Greece. Most of us have heard of Athens and Sparta. We know Spartans were dedicated warriors. We know they had to come home from war "with their shield or on it." We know the city state of Sparta was everything, and each individual citizen was dispensable.

We know that Athens, not Sparta, became the capitol in Greece's Golden Age. What I did not know before reading about it in this book was that Athens had no official school system, no regulation of teachers, and no required curriculum. Athenian teachers simply charged parents directly for educating their children. Each teacher specialized in a subject, and the parents simply chose teachers with good reputations who taught the subjects they wanted their children to know. Competition for students kept prices down. Some excellent teachers were wealthy and did not charge, notably Plato and Aristotle. The result of this free market education method was a city that became its country's leader in art, philosophy, and science.

This is but the first exploration in this timely book that examines what has worked in education. My BellaOnline School Reform Forum will be full of references to this book. So far it is the only one of its kind!

I have been doing research on what can be done about the sad state of public education. I read this 391 page book gripped by fascination. Any lover of history, ideas, civilization, or America should read this book. Why are our schools in serious decline? For some of the same reasons the Soviet Union collapsed. Andrew Coulson examines our current system of public education, and argues for revitalization through direct parental control. He looks at times in history when education has been free from state control, and shows that those have been some of the times of greatest cultural flourishing, such as Periclean Athens. He also looks at education in other countries, historically and currently. Public vs. private education in England, and Japan and the Netherlands are particularly of interest. He examines the history of American education, and dispells myths like the idea that people were illiterate until publicly funded education came along. The truth is that the literacy rate was much higher BEFORE Horace Mann first started promoting the idea of state schooling based on the Prussian military model of that time. Coulson also looks at constitutional questions, and deals with the legitimacy of government compelling belief. Anyone who supports the ailing status quo of public education is going to have to come to terms with the formidable research and persuasive arguments presented by Senior Research Associate and former softwear engineer, Andrew Coulson, who devoted four years to producing this book. They will also have to answer the other growing advocates of education liberation, among whom are Thomas Sowell (Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas) Stephen Arons (Compelling Belief: The Culture of American Schooling) and Sheldon Richman (The Separation of School and State). I salute Andrew Coulson as having done a magnificent job in writing this well documented and thoughtful study.

We know that our public schools are not providing the quality of education that they should. Market Education does an excellent job of analyzing what the problems with public education are and making thoughtful recommendations for how to improve it. The book should be required reading for anyone interested in improving our children's education.

An intriguing, highly original account of how government-funded schools have driven out superior private schooling, going back to the ancients and concluding with our failed U.S. schools of today. I haven't seen any other book that presents the history of this takeover of the educational market, and how harmful it has been to students in virtually every country and era in which it has occurred. Anyone interested in improving the education of children really needs to read this book. It's a compelling argument for school choice, and it's written in an appealing style by an author who is obviously passionate about his subject. My guess is that public school teachers will find this book particularly enlightening, since it explains a great deal of their frustration with bureaucracy getting in the way of educating kids. Coulson presents many suggestions for moving our educational system towards greater freedom for students, parents, and teachers.

Medals of Blood is truely destined to be a classic. Even though the author claims it is a fictional tale you can see the truth screaming out at you from between the lines. I believe many untold truths have been exposed in ths book. It's a clever way to tell the world how so many of our tragic events came about. This is a must read!

This book was a great reading experience. The author tells the story as being fiction but I believe there is much more truth than fiction here. perhaps the author had to call it fiction to keep big brother off his case. I hope to see more books by this author. This book needs to become a movie fast.

Medals of Blood
B. L. Watkins Jr.
Have you ever wondered what really happened to the POWs left behind after the Vietnam War? Did they die in captivity, or was there something far more sinister behind their total disappearance? Could their existence have embarrassed the U.S. government to the point that they took action to see that no evidence of these captured soldiers would ever be discovered? What about other so-called terrorist actions over the last twenty-four years? Join Colonel B.L. Watkins and the soldiers of the elite third Black Ops. detachment and learn of their involvement in the removal of threats to our national security. Learn the truth behind the American POWs, along with other buried secrets of our government. Find out about the covert missions of the Special Forces, such as the doomed flight over Scotland, the truth about the death of the world's most loved princess, the assassination of a president's son, and who really may have been behind the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center. Learn why Saddam Hussein was allowed to live instead of being assassinated during Desert Storm, and what really goes on while America sleeps. Medals of Blood answers these questions and many, many more.

Have you ever wondered what really happened to the POWs left behind after the Vietnam War? Did they die in captivity, or was there something far more sinister behind their total disappearance? Could their existence have embarrassed the U.S. government to the point that they took action to see that no evidence of these captured soldiers would ever be discovered? What about other so-called terrorist actions over the last twenty-four years? Join Colonel B.L. Watkins and the soldiers of the elite third Black Ops. detachment and learn of their involvement in the removal of threats to our national security. Learn the truth behind the American POWs, along with other buried secrets of our government. Find out about the covert missions of the Special Forces, such as the doomed flight over Scotland, the truth about the death of the world's most loved princess, the assassination of a president's son, and who really may have been behind the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center. Learn why Saddam Hussein was allowed to live instead of being assassinated during Desert Storm, and what really goes on while America sleeps. Medals of Blood answers these questions and many, many more. This book is great. If you want to know more about what the US Special Forces do then this is the book to open your eyes to the truth.

Medals of Blood is one of the most interesting books I have read in a very long time. It tells the reader of the horror behind war and the effects it leaves on a soldier. It also reveals the more believable side of ths US Special Forces. They have been painted as heroes who never do anything wrong. This book shows the reader that even America has its share of dark secrets. There is a sense of reality being hidden by a cloak of fiction that makes you wonder if this book is more of an autobiography of the author rather than fictional tale. ????? I would highly recommend this book to all.

Excellent text for the communication specialist or media analyst in search of background on how the American public gets its news about breaking stories -- especially those in which the US Government has a clear policy interest. "Media Access and the Military," using the 1991 Gulf War as a case study, gets as close to "tell it like it is" as we are likely to get on this subject.

For someone who experienced the Gulf War on assignment in Israel and got the report of the Iraqi attack through CNN moments before hearing the first Scud missiles slam into Tel Aviv, "Media Access and the Military" by Judith Raine Baroody is a fascinating read. An extremely insightful, carefully researched analysis of the Gulf War, the study looks beyond the pyrotechnics and smart and not-so-smart bombs that captured public imagination at the time to the crucial role of the press and its interface with the warriors. It's a story not often told, but told here extremely well -- by a seasoned diplomat who is also a scholar and former TV anchor. It is clear that this book will be the definitive statement on the subject for years to come and an absolute must-read for the military and embassy professionals who are called upon to handle public affairs issues during our next war.

Readers in international affairs will greatly benefit from reading "Media Access and the Military." The first and last chapters offer a lively discussion of freedom of speech, of what is considered for public knowledge during a war and how this issue is resolved from the point of view of the press and also from the military point of view.

Journalists and researchers will find the appendix very useful, as it includes the research questionnaire and the list of interviewed persons.

The book also offers a concise history of the Gulf War. Scholarly books have no obligation to be "a good read," but I found it extremely interesting.

For someone who experienced the Gulf War on assignment in Israel and got the report of the Iraqi attack through CNN moments before hearing the first Scud missiles slam into Tel Aviv, "Media Access and the Military" by Judith Raine Baroody is a fascinating read. An extremely insightful, carefully researched analysis of the Gulf War, the study looks beyond the pyrotechnics and smart and not-so-smart bombs that captured public imagination at the time to the crucial role of the press and its interface with the warriors. It's a story not often told, but told here extremely well -- by a seasoned diplomat who is also a scholar and former TV anchor. It is clear that this book will be the definitive statement on the subject for years to come and an absolute must-read for the military and embassy professionals who are called upon to handle public affairs issues during our next war.

The definitive study of this important issue, written with clarity, effective argumentation and comprehensive research. The oral history or the negotiations between the press corps and the Department of Defense is perhaps the most interesting and accessible portion of this TEXT, and gives an insight into the evoling nature of government/media relations.Overall, a valuable contribution to the field.

Nothing in mankind is beautiful without a lot of effort - democracy and freedom in the Islamic world is no different. "The Modernization of Islam and the Creation of a Multipolar World Order" is a look the gradually changing world with a focus on the middle east and the Muslim world. Comparing the modern conflicts of today to how World Wars I and II began to purge Europe of its absolute monarchies, "The Modernization of Islam" is a thoughtful study of global transformation, offering an optimistic viewpoint of the region for a change. Highly recommended for community library religious and political collections.

What will be the final outcome in Iraq? Is it possible to spread democracy throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa? How bad is America's economy? Could the Euro or gold surpass the dollar? These are just some of the questions debated in barbershops, at kitchen tables and on talk radio shows around the nation and world.

Dr. Susmit Kumar offers answers to those questions and provides solutions in his new book, "The Modernization of Islam" "There is not much America can do to stop the rise of Islamic Militancy in Iraq. Unfortunately, the extremists rising to power is a necessary step in the birthing process of democracy," reveals the previous member of the prestigious India Administrative Service, which influences and implements government policy

The Founding President of the Prout Institute of United States draws parallels between early 20th century Europe and present day Islamic society, "Had Europe not endured the labor pains of World Wars I and II, it might still be ruled by Monarchs." Dr. Kumar further explains after Islamic nations succumb to the grips of extremists, the people will eventually rise up against fundamentalism.

"It is at that point the majority of Islamic nations will become secular and democratic, like Turkey," he continues. Once Turkey gained it's independence in 1923, nationalists introduced several radical political, cultural and social reforms including closing the Islamic courts.

Dr. Kumar points out that it has remained free ever since shedding its fundamentalists' rule, "Despite being 99 percent Muslim, Turkey has been a fairly successful example of a secular democratic state for over 80 years." He adds that before a democratic rebirth can occur in Iraq or any other Islamic nation, the labor pains have to take place.

The war in Iraq has become the nation's most debated issue because of all that has been committed and allocated to fighting it. "But we have to leave," Dr. Kumar powerfully contends. "We cannot do anything more there and it is costing us our people, money and resources."

According to Dr. Kumar, the more than $2 billion spent per week by the U.S in Iraq should be spent on Americans or not at all bearing in mind the growing trade deficit ($700 billion per year) and budget deficits. In last 7 years, America's debt has increased from $5 trillion to $9 trillion, and, he adds, "The latest bestseller by a Nobel Prize winner in Economics predicts the total price tag of the war may surpass $3 trillion considering the indirect costs of veteran care."
These factors worry Dr. Kumar, "Taking advantage of our dollar being global currency, Fed just prints dollars whenever it feels necessary. Because of our huge debt, OPEC is considering a switch in oil pricing from the dollar to the Euro. If the Euro makes further gains and takes over has the global currency, a potential doomsday scenario could play out for the U.S. economy affecting America's military might." If America eventually faces this situation, it would be constrained financially and militarily leaving Middle Eastern and North African allies even more vulnerable.

Dr. Kumar offers an economic solution to that would help not only America, but also those countries struggling so badly financially that their people fall prey to the beliefs of Islamic Extremists. He advocates an economic system that increases the purchasing power of individuals, not the gross national product, "Developing the home-grown strengths of various societies and their peoples will allow them to participate on a more equal basis in the world to come."

He concludes by disclosing, "Democracies are built on equality and extremists fear it. That's why eventually equality will be the foundation of the modern Islam."

Dr. Susmit Kumar gives us new hope that whatever is happening in the world today will have a beneficial outcome. Modernization of Islam carries the art of sharing with the reader a vein of optimisms by linking together an impressive mass of documented information (with 640 references/notes) regarding recent and past history concerning religion, politics and economy as well. Some information may be disturbing at the first glance as not all the truth indeed is revealed at the time of the historical facts. Millions of people may be benefited by expanding the vision of society beyond the apparent clashes of civilizations. This book definitely helps to prepare the mind of the reader for the unavoidable changes that history artfully jot on the global canvas towards a new world order.

Ac. Vimaleshananda Avt.

Dr. Kumar presents a fresh analysis of current events in "The Modernization of Islam". As the U.S. economy continues to weaken, so too will U.S. support weaken for its client states in the Islamic World, enabling fundamentalist groups to vie for power in the short term. However, the long term vision for the future is hopeful and benevolent, with a true democracy taking hold where local people control their local resources and economy. A must read for those interested in the upheavals we are witnessing today.

I read the book Modernization of Islam by Dr. Susmit Kumar. It is a very good book to understand economic and political problems and its solution. I came to know about a new socio-economic theory Prout(The Progressive Utilization Theory). It seems to be a solution for present economic crisis.

This is the first book I would recommend to anyone wanting to understand (1) the agenda of Muslim extremist groups, and (2) what draws people to their "cause".

Kepel argues that the extremist groups have been around since the departure of the European imperialist powers, seeking to create a "pan-Muslim" state as an alternative to the secular nation-states that occupy the region today. Naiive, groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood were easily subverted, repressed and generally thought of as harmless until the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

Citing the poverty, lack of opportunity and political repression as the fertile ground that created these groups, Kepel sympathetically goes on to discuss their agenda - essentially that "secular" "nation-states" are alien and counter to the history and culture of the Islamic world. Truly and outstanding book.

This is the work that made the now imminent French scholar of Islamism famous. Kepel was more or less the first scholar to frame "Muslim Extremism" as 1) an extremist phenomenon and 2) a real political threat to the region in such an explicit fashion. As such, this work has been much debated and criticized; however, it still remains a classic in the field.

Ideally, Kepel's work should be read in tandem with Mitchell's work on the Muslim Brothers as Kepel himself seemed to see this work as the follow-up to Mitchell's groundbreaking work. Mitchell's work stopped at the incarceration of the Brotherhood after the Free Officers now longer found their support politically desirable or expedient, and basically, Kepel's picks up at that point-the inhumanity of the prisons, the gallows, and the torture rooms.

Unlike Mitchell's work, however, Kepel's study is not confined to a study of the Muslim Brotherhood but is a study of the radicalization of the Islamic trend in Egypt which splinter into many factional, competing parts-at times as a result of state initiatives as under Sadat. The differing policies of the Nasser and Sadat regime are compared, the influence of Sayyid Qutb emphasized, the moderation and political compromise of the Muslim Brotherhood emphasized, and the desperation and impoverishment of the violent groups such as al-Jama'at al-Islamiyyah and Takfir wa-l-Hijrah are cited as their sources. These all became classic themes in the field. Kepel's work demonstrates that the sources of political Islam are as varied as its social manifestations.

This is one of the most comprehensive and well-documented study and analyses of the islamic fundamentalist groups in modern Egypt that has seen the light up to the present. I read it from start-to-end in a run, so involving is the matter it researches as the way in which it is written. An authoritative essay and a source of information on one of the most shocking issues of the last (and present) century, focused on one of the less known areas about religious terrorism. The translation from the French edition is accurate and confiable. A title you can not miss if you are engaged in studying the subject or merely in knowing more about it. Highly recommended!

This book was written over 20 years ago, long before anyone focused on the possible consequences of a growing menace to humanity in the guise of Islamic fanatics calling the masses back to the founding tenants of Islam. Kepel lived in Egypt and spent a lot of time researching and reading what was happening in the 70's and 80's as well as examining the causes and consequences of Islamic calls to jihad and having Muslims continue their conquest of the earth in the name of Allah.
This book shows how Egypt's experiment with socialism resulted in a corrupt, dishonest, and totally failed state. Kepel points out the costs of this experiment by showing that the state created a horrific perfect storm, using the establishment of Israel as the ultimate bogeyman to deflect the masses attention away from the failures of socialism. Essentially the Egyptians were no different than the other kleptocracies in the Middle East and held the hand puppet of Israel as the focus of attention while the other hand deprived the general population of any semblance of a decent standard of living. Kepel's insights into the assassination of Sadat because of his overtures to Israel were most enlightening, essentially showing that Sadat was killed by forces he had nourished with years of hatred toward modernity. Carter and his advisors probably still do not understand to this day what damage they did in the Camp David accords when Sadat traded Soviet handouts for American ones. The view held by the vast majority of Muslims in the Middle East of the American-Zionist plot to overtake the Middle East was cemented and fermented in the accord. It took another generation for it to come to fruition in 9/11, but it all started there. Kepel was not aware of Carter's funding of the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan in the 70's at the same time so is not able to link the beginnings of bin Laden's lunatic fringe groups as well. Another interesting observation by Kepel, which is now becoming more apparent is that the Islamic social code of the separation of the sexes lends itself to sexual frustration on the part of the massive numbers of young and horny Muslims so that the lure of 72 virgins may well be the primary recruiting tool for the jihadists to get them to be a "martyr" by committing suicide and getting the sex they cannot get in their own societies.
Having traveled throughout Egypt many times myself, I can say that the classic "jelly bean" theory has come to pass. Feed the bear a jelly bean to ward him off will only work as long as you still have jelly beans. When you run out, be prepared to be the next meal of the bear.
A great book, especially given its date of publication. It was far ahead of its time. If only the idiots in the US State Department, CIA, or FBI had read it, the prime instigator of the first attack on the World Trade Center would have been banned from the US instead of being allowed entry after the Egyptians arrested him for his terrorist activities in the 1980's.

This is without a doubt one of the best and most readable texts on the subject of the rise of Islamist movements in Egypt. It also works as a fitting sequel to Doanld Mitchell's groundbreaking volume - the only one of its kind ever translated into Arabic - on the Ikhwan al-Muslimin, the Muslim Brotherhood written almost two decades earlier. The book describes the social, historical and economic context behind the Islamist movements neither resorting to apologetic arguments or righteous accusations. Kepel shows that Egyptian Islamist organizations have adopted a variety of approaches that are, more often than not, peaceful such as to effectively constitute what may be civil society in Egypt. Indeed, such organizations as the Islamic Brotherhood in Egypt have recently shown that some compromise is possible with the representatives of the status-quo as well as with rival factions by participating in national elections, such as to avoid a civil war scenario. The Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt now opposes government policy from a legal and regulated official position but it faces pressure from more radical Islamist groups.
Nonetheless, intractable socio-economic problems have made it ever more difficult to contain unrest. The continuing reduction of the public sector since the late '70s and the failure to stimulate private economic enterprise has made it even harder for Egypt to sustain the precarious economic conditions that stimulate Islamist unrest. Although the Egypt achieved significant development in the '50s and '60s, it has pursued misguided economic policies that have fallen short of their potential. The benefits of the oil boom after 1973 and the Sadat-Mubarak economic liberalization policies that followed were mismanaged. Economic liberalization was primarily directed in the speculative construction and real estate sectors and failed to attract foreign investment in other labor intensive and professional areas. Unemployment persisted as the State reduced spending in conformance to IMF debt re-structuring that by 1986 brought about a gradual erosion of the human development achievements of the '50s and '70s. The series of economic reforms benefited the already wealthy. Islamist organizations have also gained popularity by absorbing the void left by the declining State.
Support and membership for such organizations has cut across class and income barriers and is representative of the frustration of a large portion of society, and youth in particular, with the current political establishment in Egypt. The government has not offered viable solutions to problems of unemployment, housing shortages, deteriorating municipal services or the poor quality of health care and education. Kepel also shows that Islamist organizations have solved problems that the government has been unable or unwilling to confront. Unlike government and private banks, the Islamic Brotherhood has operated Islamic Investment Companies (IIC) since the mid-'70s that have provided a real positive rate of interest. Ultimately, in view of chronic economic difficulties and the Government of Egypt's inability to adopt serious reform and tackle the problems of poverty and unemployment seriously makes Egypt very vulnerable to the zeal and violence of militant Islam.