Events Books

If you wanted to know really what is going on in the EC, this is the book to read. It will give you insights into the political systems, which influences the monetary system, trading and the agenda they are following. Not to mention their bullying of countries to get their way.

When was the last time in a civilized, DEMOCRATIC society have we seen free speech outlawed? How about now. Now in the EU it is against the lau to express you opinion, your criticism, of what the political beast is doing. That means you cannot speak out against wrong doings of institutions and political figures.

That ruling alone did away with British common Law and over 50 years of european civil liberties. Where will it end? A totalitarian regime?

Some say THAT is just around the corner.

The author of this book got into HOT water for writing it. I hope this is not something that will foreshadow this type of activity happening here.

This book is a wake up call. If it is happening in the EU, what kind of ramifications will fall on us?

I have bought this as a present for friends interested in monetary policy and international affairs. I shudder to think of the impact the EU will have with a weakened US international policy. I can only envision them as growing threat to us economically and shudder to think of how a potentially fascist EU.

Buy this book.

Bernard Connelly has written the consummate "expose" on the Maastricht treaty and the process of European monetary integration. Connelly, a former member of the European Commission, blows the lid off the Maastricht treaty and the intransigence of Jaques Delors and the Kohl-Mitterand relationship, which led to the European Monetary Union (EMU) provisions in Maastricht. This is at heart story of the politics of monetary policy, especially the failed Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), with three primary themes: the primacy of politics in determining monteray policy, the role of "vision" and "ideology" in determining policy, and the comedy of errors which was the ERM. One should not let the economics of this book prevent them from reading it. At heart, this is a great story and has the intrigue of the best historical novel. Connelly has written a factual tale containing a heroine (Baroness Thatcher), villians (Delors, Kohl, Trichet, Mitterand, Tietmeyer), and Alphandery, the innocent whistle-blower who brings the ERM crashing down. Connelly provides any reader interested in knowing about the lunacy of European monetary integration just why this idea is flawed, and provides economic evidence to defend his primary arguments. Among the more important and convincing conclusions reached in this work are: the necessity of flexible exchange rates, the inherent negatives of Europhilism (and especially Franco-philism, since "Europe" is seen as way to prevent the rise of "Anglo-Saxon" institutions), and the belief in free, competitive markets. A final comment one feels obligated to make about this book is its timeliness, and his villification of France, which is supported by following the recent row over the control of the European Central Bank. If one wants to read one book on why the EMU was really founded, and why it won't work-this is the book.

Bernard Connolly was fired by the European bureaucrats after this book came out. If you read this book you will understand why. This book has all the detail you could ask for. It is an incredible expose of the events leding up to European Monetary Union.

If you support the European Community, reading this book will change your mind -- if you dare read it.

Excellent work. The reality at the core of all the pomp-and-circumstance surrounding EMU. Read it and be wiser.

Review of The Rotten Heart of Europe: the dirty war for Europe's money, by Bernard Connolly, Faber & Faber, 1995, £17.50.

THIS BRILLIANT book is a devastating exposure of the pretensions of those who want to rule Europe. It shows that the attempts to achieve monetary and economic union, and consequently political union, are bad for us. They will not bring monetary stability, economic growth or political harmony. Instead they will destabilise currencies, reduce growth and promote hatred between the nations of Europe.

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is supposed to build on the experience of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). Britain's membership of the ERM forced us into a disastrous and quite unnecessary recession. After two years of suffering, Major said in July 1992 that Britain would soon be the leader of the ERM. Two months later, we were well out of it, and ERM had bermbed, as Jacques Clouseau, Major's mentor, would say.

ERM constrained British Government policy on non-monetary matters too. The Government appeased Spain over the fishing dispute to keep Spain happy about the sterling/peseta rate. So the Common Fisheries Policy, so damaging to Britain's fishing industry, is not an isolated EU aberration: it stems from the whole logic of economic and monetary union.

The ERM was described as the Eternal Recession Mechanism; EMU is likely to be Even More Useless. The ERM kept the poor countries poor; it did not help them to converge; it certainly did not help them to meet the Maastricht criteria. Spain's experience of ERM was catastrophic: 22% unemployed. The ERM forced Denmark into recession: unemployment doubled to 12%, the budget was slashed, and investment, output and wages all fell. In the ERM, Ireland's unemployment soared from 11% to 23%. ERM subordinated nations' economic interests to minorities' foreign policy goals: ruling class interests dominated working class interests. Some still claim that ERM and EMU could control capital, but actually they were and are attacks on the working class.

A 1992 report by the Monetary Committee, which advises the EU's Council of Ministers, admitted that ERM did not stabilise prices or money and did not reduce inflation. Perhaps it was after all just a tool for moving countries towards political union.

The book also depicts the present dangerous struggle between the French and German ruling classes for control over the proposed institutions of a single European state. Germany is determined to keep the Deutschmark and the Bundesbank: it wants EMU so that it can assimilate other countries into an expanded Deutschmark zone. France wants a new currency and wants to get its hands on the Bundesbank; it pushed for the Maastricht Treaty, which would destroy the Deutschmark. Who would control Europe's currency? Who would control the proposed new European Central Bank? Germany or France?

As Wilhelm Nolling, a Bundesbank Council member, said: "We should be under no illusion - the present controversy over the new European monetary order is about power, influence and the pursuit of national interests."

They are already fighting about the 1996 InterGovernmental Conference. Germany wants the economic criteria for EMU met as soon as possible: it insists that economic convergence must precede monetary union. France wants the earliest possible date for monetary union, believing that monetary union would produce economic convergence. Both are wrong of course: convergence cannot and will not be achieved, either way.

EMU's implications are universally unpopular. The workers of France, Italy and Belgium are striking against the EU's schemes. The Austrian Government fell in October, unable to pass the EU-required budget.

We can see both from ERM's effects, and from the effects of the attempted imposition of the Maastricht criteria, how damaging membership of EMU would be. It would cause, as intended, a permanent lowering of wages, a permanently higher level of unemployment, and massive cuts in public spending.

Connolly sums up: "My central thesis is that the ERM and EMU are not only inefficient but also undemocratic: a danger not only to our wealth but to our freedoms and ultimately, our peace. The villains of the story - some more culpable than others - are bureaucrats and self-aggrandizing politicians. The ERM is a mechanism for subordinating the economic welfare, democratic rights and national freedom of citizens of the European countries to the will of political and bureaucratic elites whose power-lust, cynicism and delusions underlie the actions of the vast majority of those who now strive to create a European superstate. The ERM has been their chosen instrument, and they have used it cleverly."

This is an extremely insightful examination of the election that first put Grover Cleveland in the White House. The ways in which Summers analyzes the political process remind me of Holt's masterpiece, "The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party". (That is a much more massive book, as it covers a broader topic over a longer period). The use of political cartoons of the period to support the narrative is probably the best I've seen. The style is engaging, although occasionally I think Summers gets slightly carried away. For example, at least one discussion of the standard myths about the period goes on long enough to be somewhat disruptive. Also, while I don't detect any factual bias, there is a tendency to look at things more a Republican perspective. That is, issues (e.g., the role of the minor parties) are more often discussed in terms of problems facing the GOP and how well they did or did not deal with them. The outcome of the election is reported in language that seems rather wistful that Blaine lost. Again, this is only a matter of relative emphasis - there is excellent material on the complex relations between the Democrats at the national and state levels and the rival Democratic machines in New York City. Despite my minor quibbles, I highly recommend this book to anyone with a general interest in American political history, and it certainly must be read by anyone with a particular interest in this period.

The last half of the 19th century is a period that the historians generally give short shrift to. They dutifully plow through it in the obligatory chapter in their rush to get from the Civil War to Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, and the Progressive Era. The campaign of Grover Cleveland against James Blaine for the presidency in 1884 is just about forgotten. This is too bad because what with the emphasis on character and values (accompanied by some really gross mudslinging), the extensive changes in technology and business, the factionalism and divided government, it was a period much like ours. Summers does an excellent job of dispelling the prevailing view of this period as a doldrum bookended by Lincoln and TR. In a comprehensive yet not overly long book, he shows that substantive issues like the tariff, the relationship of the national government to the states, morality in politics, substance abuse (ie prohibition), and other pressing matters really were at stake, he explores those issues and the men and women who had to face them. This book is one of the best treatments of the 1884 presidential campaign (or any other campaign for that matter) out there. Find a copy of this book and read about a time that is so much like ours.

As an undergraduate at the University of Kentucky some years ago, Professor Mark Summers changed my life and I eventually devoted my life to the study of history. His lectures made the past come alive and seem so fresh and real and vital. Anyone who has read any of his books can relate to the sense of excitement that I am describing, and his latest book is no exception. In fact, it is perhaps his best book yet. Lively, fast-paced, yet scholarly and thought-provoking, Summers' book is everything that his readers have come to expect. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in nineteenth-century politics or U.S. history in general, or for those who consider history dry and boring and would like read a book where the past truly does come to life.

Anyone interested in politics or American history should love this book. The writing style is crisp and entertaining and the author strikes the right balance between explaining long ago and long forgotten events without drowning the reader in unnecesary details. The 1884 election itself was one of the most interesting of our history with sex scandals, charges of political corruption, party splits, and campaign blunders. The author brings the excitement to life and lets the reader understand not only what happened but why it occured and, even more interesting, what the participants had hoped to accomplish with their political strategies. The book succeeds in describing how late 19th century elections looked and felt to the participants. The human dynamic skillfully set out in this book (the cynical maneuverings, the overheated rhetoric, and the intense partisanship)are very familiar with what we experience in campaigns today-this very familiarity helps make Blaine and Cleveland seem real and not just sterile historical figures. Read this book!

Mark Summers is one of the great historians of mid-nineteenth century America. He is fully capable of taking subjects which have seemingly been worked to death and making them fresh with new material and original analysis. Rum Romanism and Rebellion does just that, making Blaine and Cleveland seem more vital and alive than the current occupants of the White House. The issues engage us, the political battle grips us. This is one of the author's best (to my mind, Mr. Summers best work is his two volume work on political corruption [neatly divided between ante-bellum crooks and post-war thieves]; let's hope that Mr. Summers has a trilogy in mind and next turns his attention to wartime corruption: from the transcontinental railroad to the supply of Union soldiers and the appointment of generals, that era was rife with corruption, yet very little has ever been written about it). Well done, Mr. Summers!

Dieter Duhm wrote a book that reads like a collection of scientific research and insights on how the individual human body and human mind is deeply interwoven with the group-body and group-mind. This is a fresh approach to the fact that nothing is out of reach for us to change, since we now read where to put our awareness to make a conscious choice to heal and to love. It gives an insight on how we are involved in a violent culture that needs to change.
The reader is led to see him/her-self in perspective to the greater context of group life he or she lives in.
The book reveals a way to relax the mind into the state that can remember and realize that physical and psychological healing takes place in the providing environment of nature and together with people that care. The power of healing is within us and we have the choice to use it. The book describes how the author does it and gives directions for those interested in how it works, how to participate or how to get started yourself.
The promise of healing becomes a journey of choice and peaceful action.
Insights on the power of the private sphere lead to a specific topography of convalescence. The healing powers of the planet, the healing powers of the group you choose to live in and the self healing powers are presented as a force that can change your world and our world.
A specialized book that reads like a joyful diary of hope and change.

We all have a longing for a better world. Some of us even dare to think that such a world is actually possible, and that a world of peace, love, cooperation and abundance for all is necessary to our survival. Dieter Duhm and his friends set out to demonstrate in practical terms that this profound yearning of humanity can be satisfied. They have dedicated the last 30 years to this endeavor.

This book is a manual on how to build a new culture, a culture that supports the Sacred Matrix, the Matrix of Life, and is supported by it. Dieter Duhm draws on a fairly new physics theory, the Holographic Universe, to empower us all, to put the responsibility for the building of this new culture on each of us. A deep shift in our beliefs and behavior towards the Matrix of Life, (of Love), will eventually tilt the balance on this blue planet back towards the paradise it was supposed to be.

The building blocks of this new culture are: peace between the genders (peace in sex and love relationships is the starting point); restoring woman to her rightful, loving, sexual and powerful role; formation of communities of people to support the change process; cooperation between people and nature, between people and the earth; creation of a radically new mythology, a new spirituality, new ethics to support this new culture. This new culture is not a Utopian fantasy, it is worked and researched on in Tamera, in the south of Portugal.

This book should be read by anyone seriously committed to the peace movement, to ending the cycle of war, fear and hatred. It should be read by all women who want to wake up from the nightmare of hatred and dissatisfaction that has plagued their lives (for thousands of years). It should be read by all man that want to love women without fear. It should be read by young people dreaming of a better world, critical of the world they have inherited and ready to go to work for their dream. It should be read by all people that have given up on religions as the answer because it draws on the true spiritual nature of things. It should be read by anyone interested in communities, in ecology, in cohousing and ecovillages, in sustainable and decentralized energy production, in permaculture and in low cost architecture.

The Sacred Matrix is a book full of hope, faith, love, science, pragmatism, technology and adventure.

I found the best way to approach this book was to let it fall open in a particular place, and then just read. Duhm is talking about how everything in the universe is all intimately woven together, and the contents of his book reflect this. You can open at random to just about any place in The Sacred Matrix, and find a stimulating, thought-provoking passage.

Several years ago, I visited Tamera (the "healing biotope" mentioned in the first review) and heard Duhm speak one warm Sunday morning. He was the first person I had ever heard that mentioned (all in the same speech): our galaxy; the subatomic level; the human responsibility to respect animal and plant life; problems between men and women, including the need for trust and a new approach to sexuality; the sources of human fear; community as a laboratory to discover new ways of being; and a concrete vision for a future without war. I was very impressed, and his book (which was only available in German at that time) is an expansion of all these important themes, and how they are interconnected.

Amoung the many other thinkers and visionaries who Duhm quotes in The Sacred Matrix: Barry Long, Wilhelm Reich, Sabine Lichtenfels, Carlissa Estes, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Problems with the book? It is, at times, too... "dense" is the word that comes to mind. The book can be a difficult read straight through from cover to cover. That is why I fell back to a more random approach, which I found suited the material quite well.

What I like most about this book is that it represents a lifetime of thinking, exploring, and experimenting by a very profound man. Deiter Duhm has dedicated his life to developing a theory and practice that can unite peace-workers around the world. The Sacred Matrix is a deeply thought-out statement of what has gone wrong in the world, and a heart-felt invitation to transform our life together.

"The Sacred Matrix" by Dr. Dieter Duhm is a "must read" for anyone wanting a life of peace for themselves, their children, or their children's children.

I have known Dr. Duhm for fifteen years, and I have the greatest respect and admiration for him and his efforts to create a new culture of peace on this planet. For more than thirty years he has worked tirelessly and with a steady focus to find a way for human beings to live in cooperation and harmony with each other, with animals, and with nature. His persistence and dedication are now paying off with the success of an intentional community in southern Portugal called "Tamera."

In "The Sacred Matrix", Dr. Duhm calls Tamera a "healing biotope" - a word most English-speaking people have never heard and may not understand. Literally translated, "biotope" simply means a place where life lives. Duhm, however, gives it several different twists, calling it a "greenhouse of trust," "an acupuncture point of peace," and "a self-sufficient future community."

Essentially, "The Sacred Matrix" is the definitive summation of Dr. Duhm's vision and a detailed explanation of his philosophy that forms the basis of life in a "healing biotope." Sophisticated and thought-provoking, Duhm's arguments include the necessity for community and an end to patriarchy if the world is going to survive.

As far as I am concerned, if Dr. Duhm had only uttered one sentence in his entire life, he would still qualify as one of the great thinkers of our time. That sentence: "We will never have peace between nations as long as there is war between man and woman." There are many good men today preaching world peace - men with good hearts and good intentions, I'm sure - but who have never found a way to have a meaningful, lasting, and truly intimate relationship with a woman. Something's wrong with that picture.

Dr. Duhm, however, doesn't shy away from what he calls the "prime issues" that hold the key to a future of peace: love and sexuality. "There is an entelechial form of sexuality and sexual love, and of partnership and free love... and we must find this form in order to achieve healing. It is the form of the Sacred Matrix," he says.

Dieter Duhm, Tamera, and "The Sacred Matrix" definitely take a different approach to life and living than the rest of the world. Nature loves diversity, and evolution requires it. It just might be that Tamera, and other healing biotopes like it to come, are the best hope for the future of the human race. That alone makes this book worth reading.

The Sacred Matrix is a book containing the deepest and most comprehensive views into the society in which we are living and the possibilities for a shift which I have ever read. Deiter Duhm looks into the problems of our society which are not only caused by structures of globalisation but are problems which inflict the human soul. A solution which embraces the whole of a human being in cooperation with nature, in solidarity with human beings and most importantly in replacing fear with trust for a new way of life on this planet. This book contains the deepest, most realistic and most inspiring vision for a solution to the problems of society and human kind which I have ever encountered.

If you are a political junkie like I am, some of the language used is a little out there. I haven't read this cover to cover, but what I had to look up explained things very well to me. I keep this with whatever political book I'm reading at the time and it make things a little more understandable. I would recommend this.

A comprehensive guide and literal dictionary on the subject from a man who knows what he's talking about. "Safire's Political Dictionary" is a massive, thick tome of 862 pages, each covered with invaluable information on the shaky language that so covers today's political landscape. This new and expanded edition covers terms such as regime change, red/blue state, triangulation, moonbat/wingnut and so many more terms that muddle political language. Written by presidential speech writer and Pulitzer prize winner William Safire, "Safire's Political Dictionary" is highly recommended for community library politics collections.

You will love this whopper of a book - all 896pp! William Safire belongs to the delightfully patrician generation of political insiders alongside the likes of radio columnist Alistair Cooke Alistair Cooke's America and Ted Sorenson, speechwriter and adviser to JFK. Safire, who has contributed his own fair share of speeches on the Republican side, (it was he who added alliterative relief to Spiro Agnew's barren verbal landscape through phrases such as "nattering nabobs of negativism") has a keen ear for political language and he rises above partisanship simply because he is fascinated by the provenance and meaning of political language. As he points out, a political dictionary is fascinating because the language has been chosen to either inspire or inflame - it is rich, sometimes explosive emotive fuel.

- This very complete dictionary, fully updated, provides a rich journey and explains where so many of our commonly used and extremely colorful phrases really come from.
- It is comprehensive: reaching back to historic phrases, that go back beyond the original era of pork-barrel politics, and coming right up to the present to include the words of McCain, Clinton and Obama.
- It highlights the hidden agendas behind the language we hear: the phrases designed to make headlines, the sayings that are used to bring a folksiness to our sometimes aloof politicians.
- The dictionary does this with real panache. Safire is part wit, part journalist and part investigator - and he makes great company for the reader. It is a treat to dip into.

And yes, it is election year, so a tour of duty through Safire's fascinating lexical battleground will leave you ready for the speeches to come: your BS detectors set on full alert, your sense of irony and history sharpened. What an excellent book.

Perfect for students of political studies. Ideal for journalists. Essential for voters of all stripes. Democracy may be messy sometimes, but as this book shows - the language of politics is always darned colorful.

What is the significance of a president's 'First Hundred Days'? What is a 'spoiler,' and is it good or bad? And what the heck was a mugwump, anyway?

Whether you're deciphering an archaic term from the first days of the Republic or reading today's headlines, Safire's dictionary is a valuable and entertaining resource. You'll be tempted, as I was, to read it through from A to Z like a novel. Even everyday words and phrases like 'perks,' gridlock,' and 'rhetoric' have interesting derivations, while obscurities like 'thumbsucker,' 'magnet issue,' and 'break all the china' illustrate the surprising (to anyone stuck watching TV news) richness of the American political landscape.

Safire's POLITICAL DICTIONARY is a MUST READ and MUST KEEP for those who value and appreciate the art, science and practice of politics.

I read this book after picking it up at an ISNA convention and was simply blown away by the amount of force the ideas he puts forth held, my favorite reflections were upon nationalism and the conflicts between a faith maintaining a political goal of attaining a nation-state and fulfilling its commandments of moral ethics and beliefs, the argument of the dangers of zionist ideals permeating other faiths, not just judaism, was, in my opinion, profound and provided a unique perspective of how any religion can fall vulnerable to the lure of nationalism.

An excellent true story of an African-American mother who endures her American life to rear a most unusually strong, and righteous son. It was hard to put this down even though I knew how it ends. It's a moral tale and a good read.

Scattered Pictures, a compilation of Imam Zaid Shakir's articles, is a welcome contribution to the emerging discourse on the American Muslim experience. While the essays selected for this volume are tailored toward an audience that shares Imam Zaid's religion, they can also benefit readers from other perspectives who hope to listen in on the internal Muslim conversation. Imam Zaid Shakir is one of the leading voices in contemporary American Islam.

Imam Zaid Shakir is one of the most brilliant thinkers of our time. His writings prove to be a source of clarity in a time of confusion for both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It is quite rare to find an individual who is well versed in both the Islamic and the Western traditions. In Scattered Pictures he has compiled some of his most thought provoking essays from the past few years. He has dealt with both traditional issues such as the true meaning of Jihad to the more contemporary issues such as the challenges faced by American Muslims after September 11th. This book will give you a glimpse into Islam, which is rarely seen in today's world. I highly recommend this book.

In his book Scattered Pictures: Reflections of An American Muslim, Imam Zaid Shakir confronts a myriad of provocative issues facing the contemporary muslim. His elegant style in writing his essays convey the insight and clarity sought by muslims confused on how to define Jihad, or how to define Human Rights within the Islamic tradition. In short, this is a great book that provides the inspiration for religious minded individuals in America and abroad.

Eric Voegelin was one of the most profound philosophers of history of the twentieth century. More than any other thinker I know, he was able to articulate a body of thought that recognizes the human need for a grounding in transcendent truth and analyses the vicissitudes of the inevitable search for meaning. His work deserves to be widely read, but perhaps because of its imposing bulk--his masterwork, "Order and History," weighs in at five fat volumes of complex reasoning, vivid exegeses of the symbolic forms of the past five thousand years, and indepth and illuminating readings of philosophers from Parmenides to Heidegger--it is not. "Science, Politics, and Gnosticism" is a perfect hors d'oeuvre of a book, and serves well not as a systematic introduction to the full scope of his vision but as a tasty morsel of his maturing thought at a crucial point in his oeuvre. Voegelin's incisive critique of ideological thinking in this book is lucid and mercifully accessible. I would hope that a reader comes away from this potent little classic inspired to dig deeper into the mine of wisdom that Voegelin's work offers.

Science, Politics & Gnosticism presents two essays, the title piece, "Science, Politics & Gnosticism", and "Ersatz Religion: The Gnostic Mass Movements of Our Time" by Eric Voegelin (1901-85), one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century. Voegelin contends that certain modern movements, including positivism, Hegelianism, Marxism, and the "God is dead" school are variants of the gnostic tradition. Striving to settle the confusion that arises from the dominance of gnostic thought, Voegelin further strives to classify distinctions between political gnosticism and the philosophy of politics. A lucid yet in-depth scrutiny of the interplay of complex ideals and their reverbations upon mass political movements, Science, Politics & Gnosticism is especially recommended reading for advanced students of philosophy and political science.

Oh, the visionary has a new system to save the world? Put that in section II B, tray 5, right next to the same idea that sprouted 1000 years ago under a different name.
Voegelin has boiled down the rules for understanding all secular visions of salvation, which invariably play on some human dissatisfaction, the diagnosis of which always omits a key "given" of human nature, which is thus marketed as changeable, but isn't, leading to fanatical attempts to control people, devolving into scaring them into submission with the threat of death.
The opposite of the Christian love ethic which posits a brotherhood in relation to a heavenly Father, according to Voegelin.
Voegelin here achieves a scientific method of explaining how non-christian ideas relate to Christian ideas of social organization. He was very popular in Cold War times, but is also versatile enough here to help with the great conversation we are all having in relation to terrorism. This book is simple, direct and profound.

These two essays describe the inability of modern political thought to get a grip on the confusion and horror of the 20th century, mainly because that thought itself has not been immune from the very disorders it seeks to study. The roots of modern disorder are found in "Gnosticism," which is usually defined narrowly as a form of Christian heresy, but thought of by Voegelin as a typical response to the universal human problems of uncertainty, meaninglessness and alienation. Thus seemingly disparate movements like communism, fascism and positivism are placed within a Gnostic tradition stretching back to antiquity.

After describing the characteristics of ancient Gnosticism, Voegelin defines his own approach to the "science of politics," derived mainly from Plato and Aristotle. He then proceeds to analyze thinkers such as Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche and Heidegger and to isolate what he feels to be their dominant motives. The one great theme of all Gnosticisms, ancient or modern, is the desire to do away with the notion of a given, "objective" world. If the project of world-transformation is to be made plausible, then nothing can be seen to be outside of human power. Social reality is a constructed thing, not a thing given or found, thereby allowing it to be "deconstructed."

In the second, shorter essay, "Ersatz Religion," Voegelin describes the complex of ideas characteristic of modern Gnosticism such as millenialism, utopianism and positivism. As the title of the essay suggests, the religious impulse does not die after the murder of God; it gets redirected into "political religions." Politics then becomes a matter of belief and fanaticism, instead of rational discourse and debatable opinions. Despite the abstractness of some of its theoretical concerns, this book is very readable and jargon-free. Those with no prior reading in philosophy may need to look up a term now and again such as "ontology." I recommend it as a good, short introduction to the kind of sober and ordered thought that we so desperately need after the century of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot.

Voegelin has done the public a great service by tracing a common thread of gnosticism amongst modern political philosophies. He goes to Marx's juwish roots in order to expose the theme of the golem that underlies Marxian thought as laid out in Marx's Political and Economic Manuscripts. The Kabbalistic underpinnings of socialistic philosophy forecasts these philosophies as gnostic philosophies.

Although Voegelin indulges in almost pure abstraction (characterisitic of his German education) it is quite accurate since it exposes the naked truth a la Jack Kerouac of these ideas.

The gnostic character of modern philosophies, such as Hegel, Comte, Marx, feminism and so on comes out in the theme of "alienation." Alienation from the rest of society is the result of some form of discord or disharmony. Recourse to a "secret knowledge" will reveal the solution to this problem of disharmony. Applying this secret knowledge will result in an "immanenitizing of the eschaton."

The last concept comes from Roman Catholic scholarship in defining the heresy of gnosticism. In article 676 of the Catholic catechism, it says that: "The AntiChrist's deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment. The Church has rejected even modified forms of this falsification of the kingdom to come under the name of millenarianism, especially the "intrinsically perverse" political form of a secular messianism." Voegelin says that gnosticism tries to bring about a heaven on earth or "immanentize the eschaton." When Kabbalists such as Marx go to the tree of life to get enlightenment to solve problems here and now, zen buddhist like, he tries to be the divine savior of himself.

Thus, Marxism is gnostic since it teaches of alienation of the proletariat whose special knowledge of communism, as embodied in the communist manifesto, assists him in remedying this defect in the socio-economic structure, this disharmony, and the very possibility of this ability to heal his own problem is an immanentizing of the eschaton, of creating heaven on earth without God's help.

The feminist argues that there is discord in the social structure due to patriarchy. The special knowledge of the superiority of matriarchy will remedy this and bring an end to wars, domination and so on. Thus, female chauvanism is to replace male chauvanism (clearly reaching a hypocritical end).

This is just the icing on the cake. Voegelin goes through many ideas, but the aforementioned summary constitutes a common theme uniting all of his discussion in this terse yet dense book.

I had been hoping for a more happy read. I know that not all search and rescues end happily but this book has many grim endings and some graphic details. I had a hard time reading certain sections and can't imagine what it was like for Beth Barkley to live them.

Because of her amazing courage and perseverence I could not put the book down. I'm glad I read it but I don't think it is a book I would re-read because it is so sad.

It doesn't have anything to do with reviewing the book but I came away wondering why on earth someone willing to face machine guns, hostile populations and sleeping in a tent in an Armenian winter had to worry about whether she could afford to take off work to go on these missions of mercy. You couldn't pay me enough money to do what she does. Why should anyone have to use their vacation time and be set back financially to do this?

The stories in this book could almost stand on their own. I can't imagine doing this dangerous and time consuming work for free, and for so many years! The copy of the book I got has a White Shepherd on the front, much more interesting than the picture shown here. I read it all in one night, couldn't put it down!

Being and animal lover it was more than anything the stories about the bonds forged between the dogs and their "persons" that drew me in. I'd always looked at dogs sniffing through rubble and thought "that's all there is." How wrong I was. Search and Rescue gave me a glimpse into the years long training, the poignant and oftimes funny adventures, the sacrifices and fortitude on the part of both person and dog that it takes to do this work. I was fascinated by the interactions between peoples of all nationalities, how they worked together all over the world, and the inside workings of the governments behind the scenes. What touched me the most was what Search and Rescue came to mean to one courageous woman and her three white German Shepherds. Search and Rescue will bring smiles, tears and understanding to all who read it.

I expected more technical information about training dogs, but was captivated by the stories and adventures. I wish there had been pictures of the White Shepherds. My 10 year old and 12 year old (boy and girl) liked the book very much.

I enjoyed this book VERY much since I do search and rescue but THIS IS NOT A TRAINING BOOK but a true story of a woman and her two dogs. if you are looking for a training book I would suggest the the book by Susan Bulanda called "Ready, the training of a search and rescue dog" it is a very good book. I used it to train my current SAR dog. Happy Searching!!!

This book is astounding, a great read that also teaches you more than you can believe about life and history and politics in the heart of the West Bank. Read it and you will be a wiser person and have a good time too.

This book is astounding, a great read that also teaches you more than you can believe about life and history and politics in the heart of the West Band. Read it and you will be a wiser person and have a good time too.

This book is astounding, a great read that also teaches you more than you can believe about life and history and politics in the heart of Africa. Read it and you will be a wiser person and have a good time too.

This book, although written a decade ago, is an insider's prescient account of how Hamas was born on the West Bank and why. It also is a terrific read, with true literary quality. Almost like a novel. And enlightening for policymakers and anyone else trying to understand the fundamentals of the Middle East.

This book is astounding, a great read that also teaches you more than you can believe about life and history and politics in the heart of the West Bank. Read it and you will be a wiser person and have a good time too.

By Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP, author of ISP Certification-The Industrial Security Professional Exam Manual and Under the Lontar Palm
Excellent resource! As a Facility Security Officer for a DoD contractor complany, I find it to provide multiple layers of security or "security in-depth". This book offers insight from a retail environment that is very applicable to government and contractor security. Add this to your library.

In this latest edition, events after 911 is depicted thus the updated book reflects new security trends and concerns after the terrifying 911. Packaging arrived in nice shrink wrapped, without any dents or scratches. A must have for those taking ASIS exams.

Because of this book I was able to jump into Loss Prevention after Leaving my job as a Deputy Sheriff and I Doubled my yearly income. I just followed the the outline layed out in every chapter on conducting Security assesments and evaluations and then made recomendations. The customers keep referring other customers. I have plenty of work.

Here is a book that is a must for all security supervisors in the contract and private sector in security. We all have to start with the basics when training new security supervisors and officers. Here is a book that can aid greatly to the end result that we in the industry are striving for well trained and knowledgable Security Supervisors and officers. All chapters of this book can be set to lesson plan for classroom study or chapters can be assigned to all and have them answer the questions at the end of each chapters. Teaching how and when a security survey should be conducted and explaining to the client the findings and the recommendations that were found during the survey. If you have the book keep it if you do not get a copy ASAP it will only make that much prepared for the changes in the industry that will taking place today into the next century and beyond. Good Luck. Dennis Medick

The book is well organized, and covers a wide breadth. I recommend this for anyone wanting a thorough overview. It is a textbook, so it is more academic than hands-on. It is also a great source of references for a wide variety of organizations and standards.

William Engdahl's new book, like his 'Century of War' book of a few years ago gives the layman like myself an understand of complex subjects that is rare with authors dealing with complex subjects. This is such a readable book. It is a great investigation into one of the most important issues of our times: The attempts by a few powerful groups to control the world's food supply. This book made me angry and worried for the future of our food supply and our future as a free (sort of) people. How dare our government leaders allow this !
Every person who cares about where their food comes from,truth in labeling, nutrition, health and affordable access to food supplies NEEDS to know this information. Is there a more important issue? What is more important than water, air and food ? The political agenda of food control, so well explained in this book, is more than a little chilling.

Seeds of Destruction should be read widely and it's information talked about by everyone. As a mother trying to feed my family healthy, nutritious meals everyday, this information is invaluable. Thank you Mr. Engdahl for this well written book! Maybe I'll read it to my children at night so they'll grow up knowing who the boogie men are!
Lori "The Rogue Reader Mom" Arizona

Engdahl lays bare the partnership between government, the major foundations and the agribusiness industry in their eternal quest for global domination with extensive citations, tying it all together well. The Rockefellers do not shine with this exposure. This book is a sobering analysis of the situation we are facing with respect to destruction of the globe's biodiversity and the indigenous and cultural knowledge of how to feed ourselves, all for the sake of a scheme to lock in profits by a handful of corporations and a government that works on their behalf. If you're already down about what's going on, this book is not for you. If you can handle the reality of the situation, definitely read it. This threat is greater than any threat of nuclear destruction by far. Whatever your feelings on overpopulation, the schemes he lays out, developed by the Rockefeller foundation, are truly disturbing. Especially so are the contraceptive corn and incorporation of hCG into a tetanus vaccine(resulting in sterility) given out in enormous numbers to women of childbearing age in Mexico, Phillipines and Nicaragua. This book will make you want to collect seeds on everything you bring into your kitchen from now on, to say nothing of making you not want to eat anything of which you do not know the provenance.

This book seems at first glance to be primarily about genetically modified organisms (GMO), but is actually a frightening history of the power elite's largely successful attempt to gain control over food and food production. In the last 50 years food has gone from being an agricultural product grown by small farmers, to being a national security concern, to now being a weaponized commodity under the control of a few corporate owners.

Mr. Engdahl lays out his case in a methodical, scholarly, yet riveting manner, much as he did in A Century Of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order. He begins with the GMO Revolution launched by a few powerful corporations, aided and abetted by a cooperative USA government. He then explores the birth of "agribusiness" and the oxymoronic Green Revolution. He monitors the revolving door between corporate advocates of GMO and government officials charged with policing food safety. The Rockefeller brothers' roles in these machinations are painstakingly revealed.

The eugenics movement -- very popular in early to mid-20th century USA until the Nazis lowered its public acceptance -- is shown to be alive and well under the new guises of genetics and molecular biology. I was more surprised by this than anything else in the book, but Mr. Engdahl proves this point beyond dispute. Along these lines, the only part of the book that I felt needed more explanation was the role of Darwinism, actually neo-Darwinism, in molecular biology. One could almost be left with the impression that a belief in evolution has led to the abuses of molecular biology in genetic manipulation. Once Mr. Engdahl got that far into the discussion, I wish that he had made a brief mention of the symbiogenesis interpretation of evolution now challenging the neo-Darwinists, e.g., in the books by Lynn Margulis. (Acquiring Genomes: The Theory of the Origins of the Species is one good example.) I'm not a scientist, but I would tend to think that a subscriber to the symbiogenesis interpretation would be less likely to want to create Frankenfoods.

What motivates the Genetic Manipulators, huge profits and control over the world's food production? As usual with the power elite, it's not just about the money, it's about power and control, but with a particular goal in mind. That goal is an elitist Utopia; a modern world much as it is, only with a whole lot fewer people, especially poor dark-skinned people who live in resource rich places like Africa, South America and parts of Asia. Complete control over food production is one of the primary means to this end, ethno-specific diseases being another. I had read this assertion before, but regarded it as the rantings of right-wing loonies until I read this book.

Mr. Engdahl is a regular contributor to on-line journals on the topic of geopolitics.

This is an excellent book that explains the threat of GMO foods.
Very good research.

This is my first Amazon.com book review and it is this book, Seeds of Destruction, that finally moved me to write such a review.

I have purchased literally thousands of dollars worth of books from Amazon.com alone and I find this book, Seeds of Destruction, is THE most important book I have come across.

I haven't read the entire book yet, but from what I have read so far (especially the chapter on Argentina), this is one of THE most important and timely books of the past 100 years and this new century.

There are only a few books that are worth their weight in gold and this book by F. William Engdahl is one of them. This work will be remembered as a "signature service" to humanity (a term used in the intelligence world to denote exceptional work).

What a priceless work of research and documentation (some 17 years of hard research) into the heart of absolute Evil that is masquerading behind this GMO movement--the veritable cancer that is metastasizing upon the Earth body--and that has been behind the so-called eugenics movement since 1913. But this book is much more than GMO. It is about the people behind the GMO and eugenics movement and why they are doing what they are doing.

If you really care about your children, your family, and the survival of the human race and of planet earth, then you must first buy and read this book, and then buy 10 more copies as I did and give them to all your friends and family members.

Tell them that this book might save their lives.

I have said this many times, "Knowledge is only a seed, only illumined action produces fruits!' This book is that vital seed without which we are looking toward to some really dire eventualities.