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Top Book Choices for the Holiday and New Year
Give the Gift of Knowledge and Help Dissident Voice Too!
by Sunil Sharma and Dissident Voice Contributing Writers
www.dissidentvoice.org
December 21, 2003

Editor's Note: Well it's that time again. You know, the time we're expected to be even more mindlessly consumeristic than the rest of the year. But if you can't avoid the holiday consumer impulse, why not give the greatest gift of all: the gift of knowledge and imagination . . . Books!

I and some of Dissident Voice's contributing writers offer here our book recommendations for the holiday season. Originally I asked the writers to list faves that were published within the last couple of years. Naturally, being dissidents, few actually followed that rule (bless them all), nevertheless almost all the books listed here are currently in print or available used.

You can order a book and help Dissident Voice newsletter at the same time by clicking on each book title link. A separate window will appear of a special page on Amazon.com where you can purchase the book(s). By ordering from this page, DV will receive a very modest referral fee, which will help cover this website's (growing) expenses for the coming year. DV will only receive this fee if you order a book from that linked special page.

I know some of you are saying, "why the hell is DV asking folks to buy from a big corporate megalith like Amazon?" The short answer is DV needs the help. We want to continue to provide a FREE resource people can access to escape the bullshit and blather of state/corporate propaganda, and get a more realistic picture of what's happening in the world. This is one of the few ways in our unfortunate system where we can make money to pay the bills. In each edition of DV, you get hard-hitting, thought provoking news and commentaries from voices you will rarely, if ever, find on the evening news or in mainstream print media. And we want to continue providing this valuable resource.

I personally prefer to support my local independent bookstore. And I would definitely encourage you to do just that if you have that option. Many folks, however, live in places where there are either no independent bookstores nearby. Most cities only have big chain book stores like Borders and Crown, etc. So, if you buy through our Amazon page, even though you're helping another big corporation, at least some of that money trickles down to us, which helps keep us afloat. The choice is yours. Support your local independent bookstores if you can, or help us out by buying through our special pages at Amazon if there are none in your neighborhood, or just because you want to help keep DV strong.

Finally, I had wanted to post this list a couple of weeks ago so people wanting to buy these books would have time to do so before Christmas, but alas a crazy schedule didn't make that possible. But hey, you don't need the excuse of a specially timed buying spree spurred by fairy tales of a fat white guy riding reindeers and trespassing down your chimney to give the important gift of knowledge. It's the best gift to give all year round.

-- Sunil

Sunil Sharma's Selections
Sunil is the Editor of Dissident Voice. He can be reached at: editor@dissidentvoice.org

While books by extreme right wing apologists and cheerleaders of the Empire, like Bill O'Reilly and Anne Ku-Klux Coulter, litter the literary landscape, the last couple of years has especially seen an abundance of great books put out by leading alternative publishing houses like The New Press, Monthly Review Press, Common Courage, South End, Verso (whose cover artwork has been especially wonderful), AK Press, Seven Stories, and others. Here are some picks that I heartily recommend.

Been Brown So Long It Looked Like Green to Me: The Politics of Nature by Jeffrey St. Clair

Jeff is co-editor of CounterPunch, one of DV's biggest inspirations. St. Clair is far-and-away the most keen observer of environmental politics, and one of the most gifted writers on the planet. Brown So Long is a work of startling beauty and passion that will piss you off, but is at the same time an inspiring call to action rooted in an optimism informed by St. Clair's portraits of heroic activist struggles. The late Edward Abbey and David Brower would truly be proud of this important collection of essays. Do yourself a favor and pick up this book, but more importantly, use it in struggle against the bipartisan, corporate plunderers that are threatening Life itself. (Read our extended review)

The Contours of Descent: U.S. Economic Fractures and the Landscape of Global Austerity by Robert Pollin

An especially important read as we head towards the national election. In our degraded political climate, many look back with nostalgia at the state of the US economy during the Clinton years. Pollin blows away many illusions about the Clinton years by detailing in depth how Slick Willie's neo-liberal economic policies were in essence a continuation of the Reagan revolution. The rich got much richer, the poor poorer, and the middle class got stuck on a treadmill going nowhere fast. This book will illuminate why a candidate like Howard Dean doesn't truly offer an alternative to business as usual. Pollin, however, doesn't just criticize, he offers a workable egalitarian policy agenda for both the US and the developing nations. Pollin has the rare ability to present complex economic issues in an easily understandable manner. No "dismal science" drudgery here. (read our earlier review)

Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

From Publishers Weekly: As government officials and observers battle over whether or not the Bush administration exaggerated intelligence reports of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to justify war, there should be a ready audience for this new book by the authors of Trust Us, We're Experts! Professional debunkers of media manipulation, Rampton and Stauber unmask the impact of "information warriors and perception managers" (as one PR consultant described himself) on Bush's attempt to turn public opinion in favor of war on Iraq. The authors deconstruct the PR campaign to promote the U.S. in the wake of September 11: the State Department's hiring of ad exec Charlotte Beers ("the queen of Madison Avenue") to direct the campaign; how PR execs and lobbyists helped construct the government's anti-Iraq message; the administration's alleged misinformation and distortion of facts and reliance on rumor to influence public opinion. Anyone skeptical of the reasons for the war against Iraq will find their suspicions enhanced here.

War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges

A powerful book on the seduction and culture of war from the NY Times correspondent who has visited some of the worst hells on earth: Bosnia, the Occupied Territories of Palestine, Rwanda, Central America, among others. Hedges explores the dangerous romanticizing of war as glorious and noble from the literary and media depictions of the ancient Greeks to the present. This work is especially important to read in an era when most Americans' only understanding of war is an absurd video-game caricature that anaesthetizes us from the real pain and horror war wreaks on the lives of "others"; a time when we seem to be most disconnected from the suffering of others; a time when events like 9/11 and the greater potential for similar acts -- as a result of our empire building crusade -- should dispel the notion that our ignorance of the suffering we inflict around the world doesn't entail terrible consequences for ourselves. Hedges shows us the true, terrible face of war.

Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land by Amira Hass

From Publishers Weekly: Hass, a Jewish Israeli journalist for the newspaper Ha'aretz, has chosen to live on the West Bank-and her intimate knowledge of the plight of the Palestinians illuminates this book. Culled from her dispatches during the past five years, these pieces offer a three-dimensional portrait of the daily experiences of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. The early pieces, written while serious peace talks were being conducted in the late '90s, shows the roots of the current violence: most notably, Palestinians' frustration that the Oslo peace accords hadn't produced many tangible results. As Hass presciently wrote: "The distance from here to private and collective acts of despair is not great." As the book wends its way through the outbreak of violence in September 2000, that despair is increasingly on display. Her pieces illustrate how Palestinian frustration-over detentions, house demolitions, a life so riddled with restrictions that "hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are criminals or potential criminals"-erupted into suicide bombings and other forms of terrorism. But what distinguishes this book is its emphasis on the personal-and how the conflict has created a logic that has driven both sides to violence. In an in-depth interview, an Israeli sharpshooter discusses the rules of when to open fire ("Every day, the regulations... change"). Members of Palestinian society discuss the difficulty of keeping children healthy and educated under the pressures of violence and occupation. Members of Palestinian terrorist groups discuss what drove them to their acts and the internal rivalries among competing factions. Anyone who wants an in-depth, humanizing portrait of the Palestinians should look no further.

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting: Afro-Asian Connections and the Myth of Cultural Purity by Vijay Prashad

From The Village Voice: Pity Nathan Glazer and his ilk. Not long after the neoconservative concedes that We Are All Multiculturalists Now, Vijay Prashad arrives to demolish multiculturalism as a complacent theme park of self-enclosed heritages. Instead, Prashad suggests polyculturalism, the recognition of "our mulatto histories." This slim book spans five centuries to plumb Afro-Asian affairs, from the pre-capitalist mix of the Indian Ocean cosmos to the multinational travels (and fan base) of Bruce Lee. Whether locating both Ho Chi Minh and Elijah Muhammad in Marcus Garvey's audiences or ruminating on the Asian roots of Rastafarianism, Kung Fu is a treasury of hidden histories and startling solidarities. But Prashad is not simply celebratory: He also takes on the "primordialism" of Afrocentrists and Asian nationalists in a book that is both unapologetically radical and alive to paradox.

The Murdering of My Years: Artists and Activists Making Ends Meet by Mickey Z.

As an editor of a radical political website and a struggling musician dedicated to the art , yet having to waste time working an unrelated day job to put a meal on the table and a roof over my head, DV contributing writer Mickey Z.'s book especially resonates with me. Mickey sent out a questionnaire to many activists asking how they managed to be active and true to their causes while surviving in our corporate dominated landscape. This book comprises their many humorous, not-so humorous, strange, and moving tales. For struggling activists and artists, the book provides solace and inspiration in knowing you're not alone, and perhaps even important lessons in finding the path to living our lives as we truly desire, rather than passing or wasting our short time on earth.

Hegemony or Survival?: America's Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky

The Noamster is my biggest influence and having read every political book he's written, it's difficult picking out a couple rather than make this list much too long by listing most of them. Hegemony is his latest -- as usual -- brilliant and devastatingly documented critique of American foreign and domestic policy, from the end of WWII to the present. Among the many insights one gains from reading Chomsky, to me the most important in reading Hegemony pertains to the 2004 election. Chomsky illuminates how America's imperialistic proclivities have been more-or-less consistent under Democratic and Republican administrations, with the current gang of terrorists being a more unusually virulent variety of species in a very narrow political framework. While the Bush II regime's open declaration of a policy of unilateralist, preventive war (a war crime, as opposed to the much referred to "pre-emptive" war) is novel, it hardly is new in actual American practice over many decades. Whether or not one agrees with Chomsky's conclusions, the wealth of facts and documentation he assembles is indeed valuable, and one truly courts ignorance by ignoring Chomsky.

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror by Stephen Kinzer

From the Inside Flap: Half a century ago, the United States overthrew a Middle Eastern government for the first time. The victim was Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected prime minister of Iran. Although the coup seemed a success at first, today it serves as a chilling lesson about the dangers of foreign intervention. In this book, veteran New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer gives the first full account of this fateful operation. His account is centered around an hour-by-hour reconstruction of the events of August 1953, and concludes with an assessment of the coup’s "haunting and terrible legacy." Operation Ajax, as the plot was code-named, reshaped the history of Iran, the Middle East, and the world. It restored Mohammad Reza Shah to the Peacock Throne, allowing him to impose a tyranny that ultimately sparked the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The Islamic Revolution, in turn, inspired fundamentalists throughout the Muslim world, including the Taliban and terrorists who thrived under its protection. "It is not far-fetched," Kinzer asserts in this book, "to draw a line from Operation Ajax through the Shah’s repressive regime and the Islamic Revolution to the fireballs that engulfed the World Trade Center in New York." . . .Brimming with insights into Middle Eastern history and American foreign policy, this book is an eye-opening look at an event whose unintended consequences--Islamic revolution and violent anti-Americanism--have shaped the modern world. As the United States assumes an ever-widening role in the Middle East, it is essential reading.

Boob Jubilee: The Mad Cultural Politics of the New Economy: Salvos from the Baffler edited by Thomas Frank and David Mulcahey

Thomas Frank is author of the highly recommended One Market Under God and Commodify Your Dissent, and editor of The Baffler, an indispensable and entertaining journal that focuses on the nation's consumer and business culture. Boob Jubilee is a compilation of essays from the pages of the Baffler, many of them previously unavailable after a fire destroyed their old office in Chicago and along with it many back issues. Many of these essays have been revised and updated. The Baffler's essays are the most provocative, damning, and just damned funny barbs at American corporate culture and the "New Economy" anywhere.

The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America from Slavery to the War on Terror by Christian Parenti

Book Description: From the popular historian and journalist Christian Parenti, a vivid and chilling history of surveillance in American life-from the antebellum South to the computerized landscape of the futuristic present. The Soft Cage is the first book to detail the continuum of surveillance in the making of the United States-from the slave pass to the Social Security number all the way to the many forms of computerized monitoring now shaping the post-9/11 world. The Soft Cage explores not just the history but also the politics of everyday surveillance, and explains to readers why the question of who is watching and listening is of utmost importance today. Parenti details how seemingly benign technologies-E-ZPass, GPS systems in rental cars, and iris scans at airports-present opportunities for a reconfiguration of the balance of power between the individual and the state. Under the aegis of security and convenience, Parenti argues, corporations and the U.S. government, often working together, have, without any oversight, substantially eroded civil liberties-including the right to privacy -that Americans have long taken for granted.

Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq by Tariq Ali

Born in what is now Pakistan, New Left Review contributing editor Tariq Ali has, since the 1960s, been one of the world's leading and most eloquent anti-imperialist voice. In his latest masterpiece, Ali looks at the US invasion of Iraq, the machinations of the Bush junta, the likely fallout of the war, a brief but thorough overview of relevant Middle East history, and the forces of resistance to US domination. His chapter presenting the work of leading Arab and Muslim poets belies the popular belief that the Arab and Islamic world is bereft of self-critical thinkers and activists.
 

Leilla Matsui's Selections
Leilla is a freelance writer living in Tokyo, Japan. She can be reached at: catcat@s3.ocv.ne.jp

Josh Frank's Selections
Josh is a writer and activist living in New York City. Like the Editor of DV, he is a connoisseur of Brew. He can be reached at frank_joshua@hotmail.com.

Non-Fiction

The Years by Virginia Woolf
 

Mickey Z.'s Selections
Mickey is the author of The Murdering of My Years: Artists and Activists Making Ends Meet (www.murderingofmyyears.com) and an editor at Wide Angle (www.wideangleny.com).  He can be reached at: mzx2@earthlink.net.

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