Political Books

Never believe anything until it's officially denied

Advantages: The truth is out there
Disadvantages: But you have to want to find it

...camera on the hour to tell the truth, the same media conglomerates that also own arms companies and rich mineral deposits in the third world, one arm of operations helping to muscle the other. The reality of Britain and America's involvement in all that is wrong in the world makes for challenging and occasionally disgusting reading here and when you look at an England football crowd of tattoos, beer bellies and crew cuts, or fat Americans baying ...
...commanding officer told them. You tell me the difference between 911 and that? Many say the US probably deserved 911 for all their 'previous'. I can't comment. East Timor rightfully gets a grilling; again the over-throw backed by the United States with help from next door neighbours Australia, huge oil and gas reserves the motivation. The piece on the South African death squads is self explanatory, but the Republics dramatic reverse after the lifting ...

thedevilinme 23.08.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: exceptional
Review of Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism and its Triumphs - John Pilger (Editor)

The Great Terror

Advantages: A very informative, up-to-date account of the purges.
Disadvantages: Not for everyone, requires some basic knowledge.

The Great Terror is an extensive book on Stalin's purges during the years 1934 and 1939. It not only focuses on why they happened but how Stalin was able to take power and then crush his opponents. The Great Terror was originally written in 1968, at this time much of Conquest’s sources were unofficial. With the event of glasnost much more evidence was given to historians. Therefore, in his reassessment, published in 1990, Conquest concentrates on ...
...is divided into three books: The Purge Begins, The Yezov Years and The Aftermath. These are then broken down into chapters to make it easier to read. The Purge Begins looks at the roots of the terror and Conquest goes on to examine how Stalin crushed all opposition after the death of Lenin. The only way in which he could guarantee the permanent elimination of his opposition was through murder. The Kirov murder is discussed in depth; this was the ...

salem_witch 17.03.2004 · Read full review
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Review of The Great Terror: A Reassessment - Robert Conquest

Bush whackes you !

Advantages: Get in the know
Disadvantages: You could get Bushwhacked

Before you leave ‘en masse’ finding out what that review is all about.. Give me a chance.. This is not your ordinary political/current affairs book, this book is funnier than Harry Enfield autobiography ! Yes it is about current affairs, yes you will need a basic understanding and knowledge of what has happened in the US and the World in the last 8 years, yes you will need to follow.. but I guarantee you will laugh.. Guarantee or your money back ...
...about.. Bushwhacked, that sounds like a game I would play with friends.. take a piece of bush and whacked your closest friend with it.. Hilarious game, but not what we are on about today.. – rules available on demand. The subtitle of this book is ‘Life in George W. Bush’s America’ and as the introduction states that it is a view of G. W. Bush policies’ impact on ‘ordinary people’… and so it proves… so it proves… Bushwhacked is written by Molly ...

FrenchCancan 16.06.2004 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush - Molly Ivins, Lou Dubose

How High Are You in the League Table? (May Contain Nuts)

Advantages: entertaining, funny, relevant to current culture
Disadvantages: disappointing sweet ending, social diagnosis replaced by psychobably one, second part weaker

Just to get the obvious out of the way, 'May Contain Nuts' is a very funny, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny book. It starts out very promisingly: as a farce, really, an almost (but not quite, as not to alienate the potential readership) vicious satire on ridiculously competitive urban upper middle class parents hot-housing their children into Prokofiev appreciation and contract bridge; children scheduled, tutored and stimulated; never left alone to ...
...mothers checking every label of every foodstuff and not allowing an 11 year old to walk down the road to a newsagent, never mind travel on a bus to school. Satire on public (private) education system of preparatory schools and secondary colleges thriving on pretence, snobbery and unshakeable belief that children who don't get the right education - paid for education, of course - will inevitably end up as drug addicts, prostitutes or Blockbuster Rentals ...

magdadh 16.04.2009 · Read full review
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Review of May Contain Nuts - John O'Farrell

Death defying

Advantages: An auto-biography of a 'real' person
Disadvantages: Quite dark.

...enjoying a comfortable and privileged life with a cook and servants and regularly having friends over to dine. She seems keen for us to know about all she had, such as her valuable antiques and collectors' pieces. Her constant reference to serving tea English style and European food made it seem that she thought she was somehow better than her fellow Chinese. Once the Red Guards come to her house you feel sorry for her, as anyone familiar with that ...
...constant stigma. Her comfy life at the beginning of the book seems a bit bragging; but there is no doubt that she did suffer under the Red Guards and other revolutionary groups. Cheng does re-create the period with startling accuracy and with great detail. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge about this period in China will realize how futile her position was and it is certainly admirable of her to fight back and protest her innocence for as long ...

Essexgirl2006 23.10.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Life and Death in Shanghai - Nien Cheng