International Books - Page 13

World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability

Amy Chua

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Sustainable Development
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Globalization
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> International -> Relations

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 90 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For over a decade now, the reigning consensus has held that the combination of free markets and democracy would transform the third world and sweep away the ethnic hatred and religious zealotry associated with underdevelopment. In this astute, original, and surprising investigation of the true impact of globalization, Yale Law School professor Amy Chua explains why many developing countries are in fact consumed by ethnic violence after adopting free market democracy.

Chua shows how in non-Western countries around the globe, free markets have concentrated starkly disproportionate wealth in the hands of a resented ethnic minority. These “market-dominant minorities” – Chinese in Southeast Asia, Croatians in the former Yugoslavia, whites in Latin America and South Africa, Indians in East Africa, Lebanese in West Africa, Jews in post-communist Russia – become objects of violent hatred. At the same time, democracy empowers the impoverished majority, unleashing ethnic demagoguery, confiscation, and sometimes genocidal revenge. She also argues that the United States has become the world’s most visible market-dominant minority, a fact that helps explain the rising tide of anti-Americanism around the world. Chua is a friend of globalization, but she urges us to find ways to spread its benefits and curb its most destructive aspects.

Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Amazon Price: $22.79 List Price: $29.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tantor Media Amazon Marketplace: 32 new & used starting at $7.98

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> 1945 - Present
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 20th Century -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 53 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

This Man Has Great Influence on Foreign Policy and Relations 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I believe Brzezinski still has a great deal of influence (maybe now more so than ever) on foreign policy and relations. Although I do not like most of his policies, it is extremely important to be aware of what he is proposing. As a speculator I try to be aware of if then macro economic scenarios.

Second Chance 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This was a very good retrospective of the things that have happened. Zig provides the reader with lots of GREAT insight. The writing style negates my ability at least, to read it rapidly and comprehend the nuances of Zig's points. This makes it a book that makes you think for yourself. The last chapter of how to go forward I found fascinating in its practicality, comprehensiveness, and currency to the 2008 world situation. A great read for the layman trying to understand where we are as a nation and where we need to go in the future. Pray our new "leaders" read and heed.

Editorial Review:

The United States emerged from the cold war with unprecedented power and prestige but managed to squander both in a remarkably short time. In this scholarly yet highly opinionated book, former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski examines how this came to be by offering a reasoned but unsparing assessment of the last three presidential administrations' foreign policy.

The Billionaire Who Wasn't: How Chuck Feeney Made and Gave Away a Fortune Without Anyone Knowing

Conor O'Clery

Amazon Price: $17.79 List Price: $26.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: PublicAffairs Amazon Marketplace: 69 new & used starting at $0.96

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Professionals & Academics -> Business
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In 1988 Forbes Magazine hailed Chuck Feeney as the twenty-third richest American alive. Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to a blue-collar Irish-American family during the Depression, a veteran of the Korean War, he had made a fortune as co-founder of Duty Free Shoppers, the world's largest duty-free retail chain. But secretly, Feeney had already transferred all his wealth to his foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies. Only in 1997, when he sold his duty free interests, was he "outed" as one of the greatest and most mysterious American philanthropists in modern times. A frugal man who travels economy class and does not own a house or a car, Feeney then went "underground" again, until he decided in 2005 to cooperate in a biography to promote giving-while-living. Now in his mid-seventies, he is determined his foundation should spend the remaining $4 billion in his lifetime. The Billionaire Who Wasn't is a tale of one of the greatest untold retail triumphs of the twentieth century, and of what happens to a unique man and his family when confronted with wealth beyond imagining.

Fighting for Peace: Bosnia, 1994

General Sir Michael Rose KCB CBE DSO QGM

By: The Harvill Press Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $0.87

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Subjects -> History -> Europe -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Touched My Heart and Soul 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a "final thesis" between a young man and his old, beloved college professor who is diagnosed with a deadly, unforgiving illness called ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

This book made Morrie's death much more valuable by making it a life lesson for people. People fear death and let it take over them instead of preparing for it and cherishing the moments they have to live. Morrie is only human, and he must have had his fears as well, but Morrie was strong, and he used his death to teach one more class, to share the experience to the public and give others the message of life and death.

Morrie died painfully, but he didn't die lonely. He was a great teacher, husband, father, and friend. He had many loved ones who watched over him. He didn't die without meaning either. He left the world a better place.

After reading this book, I was deeply moved, and I've thought a lot about life and death. I'm still young and I don't really know much about the two broad subjects. After reading the book twice, I truly believe this book is the answer to life.

Life is a long, tiring trip and death is like your last stop to home sweet home and knowing that you've been there before.

No matter how busy or how much your life is filled with earthly activities, this book reminds us of the simple gifts we have in life and to cherish the loved ones. After I finished the book, I've been able to appreciate the little things in life, such as the color of leaves, the sounds of birds chirping, the laughter of loved ones, and the simple daily activities that I am able to do.

This is the type of book that can be read over and over and you'll still find more valuable hidden meanings and lessons in the text. It is beautifully written and simple, yet contains much complex lessons. This book touches your heart and soul and gets your mind thinking about the values of life. This is a book that never leaves your soul after you read it. Trust me on that.

**I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT**

The Biggest Secret: The Book That Will Change the World (Updated Second Edition)

David Icke

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: David Icke Books Amazon Marketplace: 83 new & used starting at $4.61

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> Conspiracy Theories
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Politics -> Freedom & Security -> International Security
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Social Sciences -> Political Science -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 201 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are cousins...read this book 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Ok. Wow. I picked up this book by chance and must say I can never watch the news the same way again. Whether you believe what he has to say or not it's worth the thought....some of the things make sense and ring true, some I've heard from other sources, but whether you look at this as good X-files type conspiracy reading or truth it's worth the read. It isn't always well organized, and could have been made shorter.

Think about this....Mr. Icke talks about how the world is always governed by a few...a family...like when he points out-with family trees, mind you-- the familial relationship betweeen the Bushs and the British royal family.....then years later the things he says always ring true when I watch the news....things like Dick Cheney and Barack Obama being distant cousins...so is it a big secret? The Bushs seem like reptiles to me!

Or how about pointing out the obvious like who benefits and collects the interest on our National Debt? We all complain about it, but who is silently getting rich on our misery?

Just try to not get trapped in fearful or negative places as you read this...because if it's true it's pretty scary. The scary part is that alot of it makes logical sense. Yikes.

Editorial Review:

David Icke's most powerful and explosive book so far. Every man, woman and child on the planet is affected by the stunning information that Icke exposes. He reveals in documented detail, how the same interconnecting bloodlines have controlled the planet for thousands of years. How they created all the major religions and suppressed the spiritual and esoteric knowledge that will set humanity free from its mental and emotional prisons.

Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq

Michael R. Gordon, Bernard E. Trainor

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Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Iraq
Subjects -> History -> Military -> Iraq War
Subjects -> History -> Military -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 96 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

THIS BOOK WEIGHS EIGHT AND A HALF POUNDS 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

An academic asked to review a ponderous tome of literary criticism penned one of the the best short reviews ever, when he said, "This book weighs 17 pounds." The problem with Cobra II is not that it is inaccurate in its tale of how the easy military conquest of Iraq turned into a complicated and sticky insurgency. It is not wrong in its judgement that those in the field increasingly "got it" while their superiors in Washington did not. It is that the tale is told in such overwhelming detail and in such a boring way that slogging through it becomes a chore instead of a pleasure. A look at Fiasco, which is nearly equally detailed, shows how a similar narrative, fair but impassioned, keeps the reader turning pages.

Editorial Review:

Written by the chief military correspondent of the New York Times and a prominent retired Marine general, this is the definitive account of the invasion of Iraq.

A stunning work of investigative journalism, Cobra II describes in riveting detail how the American rush to Baghdad provided the opportunity for the virulent insurgency that followed. As Gordon and Trainor show, the brutal aftermath was not inevitable and was a surprise to the generals on both sides. Based on access to unseen documents and exclusive interviews with the men and women at the heart of the war, Cobra II provides firsthand accounts of the fighting on the ground and the high-level planning behind the scenes. Now with a new afterword that addresses what transpired after the fateful events of the summer of 2003, this is a peerless re-creation and analysis of the central event of our times.

Guests of the Ayatollah

Mark Bowden

By: Atlantic Books Amazon Marketplace: 8 new & used starting at $14.88

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Current Events -> Terrorism
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 82 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Bowden Delivers a Masterpiece 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Guests of the Ayatollah presents the extensively researched, impelling non-fiction style for which Bowden has become widely acclaimed through his other best sellers. As someone who has read other Bowden books, I felt Guests of the Ayatollah is his best book to date.

In this book, Bowden provides the intense, all-inclusive details from start to finish of the 444 day Iranian Hostage Crisis. The reader is taken inside the holding cell of each hostage and witnesses in vivid detail the daily routines, abuse, and emotions each hostage endured during their stay. I quickly became a fan of certain hostages such as diplomat Michael Metrinko, who so adamantly despised his captivity and insulted his captors for which he suffered solitary confinement and severe beatings up to the 444th day. While Bowden shares the heroic stories of the hostages, he doesn't disregard certain hostages who fellow captives felt were cowards and swine.

Bowden has become widely acclaimed for his ability to investigate the subject of each book and then transpose his research into dramatic details for readers, and Guests of the Ayatollah is no exception to his method. Where Guests of the Ayatollah differs from other Bowden books is in its significant focus on the Iranian and American political environments during the hostage crisis. Bowden provides an in depth summary of the Carter administrations options and its secretive negotiations with what still existed of the volatile Iranian government. Rather than provide his opinion on the performance of the Carter administration, Bowden does a fine job of avoiding personal bias, and allows the reader to reach an informed conclusion in regard to the politics surrounding the Hostage Crisis.

Some reviewers seem to feel that Bowden provides justification for the actions of the hostage takers. I don't believe this is accurate given that Bowden spends very little time examining the Shah's government other then to acknowledge America's continued support for the Pahlavi government up to the revolution. I found that on the controversial issues Bowden provides the facts and allows the reader draw his/her own conclusions. However, Bowden offers one prevailing conclusion that the Iranian Hostage Crisis established the power of the mullahocrasy in Iran, which runs the government to this day. The epilogue goes on to examine whether or not the hostage crisis benefited Iran, and concludes the establishment of the mullahocracy has done more harm to the country.

If you enjoyed Killing Pablo, you will definitely enjoy Guests of the Ayatollah. If you liked Black Hawk Down you will also enjoy this book, though it doesn't assert the amount of focus to military operations given in Black Hawk Down. If you have not read anything by Bowden, you should, and Guests of the Ayatollah is a wonderful starting point.

Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

Niall Ferguson

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Loved the book, check out the film 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I've been a fan of Professor Ferguson for years now and this book was no disappointment. He's got that clear, accessible way to make history fun and engaging. I also loved the book for being written very logically with a strong sense of cause and effect that creates a digestible story. As a fan of history and geo-politics I have been put to sleep many times by experts that had the facts down, but no sense of story telling. Well, that is not the case here. I also liked the way he substantiated every point he's making about the US involvement.
While looking for his other titles I stumbled on "The World Without US" - a documentary where he appears as the main expert. After checking out the trailer at the film website, I got the DVD and it was quite good. It takes the premise of this book a step farther by asking, what would happen should the US withdraw its military completely from the world? I was eager to see Ferguson for the first time, and to my admiration, his screen presence is as much fun as his writing.
The World Without US - With Niall Ferguson

Editorial Review:

Acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson ranges across the entire history of America’s foreign entanglements and delves into all the dimensions of American power—military, economic, cultural, and political. The result is a book whose conclusions are as convincing, and troubling, as they are original. Ferguson demonstrates that America has always been an empire in denial and shows the fateful consequences of its special brand of imperialism. He examines the challenges to the United States from its principal rivals, the European Union and China, and offers a compelling analysis of the connection between the country’s domestic economic health and its foreign affairs—the bottom line of imperialism, American style. Colossus is a peerless reckoning with American power that should be read by any thinking citizen of this unspoken empire.

Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

Niall Ferguson

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin (Non-Classics) Amazon Marketplace: 70 new & used starting at $5.21

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Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> 21st Century
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General
Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Loved the book, check out the film 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I've been a fan of Professor Ferguson for years now and this book was no disappointment. He's got that clear, accessible way to make history fun and engaging. I also loved the book for being written very logically with a strong sense of cause and effect that creates a digestible story. As a fan of history and geo-politics I have been put to sleep many times by experts that had the facts down, but no sense of story telling. Well, that is not the case here. I also liked the way he substantiated every point he's making about the US involvement.
While looking for his other titles I stumbled on "The World Without US" - a documentary where he appears as the main expert. After checking out the trailer at the film website, I got the DVD and it was quite good. It takes the premise of this book a step farther by asking, what would happen should the US withdraw its military completely from the world? I was eager to see Ferguson for the first time, and to my admiration, his screen presence is as much fun as his writing.
The World Without US - With Niall Ferguson

Editorial Review:

Acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson ranges across the entire history of America’s foreign entanglements and delves into all the dimensions of American power—military, economic, cultural, and political. The result is a book whose conclusions are as convincing, and troubling, as they are original. Ferguson demonstrates that America has always been an empire in denial and shows the fateful consequences of its special brand of imperialism. He examines the challenges to the United States from its principal rivals, the European Union and China, and offers a compelling analysis of the connection between the country’s domestic economic health and its foreign affairs—the bottom line of imperialism, American style. Colossus is a peerless reckoning with American power that should be read by any thinking citizen of this unspoken empire.