Like the third estate, the Third World has nothing, and wants to be something.
-French economist and demographer Alfred Sauvy in 1952
Early this morning before work I finally finished Vijay Prashad's 2007 comprehensive history of the developing world, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World. This was yet another book I saw on display at my local bookstore that caught my eye. So, while I was rooting around the shelves at main branch of my public library not long ago I decided to finally take a chance and grab it. Well, I'm glad I did.
Prashad, a professor of South Asian History at Trinity College in Connecticut, takes the Howard Zinn approach to a history of the world-from the perspective of the Global South, known also as the Third World. Starting with the 1927 conference in Brussels of the League Against Imperialism, Prashad traces the evolution of the NAM, (or Nonaligned Movement of nations) through the throes of decolonialism, the Cold War, the collapse of the Eastern Block, the ups and downs of "neoliberal" international economics, the late '90's Asian economic meltdown and ending with the failure of Pan-Arabism opening the door to Saudi-sponsored politcal Islam.
Like any historian's text on history, Prashad the tells the story on his terms. Prashad's analysis of the last 60 years of the Third World is truly a leftist one, and all the good, bad and otherwise that comes with that. But Prashad is good. Damn good. Despite Prashad's biases his analysis of not just what happened but why things happened is quite impressive. While I feel he neglected a number of key things, (the rise of China as a world economic power due to its embracing of capitalism is completely neglected as is the Iranian Revolution as well as the emergence of regional powers India and Brazil) everything else he addressed in his book impressed me greatly. And perhaps above all, his research should not be taken lightly.
Unless I come across anything better, Prashad's book is the definitive history of the Third World.
The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam's Threat to the West is one of those books I started, then set aside for several months before restarting it. Written by Lee Harris, a frequent Wall Street Journal contributor, this 2007 book is part philosophy of history and part extended op-ed piece. Harris challenges the Western assumption that all peoples around the world aspire for democracy and are slowly moving towards it. If anything, Harris believes that democratic regimes are relatively speaking rare in the world, and are mostly found in Anglo-American nations or nations directly shaped by them. While I'm not sure I bought all of his arguments, this book did raise some interesting points. And it did get me thinking, which is never a bad thing.
Ever since I read The Future of Freedom by Fareed Zakaria I've been wanting to read more by this talented editor of Newsweek. His latest book The Post-American World, is quite good. Zakaria is a fine writer and thinker,(not long ago he was a guest speaker here in Portland and spoke for over an hour and a half without notes or a teleprompter) and does a superb job looking at the "big picture" when it comes to the state of the world. According to Zakaria, while some might say that America is in decline, what we are really experiencing is a "rise of the rest". Other nations, especially China and India are experiencing incredible economic growth. As these upstart nations of the world grow economically, the US must respond to their newfound political clout and respond appropriately. I highly recommend Zakaria's book.
Next up are two books dealing in way or another with Islam. Carl W. Ernst's 2003 book Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World is an attempt to show the rich and multidimensional world of Islam. Ernst, a Professor of Religious Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, tries to break the stereotype of Islam as being a terrorist-promoting faith practiced by puritanical Arabs by showing the reader that in fact, with the largest Muslim countries being Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Iran and Nigeria, most Muslims aren't even Arabs. Egypt, with about 60 million is the only Arab county with a significant Muslim population. According to Ernst, "Saudi Arabia, despite its economic and political prominence, has only about 15 million people." Ernst goes on to give the reader a brief outline of Islamic history in hopes of proving that today's Bin Ladens are the exception. Moreover, they dream of an early period of Islamic purity that quite frankly, never really existed.
I found Ernst's book an OK book at best. He came across a bit dry at times. And to be honest, I wonder if he needs to be a bit more critical in assessing the tensions that arise when those who adhere to pre-Enlightment/secularist viewpoints encounter our "Western" world. With some reservations, I might possibly recommend this book as a introductory text, but only in a supporting role.
The other book would be Samir Kassir's brief 2006 book Being Arab. And yes, it was yet another one
of those books I saw languishing unread at the public library that
caught my eye. Kassir was a respected Lebanese journalist who was
assassinated by a car bomb in 2005. His short book could be considered
a manifesto looking at why the Arab world lags behind the West in
political freedom and economic potency. It too could be considered an
extended op-ed piece. Will Hobson must have done a great job
translating the book from Arabic into English because I enjoyed reading
Kassir's book. On the whole, I found it pretty good.
Every so often I will grab a book from the "new books" section at my local public library. Many times these are books I've never heard of written by authors completely unknown to me. And every so often, one of those books will be a winner. This my friends, was one of them.
Kris Hollington's 2008 book Wolves, Jackals and Foxes: The Assassins Who Changed History was an utter delight to read. Hollington, an investigative journalist from the United Kingdom, chronicles the history of assassinations and assassination attempts from the nearly successful assassination attempt on President Truman to the killing of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, (who's murder would trigger one of the worst genocides in recent history) and pretty much everything in between. Light yet fascinating, Hollington's quick writing style sucked me in and as a result, his book was hard to put down. While, as one online reviewer observed that Hollington "didn't meet a conspiracy theory he didn't like", I learned a million interesting little factoids from his book. For example, who knew that actor Woody Harrelson's father was a contract killer ? Who knew that pornographer Larry Flynt was shot not by some puritanical zealot angry at Flynt's moral turpitude but a racist white supremacist angry at Flynt's use of African American models in his magazine Hustler ? And of course, in an ironic twist of fate, Harrelson would play Flynt in a motion picture.
While some amazon reviewers thought this book was nothing special, I completely enjoyed it. It goes to show, if a person takes a chance on a unknown book, sometimes it pays off.
Well, you probably thought I've entered the Witness Protection Program or something. Sorry about the lack of posts. Fortunately, while I haven't been posting, at least I've been doing some reading. So without further ado, here's what I've been reading.
Ever since reading about NEST in the Christian Science Monitor newspaper a few years back I've wanted to read more about it. NEST, for those who don't know, stands for Nuclear Emergency Search (now Support) Team. This high level government team is entrusted with preventing terrorists or similar groups from detonating a nuclear or radiological bomb on US soil. So, when I came across Jeffrey T. Richeleson's recent book in the new books section of my public library I grabbed it so I can learn more about this vital anti-terrorist organization. Defusing Armageddon: Inside NEST, America's Secret Nuclear Bomb Squad
Joshua Kurlantzick's 2007 book Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World was yet another one of those books I've seen in bookstore display windows that caught my eye. And of course, like the cheap bastard I am, instead of buying this book at the local bookstore I borrowed it from my public library. No wonder independent bookstores are suffering these days.
While some of the reviewers writing on Amazon are a little hard on Kurlantzick, I liked his book. I thought Charm Offensive was a very readable and informative look at China's concerted effort to gain political and economic influence, especially within the developing world. I would recommend this book to any readers interested in international relations and/or the global economy.
First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!
The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.
A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.
Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.
On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.
And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!
~ daisy
As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.
The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.
When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.
It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.
Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.
As always, thanks for your patience.
Go forth and fill your libraries with media.
Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.
I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.
I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.
Cheers,
Gentlemen, we're history.
-Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
I don't what made me pick up not one but two MORE history books at the library not long ago, but for whatever reason, I did. The two books take contrasting approaches to how one looks at history. The first book, 1688: A Global History looks at how the entire world looked during one year in the late 17th Century. The other book, The Way of the World, is a sweeping look from the first stirrings of civilization to the present age. And I must say, while I found neither book to be incredibly spectacular, I enjoyed them both.
In 1688: A Global History
by John E. Wills, Wills picks one year and travels all over the world
to give us a idea of what was going on during that pivotal period in the late 17th century. I
liked how Wills focused on specific people from this era to show us the
world almost through their eyes. Unlike many traditional historians, Willis covered the entire earth, detailing events and personalities in China, Japan, South America and the Muslim world. His scope as well as his writing style made for
interesting reading and kept this book from being a dry history
textbook. I liked it.
David Fromkin's The Way of the World: From the Dawn of Civilization to the Eve of the Twenty-Third Century
is a nice, well-written history of the last five thousand
years. Fromkin, known also as the author of the well respected A Peace to End All Peace, takes on the thankless job of writing a history of everything and pulls it off
