Book Review Essay – Two Novels to Avoid (special issue)
I made more trips by plane this year than normal. Here are reviews of a couple of books that I picked up in airport bookstores
Bertrand Russell in 90 Minutes
This short book [Bertrand Russell in 90 Minutes by Paul Strathern, Chicago, Ivan R. Dee, 2001] of 92 pages is one of many (24 at the time it was published) Strathern’s 90 Minutes series. If you know absolutely nothing about Russell, perhaps the greatest English speaking philosopher (bourgeois) of the 20th century, you could begin with this book – but you will need more than it provides to really understand Russell.
» Find more of the online edition.
Book Review, Terrorism and Tyranny, by James Bovard
James Bovard might be called a libertarian conservative. In Terrorism and Tyranny, he has written a valuable answer to those in the Bush administration who advocate something like the worst of pre World War II imperialism as a policy to fight 'international terrorism' in the world, regardless of its effects on the rights of Americans or the lives of the world’s people.
» Find more of the online edition.
Book Review, The French Betrayal of America, by Kenneth R. Timmerman
One of the most remarkable aspects of contemporary international affairs has been the sharp deterioration of relations between the United States and the European Union, particularly the leaders of this grouping: Germany and France. A motor driving the EU over the years has been France, which over the years has not accepted wholly why its brand of imperialism should be subordinate to that of the U.S.
» Find more of the online edition.
Bush, Iraq, and the Imperialist See-saw
We should be careful not become guilty of blowing out of proportion and then tagging hastily the causalities of the 9/11 attacks. Now, this is not to minimize the tragicness of the events or to create room for a loose framework for deterrence. Rather, it is to ensure that in the process of dealing with those groups lazily called American enemies we don’t end up becoming just like the people we hate to be like.
» Find more of the online edition.
