Book Description
Lively political and public debates on war and morality have been a feature of the post-Cold War world. The Price of Peace argues that a re-examination of the just war tradition is therefore required. The authors suggest that despite fluctuations and transformations in international politics, the just war tradition continues to be relevant. However they argue that it needs to be reworked to respond to the new challenges to international security represented by the end of the Cold War and the impact of terrorism. With an interdisciplinary and transatlantic approach, this volume provides a dialogue between theological, political, military and public actors. By articulating what a reconstituted just war tradition might mean in practice, it also aims to assist policy-makers and citizens in dealing with the ethical dilemmas of war.
Book Description
In June 1999, after three months of NATO air strikes had driven Serbian forces back from the province of Kosovo, the United Nations Security Council authorized creation of an interim civilian administration. Under this mandate, the UN was empowered to coordinate reconstruction, maintain law and order, protect human rights, and create democratic institutions. Six years later, the UN's special envoy to Kosovo, Kai Eide, described the state of Kosovo: "The current economic situation remains bleak. . . . respect for rule of law is inadequately entrenched and the mechanisms to enforce it are not sufficiently developed. . . . with regard to the foundation of a multiethnic society, the situation is grim."
In Peace at Any Price, Iain King and Whit Mason describe why, despite an unprecedented commitment of resources, the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), supported militarily by NATO, has failed to achieve its goals. Their in-depth account is personal and passionate yet analytical and tightly argued. Both authors served with UNMIK and believe that the international community has a duty to intervene in regional conflicts, but they suggest that Kosovo reveals the difficult challenges inherent in such interventions. They also identify avoidable mistakes made at nearly every juncture by the UN and NATO. We can be sure that the international community will be called on to intervene again to restore the peace of shattered countries. The lessons of Kosovo, cogently presented in Peace at Any Price, will be critically important to those charged with future missions.
Customer Reviews:
Incisive and Compelling.......2007-05-16
In the past decade, Kosovo has only ever hit the headlines because of violence and tragedy. Ethnic cleansing, war crimes, NATO intervention: these events dominated the news agenda for the first six months of 1999 and defined Kosovo's international reputation. Sadly, destruction is more telegenic than construction, and the important attempts to steer Kosovo towards a better future have received far less attention.
The authors' task is to tell the story of the UN mission that has administered Kosovo from the early days after NATO intervention through to - presumably - its imminent independence (conditional, supervised or however formulated). This is the first significant study of UNMIK, and succeeds brilliantly in illuminating its challenges, dilemmas and limitations.
From its uncertain first steps, by 2001 UNMIK oversaw the largest per-capita investment in peacebuilding that the world has ever seen. Yet the returns on that investment have been unimpressive, yielding a host of lessons that the "international community" urgently needs to learn if it is to succeed in elsewhere.
Paying particular attention to the orchestrated ethnic violence of March 2004, the authors convincingly portray an international community consistently unwilling to confront hardliners in the Kosovo Albanian community. This timidity is the source of the failure identified in the title, and has long-term consequences for Kosovo and its population.
As a ground-breaking study, the book almost inevitably left me wanting more. What could UNMIK realistically have achieved, given the timeframe and resources available? How much influence could a short-term mission - however well-resourced - really exert over Kosovo's long-term development? Social and political change is a long-term process, yet western politics - under the scrutiny of the 24-hour media - demands rapid results. Do we really have the stomach for the necessary long-term engagement, or are we content simply with the illusion that something is being done?
Necessarily, the authors have been more conservative in their aims, but in exploring UNMIK's successes and failures, they have rendered a great service to those who must grapple with these problems. We can only hope that future Donald Rumsfelds will choose to listen, and be willing to learn.
Book Description
A revolutionary animated series from PBS and DIC Entertainment, Liberty's Kids tells the tale of the birth of democracy in America, through the eyes of two teenagers working in Ben Franklin's printshop.
The show features the voices of many celebrities, including; Walter Cronkite as Ben Franklin, Billy Crystal as John Adams, Whoopi Goldberg as Deborah Sampson, Annette Bening as Abigail Adams, and Aaron Carter performing the title song.
Patrick Henry's speech: "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death." Paul Revere's midnight ride. The shot heard round the world. The Revolutionary War begins.
James, Sarah, Henri, and Moses travel to Virginia, where they witness Patrick Henry's speech. Moses meets up with his past and must make a tough decision. The next month Sarah and James go to Boston to report on Paul Revere's ride. As their fight for liberty and freedom continues, they find themselves at the Concord Bridge when the shot heard round the world is fired. What does this all mean? What sacrifices will be made? Is it freedom at any cost?
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Entertaining and Educational.......2007-01-10
This PBS Special based entertainment is great for adolescents!
I bought it for my neices and nephews and hope they will enjoy it as much as I have!
For those who read Justice For All, heres the sequel.......2004-04-29
This is the sequel to 'Justice For All' and is the 2nd book in the L.K. series. Now I will review it for you.(Its about 3 episodes)
Liberty Or Death!-When their printing press breaks, theyre in luck when Moses says he made an offer on a new one. The problem? They just have to travel to Williamsburg, V.A. to pick it up. So its off to Virginia! Upon their arrival, they witness a slave auction. James and Henri hear Patrick Henrys gonna do a speech at the House of Burgesses, so they go there, while Sarah and Moses get the press. But to their surprise, no ones there! Just two slave women who tell them that the Earl of Dunmore(or something) shut it down. So they find out that instead, Mr. Henry will make his speech at St. Johns church in Richmond. When everybody gets back and are ready to go, Moses sees his younger brother at the slave auction. He is sold to Richmond, at the Abernathy Plantation. So they decide to go to Richmond too. But its very dangerous for Moses to be in the south, where slavery thrives. Can they get Cato(his brother) and also return safely to Philadelphia AND hear his speech?
Midnight Ride of Paul Revere-James and Sarah are on their way to Boston to deliver a message to a friend of Dr.Franklins about the British after they accidentally injure Moses when they thought he was a burglar. They go by way of ship, a small, small boat, and a british frigiate forces them to land about 8 miles south of their destination. They have one occurance which leads them to the truth-the british ARENT leaving boston. So now they must hurry! When they DO tell Dr. Warren(the friend), he gets William DAwes and Paul Revere to go riding at midnight. James and Sarah get involved too, but do they really know what they are getting themselves into?
Shot Heard Round the World-After staying at this hotel-place, James and Sarah are exhausted from their ride. Sarah, upon knowing her cousin Tom is stationed with the british nearby, goes out to look for him. James stays behind and goes with the americans. But when they cross paths again and the first shot is fired, its become clear that this is war. And when they meet again at the bridge at Lexington and Concord, the first harsh fighting begins. Sarah loses Tom, and James and Sarah become a little closer, in my view. IN other views, Dr. Franklin returns from London with a new view of England.
Book Description
For almost a decade, Col.Ryszard Kuklinski betrayed the Communist leadership of Poland, cooperating with the CIA in one of the most extraordinary human intelligence operations of the Cold War. Now that Poland is free, a riddle remains: Was Kuklinski a patriot or a traitor?
In August 1972, Ryszard Kuklinski, a highly respected colonel in the Polish Army, embarked on what would become one of the most extraordinary human intelligence operations of the Cold War. Despite the extreme risk to himself and his family, he contacted the American Embassy in Bonn, and arranged a secret meeting. From the very start, he made clear that he deplored the Soviet domination of Poland, and believed his country was on the wrong side of the Cold War.
Over the next nine years, Kuklinski rose quickly in the Polish defense ministry, acting as a liaison to Moscow, and helping to prepare for a "hot war " with the West. But he also lived a life of subterfuge--of dead drops, messages written in invisible ink, miniature cameras, and secret transmitters. In 1981, he gave the CIA the secret plans to crush Solidarity. Then, about to be discovered, he made a dangerous escape with his family to the West. He still lives in hiding in America.
Kuklinski's story is a harrowing personal drama about one man 's decision to betray the Communist leadership in order to save the country he loves, and the intense debate it spurred over whether he was a traitor or a patriot. Through extensive interviews and access to the CIA's secret archive on the case, Benjamin Weiser offers an unprecedented and richly detailed look at this secret history of the Cold War.
Customer Reviews:
A fine historical work.......2005-08-12
Weiser's detailed and measured tale of Kuklinski's historical contribution to Cold War espionage is to be read and enjoyed. His story is taut and thrilling and reminds one of a good John Le Carre novel. Beyond the issue of whether Kuklinski is a hero or traitor to the Polish nation [which is fairly raised and detailed by the author], Weiser never loses control of the subject matter, and, of the abundant documentation he uncovered in his unique access to CIA records. He instills Kuklinski with humanity and sense of Polish nationalism. A fine work to be read and enjoyed.
A Founding Father of the Post-Soviet, Polish State!.......2005-03-22
"Sometimes it's not enough to do what is right, sometimes one must do what is necessary." Ryszard Kuklinski knew what was right, did what was necessary...and paid a terrible price.
Benjamin Weiser's riveting work A SECRET LIFE, on Polish hero Ryszard Kuklinski, is an enlightening look back into the dark intrigue, personal danger, and moral dilemmas surrounding one military officer's private battles to liberate his country from totalitarianism. Most importantly, this work shatters the left-wing's liberal illusion of "peaceful coexistence" with a communist system whose very raison d' etre is the destruction of freedom, democracy and enslavement of the West.
Kuklinski saw internal conflict to evict the alien system imposed upon his country by the USSR--as opposed to connivance or the wishful thinking of ideological transformation through "gradualism," favored by some of his Polish General Staff contemporaries, who, for lack of courage or personal gain, fully cooperated with their harsh Soviet task masters--as the only realistic option for peace in the face of Poland's likely nuclear annihilation, had war ensued with the United States. He dared to act accordingly, becoming an agent of change feeding top-secret Warsaw Pact military information to the CIA; thereby, tipping the balance of power in favor of liberty, while loosening the demoralizing death-grip of communist rule over Eastern Europe, as a de facto one-man Polish Underground.
When considering the totality of personal sacrifice and enormity of danger faced by Kuklinski, in his nearly solitary and single-handed struggle against radical, state-sponsored evil--who carried a suicide pill to end his life if caught and was sentenced to death, in absentia, by the Polish Military Court--moral giants like Kurt Gerstein and Aleksander Solzhenitsyn come to mind. It saddens me that former communist collaborators or sympathizers, like Aleksander Kwasniewski, were celebrated or elevated to significant post-Soviet leadership positions and societal prominence, while the country remains bitterly divided over Kuklinski, who has yet to be nationally vindicated, though history has already done so.
Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzesinski said it best when he honored him with the words traditionally reserved for decorating Polish soldiers: "Pan sie dobrze Polsce zasluzyl: You have served Poland well." Rest in peace Colonel Kuklinski.
Ryszard Kuklinski my Hero.......2005-02-19
Must be read to be believed i havent given this book 5 stars for nothing it is one of my most cherised books i how indebted i am to the man who saved our dear country poland may his soul rest in peace it brings tears to eyes just thinking after all he sacrificed and fought for to have what he loved most then taken away in his later years
i have borrowed this book to a few friends of different nationalities and they all have found it equally inspiring its simply A MUST READ especially if your polish
most people dont even know what goes on around them
many blessings to all who read this
Truth is more interesting than fiction.......2004-08-01
This is an important book which reminds us of two facts
which must not be forgotten.
1. What the world thinks of the USA is vital for our security.
Our military power is essential, but it will not keep us
safe unless the rest of the world believes that we are
working for the freedom and prosperity of all, and not
just ourselves.
2. The CIA has an insoluble public relations problem. Its
failures become public knowledge immediately, but its
successes must be kept secret for twenty years or more.
A more balanced view from Warsaw.......2004-06-20
Well, if anybody is really interested in facts regarding Poles' attitudes to colonel Kuklinski, here they are, according to Pentor's survey in 2002: 36% consider him a traitor, 35% consider him a hero, 30% are undecided on the issue. Lech Walesa was against colonel Kuklinski's rehabilitation, the former president considered him a "bad example" for the army. Ex-communists Miller and Kwasniewski when they won the election soon afterwards decided to rehabilitate the colonel, which Walesa called "a political trick". Well, as you can see things are no longer black and white in Poland... and thanks God.
Customer Reviews:
Superb Overview.......2007-01-05
"True Cost" has become a meme that is rapidly spreading and revealing to the public how insane and unfair many of our so-called "free trade" policies are. This book is a superb piece of informed scholarship with a strong foundation on real-world practice, and the auther is both objective and empathetic. True costs and real slaves of the global economy (who join the US prison population in slavery).
Soon Paul Hawken (see Natural Capitalism) will open the World Index of Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER) and WikiCalc will be available. I anticipate a huge outpouring of information that allows anyone with a cell phone to scan the barcode, send it to WISER or Amazon, and get back both the "true cost" of any good in terms of carbon, water, slavery, and tax avoidance, and pointers to the nearest green and local alternative products.
SUPER BOOK.
Hard Hitting yet Hopeful.......2007-01-02
This work from Vincent Gallagher, whose career spans 30 years of researching dangerous work environments, is unquestionably hard hitting. In addition to the examples, statistics, photos, and lists describing the negative effects of globalization on the disadvantaged (and their positive impact on the wealthy) the author suggests that every reader can begin to make a difference. Becoming truly aware is a first step, and the journey could well start with this book and its definition of "institutionalized violence." Gallagher cites cases to help us understand that, for example, choking a child is a violent act, whether it is done directly or by selling poor countries U.S. toys that were recalled here as choking hazards.
As the author notes, many of us in the United States are ill informed, partly because of media and business practices, about our personal and national role in the violence of globalization. He presents charts and diagrams to bring us up to speed. For example, there's the list of self-defeating actions required of countries indebted to the International Monetary Fund and the cutaway drawing of a furnished two-story house with labels indicating common items supplied by third-world nations.
As we learn more about activities that contribute to the violence of globalization, Gallagher reminds us, we must look at reasons many of us "get stuck," such as righteousness and lack of imagination. He then provides examples from scripture and stories of "awakenings" that have been occurring in the U.S. and around the world with greater frequency in recent years. On an individual level, he recommends "simple acts of kindness" close to home and daily prayer as good starting points on the path to making a difference.
"The True Cost of Low Prices" is an excellent resource for established small Christian communities or social action committees, and is flexible enough to be used over a series of gatherings. The epilogue, "If Only You Knew" would be extremely effective as part of a prayer service or retreat on social justice.
Book Description
Author Carol Umberger combines her love of history, romance, and God in a quartet of powerful stories set in 14th-century Scotland during the reign of Robert the Bruce, Scotland's great hero king.
Customer Reviews:
WOW! Great Book!.......2006-02-19
Highly recommend this author and this book series. Great development of characters, historical accuracy and well woven story lines.
2nd Book of a Wonderful Series........2004-04-06
The Price of Freedom picks up where Circle of Honor left off during the struggles for Scottish independence in the 14th century.
Black Bryan Mackintosh is sent to capture an estate loyal to the English. He finds Kathryn de Lindsay, a young unwed mother, in charge of the keep.
Kathryn is intrigued by the formidable warrior, but she keeps her distance because of a secret she carries. She cannot let him know she had a baby while she was still unwed. Ironically, Bryan is the illegitimate son of the Scottish king. As they learn to trust each other, they both find healing from the past.
This was a very entertaining read and I'll look forward to reading the 3rd book in the series. Bryan and Kathryn are wonderful characters and the author uses them effectively to show that God can extend forgiveness to any who ask and He will always bring something good out of something bad.
One of the 2 books I've read twice.......2003-10-26
It's wonderful I couldn't but it down. This and the first book in this series are the best books I've ever read!
An absolute best!.......2003-06-12
One of my favorites! The Scottish Crown Series is awesome!!!
One of the best books I ever read!!!.......2003-06-09
This book is very romantic and has some action so it is great. Also test of faith in God which only helps us grow stronger in God. I support this author all the way in her writing because she truly is a great writer. To give you more encouragement in buying and reading this book... it has a great ending but you will have to read it to truly see how great it is. Trust me this book is amazingly written.
Amazon.com
If this meticulously documented and compellingly narrated chronicle of the gay-related cases before the nation's highest court over the past fifty-odd years were even half as good as it is--or, ideally, half as long--it would still be terrific. Lending heft to the notion that the couple that investigates together domesticates together, veteran D.C. journalists Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price, life partners since 1985, have composed the gay bookend to Bob Woodward's The Brethren--with all the epic sweep, painstaking research and intimate storytelling of such nonfiction classics as And the Band Played On and Common Ground. Two cases here provide the book's anchors: 1986's Bowers v. Hardwick, which upheld Georgia's law against homosexual sodomy and provided an astonishingly hostile climax to two decades of high-court homophobia, and 1992's ruling that found unconstitutional Colorado's ban on equal protection of any sort for gays--the Court's greatest and most respectful affirmation of gay rights, if not much of a promise that the court would rule with equal sensitivity on future gay-related cases.
Beyond those two seminal rulings, Murdoch and Price cover what seems like, and may well be, every gay-oriented case to so much as petition the Court since the Eisenhower years. That comprehensiveness can become a little exhausting, amounting as it does largely to a dispiriting archive of the myriad ways the Court has found of blithely dismissing or even scoffing at the basic rights of gay Americans. Drawing on everything from scrawled notes in the justices' personal archives to in-depth interviews with the justices' former clerks, Murdoch and Price provide a fascinating window into how each justice's individual experience and temperament--not to mention the intricate, ever shifting power plays among them--influenced his or her decisions. The most heart-wrenching, haunting portrait is of Justice Lewis Powell, by the 1980s an frail, aging Southern gentleman who had an uncanny knack for hiring gay clerks yet claimed he'd never met a homosexual. He made a valiant but failed effort to understand gays, and ultimately changed his mind at the last minute to cast the damning, deciding vote in Bowers--an about-face he fretted over up until his death. Rehnquist and Scalia clearly emerge here as the homophobic bullies, with Thomas as their silent yes man, O'Connor as spinelessly concerned with voting in the majority, and Ginsburg, Stevens, Souter and sometimes Kennedy as the usual pro-gay "count-on" votes. Undeniably, Brennan, Marshall, and Blackmun (who wrote Bowers's stirring dissent) are portrayed as the heroes on the bench.
But the real heroes here are in the pageant of gay men and lesbians who took their demands for justice to the nation's highest court, many in an era when it was considered absurd to think they had any rights at all in an America that saw them as child molesters, psychopaths, or--at best--pitifully "afflicted with homosexuality." Very few of them were vindicated, and many more lost nearly everything--their jobs, homes, income, privacy, reputation, and sometimes children--for the fight they waged. Their diversely fascinating stories are told here, in a volume whose ultimate triumph is the emotional punch it packs. I kept thinking of Dorothy and her friends petitioning the Wizard: Their firm belief that he would do right by them, their fear and awe before his mysterious majesty, their rage and grief when he welshed on his promise, and, finally, their astonishment to learn that the great and mighty Oz, who had the last say in the highest tribunal in the land, was really just a man, with the same capacity for both ignorance and enlightenment as the rest of us. --Timothy Murphy
Book Description
Since 1958, twenty-five men and two women have forced the Supreme Court to consider whether the Constitution's promises of equal protection apply to gay Americans. Here Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price reveal how the nation's highest court has reacted to these cases--from the surprising 1958 victory of a tiny homosexual magazine to the 2000 defeat of a gay Eagle Scout. A triumph of investigative reporting, Courting Justice gives us an inspiring new perspective on the struggle for civil rights in America.
Customer Reviews:
First rate and well worth your time.......2006-07-28
I must admit that the amazon review above by Timothy Murphy is so on point that I won't attempt to write a general description, except to say that I agree in the main with the reviews below. A few points do bear making.
I find this book much superior to "The Brethren" That book was almost entirely unsourced gossip. While Murdoch and Price do engage in a certain amount of speculation, "Courting Justice" is grounded in the facts and law of its cases, making it a much more reliable book.
In fact, this is one of the best books I have read about the evolution of case law in a particular area, and as such I recommend even to people who have little interest in the law and homosexuals. It is also written in a style so readable as to make the pages practically turn themselves. Most legal writing is not so compelling. Do not be discouraged by its length.
There are two things missing in this book: 1, regretted I am sure by Murdoch and Price, is the absence of "Lawrence et al. v. Texas", which would have made the perfect capstone for this book. I hope they prepare a new edition with that added material.
2. In a few cases, notably "Dale v. Boy Scouts" they reported the factual background extensively, but were deficient in analysing the law. "Dale" was a departure for the Court, but you wouldn't know that reading this book. As a result, I think they were, if anything, too kind to the majority. They also did not spend enough time, in my opinion, on the legal doctrine of the "gay exception" where normal analysis goes by the boards when homosexuality steps in (Drohnenberg, Dale, and the recent law school recruiting cases).
All this means is that they act at times like reporters rather than law review editors, probably a sensible choice.
So please give this book a try if you are interested in queer rights, civil rights, or the operation of the Supreme Court.
Fascinating and comprehensive.......2004-01-10
I picked up this book, and as an attorney I expected a dry legal analysis, instead I was happy to discover a more lively look at the history of gay rights. The authors have taken the time to track down many of the individuals who were involved in these cases going all the way back to the 1950s. It is fascinating to read about gay men and lesbians who stood up for themselves when there was really no hope, yet persisted at the cost of their jobs, personal freedom, and relationships. I was taken aback by some of the heroism and am inspired by the courage and unwillingness to compromise.
The book covers all the major cases that those familiar with gay rights law are familiar with and many others you have probably never heard of. The chapter on the Bowers v. Hardwick case is terrific. The authors tracked down a semi-closeted (at the time) gay clerk from Justice Powell's chambers. Justice Powell cornered this young man and asked him a series of questions about gays that make it clear the man had not the simplest idea of what he was dealing with. Ultimately Powell provided the deciding vote with the majority (in favor of upholding sodomy laws) and late in life stated that it was his major regret.
This is a fascinating read and I recommend it to anyone interested in gay rights, gay history, and the Supreme Court.
In search of "Equal Justice Under Law".......2002-06-28
"Courting Justice" is an authoritative account of gay men and lesbians who have petitioned the court for their civil rights.
Through interviews with clerks, excerpts from transcripts and audiotapes of oral arguments, justices' notes of meetings and rough drafts of decisions, and the journalist authors' clear explanations of legal jargon and procedure, we watch the court at work. The mysterious, incontrovertable third arm of our government is revealed to be simply nine men and women, as subject to prejudice as the rest of us. But we also see a few justices wrestle with their prejudices and write forceful dissents and eventually a majority opinion (Romer v. Evans) that wrapped queer Americans in the constitutional guarantee of Equal Protection.
Because Murdoch and Price's book covers such a broad timespan, they're able to dissect the court's (often achingly) slow evolution from viewing gays as perverted criminals to citizens.
If you want to understand the key legal questions facing gay, lesbian, transgender, and bi-affectional Americans, and their search for equal justice in a country that promises so much, I would highly recommend this book. But don't read it before bedtime; Scalia's a pretty scary boogyman.
excellent research, but not totally law-oriented.......2002-06-11
I can't put this book down. Murdoch and Price have done an unebelievable amount of research into the inner workings of the Supreme Court. By interviewing former clerks for Court justices, scrutinizing transcripts of oral arguments, and dissecting the Court's notoriously difficult opinions, they have presented a refreshing picture of the people behind such (in)famous cases as Bowers v. Hardwick and less well-known cases which preceded and followed it. As a soon-to-be-second-year law student, the human face on the litigants and decision-makers is striking.
However, as someone whose main literary diet consists of academic literature and judicial opinions, I have noticed some flaws. First, there are more than a few typographical errors, which I assume will be corrected when the book comes out in paperback. More importantly, since the authors aren't lawyers, they miss the implications of the legal language the Court uses. The authors enclose terms of art like strict scrutiny and Court language like "dismissed as improvidently granted" in quotation marks as if to emphasize the peculiarity of the Court's language. Also, the authors' (understandable) bias is sometimes distracting, taking away from an otherwise even-handed assessment of the Court's motives.
All in all, this book is a worthwhile read (as my fellow reviewers have noticed).
Putting it all in perspective.......2002-02-07
Courting Justice immediately strikes one as a gay version of the Brethren, Bob Woodward's classic book probing the inner workings of the U.S. Supreme Court. In some respect it is. Murdoch and Price, who also have ties to the Washington Post, have gained access to private papers and interviewed a network of usually close-mouthed law clerks to attempt to piece together the Court's hidden deliberations in gay rights cases over the past three decades. Given the Court's staunch commitment to preserving a thick shroud of secrecy around those deliberations - for reasons not unlike those of the Wizard of Oz - this investigative journalism has always been extraordinarily difficult. Nevertheless, through obvious persevering determination, Murdock and Price have managed in Courting Justice to cast some fascinatingly revealing light on the Court's decisionmaking in each gay rights case it has considered (or refused to consider). The book is valuable for these insights alone.
But Murdock and Price and have done far more than Woodward, perhaps because their focus was more precise. They offer a compelling thesis about the Court's evolving disposition toward lesbians and gay men, one that, in some respects, mirrors the disposition of mainstream American society toward the same community. The book shows the Court as what it undoubtedly really is: a collection of individual men and women who come to work in the morning with predefined notions and biases about lesbians and gay men. The book credibly describes an evolving Court that, through persistent confrontation and education, has grown in its understanding of the gay community and objectivity toward gay people.
Beyond that, the book ends up simultaneously offering a grand historical narrative of the modern gay rights movement. Just about every gay rights controversy has ended up knocking on the doors of the Supreme Court at one time or another, and telling the stories of those cases and the people involved in them necessarily educates readers about the history of the gay rights movement - and in langauge that is always wonderfully written and at times deeply moving. This book demonstrates exactly why journalists are often so much better at writing accessible and fulfilling social-legal history than legal academics are.
Book Description
A vital reminder of the importance of academic freedom, Threatening Anthropology offers a meticulously detailed account of how U.S. Cold War surveillance damaged the field of anthropology. David H. Price reveals how dozens of activist anthropologists were publicly and privately persecuted during the Red Scares of the 1940s and 1950s. He shows that it was not Communist Party membership or Marxist beliefs that attracted the most intense scrutiny from the fbi and congressional committees but rather social activism, particularly for racial justice. Demonstrating that the fbi’s focus on anthropologists lessened as activist work and Marxist analysis in the field tapered off, Price argues that the impact of McCarthyism on anthropology extended far beyond the lives of those who lost their jobs. Its messages of fear and censorship had a pervasive chilling effect on anthropological investigation. As critiques that might attract government attention were abandoned, scholarship was curtailed.
Price draws on extensive archival research including correspondence, oral histories, published sources, court hearings, and more than 30,000 pages of fbi and government memorandums released to him under the Freedom of Information Act. He describes government monitoring of activism and leftist thought on college campuses, the surveillance of specific anthropologists, and the disturbing failure of the academic community—including the American Anthropological Association—to challenge the witch hunts. Today the “war on terror” is invoked to license the government’s renewed monitoring of academic work, and it is increasingly difficult for researchers to access government documents, as Price reveals in the appendix describing his wrangling with Freedom of Information Act requests. A disquieting chronicle of censorship and its consequences in the past, Threatening Anthropology is an impassioned cautionary tale for the present.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing book.......2007-05-03
The author's intent -- to examine the impact of McCarthyism on anthropology -- is a good one. Anthropology attracts a lot of liberal minded people (someone told me that they tend to register Democrat over Republican by a 30-1 ratio). However, what is disappointing about this book is that Price didn't seek out to interview more of the people who knew these anthropologists, as well as people in government who actually wrote such reports. For the most part, reports/texts are largely taken at face value, whereas in reality reports may have been received in greater or lesser degrees of seriousness and credibility. Thus, the tendency is probaby to exaggerate the degree of victimization.
Forcefully reasoned, carefully documented .......2007-04-22
A fresh view not only of the FBI's oppression of American democratic movements, but of the federal government's use of the FBI to maintain racial segregation. I've read anthropology for years but hadn't heard of most of what is unearthed and carefully documented here in a gripping narrative.
A few Amazon reviewers claim Price ignores the Venona files. This is false. Price cites and discusses Venona documents (for example see his discussion Venona documents on page 22, 181, 184, etc.), he just doesn't uncritically worship Venona like some crank from the National Review. He adds a refreshing interpretation of how insignificant Venona information was for American members of the party who weren't interested in Soviet communism, but were interested in working for equal rights for American Blacks and others.
Ignoring Venona Files.......2007-01-17
Nothing is so disgusting as an author who creates in his own mind, regardless of the evidence, some historical gobbledgook under the guise of science. Price totally ignores Venona files(1992) evidence that McCarthy saved the United States and totally destroyed Soviet plans for the internal overthrow of the US government.
This book is destined for the garbage bin appropriately named "inaccurate historical fiction."
Naive and myopic.......2006-06-12
This book deals with a very important and timely topic. The Cold War had a major impact on academia, and Price is to be applauded for undertaking such an extensive archival research project to document how these dynamics were manifest in anthropology. His greatest weakness, however, is an uncritical acceptance of the egalitarian rhetoric of the Soviet Union and the US Communist Party as signifying a genuine committment to humanitarianism and equality. This grossly inaccurate assumption underlies Price's key theme in the book: that the FBI and other security agencies in the United States (aka the bad guys) persecuted leftists and communists (aka the good guys) solely as a means to maintain existing race and class hierarchies in the United States. Anyone with a passing familiarity with the violence and aggression of communist party politics in the 1930s, or the history of the Soviet Union (including its genocidal approach to ethnic minorities within its own borders) should realize this is quite a crock. Price is certainly not alone in his myopia in this area: his assumptions reiterate many cherised illusions of the Left. While these shortcomings may have been forgivable in the past when knowledge about the Soviet Union was more uncertain, any contemporary scholar who ignores the overhwelming array of evidence and testimonials that have emerged from Soviet archives since the end of the Cold War renders himself and his work largely irrelevant to contemporary academic debates in this area. In that sense, Price's work fits in well with earlier anthropological activists, such as those who militantly defended the Rosenbergs as innocent victims of anti-Semitism and US Cold War hysteria. Soviet archives have shown, of course, that the Rosenbergs were quite guilty and their defenders in academia were willingly duped by the barrage of Soviet propaganda released on their behalf. Price continues to reiterate the same theme in his work, never once considering that a peek in the Soviet archives might offer interesting revisions to his assumptions. Did the KGB maintain files on Franz Boas, Margaret Mead and Gene Weltfish? This book would make a much greater and more lasting contribution to Cold War scholarship if the author had even a token awareness of the Soviet side of things. Unfortunately, like so many leftists, he is more intent on using FOIA to bash the United States rather than to undertake a serious analysis of the way anthropology became suspended (or distorted) between rival superpowers during the Cold War. For an insightful and disturbing account of how these dynamics have influenced other social sciences, see Harvy Klehr and John Haynes recent book "In Denial: Historians, Communism and Espionage." It is much more enlightening than Price's work.
Paid to Bite the Hand that Feeds.... .......2006-04-28
Few books can affect a reader so profoundly as this one has me. Price's book has received accolades -- "destined to become a classic," and "belongs on anyone's shelf." I wandered into the pages and, to my surprise and relief, found myself revisiting the underside of what I thought I had observed all along. Names were named, some of them among real live faculties I had known. I experienced a personal Eureka! when I learned that Jacobs and Stern, authors of that Barnes and Noble introduction to anthropology that I read in my formative years, had both been blacklisted. Now I must read that old paperback again and retrace where my interests might have started off in naive directions. I look forward to this self-study in self-censorship for the postmodern age.
I was overjoyed that Price did not stop with the accepted, formalized "end" of McCarthyism, but rather explained the brief re-emergence of relative "academic freedom" through much of the '60s-'70s and '80s, and the more sophisticated, perhaps more dangerous downward spiral today. The book helps those of us who entered college at a time when Ashley Montagu, Kathleen Gough and so many others were in the news over issues other than their research. Price has prepared a thoroughgoing catalogue of official harassment targeting scholars who operated on now-popularly-accepted assumptions of global human worth and equality.
The paradox is that, while anthropology has to rely on those assumptions if it is to operate as a field of intellectual endeavor, our audience -- any public -- does not, but they pay us anyway. Popular reactions to most anthropological contributions range from wonder to outrage. Anyone with basic grounding in anthropology would probably tell you that the field has always pushed the limits of acceptance within host countries, most of which have been main players of Western industrial civilization.
As with the job interview, it is always important to understand who holds the purse strings. Western anthropologists have long pushed the limits of societal acceptance, and that has always had consequnces. Today's "globalization" of anthropology finds many individuals from societies that were traditionally the subjects of anthropological study, pushing those limits from new and refreshing directions, and, of course, the resulting consequences are also "globalizing."
We are such good people; why are we then so villified? Tired old explanations of "cultural lag", ethnocentrism, and differing viewpoints still work. But Price's contribution is a detailed catalog-summary with specific cases showing particularly what makes the United States Government antsy about anthropology. Until "Threatening Anthropology," no one source discussed in context the prevailing governmental assumptions, and the various selected facts, political spins and, yes, myths on which government agencies often rely for those assumptions. Our tired, old explanations have finally got some help, as someone focused on the intersections between anthropology and host society as they are expressed in the United States.
I have recollections from my own past when, during euphoric rushes of "academic freedom," I presumed to speak from an anthropological perspective in ways that might draw the attention of, say, the FBI. Many of these run perilously close to Price's examples. One still wonders, but at the same time one has a grander perspective on why offers have not poured in from academia.
Price's volume is indeed chilling. The prevailing situation within anthropology since well before Boas has been chilling. I keep in mind the smaller-scale analogy of covert ostracism on a band or tribal level. At least within our society there are other avenues of endeavor, and we can retain a view of that old anthropolgy "avenue" and see what's happening and what has happened to our former colleagues.
Price does rather well with his conclusions. I am in some agreement with him over postmodernism insofar as many of its adherents appear to encourage the view that anthropology is only a part of Western science, and that as such it cannot do justice to any cross cultural perspective. Postmodernism in its "deconstruction" of positivism does appear to feed the late 20th century and continuing vogue for discounting what Mooney (The Republican War on Science) calls the "fact-based" perspective as irrelevant for today's policy-making. Such a notion would have frustrated Philleo Nash. I know it gets a double-take from me.
I also agree whole-heartedly that organizations like the American Anthropological Association would do well to treat future governmental meddling with individual scholars' employment -- present and future versions of McCarthyism -- with less timidity. All organizations need a clear understanding of just what constituties grounds for employee discipline, and they need to know that other power centers back them up.
Last time around the witch hunts came and went, leaving lasting scars. The issues are lively, and generate shouting-matches to this day. It was a political choice for organizations to remain in the background as "apolitical." It would be no more a political choice to stand behind individual anthropologists and help them make reasonable stands should they find themselves going against those big guns.
Book Description
Media have been central to government efforts to reinforce sovereignty and define national identity, but globalization is fundamentally altering media practices, institutions, and content. More than the activities of large conglomerates, globalization entails competition among states as well as private entities to dominate the world's consciousness. Changes in formal and informal rules, in addition to technological innovation, affect the growth and survival or decline of governments.
In Media and Sovereignty, Monroe Price focuses on emerging foreign policies that govern media in a world where war has information as well as military fronts. Price asks how the state, in the face of institutional and technological change, controls the forms of information reaching its citizens. He also provides a framework for analyzing the techniques used by states to influence populations in other states. Price draws on an international array of examples of regulation of media for political ends, including "self-regulation," media regulation in conflict zones, the control of harmful and illegal content, and the use of foreign aid to alter media in target societies.
Customer Reviews:
A distinctive voice.......2007-01-14
Price has an amazing ear for language, whether he is writing the words himself or curating the words of his sources, he produces a unique voice. When writing about the role of the Internet in international information flows he comments that "the internet providers are legion" and a balace is struck between "the yin of illegality and the yang of of coping with harmful material" (p. 121).
In the chapter analyzing how immigrants use the media to learn about their destination countries, he analyses a passage from journalist Duncan Campbell who says that after watching television, a group of Czech asylum seekers thought that Britain was "a land of jocular men and compassionate princesses where Gypsy boys would be hugged on freshly cut lawns." (p. 41).
Average customer rating:
- exceptional discussion of media intervention
- Precise, Analytical, and Thoughtful
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Forging Peace: Intervention, Human Rights and the Management of Media Space
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Civil Rights & Liberties | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
War & Peace | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Relations | International | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Media Studies | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Media & Law | Communication | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Law | Subjects | Books
General | International Law | Law | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0253341973 |
Customer Reviews:
exceptional discussion of media intervention.......2003-07-31
Forging Peace focuses primarily on the problems of media management in conflict and post-conflict situations. More specifically it examines situations where Western democracies, the United Nations, the OSCE and even the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have attempted to transform the media sector in third party states. By examining the legal and political context of the new interest in media before, during, and after conflict, the contributors make current trends more visible and illuminate the relationship between speech and force in international affairs.
Together the contributors consider how international law is changing to encompass, reflect, and channel intervention practices. They each from various academic, legal and diplomatic perspectives look at `information intervention' through the lens of human rights principles, especially those relating to restrictions on hate speech and the right to receive and impart information. They examine the distinctions between State-authorized and rogue uses of media to incite conflict; between authorized and unauthorized incidents of information intervention; and between preventive intervention as opposed to that directed towards resolving conflict. And they test some of the justifications that are articulated for different forms of information intervention, actions that range from mere monitoring of broadcasts to the total reformulation of media laws, and ultimately the seizure or bombing of transmitters, and full-blown cyberwarfare.
Precise, Analytical, and Thoughtful.......2003-05-22
Monroe Price and Mark Thompson have assembled a fantastic array of scholars, thinkers, and lawyers who each bring to bear a unique perspective on the intractable relationship between media and conflict. From Alison DesForges's discussion about the impact of hate speech in Rwanda to former U.S. State Department official Jamie Metzl's discussion about United States actions in Somalia, Kosovo, and Serbia the book answers many interesting questions but raises many more. Of particular interest were Eric Blinderman's chapter which discussed the legal rules surrounding, what he terms "information intervention," and Stephanie Farrior's discussion about the legal principles related to hate speech.
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