Invasion of the Party Snatchers

Book Description

After four decades as a Republican insider, Victor Gold reveals how the holy-rollers and the Neo-Cons have destroyed the GOP. Now he's fighting to get his party back.

As a man who served as press aide to Barry Goldwater and speechwriter and senior advisor to George H. W. Bush (in addition to coauthoring his autobiography), Victor Gold is absolutely furious that the Neo-Cons and their strange bedfellows, the Evangelical Right, have stolen his party from him. Now he is bringing the fight to them.

Invasion of the Party Snatchers is a blistering critique not only of the Bush-Cheney administration but also of the Republican Congress. Gold is ready to tell all about the war being waged for the soul of the GOP, including the elder Bush's opinion of his son's work domestically and abroad, the significance of the newly elected Congress, and how Goldwater would have reacted to it all. Gold reveals, among other explosive disclosures, how George W. has been manipulated by his vice president and secretary of defense to become, in Lenin's famous phrase, a "useful idiot" for Neo-Conservative warmongers and Theo-Conservative religious fanatics.

Although there have been other books by dissident Republicans attacking the Bush-Cheney administration's betrayal of conservative principles, none have been by an insider whose political credentials include inner-circle status with Barry Goldwater and George H. W. Bush.

Customer Reviews:

Every Republican must read this book.......2007-09-19

As a conservative Democrat, often fed up with both parties, I found this book very compelling. It lucidly verified some of my intuitions about the GOP's recent turn towards insanity. If you think you might be interested in this book, but are not sure, try to find streaming video of Bill Moyer's interview of Victor Gold. It was on the Bill Moyer's Journal web site. It is this interview that got me interested in the book. If that interview interests you, see if you can find Bill's interview with Bruce Fein.

I hope the GOP can return to it's roots, and this book will help.

They Just Don't Seem As Scary Now, Do They?.......2007-08-24

I saw Victor Gold stumping for his book on some television show or other -- probably The Daily Show. I ordered the book simply because I now and then like to buy books from certain authors for no other reason than to give them money; authors whose opinions I share, authors I admire, authors who look nice in a particular colour -- my tastes are catholic. And, nothing says "You go, girl!" like sending money to a publisher. Anyway -- I bought Victor's book because he appeared touchingly in need of some validation. That was it, really.

Then the book arrived and I actually read it.

Well - I had forgotten so much about the Good Old Bad Old Days and Victor reminded me of it all... Goldwater Republicans! Wow! Hadn't heard that term in, oh, way too long! But reading about Barry and his merry men from Victor's adoring perspective brought it all back. I was a bleeding heart liberal in those days; got Clean For Gene and all that... I had also cleanly forgotten one of our arch-nemeses, Barry Goldwater, in the years of ever increasing bad craziness since then.

I find myself thinking these days that the old style conservatives were much worthier foes than this new lot of what Victor styles "neo-cons". As Victor outlines in his pithy little book, the old school cons were logical and consistent and abhorred arguments based on "gut feelings" or anything that might smack of fuzzy thinking. I miss 'em, bless their hearts. I miss people who would quote chapter and verse of the Constitution to back up their political views rather than the current lot who quote much other chapters and verses.
In short, I found Victor's book interesting and definitely worth the lamp light. If you're old enough to remember Barry Goldwater, read this book for the hope it holds out that one day the left's Loyal Opposition will recover their aplomb and once again become worthy intellectual sparring partners.
Or, just buy it 'cause Victor's a charming old git and you want to give him some money. Either way.

A strong, personal call that deserves Republicans' attention.......2007-08-21

Somewhere in the last few years, Ronald Reagan's "eleventh commandment" --"Thou shalt not criticize another Republican" -- lost its moral force and we have seen quite a number of books by disaffected GOPers taking George W. Bush and the neocons to task. Amid the various analyses of libertarians versus "big government conservatives" ("The Elephant in the Room" by Ryan Sager), old-line activists versus cronyist party hacks ("Conservatives Betrayed" by Richard Vigurie), and the like, it's nice to get a book with a really personal angle, and some really personal anger, to it. "Invasion of the Party Snatchers" is not investigative reporting, wonkish budgetary number-crunching, or a philosophical take-down of Leo Strauss -- those other books have plenty of that and often do it well. That's exactly what made "Invasion of the Party Snatchers" a refreshing read.

Vic Gold has impeccable conservative credentials, and has earned the right to a respectful hearing from his philosophical soulmates and erstwhile party comrades. While "Invasion" sometimes felt *too* off-the-cuff for my taste and somewhat too quick to find in Barry Goldwater's example all the keys to recovering fundamental GOP principles, there's no doubting the strength of Gold's convictions or the power of his prose. It would be nice if young Republicans -- particularly Young Republicans -- would read this and discover you can express strong beliefs in strong language without coming off like Ann Coulter (hint: you don't want to come off like Ann Coulter). And even though Gold evidently found it necessary to use the obvious "I knew Barry Goldwater..." cliché, I appreciated his repeated reminders that John McCain is no Barry Goldwater.

Perhaps some morning (not, one hopes, too long in the future), the Republican Party will stumble out of bed, look at its stubbly face and bloodshot eyes in the bathroom mirror, and ask itself "Oh Lord, what was I thinking?" If and when that happens and the party gets back on the wagon, maybe it will take a moment to thank people like Vic Gold who tried to stage an intervention?

Gutsy truth-telling by an insider who has a way with words.......2007-08-13

A must read if you've found yourself wondering where all the real Republicans went. Apparently there is still at least one left. Unlike any other anti-administration book, Vic Gold knows the whole story from the inside and, thankfully, is courageous enough to tell us. Ah - someone willing to take a career risk to say what they think is true. Not many of them left, eh?

Gold doesn't spare the Democrats when they deserve it either. My mother borrowed my book after I was finished - she said she thought she could open any page randomly, read it aloud and have us both nodding furiously in agreement and laughing hysterically. We'd all be in much better shape if, whether conservative or liberal, we had a lot more like Gold. Some days I really worry they broke the mold.

I only put this book down to feed my children. Otherwise, straight through.

Vic Gold for President. (Until then, though, read the book.)

Good Book.......2007-08-09

I bought this book for my sister-in-law, who is a Republican but very unhappy with the neo-con take-over.

After she had read it, my wife and I did too. We all thought it well writen, and quite readable, and a good summery of events. Once we all had read it, we donated it, brand new, to our local library.

State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America

Average customer rating:

xenophobia or rational position?
A Good Book but lacking in the Proper Historical Perspective
Sad but True
Open This Book Only in Emergency. Now?
Clear and concise

State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America
Patrick J. Buchanan
Manufacturer: Thomas Dunne Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0312360037
Release Date: 2006-08-22

Book Description

Pat Buchanan is sounding the alarm. Since 9/11, more than four million illegal immigrants have crossed our borders, and there are more coming every day. Our leaders in Washington lack the political will to uphold the rule of law. The Melting Pot is broken beyond repair, and the future of our nation is at stake.
In this important book, Pat Buchanan reveals that, slowly but surely, the great American Southwest is being reconquered by Mexico. These lands---which many Mexicans believe are their birthright---are being detached ethnically, linguistically, and culturally from the United States by a deliberate policy of the Mexican regime. This is the “Aztlan Plot” for “La Reconquista,” the recapture of the lands lost by Mexico in the Texas War of Independence and Mexican-American War.
Comparing the immigrant invasion of America from across the Mexican border---and of Europe from across the Mediterranean---to the barbarian invasions that ended the Roman Empire, the author writes with passion and conviction that we have begun the final chapter of the Death of the West. Unless the invasion is halted now, Buchanan argues, by midcentury America will be a country unrecognizable to our parents, the Third World dystopia that Theodore Roosevelt warned against when he said we must never let America become a “polyglot boardinghouse” for the world.
President Bush’s failure to halt the invasion and secure America’s border, Buchanan writes, is a dereliction of constitutional duty that, in other times, would have called forth articles of impeachment. In the final chapter, “Last Chance,” he lays out a sweeping immigration reform and border security plan, which, he contends, if not pursued, means George W. Bush’s legacy will be to have lost for America a Southwest that was the legacy of Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson, and James K. Polk. With an estimated ten to fifteen million “illegals” already here and tens of millions more poised to pour across our borders, few books could be as timely---or important---as State of Emergency. It is essential reading for all Americans.

Customer Reviews:

xenophobia or rational position?.......2007-09-13

Buchanan, makes an impassioned argument that the country is in a 'state of emergency' because of our neglegence in dealing with the immigration issue. However, many of the arguments seem to steam from a fear that America is losing its traditional anglo-identity, and not rational arguments that show why largre-scale immigration is such a great evil for this country. While he does makes some good points and back them up with some statistics, most of the time is just trying to scare people with anticdotal evidence. I conclude that Buchanan's book, while completely correct that we need to pay attention to the immigration issue and that there could be catastrophic effects for neglecting it, fails to ever show that a large mexican immigration is a bad thing just that there needs to be restrictions in place on who we let in and what we require of them.

A Good Book but lacking in the Proper Historical Perspective .......2007-08-19

Texas, AZ, NM, CAL, Utah and most of the eastern US, areas the US now calls its own were neither paid for properly nor legally. They were stolen from their owners, both native american indians and latinos. Buchanan mentions that CAL for example only had 3,000 Mexicans in it when these lands were stolen from them. How many americans were there at the time????? Not very many. What he conveniently fails to mention are the lands which these 3,000 owned at the time, mnay of them were farmers who controlled huge areas of land in the most desireable climatic growing areas. The US government promised these people compensation for their lands if they permitted their lands to be squatted on by expansionist caucasian farmers, miners and cattlemen. But once the caucasian squatting started the deals were soon broken. The lands given to the american indians were even more laughable, typically dry, nearly waterless lands with little to no meaningful crop or cattle supporting abilities which the expansionist caucasians did not want to occupy anyway. Wow what a deal for them indeed.

This is what happens when the creation of "your" country is basically the result of an entirely "Illegal Caucasian Invasion" which is what the title of this book really should be. Unlike many other nations where new cultures immagrated in and assimililated themselves in a legal manner, the US as we know it today was essentially stolen at gunpoint from its occupants in a wholly illegal manner. Historical FACTOID! It's laughable how we whine about what is happening in the US but talk about how bad Hitler was in Germany. What exactly did Hitler do that was so bad? How about the fact he occupied lands at gunpoint, slaughtered millions of the inhabitants in those occupied lands, and committed all sorts of atrocities upon the native peoples of those lands he invaded. Sound like familiar story folks????? Well, it is, because that is EXACTLY how america was formed by primarily euro based caucasians in the past 200 years. Indians were slaughtered, their food sources wiped out, Latinos were slaughtered and those who were offered "deals" almost never ended up getting what they were promised by the US government. We took the most fertile lands available and left the desolate areas for indians and called them "reservations". Our cheap labor force in the caucasian controlled South for decades was Negro slave labor STOLEN from Africa. Now we whine about how a new wave of invaders isn't fair, pooh hoo hoo. This is called reaping what you have sowed. If you or Buchanan had bothered to study your history even a bit for the past millenium you would know that this is how all countries formed at gunpoint usually inevitably end up.

As for the laughable comment that Clinton and GW Bush caused the current immigration problem, better go study some more history. Good old Ron Reagan, the same guy who authorized selling chemical weapons to Saddam, the same guy who illegally sold weapons to Iran a sworn enemy of the US at the time, the same guy who deregulated the S&L's leading to the S&L crisis and a $1 trillion taxpayer funded bailout of the S&L crisis (through the RTC) is also the same EXACT fellow who promoted amnesty and opened the doors for the current wave of huge immigration into this nation. Bush SR also certainly played his part, and in fact up until this past November your Congress had been controlled by Republicans for the past 13 years, blame them too. And most of all do not fail to blame both US consumers and employers, many of them caucasians. Consumers who love the low prices they pay for various goods thanks to the dirt cheap illegal labor employed by so many of the companies you buy goods from and the employers themselves who knowingly employ much of this illegal cheap labor force to fatten their profits. Stop the illegal employment and you'll end the problem. But of course you'll also then pay higher prices for your produce, landscaping, construction, restaurant food bills, clothing, etc..

Blame the primarily caucasian employers employing this labor force and the primarily caucasian consumers willingly buying and benefitting from the prices of the products produced/sold by the employers of these illegals while simultaneously whining about it like crybabies. Anyone here shop at Walmart recently????????????? They have been found guilty of hundreds of illegal immigrant employment violations in the past decade. If you shop there even once a year you and your family yourselves are therefore overt supporters of illegal immigration by your own consumer actions. WM is just one of many examples.

Sad but True.......2007-08-17

I hate to say it but I agree with everything Pat said. We can't even take care of whose here. No point in bringing in more problems.

Open This Book Only in Emergency. Now?.......2007-08-06

Mr. Buchanan, as ever, comes through with an easy to-understand slant on current affairs, this time making the case for curbing the numbers of immigrants entering our nation in a major way. He's a good writer, yes; but he too often gets bogged down in short chronologies of historical events that occurred well prior to his topic. This does make for some dry, colorless reading here and there. From the Austro-Hungarian Empire to 1918 Czechoslovakia to French Enlightenment and on, in many cases, the reader is left asking "What does this have to do with the subject at hand"?

Several of the chapters are bursting at the seams with percentages, numerical comparisons, quantities, poll results...in paragraph after paragraph of analysis of populations, voting results, immigration details, dollar figures. Great pages for the researcher, but he really doesn't footnote much of the number crunching; so often one wonders: "Pat, where'd all this numbing number-information come from, anyway?"

All in all, author Buchanan makes some compelling points about the impending "take-over" of USA Southwest by Mexican immigrants [by "invasion without a shot"], quite sanctioned by the Mexican government. He discusses big-city sanctuaries for illegals, quotas, assimilation, low-pay jobs and languages...and takes to task the allegiance of Mexicans as they proclaim for themselves: "Mexican-American, but Mexican first." He points out (many times) that we can expect the "loss of our country [Southwest and all, by "2050"] as we know it," unless we make prompt national adjustments.

He proclaims "things will change" for us in a major way, but Buchanan doesn't tell us how different things actually will be. He doesn't even make small guesses as to what to expect [by 2050, his repeatedly target year]. How will new "MexiAmerica" will look and feel? Excepting his recurrent assertion that whites will be in a definite minority, he doesn't say much more about the year 2050. --But who knows, Pat. It could all be for the better!

Too, the author doesn't say much (if anything) about the current influx of Muslims into the country.... We might guess he's simply left that to Mark Styne and his work on the subject. --But we should ask: why isn't it part of this book? Isn't the fast migration of Islam also a concern of "The [total] Emergency" that we face...or is Buchanan's whole concept being slightly exaggerated after all? Finally, The author notes we have but "one more chance" to return to sanity and security...and offers many salable directions for us to take to save ourselves...including building a long, fat border; reevaluation of "anchor baby" laws; and, he says, "no amnesty."

I'm not sure Pat Buchanan's made his case here; even so, he's come up with another interesting read. Yet "State of Emergency" does have the texture of Mark Styne's "Alone America" and Buchanan's previous work, "Death of the West." It's the same Pat Buchanan here with an old focus--and a bit of new information plus some absorbing looks at how Mexicans see the USA. Three stars for a relevant re-hash of many things we pretty much know about...amid vacant history lessons we pretty much don't much care about.

Clear and concise.......2007-07-13

Pat Buchanan presents the problem of illegal immigration and possible
terrorist threat in a logical way. There are no scare tactics, just
"how it really is" and "how it could be". I am not a raving conservative,
and am in fact on the more liberal side, but everything he said makes
sense. I gave it 4 stars because he throws in the occassional "slam"
toward the Democrats but for the most part he concentrates on the
problem that affects us all.

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Average customer rating:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians

Average customer rating:

Why the Western Roman Empire collapsed
Excellent Account of a Monumental Event
Dont invite a barbarian to lunch
excellent, clear analysis
A departure from tradition

The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians
Peter Heather
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Rome | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0195159543

Book Description

The death of the Roman Empire is one of the perennial mysteries of world history. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Peter Heather proposes a stunning new solution: Rome generated its own nemesis. Centuries of imperialism turned the neighbors it called barbarians into an enemy capable of dismantling the Empire that had dominated their lives for so long. Heather is a leading authority on the late Roman Empire and on the barbarians. In The Fall of the Roman Empire, he explores the extraordinary success story that was the Roman Empire and uses a new understanding of its continued strength and enduring limitations to show how Europe's barbarians, transformed by centuries of contact with Rome on every possible level, eventually pulled it apart. He shows first how the Huns overturned the existing strategic balance of power on Rome's European frontiers, to force the Goths and others to seek refuge inside the Empire. This prompted two generations of struggle, during which new barbarian coalitions, formed in response to Roman hostility, brought the Roman west to its knees. The Goths first destroyed a Roman army at the battle of Hadrianople in 378, and went on to sack Rome in 410. The Vandals spread devastation in Gaul and Spain, before conquering North Africa, the breadbasket of the Western Empire, in 439. We then meet Attila the Hun, whose reign of terror swept from Constantinople to Paris, but whose death in 453 ironically precipitated a final desperate phase of Roman collapse culminating in the Vandals' defeat of the massive Byzantine Armada: the west's last chance for survival. Peter Heather convincingly argues that the Roman Empire was not on the brink of social or moral collapse. What brought it to an end were the barbarians.

Customer Reviews:

Why the Western Roman Empire collapsed.......2007-09-30

Many causes have been given for the fall of the Roman Empire. Some speculate that the increasing wealth of Roman citizens caused economic and military senescence. Other claim the introduction of Christianity softened the military edge of Roman leaders. Even the presence of lead in the water supply (from the pipes) has been blamed. Often these conclusions were based on historical bias (naturally, a Marxist-leaning historian would look to economic causes) or lack of proper information (only recently has it been archaeologically proven that Roman farm output did not decline over the course of the 5th century). Exacerbating the problem is the fact that most of the records of the Roman Empire have been destroyed over the years, and records from outside the Western Empire are non-existent due to the illiteracy of the Germanic and other "barbarian" peoples.

Author Peter Heather is an historian and expert on the late Western Empire and its Germanic and Hunnic neighbours. Using the latest archaeological discoveries, and sifting through original papers and classic histories (e.g. Gibbons), he brings us this new and eminently readable treatise on the fall of the Western Empire over the course of one hundred years from 376 (when two Gothic tribes arrive on the Imperial frontier demanding asylum) to the deposition of the last Western emporer (476). In that time, he builds a convincing argument that the Barbarian invasions over those 100 years were directly responsible for the fall of Rome. That this is the most obvious explanation based on the historical record does not diminish his thesis, as he successfully demolishes the more esoteric "deeper" arguments of his predescessor historians (such as Gibbon, who pointed to Christianity as the cause).

Thus: At a time when the Persian Empire was rejuvenated as a united political entity (and thus pressuring the Eastern Empire as a rival superpower), the Huns invaded the lands of eastern Europe, displacing the Goths and others westward into the lands of the Romans. Over the course of the previous 300 years, diplomatic interference in the Germani's internal affairs, periodic punitive expeditions, and especially trade had transformed their cultures to a point where they were able to coalesce into supergroups (Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals) capable of directly challenging Roman military forces. As they carved out niches for themselves (Vandals in Africa, Visigoths in Gaul/Spain, etc.), the losses in tax revenues sapped the strength of the military (unable to pay for soldiers). Thus, when Attila himself appeared, the Roman military was already in a downward spiral. Basically, the loss of tax income caused by wave after wave of Barbarian invasion (ultimately fueled by Hunnic expansion) crippled Rome's ability to field enough military strength to preserve the Empire.

Such an analysis could be dry and academic, but Heather brings the book to life with vivid portraits of everyone from the smallest Imperial usurpers to Attila the Hun. He even instills sly humour (he describes an experiment with his 11-year-old son on how long it would take to shout the obligatory acclamations to the Emporer in the Senate) and deliberate anachronisms (comparing one archaeologist to Indiana Jones) to bring variety to the narrative. There is also an ample supply of maps and some pictures. Thus, it's an entertaining book to read. Unfortunately, it lasts a bit too long for my tastes, and becomes a little repetitive, thus robbing it of a 5th star. Still, recommended for anyone interested in the latest thoughts on the demise of the Western Roman Empire.

Excellent Account of a Monumental Event.......2007-07-28

The "Fall of the Roman Empire" casts a huge shadow. A vast Empire, one of the great civilisations of history, went in barely a century from being the "sole superpower" to a mere plaything of barbarian tribes.

Why did it happen? All sorts of reasons can be offered, and Heather offers several, but what it comes down to is that this is simply what empires do - they rise, they exist for a time - years, decades or (as in Romes's case) centuries - and then they fall. Rome had already had a better "innings" than most, and in the fifth century its luck ran out.

It is usual to blame the Fall on the Empire's internal problems, and say that it became "decadent" or whatever. Heather, probably rightly, focuses more on what was happening outside Rome's borders. The Barbarian tribes, living for centuries with that 800 pound Roman "gorilla" next door, combined into larger units like the Frankish or Gothic kingdoms, which were a tougher proposition for Rome to cope with. Everlasting warfare with these states gradually wore the Empire down, and finally another barbarian, Attila, drove many tribes from their old homes and forced them to try their luck migrating into Roman territory. This proved more than Rome (or at least its western half) could cope with. So down the tubes it went.

No doubt, had Rome not fallen from this cause, it would eventually have fallen another way. Empires are usually longer lived than individuals, but are no more immortal. But Heather does a magnificent job of showing how and why it fell as and when it did.

One minor regret. Perhaps a little more "afterword" about post-Roman Europe might have been in order. For the significant thing about the Roman Empire is not that it fell (which was bound to happen sometime) but that it was never rebuilt. By contrast, China fell to Mongol "barbarians" in the 13C, an invasion probably as devastating as anything Western Rome underwent, yet within a century had gotten its breath back, expelled the invaders, and installed a native Ming Dynasty. Similarly, Egypt was able to spit out the Hyksos and other intruders. Yet Rome's former subjects not only didn't do this, but (unless the Arthurian legends count) seem never to have even tried. Rather, they appear to have largely shrugged their shoulders and made the best of things under their barbarian rulers. While purely external factors can explain the fall itself, they can't explain this apparent acceptance of it. Even when Roman lands were "liberated" by Justinian, the inhabitants seldom rallied round, and when Byzantium's grip loosened they just flopped back into barbarian hands. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that, however traumatic the Empire's fall had been, a lot of its subjects soon found they didn't really miss it all that much. This calls for explanation.

Still, that's quibbling. Heather has written a great book (even if his 21C idioms are irritating at times) and it needs to be read by anyone interested in this subject.

Dont invite a barbarian to lunch.......2007-07-27

Two Oxford classicists, working independently, have simultaneously published books on the fall of the Roman Empire. Peter Heather is an historian of the later Empire and of Barbarian Northern Europe. Bryan Ward-Perkins is an archaeologist specialising in rural society during the fall. Both historians decisively contradict recent rather dotty arguments that the Barbarians were not all that bad; that their conquest of the Western Empire would hardly have been noticed by the mass of the people; and that only the rich would have experienced a drop in living standards. Ward-Perkins' conclusion from extensive digging on former Roman villages is stark: the invasions were violent disasters. The drop in living standards was so catastrophic that they would not regain Empire levels for fifteen hundred years. His full title is uncompromising: The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilisation. Despite some empathy with the Barbarians, Heather agrees with Ward-Perkins that the destruction of the Western Empire was an apocalyptic event. His 500 page book employs well-honed analysis combined with splendid narrative, to address the age-old question: why did the Western half of the empire, so apparently all powerful, almost unassailable, worried only by the threat of Persia in the east, fall to the Barbarian invaders from the north in less than a century? In the early fourth century the Western Empire (pace Gibbon) had not been weakened by Christianity, was not in decline, was very prosperous, and the army was far from enfeebled. Heather's analysis, sinewy, cogent and informed, is too complex for adequate summary here but he believes that after the Huns caused a seismic shift in the balance of power in the North Roman failure came less from Roman weakness than from Barbarian desperation. After the destruction the long-term winner, oddly enough, was the Church. With the old Roman bureaucracy destroyed in the West priests came to monopolise literacy for more than a thousand years. Secular culture would reside with the Arabs!

excellent, clear analysis.......2007-07-07

This book explains with amazing clarity how and why the western Roman empire fell apart between 376 and 476 AD. It covers roughly the same ground as the third volume of Gibbon (minus the obsession with Christianity), but with much better analysis of the political and military calculations of the various parties. It also gives a very coherent account of who the various "barbarian" groups were, and how they formed and interacted: a topic which I have found incredibly confusing in other books. (Apparently this is the author's specialty.)

Note that the word "decline" is not in the title. The author's thesis is that the western empire did not collapse from within; it always had its problems, but in the fourth century it was as strong as ever. Rather, what caused it to fall was that unfriendly interaction with the Romans encouraged Germanic peoples on the frontier to become stronger and more unified; these groups were then impelled into the empire by the onslaught of the Huns, where they began taking over parts of the empire. This triggered a downward spiral in which decreased tax revenues resulting from the lost or ravaged territories made it more difficult for the Romans to fund the military, whereby they lost more territory, and so on. This process is explained in fascinating detail in the book. A last-ditch rescue attempt by the eastern empire in 468 failed in a disastrous naval battle, and it was game over for the west. The eastern empire, meanwhile, continued to prosper through the sixth century; while it had internal problems similar to those of the west, accidents of geography protected it for the time being.

In conclusion, if you are looking for clarity regarding what the heck was going on in fifth century Europe, this is the book for you. It is written in a colloquial style which makes it easy and amusing to read. It includes a number of maps, a dramatis personae, a glossary, and extensive notes, all of which are very useful.

A departure from tradition.......2007-06-26

This book is excellent. The author puts for a break from the traditional Gibbon approach to why the Romans fell apart. The author's work is extremely well documented. He lays out his arguments in a logical manner. Each point sort of builds on the next one in the book. The book seems to be told from the Barbarian's point of view. The book does seem to take the long way though to get to the meat of the argument. The work is very well documented. An average reader might get lost some in the names. You almost have to have a good background on the subject to truly appreciate the book. The main point of the book is that successive Barbarian invasions just wore out the Romans. That created conditions that launched independence movements in the outlying provinces like Great Britain. The author argues convincingly that the further success of the eastern half of the empire showed that internal rot didn't do the Romans in. As a reader reads this it is hard not to draw comparisons to events today for the US. The book showed how multiple problems stretched the Romans to the point of breaking. Then a reader sees the newspapers and wonder if the stretched US Army might lead to conditions similar to what the Romans went through.

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

Average customer rating:

The best account of the planning for and invasion of Iraq
A Mixed Bag
greta read indepth look
Great Content - Flawed Media
Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq

Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
Michael R. Gordon , and Bernard E. Trainor
Manufacturer: Pantheon
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Iran | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Iraq | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

21st Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
The Assassins' Gate : America in Iraq
The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11
American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21stCentury
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III

ASIN: 0375422625
Release Date: 2006-03-14

Book Description

Informed by unparalleled access to still–secret documents, interviews with top field commanders, and a review of the military’s own internal after–action reports, Cobra II is the definitive chronicle of America’s invasion and occupation of Iraq—a conflict that could not be lost but one that the United States failed to win decisively. From the Pentagon to the White House to the American command centers in the field, the book reveals the inside story of how the war was actually planned and fought. Drawing on classified United States government intelligence, it also provides a unique account of how Saddam Hussein and his high command developed and prosecuted their war strategy.

Written by Michael R. Gordon, the chief military correspondent for The New York Times, who spent the war with the Allied land command, and Bernard E. Trainor, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant general and former director of the National Security Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, Cobra II traces the interactions among the generals, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and President George W. Bush. It dramatically reconstructs the principal battles from interviews with those who fought them, providing reliable accounts of the clashes waged by conventional and Special Operations forces. It documents with precision the failures of American intelligence and the mistakes in administering postwar Iraq.

Unimpeachably sourced, Cobra II describes how the American rush to Baghdad provided the opportunity for the virulent insurgency that followed. The brutal aftermath in Iraq was not inevitable and was a surprise to the generals on both sides; Cobra II provides the first authoritative account as to why. It is a book of enduring importance and incisive analysis—a comprehensive account of the most reported yet least understood war in American history.

Customer Reviews:

The best account of the planning for and invasion of Iraq.......2007-09-27

This is a must read book for someone who wants a comprehensive, top-to-bottom understanding of the invasion of Iraq.

If you look at the references of this book, it is dozens of pages listing all of the first-hand interviews that were done for this book. Everyone from GEN McKiernan down to company commanders were interviewed and it shows in the incredible top to bottom detail. This book comes down very hard on many people and shows how much of the problems we face in Iraq today are of our own making. It is frustrating beyond belief to read about the micromanaging of Donald Rumsfeld or the idiocy of then MG Ray Odierno. Then there are some fascinating accounts of the individual battles from the sergeants and company grade officers. You see how many people tried to do the right thing or actions that would have greatly helped the US and Iraqis.

A Mixed Bag.......2007-09-20

Michael Gordon's and Bernard Trainor's "Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq" tells the story of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the initial planning stages through the summer of 2003. This is a very comprehensive book and based, in part, on a secret report created by the Joint Forces Command after the war. Although this book has generally received fawning reviews, I had very mixed feelings as I read the book.

As others have noted, the authors tell a comprehensive, thorough story of the entire campaign. They usually offer good analysis and (at times) good criticisms, supported by the facts. However, their criticisms often outshine the better parts of the book.

The authors are extremely critical of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, General Tommy Franks, and many others who planned and executed the invasion. The authors criticize the planners primarily for ignoring the need to invade with a much larger force. While they are certainly justified to be critical of a war that was supposed to last a few months and is now dragging into its fifth year, their criticisms form the thesis of the book and become a repeated mantra that permeates the entire narrative. This really detracts from the story they are trying to tell and often tell well.

The authors' treatment is not even-handed and their critical outlook clouds the story of the invasion. The authors focus so much on the negatives of the initial campaign to capture Baghdad that they ignore what an immensely successful campaign it was -- no one expected the Iraqi regime to fall in four short weeks. However, reading their narrative one would think that the American forces (the authors ignore the British forces) made mistake after mistake and were lucky to even reach Baghdad. Their story lacks the perspective that even the best-laid plans can be thrown away once contact is made with the enemy. The story they ignored was that, like all military operations, Operation Iraqi Freedom, was fraught with mix-ups, screw-ups, miscalculations, blunders, and other problems - Clausewitzian friction. However, the American forces overcame all of this and waged an extremely successful land campaign.

One other negative was that the book lacked a real unity of approach to describing the war. The authors attempted to narrate the war from the "big-picture," but then, during the actual fighting, spent a lot of time describing the blow-by-blow and minute-by-minute actions of the fighting at the platoon, company, and battalion level. The story was too detailed when they took this approach to selective engagements. While authors such as Max Hastings may be able to pull this off as part of their larger narrative, it was cumbersome and distracting when Gordon and Trainor tried to.

Three other criticism: 1) This book completely ignored the British actions in and around Basra; 2) This book didn't "complete" the story and take the story to a logical stopping point (such as the Sadr uprising in April 2004). The authors just trailed off in the summer of 2003 (they didn't even cover the UN bombing that summer) instead of showing how one of their major criticism - lack of sufficient troops - could have made a major difference in late 2003 and early 2004; and 3) the authors' narrative style was difficult to read at times. The book felt like it was cobbled together and written on a deadline, and because the authors relied on so many sources and described the actions of so many officers and soldiers (especially during the battle narrative), it was difficult to follow everyone they were writing about, especially since they usually did not use their rank after the first mention.

Overall, though, this is a pretty good book for anyone interested in the military planning and history of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Despite the many problems listed above, the book is thorough (if not even-handed) and full of good information.

greta read indepth look .......2007-09-18

this has been the best book writen (in my opinion) about the planning of the invasion of iraq and the first year of the occupation. i really think it is critical of everyone involved (republicans, democrats, civilians, media, military and even the iraqis) and accurately shows how all sides misjudged the situation.

Great Content - Flawed Media.......2007-07-27

Three of my CDs had dropouts; not enough to stop them from playing. I looked at the last CD and it has several scratches on it. [I just opened the case]. Seems like Random House contracted with the absolute cheapest supplier for their products.

The content (book) is very complete in a depressing way. Only the Captains and Majors seem to come out as heroes; the GOs seem to suffer from Careerism. During the runup to the war Tommy Franks was obviously "played" by Rummey; but he seemed to be easy pickings. Franks theatrical yawning during the discussion of casualties [with British officers present and immediately after a fratricide incident where U.S. killed British soldiers] is especially endearing.

Is it January 2008 yet?

Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq.......2007-07-05

I really enjoyed this book and it's content. Offered an inside look at what really happened behind the sceens before and after the invasion.

Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse: A Novel of the Turbulent Near Future (Expanded and Updated 33 Chapter Edition)

Average customer rating:

PATRIOTS Survivng the Coming Collapse
"Patrriots" the Book
Good reference
Militia-Style Survivalist Manual in a Fiction Format
Excellent source of information

Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse: A Novel of the Turbulent Near Future (Expanded and Updated 33 Chapter Edition)
James Wesley Rawles
Manufacturer: Xlibris Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1425734073

Book Description

Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse is novel set in the near future that describes a full scale socioeconomic collapse. More than just an exciting read, it is packed with useful survival and preparedness tips. It was described by one reviewer as "A survival manual neatly dressed as fiction."

An earlier short draft edition of the novel was distributed as shareware on the Internet in the early 1990s. At the time, despite the relatively small readership of the Internet, it had more than 82,000 downloads, making it the net´s most popular shareware novel of the decade. It was hosted at seven mirror sites on three continents.

"Patriots" is distinctly pro-Christian, pro-preparedness, pro-gun ownership, and anti-racist. It is considered a "must read" by those are concerned with the fragility of our society, and those interested in preparedness. It is also popular in Libertarian circles. "Patriots" was authored by James Wesley, Rawles, the editor of www.SurvivalBlog.com

Customer Reviews:

PATRIOTS Survivng the Coming Collapse.......2007-10-10

This is my second reading of "Patriots" and I also bought a second copy for a good friend. This book is loaded with technical and general survival information and is a very good action read. "Patriots" details a socio-economic collapse of the American way of life. A dedicated group of survivalists locate to Idaho and establish an enclave, independent of the power grid, fuel, and food support that fails during the big "Crunch". The story evolves into the group participation in a nationwide conflict called "The Second Civil War, whereupon United Nations troops have invaded the United States, supported by home grown American traitors.
The Group name themselves the Northwest Militia and become a major leader of American partisan resistence. This is a very believable story and will serve not only to entertain the reader but will likely prompt the reader to become more self sufficient, if ever such an event would take place. This is a very good read, and certainly one you don't want to miss.

"Patrriots" the Book.......2007-07-22

"Patriots" is one of the best books of its type I have ever read. Though written in a novel format, it can readly serve as a primer or manual of preparedness in these uncertain times. The author sets a very plausible background for the cause of collapse that is as current as today's headlines. AS well, it develops into dire case at the end, almost worst case. Throughout the book, the author through his characters (most of the main ones anyway)show their Christian beliefs and the dispensing of charity. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to prepare for uncertain times, regardless of their nature, invasion, pandemic, storms, etc.

Good reference.......2007-06-23

This a good read on basic survival skills. The best parts of this
book are author's recommendations on "existing" products.

Dressed as a novel, it provides a good reference book on guns and other
survival tools and materials.

The story line is poorly developed; it looks like the author wanted
to squeeze in as many details about the survival "tools/materials" and
the actual story takes a back seat.

It is a good read and I recommend this book even if you are not Christian
or don't like guns.

It is a must read for Christians and gun enthusiasts.

Militia-Style Survivalist Manual in a Fiction Format.......2007-06-08

Patriots is a TEOWAWKI , militia-style survivalist novel packed with information. While Patriots does mention stockpiling food and the use of non-hybrid seeds this is not a book about self-sufficiency. The premise of the novel is that an economic depression spirals out of control. The economy completely collapses, money becomes worthless, the mail stops, the power grid and phone system shuts down and the government at all levels disappears. In the story this period is understatedly call the Crunch, but no depression in the history of the United States has been nearly so severe. Even church services appear to stop for several years.

With the United States in turmoil and collapse, the United Nations and at least some international banks have survived. Together they become the catalyst behind a provisional federal government that seeks to exert near dictatorial control over America. Frankly, I believe there is much more strength in the institutions of the United States than there ever was in the United Nations and so this plot scenario strained believability for me. However, when asked, James Rawles stated, "I made the scenario in the novel a near `worst case' in order to make it more interesting reading, and as an opportunity to show the need for planning and preparedness in a variety of areas..."

Using the Crunch as a literary device Rawles packs the novel with data about guns, medicine, fuels, equipment and tactics. The book has been described in several online reviews as a "survival manual fairly neatly dressed as fiction." Indeed it is much more entertaining than reading the facts in a reference book or manual. But this is also the greatest weakness. It is hard to pack facts into a novel without the author intruding into the story. Much of this story is told in the form of narration, as opposed to showing within the flow of the events. Characterization is weak. Both author intrusion and narration weaken the literary quality of the story but add to the amount of information Rawles packs into the book

Recommendation: The information is five-star, the literary quality is two star. Buy Patriots for the "survival manual," not the fiction story.

Excellent source of information.......2007-05-15

As other reviewers have mentioned, this book starts out kind of slow. It goes through the description of the how the economy came to be in such a bad shape and then describes how it fell. It was not something I personally cared for. However once you get past the details of how the U.S.A. economy crashed the book takes you on a winding path of survival and patriotism.

The book is a great source for anyone wanting to know more about preparing for any long term emergency. The author goes into detail about what equipment the characters have and where they got modifications to those pieces of equipment. He then goes on to give an appendix listing where most of the items can be purchased or services rendered.

All in all, I gave it 5 stars not only for the great source of information but the very entertaining fiction read.

Also if you enjoy this book you will most likely enjoy "Lights Out".[...]

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001

Average customer rating:

Current history come to life
a fine place to start at understanding 9/11
issues to be informed about......
Unbeliveable history of Afghanistan
Ghost Wars

Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
Steve Coll
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Afghanistan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Central Asia | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Conspiracy Theories | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror
Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander

ASIN: 0143034669

Amazon.com

Steve Coll's Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 offers revealing details of the CIA's involvement in the evolution of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the years before the September 11 attacks. From the beginning, Coll shows how the CIA's on-again, off-again engagement with Afghanistan after the end of the Soviet war left officials at Langley with inadequate resources and intelligence to appreciate the emerging power of the Taliban. He also demonstrates how Afghanistan became a deadly playing field for international politics where Soviet, Pakistani, and U.S. agents armed and trained a succession of warring factions. At the same time, the book, though opinionated, is not solely a critique of the agency. Coll balances accounts of CIA failures with the success stories, like the capture of Mir Amal Kasi. Coll, managing editor for the Washington Post, covered Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992. He demonstrates unprecedented access to records of White House meetings and to formerly classified material, and his command of Saudi, Pakistani, and Afghani politics is impressive. He also provides a seeming insider's perspective on personalities like George Tenet, William Casey, and anti-terrorism czar, Richard Clarke ("who seemed to wield enormous power precisely because hardly anyone knew who he was or what exactly he did for a living"). Coll manages to weave his research into a narrative that sometimes has the feel of a Tom Clancy novel yet never crosses into excess. While comprehensive, Coll's book may be hard going for those looking for a direct account of the events leading to the 9-11 attacks. The CIA's 1998 engagement with bin Laden as a target for capture begins a full two-thirds of the way into Ghost Wars, only after a lengthy march through developments during the Carter, Reagan, and early Clinton Presidencies. But this is not a critique of Coll's efforts; just a warning that some stamina is required to keep up. Ghost Wars is a complex study of intelligence operations and an invaluable resource for those seeking a nuanced understanding of how a small band of extremists rose to inflict incalculable damage on American soil. --Patrick O'Kelley

Book Description

To what extent did America's best intelligence analysts grasp the rising threat of Islamist radicalism? Who tried to stop bin Laden and why did they fail? Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll recounts the history of the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks. Based on scrupulous research and firsthand accounts by key government, intelligence, and military personnel both foreign and American, Coll details the secret history of the CIA's role in Afghanistan, the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of bin Laden, and the failed efforts by U.S. forces to find and assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Customer Reviews:

Current history come to life.......2007-10-11

Steve Coll has done an outstanding job in presenting the history of our relationship with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the Afghan freedom fighters and shows how that history foretells what is occurring in the world today.

Many other books about the rise of Osama Bin Laden are out there but this gives an honest depiction of who he was and is, how he came to power and what he uses to retain that power. It gives the reader a better understanding of the tribal nature of Afghanistan, the machinations of the intelligence services in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, and how the Taliban came to rule after the Soviets were chased out. It also shows how the United States in the administration of Bill Clinton dropped the ball numerous times in understanding and dealing with terrorism. From the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 to the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, Clinton did little to forestall further such events. The reader will see what roles Sandy Berger and Richard Clarke played in advising the president and yet the terrorism continued.
A few heroes are introduced- mainly from the CIA and Afghan tribes.

Steve Coll is an excellent writer and captures the reader with his excellent prose and command of the players and facts of the times

a fine place to start at understanding 9/11.......2007-09-30

on 9/12/2001 i figured that i should take a stab at getting a better picture in my head of the political turbulence that storms through the middle east. but i'm a lazy person. and such an undertaking seemed a chore. i have enough chores in my life, so i procrastinated. i bought a small stack of books on the topic over the years, but they only served to make me feel bad, because i really didn't want to read any of them. but this month, about 6 years later than it should have been, i took the plunge. I picked up steve coll's "Ghost Wars," and started reading the thing. well, lo and behold it was not a chore at all. the first 475 pages flew by with ease, pulling me along eagerly. mr coll builds a narrative momentum here, while threading complex strands of people, countries and events into a coherent whole, that is superlative. his portrait of the saudi, afganistan, and pakistani governments, and their interactions with the united states government was particularly well done and fascinating. my only complaint (and the reason i give this book 4 stars instead of 5) is that after the bombing of our warship in yemen by bin laden's group, the narrative suddenly grinds to a halt and becomes bogged down in about a hundred pages of overly detailed description relating to unsuccessful plots to get bin laden himself. since we all know that bin laden was not caught, this long stretch of failed planning simply takes up too much space at the end of the book, and is not all that interesting. that said, by all means read this book for the excitement and enlightenment cast in the first 475 pages or so. i believe this book to be about as good a place to start as any for someone looking to better understand the road that led us to 9/11.

issues to be informed about.............2007-09-23

Interesting. A must read. I hope Mr. Coll writes the next segment of Afghanistan's history from September 11, 2001 onward.

The book covers a lot of ground and is lengthy, but is well written and reads quickly. Coll outlines the people and policies (or, the lack thereof) from the Soviet chapter in Afghanistan until the day before September 11, 2001. Throughout the historical narrative, the book covers and addresses scary amounts of money flowing in and out of Afghanistan, the conflicts between the CIA, the State Dept. and other U.S. agencies/policymakers in addressing issues related to Afghanistan, the Taleban, Al Q, and Bin Laden, and who understood what and when related to Al Q, Bin Laden, et al. Coll also critically addresses the roles of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in U.S. policy considerations, and those countries policies toward Afghanistan/knowledge of Al Q and Bin Laden.

Beyond the headlines, I was not very well informed on the history of Afghanistan. This book will bring the reader up to speed very quickly.

Unbeliveable history of Afghanistan.......2007-08-17

Don't be scared away by the 600+ pages. It flows freely and is really a riviting historical read. It provides quite a narrative on the history of this area and the difficult political and military situations that the US, Pakistan, Soviet Union and other influcencal Middle East countries had in this area of the world..

Ghost Wars.......2007-07-14

Ghost Wars is an account of U.S. assistance to the mujahedin during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and U.S. attempts to curtail Osama bin Laden's influence. Ghost Wars focuses on the CIA but author Steve Coll, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who covered Afghanistan for the Washington Post between 1989 and 1992, also covers the interagency policy making process in Washington.

The U.S. policy of helping the mujahedin in Afghanistan harass and ultimately defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan was, of course, a success. U.S. officials realized that the contending forces in Afghanistan were unlikely to form a unified national government after the Soviet's departure, but the United States was in Afghanistan to hurt the Soviet Union, not to build a new nation in Afghanistan. U.S. assistance efforts in Afghanistan were advanced by two allies, in particular, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. Coll argues that, while the allies' interests coincided in containing Soviet expansion, U.S. interests were hurt by the efforts of Pakistan's intelligence service (the ISI) to strengthen radical Islamists after the Soviet collapse in Afghanistan and by Saudi Arabia's unwillingness to confront radical Islamists at home and in Afghanistan.

Coll criticizes U.S. policy in Afghanistan on several grounds. First, the United States relied heavily on the ISI to deliver assistance to the mujahedin, despite the ISI's preference for radical jihadists. Second, the United States' reliance on Saudi oil made it too hard for the United States to confront its ally over terrorism policies. Third, the United States missed opportunities to engage India as a democratic ally in South Asia. Fourth, the United States failed to develop "a strategy for engagement, democratization, secular education, and economic development among the peaceful but demoralized populations of the Islamic world."

U.S. policy toward bin Laden, in particular, could also be criticized for a lack of coherence. Coll's narrative describes a reluctance to give unambiguous instructions to kill bin Laden, even though capturing him alive would have been nearly impossible. Numerous opportunities arose to attack bin Laden but policymakers always demurred because they were reluctant to offend other governments or risk civilian deaths. At one point, referring to bin Laden, CIA director George Tenet announces that "We are at war," but the resources and single-minded determination that this announcement implies never materialized.

Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture that's Gone Stark Raving Mad

Average customer rating:

Preaches to the choir and not what I expected.
Best book on culture wars ever!
The presentation here is lacking.
Where has Hagelin been?
"Immodest?"

Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture that's Gone Stark Raving Mad
Rebecca Hagelin
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

U.S. | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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Saving Childhood: Protecting Our Children from the National Assault on Innocence

ASIN: 1595550070

Book Description

Middle class moms and dads have long sought safety for their children in the nurturing haven of the cul-de-sac. Like a safe harbor at the edge of an angry sea, the suburban neighborhood is an environment of protection from the world and all its dangers. Or is it? In Home Invasion, Rebecca Hagelin proves that in today's all-consuming culture of corruption there is nowhere left to hide-American homes have already been invaded by this insidious enemy that seeks to twist our minds and poison our hearts through the unmonitored Internet, television, magazines, and music that our families ingest on a daily basis. Speaking as a nationally known social commentator and as a mother of three, Hagelin shows through specific examples and alarming statistics how the enemy has infected the family van, our neighborhood schools and textbooks, the stores in which we shop, and even the churches in which we worship. With warm words of encouragement and practical suggestions, she coaches parents on how to arm themselves with information, strategically plan the movements of their family members, secure allies in the battle, and most of all, muster the guts and the resolve to lead their families to victory against the great beast.

Customer Reviews:

Preaches to the choir and not what I expected........2007-05-16

I suppose this book would be a good wake-up call for any parent out there who cares about their childrens' futures and does not yet realize that there are an army of amoral individuals out there in our culture that seek to make money off our children any way they can.

I found this book's srengths to be in the opening few chapters where the author names names and gets to specifics about just what kind of evil is out there marketing itself to youth, and this isn't someone who wants to live in the 1950's but rather a concerned mother who wants her children to grow up and be something special.

I got that message loud and clear, and maybe too clear. Much of this book comes across as screaming and whining. I can hear her voice (or a voice anyway) behind every urgent plea for me to become responsible and involved in my childrens' lives.

So, I agree with what she's saying here, but I wish it was said differently. What I wanted was an expose of the "culture of depravity" that's attacking our kids (like the Frontline documentary Merchants of Cool), and what I got was a brief survey with a few particurly vile examples of bad culture, and references to books I'd already read or known of and documentaries I had alreay seen (like the Frontline documentary I've already mentioned) followed by chapter after chapter of general Christian parenting advice.

So, my first issue with this book is that I didn't learn anything at all for the time I spent with this book. Of course, that me and not you. You may learn something if you haven't been keeping up on culture and technology the way I have.

My second issue is that this book is written by a Christian for Christians. I've no problem with that, but isn't all this evil directed at our children by the culture a problem for any thoughtful parent? Must I be an insider in the Christian Evangelical movement to not want my teenage daughter pregnant or my son addicted to drugs?

So, this is a worthwhile investment of time for the Christian who is oblivious to evil in our culture that is directed at children: new Christian parents maybe? Beats me.

Best book on culture wars ever!.......2007-02-18

Home Invasion is a dream come true for any parent looking for the courage and tips to stand against the culture. I saw Hagelin on CNN and she is poised and articulate.....and very sincere. Her book is a must read for any parent or grandparent who cares about their kids.

The presentation here is lacking........2007-01-08

Ms. Hagelin's points may be valid: The need to set boundries for our kids, the need to shield our young children from overly sexualized media, and that values taught in public schools have shifted radically over the last 40 years. Hagelin also strives to stress that parents must take responsibility to be their children's primary role models.

But the casual format of this book often rambles without scoring direct hits on the points she tries to make. The repeated use of the phrase "stark raving mad" was enough to drive me batty.

A cleaner outline - and tighter editing - would have greatly improved the presentation.

Where has Hagelin been?.......2006-11-02

This sounds like a book from the 1950s when consumer advocates were telling us about dangerous products. Is there anyone around who is that naive about "dangers that lurk everywhere"? Maybe there is. I think the reason she wrote the book is because all the information is so readily available. After reading Rebecca Hagelin's articles on other websites I realized that it is she who is just now learning that the world is dangerous.

"Immodest?".......2006-08-07

For reviewer Douglas Groothuis -
You think this cover is "immodest?!" Sheesh. Do you feel that way about every photo of a woman where her (completely covered) breasts are just part of the whole picture? The author happens to be a normal adult human female - this picture is like millions of others of women all over America and there's NOTHING indecent about it.

Clique, The: Invasion of the Boy Snatchers - Book #4 (Clique Series)

Average customer rating:

AWESOME
Richly Entertaining
A wonderful book
Invasion of the boy snatchers review
"Invasion of the Fashion-Zombies" by bleh

Clique, The: Invasion of the Boy Snatchers - Book #4 (Clique Series)
Lisi Harrison
Manufacturer: Poppy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0316701343

Book Description

The holidays are over and Massies room is chock full of new things from Santa: jeans, sweater, and a new . . . roommate? Once Claire unpacks, Massies room feels more crowded than a Zac Posen sample sale. But whats worse, Claire isnt the only person moving into Massies territoryAlicias hot, Spanish cousin, Nina, shows up from Spain and starts edging in on all the Briarwood boys, including Massies crush! Will Nina, with her super-tight mall clothes, make every boy in Westchester fall in love with her? Or will Massie toss her out faster than last seasons Sevens jeans? The social minefields of Westchester Countys most privileged middle school girls drive the page-turning action of this addictive series, set in New York Citys most elite suburban county. The Clique . . . the only thing harder than getting in is staying in.

Customer Reviews:

AWESOME.......2007-09-25

I LOVE this book. It's probably one of my fave books. I love how much drama there is, and how the entire book just comes togther at the end and answers all the questions you have/had. I espescially like all the details, and how you can imagine the characters, and how in eah book in the clique series, a little more information is revealed about each character. I love that. It's like putting together a puzzle of each character. Out of 5 stars, I would definetly give this book a five.

Richly Entertaining.......2007-08-05

Okay, I'm not gunna lie, not really used to reading the whole rich girl livin' in a wonderful world thinking everyone wants to be like her. Me, I'm more into the African- American novels that talk about what's goin on down in the hood and high school drama that we gotta deal with. But.. this book has made me change my mind on that. I picked it up in a book store and this was actually the first book I read out of the whole Clique Series and I just had to buy the rest. So now I'm starting at the vert begining and am actually enjoying myself.

This book, filled with so much drama (about boys, what else?!) sparked my intrest with the simple title and from the first page on, I was glued to that book.!!! ENJOY!!!!!&hearts;

A wonderful book.......2007-04-18

The book Invasion of the boy snatchers, by Lisi Harrison, is a wonderful book. It talks about friends who gossip a lot. Massie, Claire, Alicia, Dylan, and Kristen are all friends. They all love makeup and having fancy clothes. Massie even gets free Chapstick every month.
One day Alicia's cousin, Nina, came from Spain. Alicia's friends looked at some pictures of Nina and saw that she wasn't very pretty. But when she arrived all the boys from their school were in love with her.
After a little bit of time all five friends got sick of Nina having all the boys' eyes on her. So they started looking for something that would humiliate her. To see what happens at the end you will have to read the book and figure it out.
My favorite part of the book is the end, but I can't say what happens at the end so you will have to read it to figure out. If you like books that talk about gossipy girls and boys you should read this book. It's a very good book.

Invasion of the boy snatchers review.......2007-04-05

Massie finally thought that she had everything that she wanted, she had derrington, all of her best friends, and Claire was living in her guest house and they finally worked out thre problems. Claire was even living in Massie's room. But then.... Alicia's HOT causin Nina was comming to visit from spain! All of the Pretty Commity thought that she was going to steal there men. Will Nina steal all of the Brairwood boys from them? Or will Massie and her friends still rule the school and tell her to go back to spain?

"Invasion of the Fashion-Zombies" by bleh.......2007-04-04

I completely agree with the reviewer "Scott McKay". We've reduced our youth to obessive, fashion freaks and teen losers. By today's standards, being a "fashion god", a "hottie" and a brat are cool. These books show how immature some of our writers are today.
Have some sort of value and when your daughter comes home from the bookstore with a bagfull of "The CLique" books, light up your grill and make her watch you burn those books to ashes. And when she asks for the money back, just say "No".

As Green Day would say, we've become "one nation controlled by the media".

The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization

Average customer rating:

Decline and Fall
One Man's Civilisation Is Another Man's Third Reich
Probably not the Best Book on This Topic to Start With
The Roman empire wasn't "transformed"; it fell, hard
clear explanation of why western roman empire went down!

The Fall of Rome: And the End of Civilization
Bryan Ward-Perkins
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0192807285

Book Description

Why did Rome fall? Vicious barbarian invasions during the fifth century resulted in the cataclysmic end of the world's most powerful civilization, and a 'dark age' for its conquered peoples. Or did it? The dominant view of this period today is that the 'fall of Rome' was a largely peaceful transition to Germanic rule, and the start of a positive cultural transformation. Bryan Ward-Perkins encourages every reader to think again by reclaiming the drama and violence of the last days of the Roman world, and reminding us of the very real horrors of barbarian occupation. Attacking new sources with relish and making use of a range of contemporary archaeological evidence, he looks at both the wider explanations for the disintegration of the Roman world and also the consequences for the lives of everyday Romans, in a world of economic collapse, marauding barbarians, and the rise of a new religious orthodoxy. He also looks at how and why successive generations have understood this period differently, and why the story is still so significant today.

Customer Reviews:

Decline and Fall.......2007-10-01

I thought this was a good little book that presents archaeological evidence for the old fashion "decline and fall of western civilization" viewpoint. He makes the interesting observation that the decline did not occur uniformly over the whole empire, and in the east, it did not really occur at all. It also seems from his evidence that the loss of technology in the west happened over 50-100 years, which depending on how you look at it, is or is not a collapse. I would recommend this book, and a more critical reading of books focusing on the whole empire(in most cases the more literary eastern empire).

One Man's Civilisation Is Another Man's Third Reich.......2007-08-16

Professor Ward-Perkins has done an interesting, if short, book on a majestic theme - the fall of one of history's greatest empires, and its aftermath.

His main concern is to debunk a notion, apparently fashionable among historians, which I'm not sure many other people ever shared - the idea that the Fall of Rome wasn't such a big deal. Apparently, there is an historical school which regards the whole business as a mostly peaceful transition from the tail end of the Ancient World into the beginning of Medieval Europe. He collects an impressive pile of evidence that it was far from peaceful, and was indeed pretty catastrophic for many of those who had to live through it. Roman civilisation did not die of natural causes. It was killed, and mainly by the military force of the Barbarians.

Well, so far, so good. I doubt if the inhabitants of Italy, Gaul and Spain, who spent most of the years from 405 to 420 having one set of barbarians after another marching and counter-marching all over their homelands, would have any trouble agreeing with Ward-Perkins. Over the next couple of centuries many others would have cause to feel the same way. Nor was this temporary. For several centuries more, comforts that the Romans took for granted would become available only to a tiny few, and sometimes not at all. Pottery making virtually died out in Britain until about 700, tiled roofs, previously common, were little-known in the Middle Ages, and even coinage gave way to barter over wide areas. In short, standards of living, as usually measured, took a prolonged nosedive.

And yet - -. This is all very well, but if the Empire's fall was such a terrible loss to those who lived in it, how come it was never restored? The Chinese Empire "fell" lots of times, but was always rebuilt. When Rome fell, it stayed fallen, and its people seem to have soon become reconciled to doing without it.

Nor can the Barbarians be held solely responsible for what happened. In Asia Minor, which was virtually untouched by barbarian invasion, Colin McEvedy's "New Penguin Atlas of Medieval History" shows four cities - Ephesus, Miletus, Sardis, Smyrna - of between 15,000 and 50,000 people in AD 528. On the map for AD737, not one of them remains. Here at least, the Barbarians were not to blame for the decline, and other factors need to be considered.

At times, Ward-Perkins himself gives significant hints at this. He quotes ancient sources to the effect that, during Alaric's siege of Rome in 408/9, "almost all the slaves that were in Rome poured out of the city to join the Barbarians". And nine years earlier, when the rebel general Tribigild marched across Asia Minor, then a peaceful and prosperous region, his force was soon swelled by "such a mass of slaves and outcasts that the whole of Asia was in great danger, while Lydia was in utter confusion, with almost everyone fleeing to the coast and sailing across to the islands or elsewhere with their whole families". Clearly not all the Empire's subjects loved it.

But perhaps the most revealing incident is from 393, when "the Roman aristocrat Symmachus brought a group of Saxon prisoners to Rome, intending them to slaughter each other in gladiatorial games in honour of his son. However, before they were publicly exhibited twenty-nine of them committed suicide by the only means available to them - by strangling each other with their bare hands! For us, their terrible death represents a courageous act of defiance, but Symmachus viewed their suicide as the action of "a group of men viler than Spartacus", which had been sent to test him. With the self-satisfaction of which only Roman aristocrats were capable, he compared his own philosophical response to the event to the calm of Socrates when faced with adversity."

If Symmachus was at all representative of its ruling class, one can easily get an inkling of why the Empire failed, and see why not only the Barbarians, but many of its own less privileged subjects, might not have been sorry to see it go. One man's civilisation can all too easily be another man's "Third Reich", and one may suspect that many were ready enough to try and get along without the Roman State, even if it did mean having to make their own pottery.

Probably not the Best Book on This Topic to Start With.......2007-07-15

First let me disclose that I know very little about this topic; that's why I picked up the book. If, like me, you are looking for a good introduction to the topic, this is not the best book to start with. The author is writing for an informed audience.

That said, I did learn a lot by reading it. I was amazed to learn how much archeologist can determine with little more than old pottery, coins and graffitti. I was surprised to learn that the empire was far more complex and fragmented than I had previously believed. I also got a good picture of how little we know about the Roman Empire, how many questions there still are, and how much debate continues. It seems the question, "Did Rome FALL?" is still unanswered.

Ultimately, I learned that "The Fall of the Roman Empire" has become one of the great myths of the modern era. We interpret and teach it in the way that best reinforces our own values.

The Roman empire wasn't "transformed"; it fell, hard.......2007-07-04

I was surprised to read in the introduction to this book that it is currently somewhat fashionable to believe that the end of the western Roman empire was a gentle transition to a new form of government, without too much disruption. The main point of this book is that this is utter B.S. (and also that the proponents of this view have ulterior political motives). The author's arguments are convincing and are based on extensive archaeological evidence. Apparently when the Roman empire fell, the economy collapsed to levels not seen since long before the Roman empire, and took many centuries to recover. Items such as coins, roof tiles, and good quality pottery virtually disappear from the archaeological record. Entire industries were forgotten in some places, and literacy plunged to the point where most people of status could not even sign their own name. It is also likely that there was a massive depopulation, although this is harder to prove conclusively.

For someone who is concerned for the future of our present civilization, this book gives a vivid account of some of what can go wrong, and especially the vulnerabilities resulting from economic specialization. It is an unusually quick read for a history book, although I might have liked a more detailed analysis of how things fell apart and how they later recovered (to the extent that this is possible given the limited evidence). The book assumes some knowledge of the history of this period; if you don't know say the difference between a Visigoth and an Ostrogoth, you might not understand some parts (although these are not the most important parts). The chronology at the end gives a super-crash course. If you want more background, I recommend the book by Peter Heather.

clear explanation of why western roman empire went down!.......2007-05-13

there are many theories why that mighty Roman empire went down.
but after i read this book,now i have clear idea.the author explains what happened during fall of empire by both archaelogical and historical documents.also this book said when middle ages begins, everything about
what civilisation offer to people was virtually gone! after i read this book,i have fear in my mind what if this modern civilisation collapse,like the Roman empire 1600years ago...

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