Book Description
Japan is on the verge of a sea change. After more than fifty years of national pacifism and isolation including the "lost decade" of the 1990s, Japan is quietly, stealthily awakening. As Japan prepares to become a major player in the strategic struggles of the 21st century, critical questions arise about its motivations. What are the driving forces that influence how Japan will act in the international system? Are there recurrent patterns that will help explain how Japan will respond to the emerging environment of world politics?
American understanding of Japanese character and purpose has been tenuous at best. We have repeatedly underestimated Japan in the realm of foreign policy. Now as Japan shows signs of vitality and international engagement, it is more important than ever that we understand the forces that drive Japan. In Japan Rising, renowned expert Kenneth Pyle identities the common threads that bind the divergent strategies of modern Japan, providing essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how Japan arrived at this moment-and what to expect in the future.
Customer Reviews:
Japan Must Rise!.......2007-10-10
After the occupation of Japan ended in 1952 by the United States, the Japanese nation would emerge as one of the strongest economical nations in the world. Without a doubt, Japan has been the economic empire of the Far East along with China but the Japanese do pay their employees much better than China. Japan has adopted a largely pacifist constitution since it was the military leaders who led Japan into World War II and almost complete destruction.
This book traces the development of the Japanese military since the close of the Cold War and the beginnings of the new war on terrorism. The United States and most democratic allies are looking for Japan to rebuild its military might for several reasons. First, Japan is now an allied nation. Secondly, Japan is now a democratic nation allowing the people to help its leaders control the military. Thirdly, Japan could help offset North Korea and China as rogue nations in southeast Asia. Fourth, its simply a matter of time before Islamic terrorist target Japan. Japan has every right to protect herself.
I found this book to be enlightning. If you would have told the Marines at Guam or Iwo Jima that Japan would be an allied nation along with the United States, almost none would have accepted that premise. Today the United States (and Europe) needs Japan to rebuild its military to help fight terrorism. The spending by the Japanese on their military has been steadly going up as Japan seeks to defend itself in the coming battle. Japanese forces are already helping the United States in its battles in the middle east.
Overall this a good read. I would encourage you to study Japan as it rebuilds its military might.
Adapting to the Trends of the Time.......2007-08-14
Kenneth Pyle's history of Japan's shifting foreign policies over the last hundred and fifty years is built on three premisses. The first, in accordance with the realist paradigm in international relations theory, is that Japan conducts its foreign relations in a way that maximizes the nation's interest, and that its national advantage can be determined in a straightforward and unambiguous manner. This distinguishes the author from other scholars who insist on socially-constructed goals or collective disciplines that can sometimes be at variance with a country's most advantageous course of action.
The second principle is that Japanese political leaders are a pragmatic lot who tend to "move with the tide" and adapt to changing circumstances. Whenever fundamental changes have taken place in the international environment, the Japanese leaders have proven skillful at adapting their policies to these changes and using them opportunistically to further the nation's interests and ambition. A corollary is that Japan takes its external environment as a given: it doesn't try to shape or transform it through the application of universalistic principles or home-bred ideologies. To use a metaphor from economics, Japan is a price-taker, not a market-maker.
The third precept is the "Primat der Aussenpolitik": Japanese institutions were shaped more by external factors than by internal political struggles or social conflicts. Repeatedly through the course of the 150 years of its modern history, each time the structure of the international system underwent fundamental change, Japan adapted its foreign policies to that changed order and restructured its internal organization to take advantage of it. In the process of adapting its domestic institutions to the external environment, concern with preserving the ideals of Japan's cultural heritage generally took second place. As a consequence, the book covers much more than foreign policy, and its scope encompass all aspects of japan's adaptation to the modern world.
Japan Rising provides a good introduction to the country's modern history and brings different periods that are often treated separately into a common narrative. Particularly valuable are the many quotations of Japanese statesmen or intellectuals that the author tracks back to their original source given in the footnotes (it is not clear whether the author offers his own translation of these sources or borrows them from translated versions). Kenneth Pyle also makes good use of the existing literature, including some Japanese scholarship, although he cannot do justice to all that has been written on so broad a subject. Nevertheless, references to historical debates and conflicts of interpretation that divide the historical profession would have been worthwhile.
I have some reservations however with the author's attempt to identify the "profound forces" or recurrent patterns that characterize Japan's engagement with the outside world. These persistent features (Japan's opportunism, pragmatism, outward orientation, etc.) tend to placate psychological traits over a nation, obfuscating the political processes, social struggles, and individual agency that are at the origin of historical outcomes. They establish a false continuity in Japan's modern history, minimizing the profound ruptures and new departures that have charted the country's course since the Meiji Restoration. The author's intention is to offer to American policy-makers interpretative lenses and guidelines for action in a bilateral relationship that has often been fraught with misunderstandings and prejudices. But I am not sure whether generalizations about Japan's national "style" or pattern of behavior are really helping toward that end.
Another reservation I have with the book is its interpretation of Japan's economic success. The author seems to have a problem with free trade and self-regulating markets, echoing in some sense Japanese leaders' preference for ordered capitalism and state intervention. He reproduces uncritically Friedrich List's indictment of free trade as a self-serving ideology sustaining British imperial rule: "It is a very common clever device that when anyone has attained the summit of greatness, he kicks away the ladder by which he has climbed up, in order to deprive others of the means of climbing up after him." Put in this context, Japan's imperial expansion was a rational response to a situation where the chances to climb the ladder were flawed. This was simply the way the game was played, and if someone is to blame, it is the imperial powers who set the rules of the game, not Japan who simply was a fast learner.
Moving on to the postwar era, the author sees Japan's recovery and economic success as the result of mercantilist policies taking advantage of a system ruled by classic liberal principles. There is certainly an element of free riding in Japan's postwar economic miracle, which was made possible by America's security umbrella and its maintaining of a liberal economic order. But claiming that there would have been no Japanese success story had Japan contributed a bigger part of burden sharing seems to me an unsubstantiated conclusion. More than mercantilism and state interventionism, Japanese economic success seems to me the result of sound economic policies and the collective effort of a people determined to catch up.
Resurgence of a Chastened, Wiser Giant .......2007-06-05
Kenneth Pyle does a remarkable job in helping his readers better assess the future behavior of a resurgent Japan in fast-changing Asia. U.S. policymakers have been repeatedly wrong-footed in gauging Japan's foreign policy since the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry and his ships on Japan's shores in 1853 (pp. 10, 67). Think for instance about the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor as an act of economic desperation over the American oil embargo, despite the odds against military victory (pp. 10 - 11, 64 - 65, 135 - 36, 204, 354). Another example is the Yoshida doctrine, Japan's unique Cold War policy that relied on U.S. security guarantees while pursuing mercantile realism, to which American policymakers remained oblivious for a long time (pp. 13, 45 - 46, 212, 225 - 77, 291).
Part of the challenge in understanding Japan is that the country is simultaneously a state and a unique civilization (pp. 13, 49 - 50). Furthermore, Japan has vacillated between infuriating ethnocentrism and remarkable receptivity to foreign influences during its history without ultimately sacrificing its unique culture (pp. 18 - 19, 22 - 23, 58 - 62, 76, 100 - 05, 116 - 36, 176, 239, 245). Finally, Japan has often not done enough to factor in the legitimate concerns of other countries in its "opaque" decision-making process, resulting in some needless frictions (pp. 15 - 16, 229, 250 - 52, 306 - 09, 354).
To his credit, Pyle clearly shows that the Japanese tend to shun radical change in their interaction with the outside world unless the circumstances deprive them of any other option. The difficulty of making change and the rapidity with which irresistible changes occur have often confused foreigners because of the apparent, inherent contradiction in this policy (pp. 52, 76).
Resource poor and a late arriver in the modern world, Japan is among the few countries in modern history which have been especially sensitive and responsive to the forces of the international environment (pp. 21 - 22, 27, 49). As a matter of self-interest, Japan has repeatedly allied itself with the dominant ascendant power (pp. 12, 44 - 46). Modern Japan's behavior is especially remarkable when one remembers that the country benefited from a unique isolation and security for almost all its history prior to the 19th century. (pp. 32, 34). The origin of that astonishing capability to adapt to external forces lies in the legacy of Japanese feudalism (pp. 39 - 41, 59, 62, 84). The same conservative ruling elite has displayed an extraordinary resilience in carrying on the strategic principles of the Meiji leaders, despite the ups and downs in their fortunes (pp. 23 - 24, 43 - 44, 49-51, 194, 220, 225 - 26, 260 - 77, 293, 357).
Pyle spends most of his time covering how Japan reorganized its domestic institutions to support its foreign policy while accommodating five fundamental changes in the international order in East Asia in the last century and half (p. 28):
1) The collapse of the Sinocentric system under the pressure of Western powers taking advantage of a weakened Imperial China in the middle of the 19th century (pp. 34 - 39, 72 - 136);
2) The substitution of the imperialist system for the decade-old Washington Treaty System based on the ideals of international liberalism under the influence of Woodrow Wilson after WWI. The new system was designed to check Japanese expansionism in East Asia (pp. 139 - 54, 159 - 67, 201);
3) The disintegration of the Washington System following the worldwide economic depression and the remodeling of Japanese domestic institutions after those of Nazi Germany in its conquest of much of East and Southeast Asia between 1932 and 1942 (pp. 167 - 69, 172, 183 - 91, 198 - 205);
4) The annihilation of Japan's fascist order and the imposition of a new U.S.-inspired liberal order after 1945 and its evolution during the Cold War. Postwar Japan retooled its domestic institutions to get the most out of the free-trade U.S.-sponsored regime while leveraging the military alliance between the two countries (pp. 205 - 77);
5) The post Cold War transition in Japan following the implosion of the Soviet Union-dominated communist order in 1989. Surprisingly, Japan, at the zenith of its economic power, sank in economic and political torpor, partly due to the absence of a clear-cut new order in East Asia and partly due to the emergence of other economic powers, especially China, in the region (pp. 5, 280, 284, 286, 300). Japan started rebounding from its torpor under the premiership of Koizumi Junichirô by undermining the Yoshida doctrine and by engaging in economic and military multilateralism (pp. 291 - 309, 355 - 74).
Pyle consecrates the end of his book to the triangular relations among China, Japan, and the U.S. The U.S. has pursued the same policy in East Asia since WWI: No domination of any power in the region, free trade, and the spread of democracy to preserve peace and stability in the region (pp. 145, 311). The U.S. has developed a mixed policy of containment and engagement with China while strengthening its military alliance with Japan (pp. 314, 333, 348 - 54, 368 - 69). The continued engagement of the U.S. in the region is vital to keep Japan from putting itself in the orbit of China (p. 353). Japan, mindful of its past, location, and culture, has been conditionally engaging China in a way that is somewhat different from the U.S. (pp. 314 - 16, 324 - 36).
The legitimacy of the Communist Party leadership in China is built on strong economic growth (p. 337). If economic growth falters, the Communist Party leadership could be tempted to internationalize its problems by playing once more the nationalistic card that could backfire. Think for instance about fascist Japan in the 1930s and 1940s. More optimistically, the Communist Party could give up power peacefully as its counterparts in Central and Eastern Europe did in 1989.
To summarize, Japan's international behavior cannot be correctly understood without a proper grasp of the tectonic forces that have molded the country's history, geography, and culture.
The Sun Also Rises.......2007-05-03
Japan is a country that has faded into the background for many Americans. It is there, but not front and center like China or even Korea (North/South.) But the terms of our two countries' basically comfortable bilateral relationship may soon shift.
Professor Pyle, a well-informed academic, reminds his readers that Japan is important not only as a current major world economic force but as an emerging political and military power in the future of Asia. Change is afoot in Japan -- with a younger population not grounded in the searing aftermath of World War II -- as it adjusts its foreign policy to post-Cold War realities.
A book for those serious about understanding both historical and modern Japan, and its possible future in relation to China, Taiwan, Russia, Korea, and the United States.
Book Description
Written by a non-Jewish analytic philosopher, this book addresses the issue of whether, and to what extent, current opposition to Israel on the liberal-left embodies anti-Semitic stances. It argues that the dominant climate of liberal opinion disseminates, however inadvertently, a range of anti-Semitic assertions and motifs of the most traditional kind. It advocates a return to an unrestricted anti-racism which would allow liberals to defend Palestinian interests without demonizing Jews.
Customer Reviews:
Very thoughtful and well-written.......2007-06-24
This is a careful work on the nature of the resurgence of anti-Semitism. We see the ill will, the falsehoods, and lack of logic displayed by the anti-Semites, and there's some speculation on what gets some folks to behave in such a manner.
Bernard Harrison starts by discussing some of the properties of political anti-Semitism. He says that it generally includes, as a minimum, the proposition that Jews are a mysterious, depraved, and conspiratorial society which threatens the well-being of any nation which harbors them. And he reminds us that many of the accusations made against "the Jews" are simply self-inconsistent or incoherent. For example, the blood libel accusations are generally of the form that observant Jews commit ritual murder for religious reasons, something which is, of course, expressly forbidden by their religion. We also generally see anti-Semites simultaneously claim (or imply) that Jews are so powerful as to be responsible for the bulk of the evil in today's society yet are so powerless that they can be attacked with impunity (I tend to believe that those who make such claims are more serious about the latter one).
We also see discussions of the preposterous claim that mere criticism of Israel is sufficient to get one automatically branded as an anti-Semite. As well as another ridiculous claim that almost anyone who finds anything about Israel that is worthy of support is Jewish, and that pretty much anyone who is Jewish supports Israel. And the even more absurd claim that Israel is basically a colonial enterprise is also quickly refuted.
Harrison also is careful to distinguish between explaining why Israel exists and justifying Israel's existence. I agree. The fact that Jerusalem had been (and still was) the Jewish capital city in the 19th century helps explain why many Jews tried moving to the region once they had the opportunity to do so. The White Paper of 1939 helps explain why the number of Jews who demanded a Jewish state quickly became a majority once World War Two broke out. But these facts, by themselves do not "justify" what happened, nor do they "establish" Israel's "right to exist."
The author does write about fascism and the concept of "total war," including war against civilians. Here, he makes an excellent point, namely that claims about the "guilt" of such civilians make no sense. As he explains, even if one assents to the idea of capital punishment, "punishment" makes no sense without the concept of desert, desert makes no sense without a practicable and practiced system of laws, laws require some general acquiescence in their operation, acquiescence requires reconciliation, and reconciliation requires all sides to admit their own errors and as a minimum the right of their adversaries to exist. Obviously, any bunch of gangsters can go around murdering people, but we ought to remind ourselves that they are not necessarily "punishing" those who "deserve it."
There is a discussion about whether or not there ought to be a "Holocaust Day" for remembering that societies can make some terrible moral mistakes. Here, Harrison is careful to explain that the emphasis on the suffering of the victims is probably misplaced, as plenty of people have suffered in all sorts of tragedies. No, the emphasis ought to be on the terrible results, systematic annihilation of groups of people, of a certain kind of corruption which springs from a philosophy of racial superiority. Again, I agree. I'm not so sure we need a Holocaust Day, but I certainly do not buy the argument that such a day makes the Jews special, or makes Jewish blood worth more (or less) than the blood of non-Jews. The author makes the point that some people are envious of the sympathy that they think some Jews receive for the Holocaust and wish to use that word (often without its actual meaning) to get some sympathy for themselves. I find such an idea doubly misguided, as I tend to agree with Herzl that even appeals for sympathy by the genuinely oppressed are futile and dishonorable.
Some folks do insist on "dismantling" Israel, and Harrison discusses this at length. Here, he makes another good point, namely that the would-be dismantlers do not seem to worry much about how to protect the rights of the Jews in the region after the "dismantling." Instead, we see one anti-Israeli claim to be worried about the "fate" of the Jews, as if the Jews ought not have rights and as if whatever happens to the Jews is not only the fault of the Jews, but something the rest of us can't possibly prevent or be responsible for.
The lack of logic of some anti-Semitic claims does get exposed. We see the "mysteriousness" of the Jews used as a means to explain how the Jews can accomplish vast crimes even when they lack both motive and opportunity. Of course, when it gets to claims that "the Jewish lobby" has managed to reduce "the entire American political establishment to a state of bemused sleepwalking" for the past forty years, Harrison explains that we're not only talking about Jews doing the impossible, but about the American people being quite a bit stupider than they really are.
Near the end of the book, the author asks if anti-Semitism matters. Does it matter that the Guardian spouts a fair amount of it? Well, yes, it does. The terror we see is not helping Arabs, Jews, or anyone else. And responsible people ought to feel bound by a duty to support truth and facts. Harrison says that while one can live without understanding world affairs, one can't "live perfectly well on a diet of murderous lies. Europe tried that in the 1930s. It would do well not to try it again."
I highly recommend this book.
Focused, well-argued, important.......2007-01-15
I write as a long-time leftist, writer on Marxist theory, and charter member of the New Left.
Harrison brings a precise philosopher's intelligence to the vexing, frightening, and at times disgusting phenomenon of left-wing anti-semitism. If his history is at times one-sided and his account of the left simplistic, he has nailed the many failures of left moral clarity and intellectual imagination. If you've ever wondered why and how seemingly liberal, left, anti-racist, nice people can hold such distorted views on Israel, this is an excellent book for you. If you think of yourself as progressive and think Israel has no right to exist, or is the sole cause of the conflict, you'd better read it immediately.
Amazon.com
The Mafia has long held a spot in the American imagination. Despite their earned reputation for brutality, the Mafia has been glorified in countless movies, books, and television shows. Not so in this book. Selwyn Raab makes no attempt to perpetuate myths about the Mafia; instead, he exposes them as a serious threat to honest citizens: "The collective goal of the five families of New York was the pillaging of the nation's richest city and region," he writes. These five families--Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese--were responsible for corrupting labor unions in order to control waterfront commerce, garbage collection, the garment industry, and construction in New York. They also ran illegal gambling operations, engaged in stock schemes, and initiated the widespread introduction of heroin (among other drugs) into cities of the East and Midwest in the 1950s, leading to "accelerated crime rates, law-enforcement corruption, and the erosion of inner-city neighborhoods in New York and throughout the United States." Five Families offers a comprehensive look at the inner workings of the various clans along with vivid profiles of the gangsters who led--and continue to maintain--this criminal empire.
Beginning with a brief history of the Sicilian origins of the Mafia, Raab exhaustively explains how the Mob took over New York before spreading to cities across America, particularly Las Vegas, their most successful outside venture. He also shows how the New York Mafia lost a great deal of power in the 1980s and '90s due to many significant busts and effective plea-bargaining. However, since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the F.B.I. has been focused mainly on external threats, leaving the Mafia room to regain some lost turf by moving into new avenues of crime. An investigative reporter for 40 years, Raab interviewed dozens of prosecutors, law enforcement officers, Mafia members, informants, and "Mob lawyers," providing anecdotes and inside information that tell the true story of the Mafia and their influence over the past 80 years. --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description
The definitive history of the Mafias infamous Five Families, the campaign to eradicate them, and the Mobs refusal to diefrom a noted New York Times journalist Genovese, Gambino, Bonnano, Colombo and Lucchese. These Five Families built the American Mafia (or Cosa Nostra) into an underworld empire that stretched far beyond New York. For decades, they outwitted, outmaneuvered and outgunned the FBI and other police agencies and were seemingly immune from conviction. With insatiable greed and invisible influence, these families wreaked unparalleled damage to Americas vital business enterprises from construction, carting and shipping to Hollywood, Wall Street and Washington. Written by a New York Times reporter who has covered the Mob for decades, Five Families is the vivid story of the rise and fall of New Yorks premier dons and provides insight and answers to key questions, including: How the legendary Lucky Luciano ended internal wars and forged a new, largely impregnable type of criminal superstructure Why J. Edgar Hoover refused to investigate the mob and denied its existence How the Mafia was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy How Crazy Joey Gallo became a caf society pet, and how a penchant for clam chowder and scungelli led to his murder How John Gottis vanity undermined him and the almighty Gambino family How Carmine the Snake Persicos obsession to create a dynasty sparked a major mob war How the secretive Gaspipe Casso triumphed as the tyrannical and blood-soaked leader of the Lucchese family How Chin Gigante created the nations wealthiest crime family while feigning insanity How the 9/11 tragedy has led to a Mafia resurgence. Unprecedented detail on the inner workings of the Commission and how power and tribute flowed from places like New Orleans, Chicago and Miami back to New York.
Customer Reviews:
BEST MAFIA BOOK.......2007-10-10
This book is the best MAFIA book written thatIve read yet. A very thorough, inclusive book where the authir is able to best describe the attributes of both the mafia lowlifes who prey on innocent people and the cops who chase them. In each description of each mafiosa, we see who they cower and betray any honorable code that they swore to.
Five Families.......2007-05-12
Truly the ultimate reference book on the "Mafia".Brings its' history right from the beginning to 2006.
Excellent.......2007-05-07
If your a mob freak like me any mob book is a great buy. This doesn't dissapoint. buy it, you won't be sorry.
Read this to understand your political world, garbage problems, crime and drugs, gambling and heists , .......2007-05-06
What a great writer. I have always enjoyed Mr Raab's pieces in the New York Times. I am going to read more of his books now.
Worth the time to read this huge book.......2007-04-06
I really enjoyed this history of the five New York Mafia families. It is very well written. It is a very lengthy book but if you have any interest in the Mafia you will not care. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get an overview of the Mafia's history and how their "rackets" work. Saab also does an excellent job of giving the good guys (the cops and prosecutors) the attention they deserve. Usually they are merely mentioned by other authors but Saab makes them as interesting as the mafioso.
Book Description
Harry Keogh, the Necroscope, the man who can talk to the dead, and Earth's greatest vampire hunter, has been searching for his wife and infant son, gone missing during Harry's war against the vampires. This obsession has left him open to subtle influence by an ancient vampire, Radu. Entombed in amber, trapped in undeath, Radu plans for his resurrection and plots the destruction of other vampires who might challenge his supremacy.Thus, Radu's enemies are now Harry's--and Harry cannot properly defend himself. His powers--his deadspeak and his ability to transport himself through the Mobius Continuum--are locked away in the recesses of his vampire-clouded mind.But Harry is not without allies, living and dead. E-Branch, the psychic spy organization, is worried about Harry. So is harry's long-dead Ma, and the ancient philosopher and prophet Nostradamus, whose centuries-old quatrain make eerie sense in the modern world.Right now, Harry Keogh doesn't even know he's the Necroscope. But Earth's teeming dead won't let him forget them for long--and won't let him forget that Radu and his vampire kind are humanity's deadliest enemies.
Customer Reviews:
I'm in thrall to Lumley.......2007-10-02
Volume Two of The Lost Years doesn't maintain the suspense or wonder of Volume One over its 550 or so pages. The trio of vampire families were much more gripping in *getting* to know them, as opposed to the realization of their devious plans which falls somewhat flat. It has its moments, especially in the further history of Radu,incorporating factual dates in history along the way. A chilling cameo by Faethor Ferenczy was a terrific touch of continuity by Mr. Lumley. Infusing an actual Quatrain from Nostradamus into the story was very eerie as well. Obviously if you are on the journey reading all of The Necroscope books, you will not want to skip this. I was genuinely moved at the ending, and was overall satisfied with the book.
Massive story potential wasted.......2006-07-04
Huge fan of the orginal Necroscope series. Abandoned Ship half way thru the Vampire World trilogy. Was plenty pleased when I found these books which took place back in the world I loved of Europe, a mostly normal Harry, and E-Branch.
Things started great. Awesome characters, awesome backstory on the characters. All the foundations for a killer story to unfold. The first book was cool, but lacking of any meat which was fine but cause I knew it'd all be in book 2 anyhow. Only, it wasn't. Not even 300 pages into it. Mind you, there's stuff going on all throughout. But when you sit back and think on it, you realize that pretty much everybody's just sitting around doing nothing.
The horror aspect is pretty nil and as well the graffic depictions of sex and violence.
The plot constantly builds and builds but there is no pay off. Nobody gets their plan even remotely into action which sucks after reading a thousand pages of them talking about doing it.
In the end, Lumley ruins everything by breaking one of his established rules of the universe he created. This is in regaurd the dead rising out of love for the Necroscope. Hey, screw it, I guess anybody can.
And worst of all, what you basically get are two Necroscope books without a Necroscope, cause all his powers have been taken away. Nobody wants to watch a movie about Superman getting beat up by a trucker.
Twoard the end, his writing gets a little repetitive and a lot of annoying. Innocent? quatrain. Innocent...?
Could have been pretty exciting. Instead, we get a lot of bombs. Litteraly. Still, I read damn near the whole thing in one day so it must have fairly entertaining, hence my 3 stars.
fills the gap.......2001-10-11
I was introduced to the NECROSCOPE series in 1990 by a co- worker, and have been a rabid fan from that day forward.
The one big problem I allways had reading this series was the big gap in time(and plot) between "wampheri" and "the source". a These two books not only explain the time gap but the confusing plot quirks in the following books. Did the Mr Lumley have this in mind when writing the original series? My guess is yes, because it not only ties the origional series SO SWEETLY to the "vampire world" books,it never once appears an attempt to "cover up" an error.
Werewolves Enter The Necroscope World!.......2000-03-15
"The second book in the Lost Years (Necroscope) two book set. It made me lose any previous scepticism I had about dragging on this series. I was hooked. By the end of the book I hungered for more damned it! Now what the heck do I do?
Too Busy!.......1999-12-02
I'm a big fan of Lumley's Necroscope books, but I have to say, The Lost Years could very well have STAYED lost, and it would have been...well...no great loss. This book takes place between the 2nd and 3rd Necroscope books; since we already know the destiny of Harry, (AND his wife and 3 children as well..) the book suffers from the "Where is this going" syndrome. Don't get me wrong- Necroscope readers WILL get their moneys worth. NON-FANS will, however, be totally lost. The book was just too bogged down with characters- Harry, E-Branch, Ferenczys/Francezis, Radu, Bonnie Jean...The only character I really connected with, (Inspector Ianson) vanishes FAR too quickly. And even though I had read the previous 9 books, at times I was totally confused. Not a bad effort, but..not Lumley's best. (Try the original Necroscope for some REAL thrills and chills!) dan.reilly@viahealth.org
Book Description
This book is a comparative study of basic themes in Christian and Islamic fundamentalist discourses, analyzing and comparing texts from a wide variety of fundamentalist leaders and movements, looking for "family resemblances" and significant differences in order to better understand the contemporary phenomenon of religious resurgence. After placing fundamentalisms in a theoretical framework, the study looks at selected themes important to fundamentalists, noting resemblances and differences. These themes include their anti-secularist stance, their theocentric worldviews, their reliance on inerrant sacred scriptures, and their attitudes to politics, government, state and democracy. The study also looks at the fundamentalist view of the world as a perennial battlefield between the forces of good and those of evil, in the realm of ideologies as well as politics and the legitimation of violence.
Book Description
In its first edition, The Global Resurgence of Democracy brought together essays on democratization written from 1989 to 1991 by internationally prominent scholars, intellectuals, and political leaders. This thoroughly revised and updated second edition extends that work with a wealth of fresh material on a wide range of conceptual, historical, institutional, and policy issues.
"A useful compilation popularizing the work of an influential journal... The Journal of Democracy is an effective tribune for mainstream U.S. thinking on these issues." -- Political Studies
Customer Reviews:
A vital theoretical and comparative foundation.......2000-01-10
Diamond and Plattner offer a valuable update from their 1993 book, now comprised of articles from the Journal of Democracy from 1990 through 1995. Anchored by a thorough introduction, the first section introduces the third wave of democratization, the new world disorder, and definitions and dangers of democracy. Articles on institutional choices debate the structural questions of democracy, with a broad perspective on presidential, parliamentary, constitutional and representative questions. A new section on civil society discusses an area to which political scientists are bringing renewed attention. Eight new chapters make up the cautiously optimistic section on the prospects for democracy.
A strength of this book as a teaching tool is that it offers both theory and comparative chapters. Several articles are broad-based, discussing paradoxes intrinsic to all democracies or the gap between democratic concepts and political realities, for example. Others are country- or region-specific, such as civil society in Russia or pluralism in the Arab world.
A second strength is the frequent intermixing of political, economic and cultural concerns. In many individual chapters and in the collection overall, the reader is reminded that institutions, currencies and mores do not exist or operate in vacuum. Rather, they influence and change each other -- and not always for the better. Chapters on technocratic economic emphasis in post-communist states and ethnic divisions and underdevelopment in Africa are particularly revealing.
By highlighting the research published in the Journal of Democracy, this volume offers educators a valuable collection for comparative and theoretical approaches to democratization. The readings prompted thoughtful debates among my students on the central issues. Such a fluid field depends upon regular updates, and this reviewer looks forward to using future editions. (January 2000)
Book Description
ExecEnablers: Web 2.0, written by leading technology visionary Dermot McCormack, outlines the future of the Internet and technology economy and how entrepreneurs, investors, executives and consumers can take advance of the opportunities. Think the Internet economy and e-Commerce are dead? You're wrong! The first phase of the Internet economy has come to an end with the dramatic fall in the markets, however phase two (Web 2.0) is just getting started and will take shape much more cautiously over the next couple of years. In this book, Dermot McCormack clearly outlines the specific trends, challenges and opportunities for companies, consumers, the stock market and entrepreneurs. A critical read for every CEO, executive, investor, consultant, entrepreneur and anyone interesting in profiting on a professional or personal level in the next phase of the Internet and technology economy.
Customer Reviews:
don't waste your money.......2007-08-20
This book is a joke, at least relative to what I was expecting. With it's title, I was shocked to discover that it was written/published in 2002 (my bad for not checking before purchasing), so it really does not discuss anything relevant to current trends in social networking, video sharing, etc. It simply speculates about the post crash Internet world. It is written in 14 point font with double spacing, making the 200 pages really more like 75. For $44.95 I was expecting a serious work on the state of web 2.0. This book is very dated and priced 5x what it's worth.
Possibly the most sensible book to come about the net........2002-11-15
I think the title of this book really encapsulates what the author is trying to say. The content is precise and delivered in a cogent and crystal clear manner. McCormack is candidly honest about where the net is going and his perspicacity is incisive. There has been so much written about the new economy that is faux-directed and trite. I think this book is a necessary read for anyone who intends to use the net for anything to do with their business.
Book Description
In this age of accountability, the future success of our educational system in the United States may well be achieved by embracing the “classical” methodology of our past. Dr. Hart provides a brief summation of classical education, its history, and how its implementation increases academic achievement.
Two models of classical education that have had a significant effect on the reemergence of classical schools across this country—Mortimer Adler's Paideia Proposal and the Trivium as espoused by Dorothy L. Sayers in her essay “The Lost Tools of Learning”—are reviewed. To understand Adler's and Sayers' approaches to classical education, Dr. Hart provides a summation of the writings of the key philosophers and teachers who greatly impacted the development of classical education since the Hellenistic Age.
Hart also shows how the recent philosophy of pragmatism, embraced by John Dewey, so directly impacted the decline of classical education during the past century. Ultimately however, Hart's book informs us of the reemergence of classical education in hundreds of schools across our nation that are raising achievement by providing the basis for a liberal arts education.
Amazon.com
If you thought Nazism died with Hitler, think again. In The Beast Reawakens, journalist Martin A. Lee traces the resurgence of fascist ideals from the prominent Nazis who escaped prosecution following World War II to the present-day incidents of right-wing violence in Europe and America. One only has to look at the current situation in the Balkans to see that fascism is alive and well. Lee begins his troubling account by reminding us of the many prominent Nazis who, after the war, built new and profitable lives for themselves fomenting political intrigue, while providing role models to a new generation of neo-Nazis all around the world. This underground Nazi culture might have remained out of sight had it not been for the fall of Communism. In the confusion following the end of the Cold War, right-wing nationalist movements sprang up all over Europe, taking root especially deep in formerly communist areas such as Croatia, Bosnia, and Romania.
According to Lee, "the Beast" doesn't restrict itself to Eastern Europe by any means; skinhead violence against immigrants is on the rise in Germany, while right-wing politicians in France, Italy, and other western European countries are increasingly finding a willing audience for their national and racial polemics. And lest American readers be lulled into a false sense of security, Lee warns that the United States is hardly immune to this kind of hateful rhetoric. He warns that many of the militia groups currently operating today share the same glorified attitude toward violence, the same irrational hatred of foreigners and ethnic minorities that mark the worst excesses of fascism in Europe.
Book Description
If you thought Nazism died with Hitler, think again. In The Beast Reawakens, journalist Martin A. Lee documents the revival of fascist ideals from the wake of the Second World War to recent violent incidents in Europe and America. Defeated in war, many Nazis built new and profitable lives for themselves, stirring political intrigue and serving as role models to a new generation of white supremacists like Americans Francis Parker Yockey, whose book Imperium became the bible of anti-Semitism, and Willis Carto, who continues to run several ostensibly mainstream policy groups that deny the Holocaust ever took place. Often forced underground yet certain of their cause, this second generation of extremists can be linked to such recent violence as the Oklahoma City bombings, the shocking lynching of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, and the abortion clinic bombings by Eric Rudolf, who remains a fugitive. With extraordinary detail and insight, The Beast Reawakens examines the many strands of rightwingextremism worldwide to put the current fascist resurgence in contemporary perspective.
Customer Reviews:
Begins well, but leaves much to be desired in the end.......2004-12-31
This book begins fairly well, describing how various Nazi intelligence officers survived World War II and went on to promote Nazi causes throughout the world. Especially interesting are the links between the Nazis and the Third World, especially Arab countries, that they developed in order to challenge American global hegemony. Also very useful are the connections between post-WWII Nazis and the Soviet Union, which again, like the Third World connections, were forged to help challenge American hegemony.
The book also gives a fairly decent description of some (not many) of the underlying currents of thought on the far-right, like National Bolshevism. However, at this point, the book leaves much to be desired...
First of all, the print is rather large and is written in an amateur-ish manner. The result is that this is a fairly large book that could have been condensed into a text 60-70% of the size it is now. Also, one finishes the book with many questions remaining.
Secondly, the book is not in the least bit comprehensive. Major figures of the post-WWII far-right, such as Francis Parker Yockey, are barely mentioned except on just a few pages.
Third, the author devotes far too much space to how the far-right is supposedly becoming "mainstream." He mentions the Liberty Lobby, which, unlike what he says, was never influential in the Republican Party, and fails to point out that it has been defunct since before the book's publication. He dedicates too much space to Eduard Limonov's National Bolshevik Party in Russia, which is a very minor grouping that plays little or no role in Russian politics.
I could continue on and on... check this book out and read it if you're interested in this sort of thing, but don't expect it to be a comprehensive and objective account.
I highly recommend two other books: Black Sun by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, and Dreamer of the Day by Kevin Coogan (I think The Beast Reawakens plagiarized some of their material from Coogan's book). Those two books are perhaps the most comprehensive books published right now about the far-right.
Reads like an endless term paper, but still helpful in parts.......2004-06-18
It's clear that a journalist and not a scholar typed this; perusing the endnotes you see that it's cobbled together from hundreds of websites (some now defunct), books, and articles. It's narrower than I expected: Britain barely gains a mention, but Latin America (e.g. Apristas in Peru) gains more attention, and Russia and Germany receive the lion's share of international coverage, balanced with the American fringes. It's unsurprising in its perspective, but having consolidated helpful documentation of Arab-Nazi/far-right ties, the hijinks of such as Yockey, Otto Ernst Remer, Skorzeny, and Gerhard Rex Lauch makes for unintentionally entertaining reading. I liked the vignette of Jewish tourists throwing bagels and lox at American Nazi Rockwell, and the delusions of the anti-ZOG megalomaniacs.
Too often, however, the book bogs down, especially in its post-war diplomatic accounts, in minutiae that had me nodding off. The condensation of the emergence of the French New Right, under Benoiste, and the permutations of the German thinkers, on the other hand, kept me page-turning. Certainly the descriptions of Yockey, for example, drawn I imagine from Kevin Coogan's bio in manuscript, showed Lee's ability to make his subject come alive.
Still, reflecting perhaps the rush to get this in print post-McVeigh, you get clumsy sentences like this (as early as the preface, xxvii): "With that fateful sub rosa embrace, the die was cast for a litany of antidemocratic CIA interventions." Three metaphors mixed in 17 words. Or this non-sequitor. After citing evidence of neo-Nazi German views intersecting with "the perverse logic of ecofascism," Lee then claims that $Qhis type of thinking would enable mainstream politicians to avoid racist terminology while advocating xenophobic views. 'We have to think of the ecological consequences of unlimited immigration.' declared Otto Zeitler, Bavaria's land development minister, after German unification." (218)
Yes, certainly we have to think about such issues, but I see no xenophobia in pondering the obvious in Zeitler's statement. Routledge has published lots of fascist studies the past decade and a half; I recommend their very accessible and intelligently organized "Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right" for an ideal introduction free of stereotypes or sloppy analyses. With Lee's book, the haste seems to emerge in the lapse in rigor.
The bias is evident in this book, but after having dutifully read it all, I find the purported threat from these factions in the West overblown, and those from the Middle East, on the other hand, largely ignored by the Left. It does gather in one volume a sobering reminder of how much the West, especially the U.S., cozied up to the remnants of the Nazi regime to keep them out of Stalin's grasp, and how much disinformation continues to be shelled out, by the Left and the Right, about the involvement between anti-communist factions, the far-right, and America.
Inaccuries on every page.......2004-05-19
Every page had historical inaccuracies. The goal of the book was to put the sins of Nazis and the CIA on Russia and Israel. Cognative dissonance on every page. A mix of historical facts with the authors agenda. Praises George Bush Sr as a noble person, need any more be said.
The author has no credibility, he writes as a spokesman for the Central Intelligence Agency, which is what i view him as after reading this book
Rigid Ideology Mars an Otherwise Interesting Study.......2002-05-21
Martin Lee describes, in "The Beast Reawakens," the post-WWII survival of Nazism and fascism and explores some of its consequences. At the war's end, major figures in the Nazi government were either executed at Nuremberg (e.g. Ribbentrop and Kaltenbrunner) or received prison sentences (e.g. Speer and Dönitz). Some lesser Nazis, particularly those associated with concentration camp atrocities, like Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz, or Sievers of the Ahnenerbe, were also punished. Many others either escaped to safe havens, were released after minimal detention, or were actively recruited by U.S. intelligence on the theory that their knowledge of the Soviet Union and their contacts behind the Iron Curtain would be valuable in the cold war. This recruitment was predicated upon the assumption that Nazism was a right-wing movement and that unregenerate Nazis would automatically be fervent anti-Communists. As events proved, this was not always a sound assumption, for many old Nazis played an independent game, and the Soviets were also active in recruiting such people.
One of the most interesting chapters in this book is Chapter 4, "The Swastika and the Crescent," revealing the safe haven given by several Arab countries to old Nazis, whom they employed either as anti-Israeli propagandists or as military or police advisors and trainers. Islam has had a long history of hostile relations with Judaism, but these new alliances injected additional venom into the already tense situation prevailing after the creation of the state of Israel. Fervent ideologues like Johannes (alias "Omar Amin") von Leers disseminated virulent anti-Jewish propaganda to a new audience in the Arabic-speaking world - somewhat an irony, since Arabs, like Jews, are Semites, and were equally considered racial inferiors under the Third Reich. This hateful pot-stirring was backed by Arab governments and remains, to this day, a significant influence on opinion in the Islamic world.
Less successful than Lee's account of Nazi influence in the Middle East is his attempt to tie Nazi/fascist extremism to American conservative politicians like Patrick Buchanan or Pat Robertson. America's two-party, winner-take-all system inevitably assures that many people on the political extremes will throw their support to a candidate in one of the two major parties, whether or not he wants or solicits it. That should not be taken as a sign of influence. If the tiny neo-fascist contingent in the American body politic should support a conservative politician, that should not give his opponents any more license to tar him with the brush of Nazism than the support of communists and socialists for a liberal candidate should give that candidate's opponents the right to call him a Bolshevik. It is ironic that for all the whining of the left about McCarthyism and guilt by association, leftist partisans like Martin Lee show little compunction about engaging in essentially similar tactics.
"The Beast Reawakens" is marred by a rigidly ideological outlook in which Nazism and fascism are identified as right-wing phenomena. Lee quotes with approval a definition stating that "to be right-wing means to support the state in its capacity as an enforcer of order and to oppose the state as distributor of wealth and power more equitably in society." No pretense of objectivity here! What, after all, is "more equitable" about the distribution of wealth and power favored by socialists? And where, in this definition, is there a place for the viewpoint of, say, Jefferson or Madison, in which liberty is assured by the strict limitation of governmental power - so that even if the democratic will of the majority is to oppress the minority, it is prevented from so doing by constitutional restraints?
In fact, Nazism - Nationalsozialismus - and fascism are kissing cousins to Bolshevism - "international socialism." Lee, by failing to recognize this, makes the same mistake that U.S. intelligence agencies did in relying on the questionable loyalties of ex-Nazis to the anti-communist cause during the cold war. Prior to U.S. entrance into WWII, the Nazis made common cause with Stalin through the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, after which much of the American left - that part under communist domination - fell shamefully silent about Hitler, resuming active anti-Nazism only after the pact was broken. The same willingness of neo-Nazis to collaborate with communists surfaced after the war in various "Red-Brown" collaborations. Stripped of the peculiar anti-Semitism of its German manifestation, fascism has much more in common with communism - authoritarian political and social control, economic dirigisme, and imperial ambition - than it does not. The guillotine of the Jacobins was the philosophical antecedent both of the gas chambers of the Nazis and the gulag of the Soviets.
Lee's doctrinaire leftism leads him into contorted interpretations on this point, and also, I suspect, into selective reportage on other topics. For example, the white supremacist/neo-Nazi element in this country is a minuscule collection of losers, crackpots, and cranks, yet receives many pages of coverage. Louis Farrakhan, perhaps the most influential anti-Semite in the United States, is mentioned on only two pages of this 525-page book, and only in passing. The substantial Muslim community in the United States, made up mostly of African-Americans and of Middle Eastern immigrants, is given little notice as a source of anti-Semitic and fascist sentiment. No doubt to acknowledge such points would upset Lee's ideological preconceptions.
Editorial sloppiness is also evident in places. For example, Frederick the Great, king of Prussia and elector of Brandenburg, is twice identified as "Emperor" when in fact the Hohenzollern claim to that title dates only from 1871, long after Frederick's death. Error on such an elementary point of history, in an historical work, calls into question the reliability of Lee's claims about other more recondite historical points.
Nonetheless, there is much fascinating material in this book, and when its ideological bias is discounted there is much in it that can be read with interest and benefit.
Enough to Make One's Blood Boil.......2002-01-22
This book is a "wake up" call for those who don't believe that "it can happen here".
While the likelihood is remote, and while Mr. Lee correctly characterizes those involved with these "Neo-Nazi" movements as uncredible wackos for the most part, unfortunately these creatures do have a habit of breeding in the most unlikely places.
Fact: Despite Hitler's slaughter of Homosexuals, including his little buddy Ernst Roehm, many of those in today's German "Neo-Nazi" movements are Gay.
Fact: Lee shows how despite Adolf's virulent hatred of Soviet Communism, American Nazis such as Francis Yockey, H. Keith Thompson, and James Madole eagerly sought ideological alliances with the Soviet Union against their own country!*
Fact: Yasser Arafat had a cordial ideological relationship with Otto Remer, the betrayer of the brave Anti-Nazi Germans of the July 20, 1944 plot to kill Adolf.
Lee exposes the machinations of the bizarre Francis Yockey, a Fascist ideologue who once worked for US prosecutors trying Nazi criminals but was fired when he was exposed, and later committed suicide in mysterious circumstances in a San Francisco jail. He also exposes the shadowy H. Keith Thompson, who by his own bouyant admission worked for German Intelligence during World War II, and admitted to acts of sabotage against the U.S. Yet this wealthy native-born traitor, who openly admits to hating the country of his birth, was NEVER arrested by the FBI - not once, despite a lifelong career of sucking to hate groups.
This is one major unanswered question given the recent and not-so-recent failures of the FBI. Who was protecting this scumbag who applauded the deaths of Americans who fought Hitlerism???
Lee never addresses the reasons why Keith Thompson was never arrested and prosecuted by our authorities, whereas the sicko Yockey was. This is one major flaw in this book.
His tantalizing glimpses sometimes lack the detail needed for a work of this calibre. As a Republican, I also find fault with his readiness to accuse the GOP of cuddlying up to the wackos despite the Democratic Party's habit of welcoming with open arms former, unrepentent Communists and "Liberation" movement supporters. Thus the 4 stars instead of the five that it deserves.
A scary, necessary book for all Americans who hate extremism of all kinds. One gets the feeling that guys like Thompson, Kuhnen in Germany, Zhirinovsky in Russia and others would have no qualms about making deals with Osama Bin Laden.
Book Description
'In the triumphant resurgence of capitalism and indeed its global reach, the one thinker who is vindicated is Karl Marx. The demise of the socialist experiment inaugurated by October 1917 would not distress but cheer Marx if, as an atheist, he occupies any part of Hell, Purgatory or Heaven. Indeed, if it came to a choice between whether the Market or the State should rule the economy, the modern libertarians would be shocked as much as the modern socialists to find Marx on the side of the Market.'
"This book is meant to annoy and provoke...". A distinguished economist and seasoned heretic, Meghnad Desai has spent most of his life as an advocate on the Left. This book is the culmination of a period of reassessment initiated by the challenge of Thatcherism, the collapse of the Soviet system, and the British Labour Party's embrace of market -driven politics, which has led Desai to his recognition of "the end of the road for democratic socialism."
In this provocative and enthusiastically revisionist book, Desai argues that capitalism's recent efflorescence is something Karl Marx anticipated and indeed would, in a certain sense, have welcomed. Capitalism, as Marx understood it, would only reach its limits when it was no longer capable of progress. Desai argues that globalization, in bringing the possibility of open competition on world markets to producers in the Third World, has proved that capitalism is still capable of moving forwards. Marx's Revenge opens with a consideration of the ideas of Adam Smith and Hegel. It proceeds to look at the nuances in the work of Marx himself, and concludes with a survey of more recent economists who studied capitalism and attempted to unravel its secrets, including Joseph Schumpeter, John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek.
Customer Reviews:
Standing Marx on his head.......2005-05-31
A fun read that attempts to turn Marxian theory on its head to create a pro-capitalist Marx. The book is a good overview of the economic history of the last 200 some years and Marxian economic/poltical theory. My only criticism would be that, I believe he brushed aside Popper's criticisms of Hegel too nonchalantly.
An Admirable Effort--Yet Comes Up Short.......2003-03-05
Many Leftists, myself included, have spoken against the negative effects that globalization has had on the working classes in both the United States and the Third World. However, if Marx were alive today, what would his position be?
In "Marx's Revenge," Meghnad Desai proposes the startling thesis that Marx would support the current phenomenon of globalization. According to Desai, a truly socialist society can develop only when capitalism exhausts itself as a creative and progressive force. As recent events have shown, this has not yet happened. Capitalism is still a productive and vital force for better or worse.
Desai supports his thesis by discussing three variants of socialism that arose in the 20th Century: Socialism outside Capitalism (SoC), Socialism within Capitalism (SwC), and Socialism beyond Capitalism (SbC).
SoC represents the socialist society that was attempted within the Soviet Union. This version represents the Stalinist "socialism in one country" model which held that socialism and capitalism were destined to compete against each other. The system that was able to produce the most economic benefit to its citizens was to be declared the "winner." However, the corruption endemic in the Soviet system and its inability to produce the surplus capital necessary for economic growth and development led to the demise of this system with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
SwC represents the attempt by the developed capitalist nations to develop a "humanized" capitalism with a generous welfare state. This system largely worked from 1945 through the end of the 1960s. However, SwC was made possible only through the widespread Keynesian consensus held by the West after World War II that allowed contries to manipulate domestic financial markets for the funding of domestic programs. With the advent of globalization and the resulting liquidity of international capital, this project was dealt a severe blow beginning in the late 1970s.
SbC represents the only true alternative to capitalism. According to Desai, SbC represents a "self-conscious society" that develops when capitalism reaches its limit and can no longer act as a progressive force for the economic betterment of society. What will SbC look like?
This leads me to the central criticism of Desai's book. Desai offers an excellent historical overview of the development of the various competing forms of socialism as well as an intricate discussion of Marx's theories of profit and growth as put forth in Das Kapital. However, he has little to say regarding the pragmatic considerations involving what a true socialist society will look like. In fact, the last sentence in "Marx's Revenge" states: "Will there ever be Socialism beyond Capitalism?" (p. 315). This question remains unanswered.
To get an idea of what such a society would look like, I recommend reading David Schweickart's book "After Capitalism." Both books are important in that they offer hope that the current late, decadent stage of capitalism will be the final one and that a more just and humane order can be built in its place.
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- Killing Grounds (Kate Shugak Mysteries)
- Kingdom Come: The Final Victory: The Final Victory (Left Behind #13)
- Knuffle Bunny (Bccb Blue Ribbon Picture Book Awards (Awards))
- Magic Tree House Boxed Set 1, Books 1-4: Dinosaurs Before Dark, The Knight at Dawn, Mummies in the Morning, and Pirates Past Noon
- Malicious Intent : A Writer's Guide to How Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and Other Criminals Think (The Howdunit)
- Management: Challenges for Tomorrow's Leaders (with InfoTrac® 1-Semester)
- Mapping the World of the Sorcerer's Apprentice (Harry Potter) (Smart Pop series)
- Marching to the Drums: Eyewitness Accounts of War from the Charge of the Light Brigade to the Siege of Ladysmith
- Mechanics of Flight
- Militant Islam in Southeast Asia: Crucible of Terror
Books Index
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China: Fragile Superpower: How China's Internal Politics Could Derail Its Peaceful Rise
Securing Japan: Tokyo's Grand Strategy and the Future of East Asia (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)
Koizumi Diplomacy: Japan's Kantei Approach to Foreign and Defense Affairs
Japan's Reluctant Realism: Foreign Policy Challenges in an Era of Uncertain Power
Rising Star: China's New Security Diplomacy
