Book Description
In "Beyond Fear," Bruce Schneier invites us to take a critical look at not just the threats to our security, but the ways in which we're encouraged to think about security by law enforcement agencies, businesses of all shapes and sizes, and our national governments and militaries. Schneier believes we all can and should be better security consumers, and that the trade-offs we make in the name of security - in terms of cash outlays, taxes, inconvenience, and diminished freedoms - should be part of an ongoing negotiation in our personal, professional, and civic lives, and the subject of an open and informed national discussion.
With a well-deserved reputation for original and sometimes iconoclastic thought, Schneier has a lot to say that is provocative, counter-intuitive, and just plain good sense. He explains in detail, for example, why we need to design security systems that don't just work well, but fail well, and why secrecy on the part of government often undermines security. A skeptic of much that's promised by highly touted technologies like biometrics, Schneier is also a refreshingly positive, problem-solving force in the often self-dramatizing and fear-mongering world of security pundits.
Schneier helps the reader to understand the issues at stake, and how to best come to one's own conclusions, including the vast infrastructure we already have in place, and the vaster systems--some useful, others useless or worse--that we're being asked to submit to and pay for.
Customer Reviews:
Reading it improves the reader security intelligence.......2007-07-05
The content of this book slightly overlap the content of the author previous book Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World but presents the material with a different angle. An angle with the perspective of a security expert that witness security measures taken by governments in reaction of the 9/11 terrorism attack and wants people to understand the absurdity of some of these measures.
It is not technical at all and does not necessitate any particular background to understand and enjoy. The author explains clearly how to make a risk assessment of something that you want to make more secure and then evaluate the cost of the security measures. Only when you have that data, you can evaluate if the added security is worth it.
These explanations are backed up with concrete examples such as evaluating the risk to make purchase with a credit card over the internet. Other examples include the absurdity of securing a lunch in a company refrigerator because the potential loss if having a lunch stolen does not justify securing it. The author also explains that even with technologies that looks very accurate such as facial recognition with an error rate of, let's say, 0.0001 % are totally ineffective when they have to control a huge number of persons like a stadium crowd because even with this accuracy, they would create an unmanageable amount of false positive alerts.
The author also elaborate about why you should question the motivation of a security provider when it is a third party and link this with how people fears can be exploited to introduce invasive, excessively expensive and inefficient security measures. I think that the goal of the author was to make people more critics about security questions and my opinion is that his goal has been successfully achieved.
Sensible security for an unsensible world.......2007-06-05
Most people think that they think rationally about security decisions.
Most don't even know when they're making security decisions.
Fewer know what those decisions really entail.
Only Bruce Schneier knows how to make those decisions sensibly, and he's passing that information along to the world.
Funny.......2007-01-10
I never thought I'd find a security book that made me laugh. Both amusing and informative, I had a hard time putting this one down.
Very Good, and Not as Muddled as One has Claimed.......2005-10-19
This book is very informative, interesting, and entertaining. I've recommended it to people both within and outside the CS and IT communities w/o reservation.
Rather than reiterating things said in the many positive reviews, I'd like to take issue with one reviewer who says Schneier misuses the term "threat." In particular, this reviewer says "A threat is a party with the capabilities and intentions to exploit a vulnerability in an asset." This definition is both counter to standard English usage and counter to standard usage within the computer security field. Every book on my shelf has roughly the same definition of threat: "Threat: a potential for violation of security, which exists when there is a circumstance, capability, action, or event that could breach security and cause harm. That is, a threat is a possible danger that might exploit a vulnerability" -- Stallings, Network Security Essentials, p. 5. So a threat is condition or event, not a party. The reviewer seems to confuse threat with potential adversary.
Schneier's terminology is the standard terminology, and he uses it correctly.
Security or Liberty? Both!.......2005-06-30
I first read about Bruce Schneier in an eye-opening article by Charles Mann in the September, 2002 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. It seems that you don't have to make the false choice everyone is agonizing over between security and liberty. You can have both.
Schneier's book expands on the ideas in the article. Although Schneier is a technology fan and it is his livelihood, he realizes that sometimes a live security guard can provide better security than cutting-edge (but still fallible) face-recognition scanners, for instance. He explains why national ID cards are not a good idea, and how iris-scanners can be fooled.
These are ideas for security on a large scale, for airports, nuclear and other power plants, and government websites. For security on an individual or small business scale, try Art of the Steal by Frank Abagnale. But even if you don't run a government, Beyond Fear is a fascinating read about how your government is making choices (and how they SHOULD be making choices about your security and about your rights.
Amazon.com
Americans are afraid of many things that shouldn't frighten them, writes Barry Glassner in this book devoted to exploding conventional wisdom. Thanks to opportunistic politicians, single-minded advocacy groups, and unscrupulous TV "newsmagazines," people must unlearn their many misperceptions about the world around them. The youth homicide rate, for instance, has dropped by as much as 30 percent in recent years, says Glassner--and up to three times as many people are struck dead by lightening than die by violence in schools. "False and overdrawn fears only cause hardship," he writes. In fact, one study shows that daughters of women with breast cancer are actually less likely to conduct self-examinations--probably because the campaign to increase awareness of the ailment also inadvertently heightens fears.
Although some sections are stronger than others, The Culture of Fear's examination of many nonproblems--such as "road rage," "Internet addiction," and airline safety--is very good. Glassner also has a sharp eye for what causes unnecessary goose bumps: "The use of poignant anecdotes in place of scientific evidence, the christening of isolated incidents as trends, depictions of entire categories of people as innately dangerous," and unknown scholars who masquerade as "experts." Although Glassner rejects the notion that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, he certainly shows we have much less to fear than we think. And isn't that sort of scary? --John J. Miller
Book Description
In late 2002, Barry Glassner appeared in Michael Moore's Academy Award-winning movie, Bowling for Columbine, to discuss The Culture of Fear. The reaction to Glassner's appearance, and the message of his book, were overwhelming.
As Glassner describes, the American public remains fascinated by the specter of fear in their lives. Be it the proverbial dark-faced bogeyman, or a more recent epidemic of child snatchings, Americans allow their lives to be affected by a perceived and recurrent onslaught of tragedy, death, and fear.
A national bestseller, The Culture of Fear explains why Americans are afraid, exposing the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit off our anxieties: politicians who attempt to win elections by heightening concerns about drug use and crime; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; and finally and perhaps most perniciously, the media that peddle new scares each week in desperate attempts to garner ratings.
Written in a vivid, entertaining style, The Culture of Fear does more than debunk prevalent myths of impending doom, it also asks us to reconsider our participation in the national charade of fear and suspicion which, according to Glassner, is eroding the trust necessary to truly ensure safety in the public square.
Customer Reviews:
Lacks Credibility and Debth.......2007-08-20
I initially had high hopes for this book but instead was completely disgusted. The author meticulously points out every flaw with the right wing or media studies. However, he disproves them using other studies that fit his theories but never offers any reason why his example studies are valid. Why, if the other studies were incorrect and poorly executed, should we believe that the studies he cites are any different? What makes them credible? It seems as if they are offered as correct and credible simply because they fit his liberal agenda. As someone who equally criticizes both liberals and conservatives, I need more explanation in order to believe his words. By not taking the extra time to explain, he loses all sense of credibility.
Furthermore, Mr. Glassner dissects every issue in his book, offering underlying explanations and motives to the fears. However, a gross lack of depth is shown when he says something such as "[i]t's the guns, stupid." What a shallow argument. He never offers any reasonable statement as to *why* it's the guns. He doesn't explore the reasons behind why people shoot others. He doesn't examine the motives, the societal influences or any other of the number of causes of gun violence. Instead, he blames it all on the guns, as if they simply shoot on their own. His focus on this issue has absolutely no depth of research or explanation and shows his greatest weakness: putting an agenda ahead of real study and examination. Instead of looking at the *reasons* why people commit violence and murder, such as mental instability, extreme religious beliefs, gangs, or whatever else, the author chalks it all up to the shallow argument that a tool, just a single tool, is responsible for all the ills of society. Obviously, as tragedies such as the Oklahoma City bombing and 9/11 have shown, guns are not the sole reason for evil, though by reading Glassner's work, you would never know that.
I expected much more from a respected sociologist. This book was possibly the worst I've read in years. It seems as if Mr. Glasner never learned the art of persuasive argument writing. You can only persuade one if your own information is credible and valid. His isn't.
Don't bother reading this book. I deeply regret buying it.
Listless re-telling of what we already know... it's like a lecture in modern society with an edge towards fear.......2007-07-18
Being called "The Culture of Fear", it's only inevitable that subjects discussed could be disturbing, controversial, shocking, and sometimes depressing or terrifying.
Unfortunately, Barry Glassner, brilliant as he may be, just doesn't seem into the subject he has obviously put a lot of research into. It proudly delves into the depths of why Americans are afraid of the wrong things, and then goes about like a college professor lecturing to an apathetic class in the last years of his career with a big pension on the horizon.
He explains subjects methodically, then casually slips to the alter side of it, in such a way it sounds as if he were saying in a falsely lively tone, "Murders have gone down n%, HOWEVER murder coverage has gone up nnn%! Isn't that something?" or "Racism is a problem, as this 'n' report states, although the reverse is also true that n% of hate crimes has been about race as opposed to..."
It becomes lifeless, and loses its feel of a nonfiction work of research and more like hundreds of pages of statistics and numbers taped together and strung together with words so as to make it coherent. In all, it becomes a dull expose' which really, all in all, doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know.
Falls victim himself.......2007-06-29
Glasser starts off with an interesting enough premise in the vein of Freakonomics. He makes the valid enough (in my opinion) point that there are those who would like us to fear (pick your issue) for various reasons. These can be to distract people from other issues, to curry power and favor, etc.
Unfortunately he then goes on to engage in the very tactics he decries in others.
For example: he starts by (accurately) stating how overblown the issue of child on child vioence has become, and quotes a criminologist (Vincent Schiraldi)'s statement that a child killing another at school is an "anomolous" event.
A few pages later he uses the same event to rail against gun ownership in the U.S.
I find it difficult to see how the same event can be used in one case to show how something is not worth worrying about and then in the same breath that it is an example of rampant gun problems and we should take immediate action.
He continues like this (engages in disparaging people for creating the "PC" label to diminish views they don't like -- but then disparages "conservative" views (which he thinks he has a handle on).
He is clearly a victim of his own preconceived ideas about what is a problem and what is not.
Too bad -- it could have been a good book.
a primer of poor social science.......2007-05-15
All right, kids, it's time to learn specious reasoning and poor quantitative methods! You can find them both in Barry Glassner's SCARY expose:
Technique #1: Prove by speculation. As Glassner "shows" us how the Missing Children campaigns prey on our fears, he speculates on our feelings about the ads: "The photo of the missing child immediately elicits feelings of guilt, fear, and fascination." Really?
Technique #2: Prove by sketchy example. As we learn how fears about teenage pregnancies are overblown, Glassner gives the single example of two Kentucky teen mothers who had great GPAs but were denied membership in the National Honor Society. One counter-example, alas, does not a trend destroy. [My bad, Glassner also gives an example from the Ricki Lake Show. VERY convincing.]
Technique #3: Repeatedly use phrases like "studies show" and "researchers document" because if studies show it, it MUST be true! This is where Glassner departs sharply from such skilled writers as Malcolm Gladwell (The Tipping Point, Blink) or Steve Levitt and Stephen Dubner (Freakonomics). Whether or not you agree with their theses, they provide detailed descriptions of research in layperson's terms so that you can evaluate it yourself. Glassner expects you to merely believe it's true since some study showed it.
Technique #4: Accuse other studies of abusing statistics, then wait a few pages so readers forget and do the same thing yourself. On p70, Glassner writes, "If instead of percentages reporters concentrated either on the actual numbers of such crimes...they wouldn't have much of a story." Good point! Agreed! And on p73, we read, "studies find that young people incarcerated with adults are five times more likely to be sexually assaulted...than youth in juvenile facilities." Yes, but what are the numbers? We don't know!
When Glassner ISN'T trying to prove things with his super-special techniques, he actually makes a few good points. The media DO seem to blow many of these issues out of proportion (although early on he claims it isn't all the media's fault, the book makes it seem like MOSTLY the media's fault), and that has sometimes led to wildly inefficient policies or the rejection of scientific findings (without any convincing alternative findings). Glassner offers some interesting cultural hypotheses (for example, we focus on crack rather than powder cocaine because it lets us blame poor people for being poor). The book has some great anecdotes. Just don't expect to be convinced of anything you don't already believe.
Fantastic.......2007-04-17
This book is a must-read for anyone who reads the newspaper, watches the news, or listens to the radio. It's also helpful if you are prone to modern-day anxiety attacks. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Book Description
What keeps us going when times get tough? How do we act to create a more humane world, no matter how hard it seems? How do we offer models of involvement for our students when many feel their actions cannot matter? The Impossible Will Take a Little While gathers stories and essays of engagement that range across nations, eras, and political movements. These visionary and eloquent voices include Diane Ackerman, Sherman Alexie, Maya Angelou, Mary Catherine Bateson, Ariel Dorfman, Marian Wright Edelman, Eduardo Galeano, Susan Griffin, V‡clav Havel, Seamus Heaney, Tony Kushner, Jonathan Kozol, Bill McKibben, Nelson Mandela, Pablo Neruda, Henri Nouwen, Arundhati Roy, Desmond Tutu, Alice Walker, Cornel West, Terry Tempest Williams, and Howard Zinn. Their voices can help us all keep working for a better world, despite the obstacles. In The Impossible Will Take a Little While, a phrase borrowed from Billie Holliday, the editor of Soul of a Citizen brings together fifty stories and essays that range across nations, eras, wars, and political movements. Danusha Goska, an Indiana activist with a paralyzing physical disability, writes about overcoming political immobilization, drawing on her history with the Peace Corps and Mother Teresa. Vaclav Havel, the former president of the Czech Republic, finds value in seemingly doomed or futile actions taken by oppressed peoples. Rosemarie Freeney Harding recalls the music that sustained the civil rights movement, and Paxus Calta-Star recounts the powerful vignette of an 18-year-old who launched the overthrow of Bulgaria's dictatorship. Many of the essays are new, others classic works that continue to inspire. Together, these writers explore a path of heartfelt community involvement that leads beyond despair to compassion and hope. The voices collected in The Impossible Will Take a Little While will help keep us all working for a better world despite the obstacles.
Customer Reviews:
Revied on The Impossible Will Take a Little While.......2007-02-14
Received on time and in a very well condition. Very Satified.
a much needed balm.......2007-01-17
Good things are possible, keep at it, it will take a while, but, it is not impossible! Even the review here at Amazon by Ms. Nina Rosenberg shows the uphill distance we have to go. Let's all keep walking, and even invite Ms Rosenberg along, maybe offer her a cup of tea. Anyhow, I loved this book and feel that we need to sometimes focus on what is good, and what HAS been accomplished and try to understand how it was acomplished so that we too may pave the way to greater peace, for all. Yes, not just for the USA, but for all citizens of the world. If you liked this book, I suspect you might also enjoy a book on non-violence called "nonviolence: twenty five lessons" by Mark Kurlansky.
Don't give up, keep at it, keep the faith, ward off despair!
very readable.......2007-01-12
This book managed to be easy to read despite the large amount of information within its pages. I found it to be inspiring without being too heavy, and informative without leaving me wracked with guilt and anxiety.
Love, Empathy & Hope.......2006-01-23
This is an inspirational compendium from contributers such as Maya Angelou, Jim Hightower, Jonathan Kozol, Nelson Mandela, Arundhati Roy, Desmond Tutu, and Howard Zinn (to name a few). Since the resurgence of the warfare state when Marvin Bush planted bombs in the Twin Towers, which were blown-up after they were hit by planes and the incident blamed on alleged Arabs (see "The New Pearl Harbor" by David Ray Griffin), we have been living an Orwellian nightmare. Just like before when FDR provoked the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor to make us Yanks war crazy so we would fight the Nazis in Europe and stop Russia from taking it over, we are demoralized and mired in social crisis. Hence, this compilation by editor Paul Loeb is salve to the wounded soul.
Nelson Mandela's contribution is "The Dark Years" when the South African white-led apartheid government incarcerated him and other political prisoners on Robben Island. The inmates organized and maintained their own inmate-led micro-society behind bars, which empowered them and sustained their souls.
Desmond Tutu wrote that people of faith are prisoners of hope. He said that the South African experience was God's beacon of hope, not just to the third world, but Northern Ireland as well.
Howard Zinn's contribution is "The Optimism of Uncertainty". He said "There will always be something to fear in life, but this should not prevent you from living your life, thinking independently, and speaking your mind".
Maya Angelou shared a poem titled "Still I Rise": "Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of the tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I rise."
This book is an inspiration to all in peace work.
Hope from start to finish..........2005-12-06
This book is tangible hope in a dark and murky time. The insights gathered in these pages offer a historical bird's eye view of what it means to fight for what is right, no matter the cost. The cross section of stories from around the world unifies disparate groups in a way that is needed on all levels of society today. The book came to me as a gift from a friend, and in the spirit of "Pay It Forward" I made sure that at least 3 other friends got to share in the hope that I enjoyed while reading Paul's work. The stories have further galvanized my personal and politcal beliefs and sent me in some very positive directions working for peace. What started as another casual read quickly became a manual for hope. I reccomend this to all who feel hopeless in light of current events.
Amazon.com
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the ne plus ultra of Hunter S. Thompson and the whole gonzo clan he spawned. Written in the lurid afterglow of the 1960s, Fear and Loathing is a loosely connected series of mad dashes across the desert, trashed hotel rooms, and goofs on the brutish, naïve, or merely unhip, perpetrated by Thompson and his mammoth Samoan attorney. The pair start out high on a medicine cabinet's worth of elixirs, powders, and pills, and stay that way for 200 pages. They careen through an unsettling landscape of paranoia and alienation, but that doesn't mean the book isn't a riot. Here's a small taste: "By this time, the drink was beginning to cut the acid and my hallucinations were down to a tolerable level. The room service waiter had a vaguely reptilian cast to his features, but I was no longer seeing huge pterodactyls lumbering around the corridors in pools of fresh blood."
Though somewhat dated (it appeared serially in Rolling Stone throughout November 1971), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a book of real vitality and Rabelaisian wit. A document of the counterculture after it was well past ripe and deep into rot, the book is a wild ride, a paranoid ramble that is thoroughly exhilarating and worth the trip. No pun intended.
Book Description
A book about the world of drugs in Las Vegas. "The best book on the dope decade." - NYT Book Review
Customer Reviews:
I know, I know..........2007-09-30
I know, it's THE Hunter S. Thompson book. It would be like having the gall to write a review for the Grapes of Wrath or Slaughterhouse Five and think you'd be doing anything other than blabbing just to see your own words on a computer screen.
That said, read this book this instant. Whatever good anyone's ever said about this book, it's twenty times better. I read it in two sittings and only stopped myself from reading it again because it was a library book and had to be returned.
The late HST's gift for gonzo, that strange mix of fiction and nonfiction, is ultimately realized in this book. Reality is seamlessly mixed with a bizarre fantasy world of sentient reptiles and split personality through the medium of hard drugs that serve to clarify (and sometimes amplify) a violent and twisted town in a strange time.
This book will have you laughing hysterically at parts, so don't read it around other people unless you're okay with passing it to them. This book will have you cringing at the brutality of human nature at points, so have your wits about you.
I really can't say anything else, other than that this book must be purchased and read this very instant if you haven't already done so.
A must read for anyone.......2007-09-21
Thompson's book helps create a vivid picture of the drug fueled 60's and early 70's a way no one else has before.
Good stuff, but less important than his other work.......2007-09-14
¨Fear and Loathing¨ is a great ride for sure. A drug-addled, hilarious, disturbing romp through Las Vegas in search of the American Dream. Thompson is definitely a skilled writer and an outlaw and this stuff comes through in this book. I don't want to shrug this work off by any means, but I definately prefer his other work, such as ¨The Great Shark Hunt,¨ because it truly brings out Thompson's outlook on the world, his hatred of wealth, power and greed, etc. This book is fun, but Thompson is definitely capable of more depth and thought. While this work might be what gave him his big break, he definitely went on to better things.
Buy the ticket...take the ride.......2007-08-23
A bizzare journey to the heart of the American Dream, funny, witty and full of memorable episodes. The illustrations by Ralph Steadman are also superb. Raul Duke says it clearly : "buy the ticket...take the ride"
A wild and extraordinary ride down a lost highway ..........2007-08-20
The lost highway of the American Dream.
I wasn't old enough to remember much from the late 60's early 70's let alone the political aspects of Nixon's presidency or the drug culture of the time, so this review won't have any profound social or political commentary, except that comparisons can well be made to the drug culture of today, and it is glaringly apparent that not much has changed.
Considering the climate of the time: Nixon's presidency, the war in Vietnam, and the country's young men succumbing to the draft, it was no wonder that an entire generation wanted something more, for this was not the American Dream they had been sold. And for some, the only way to drown out the hypocrisy gnawing at your brain is to give your brain an escape. Expand your mind, as that might be the only part of you that is truly free. Whatever it takes to get you directly out of your head -- the higher the better. This story chronicles a journey utterly devoid of restraint and reason as these two men, Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo, and their trunk full of felonies set themselves loose upon Las Vegas -- the last vestige of the American Dream. However, their idea of the American Dream is not how most of us would understand it, but somehow, through the fog of hallucinatory metaphor, we can actually see and feel what the main characters are searching for so desperately.
All that aside, even if the 60's culture is beyond your age group, Thompson's writing is worth the read -- Brilliant, sarcastic, and frighteningly funny: Bars seething with has-been lounge lizards, tearing the patrons to shreds, blood soaked tacky hotel rooms, police car chases, kidnapping, gambling, excess, and debauchery ... not to mention the Narcotics Convention. The dialog is brilliant. Harrowing experiences abound; it is amazing that the two main characters make it out of Vegas alive.
Definitely a wild ride for all.
Book Description
In this age of uncertainty we are all looking for answers. Every day we cope with another report. Anthrax in New York, Florida and Washington, D.C. Arrests nationwide. Threats from Afghanistan. While we may not be able to stop terrorism, we can stop terror. Fear Less shows readers how to manage their own fear and enhance their own safety. It anwers the questions we are currently asking. Where can I be safe? What is the risk of further attacks? How can I protect my family? Is it okay to be afraid? What should I avoid? At this moment, its hard to imagine a more important, more comforting, and more necessary book. The world may not be all right, but you can be, with Fear Less.
Customer Reviews:
A Terrific Book.......2007-04-20
This book calms down silly fears and brings rational thought and analysis to what is truly to be feared and what is not. Very good reading.
Fear Less by Gavin DeBeckker.......2006-07-17
This book was purchased and sent to Iraq to my grandson
who is in the Military Police in Baghdad. He should be
home on a two-week leave next month.
So, I can't review the book. He has the second book by
Gavin DeBeckker, which I purchased from your company and
has indicated he thought it was very good and helpful.
Elizabeth Ergovich
Great Quick Read.......2006-02-13
Quick easy read. I wish I had read this right after 9/11 as it has taken me some time to come to the same conclusions this book offers. Even though that is when this book was written to be read, it didn't hurt to get some reasurance I am now on the right track. I like de Becker's style. He seems like a real classy guy.
Excellent Ideas.......2005-09-02
Another hit from Gavin De Becker. Once again his common sense, see-it-for-what-it-is approach is on the mark. After reading this book you will not look at the news media the same, if you care to look at it much at all! The scare tactics thrown in our faces every day take on an almost comical appearance when you see them for what they are. Do yourself a favor and do as the title suggests, read this book and fear less.
Good Read.......2005-05-15
de Becker does a good job at putting the risks of terrorism into perspective with other risks we face everyday. Also, de Becker encourages the reader to be informed and aware of situations that could be indicators of trouble. Well worth the read.
Book Description
The period since 1989 has been marked by the global endorsement of open markets, the free flow of finance capital and liberal ideas of constitutional rule, and the active expansion of human rights. Why, then, in this era of intense globalization, has there been a proliferation of violence, of ethnic cleansing on the one hand and extreme forms of political violence against civilian populations on the other?
Fear of Small Numbers is Arjun Appadurai’s answer to that question. A leading theorist of globalization, Appadurai turns his attention to the complex dynamics fueling large-scale, culturally motivated violence, from the genocides that racked Eastern Europe, Rwanda, and India in the early 1990s to the contemporary âwar on terror.â Providing a conceptually innovative framework for understanding sources of global violence, he describes how the nation-state has grown ambivalent about minorities at the same time that minorities, because of global communication technologies and migration flows, increasingly see themselves as parts of powerful global majorities. By exacerbating the inequalities produced by globalization, the volatile, slippery relationship between majorities and minorities foments the desire to eradicate cultural difference.
Appadurai analyzes the darker side of globalization: suicide bombings; anti-Americanism; the surplus of rage manifest in televised beheadings; the clash of global ideologies; and the difficulties that flexible, cellular organizations such as Al-Qaeda present to centralized, âvertebrateâ structures such as national governments. Powerful, provocative, and timely, Fear of Small Numbers is a thoughtful invitation to rethink what violence is in an age of globalization.
Customer Reviews:
Our moment in history.......2007-03-01
"Fear of Small Numbers" by Arjun Appadurai offers an exceptionally astute and often original analysis on the topic of violence and globalization. Drawing on his extensive knowledge gained over an impressive career as a scholar, consultant and activist, Mr. Appadurai brings an unique and internationalist perspective to bear on the subject. Written with a high degree of intelligence, clarity and conciseness, Mr. Appadurai's book convincingly explains how much of today's violence is tied to economic and social forces that are peculiar to our moment in history, thereby providing much-needed insight into how we might begin to address and resolve the problem of violence in our time.
Mr. Appadurai contends that globalization has created mass uncertainty by demolishing the state's ability to control its own economic destiny; as a consequence, the production of cultural cohesion has gained greater importance than ever for the nation state's bid to retain relevancy. Unfortunately, the globalization game can easily destabilize national borders and upset the state's attempts at social cohesion by creating mass unemployment and encouraging inflows and outflows of destitute workers. Under these conditions, the downtrodden can sometimes become scapegoats for the nation's failures; in extreme cases, the poor and disenfranchised may become victims of violent purges that are driven by the majority population's heightened social and economic anxieties.
However, Mr. Appadurai believes that terrorism constitutes the truly nightmarish side of globalization. Mimicking transnational corporations by organizing themselves in flexible, decentralized production networks, terrorist groups threaten the survival of the nation state. Terrorist rage is often directed at the U.S. as a consequence of its perceived cultural and economic hegemony as well as for its frequent exercise of military power around the world, especially in the Middle East. Mr. Appadurai points out that suicide bombers attempt to make political statements by personalizing themselves and their victims in deliberate and pointed contrast to the anonymous mass violence inflicted by U.S. air bombing campaigns. While Mr. Appadurai understands that some of these outsider perceptions of the U.S. may be difficult to accept, we probably need to acknowledge the author's point about how the unequal distribution of wealth and the sometimes indiscriminate and reckless deployment of U.S. power may be contributing to political destabilization and violent backlash if we wish to address some of the root causes of terrorism in a meaningful way.
Mr. Appadurai goes on to discuss how the rise and fall of the BJP in India illustrates how political struggle can coalesce around ideas of cultural identification and exclusion. We learn how relatively small segments of the population can challenge legal and religious doctrines in a manner that can seem threatening to the majority population, elements of whom sometimes lash out violently against perceived threats in ideologically motivated attacks. On the other hand, the author finds hope in the many grass-roots activist networks around the world who are working for positive socioeconomic change. Mr. Appadurai believes that such organizations can create a much-needed "third space" for democratic deliberation and decision making, thereby helping the global economic system to work towards just ends.
I give this timely and important book the highest possible rating and recommend it to everyone.
Terror and the fear of 'difference' .......2006-07-03
Appadurai draws on his former work on globalization in Modernity at Large, to propose a set of exciting and innovatively original reflections on the agendas set by post-September 11. The way terrorism is a sequel to former globalizing tendencies, and has been used in local contexts to deal in a discriminating way with 'difference', and 'minorities', is set against larger issues, such as the question of the role of the territorialized nation-state, and deterritorialized global terror. The interest of his approach resides in the fact that it considers a wide range of examples from South Asia to Europe, and the US, thus making the more evident how reductive - to say the least- are views of contemporaneity derived from Huntington's Clash of Civilizations. Appadurai is a genuinely original thinker, an exception in a world which sees a daily proliferation of repetitive and obvious approaches to such issues. An inspiring book I strongly recommend!
Amazon.com
With the same drug-addled alacrity and jaundiced wit that made Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas a hilarious hit, Hunter S. Thompson turns his savage eye and gonzo heart to the repellent and seductive race for President. He deconstructs the 1972 campaigns of idealist George McGovern and political hack Richard Nixon, ending up with a political vision that is eerily prophetic. A classic!
Book Description
With the same drug-addled alacrity and jaundiced wit that made Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas a hilarious hit, Hunter S. Thompson turns his savage eye and gonzo heart to the repellent and seductive race for President.He deconstructs the 1972 campaigns of idealist George McGovern and political hack Richard Nixon, ending up with a political vision that is eerily prophetic.A classic!
Customer Reviews:
A Master Work in Political Campaign.......2007-05-31
Another classic from HST, in fact maybe my favorite work of his. The setting for the book is the presidential campaign of 1972 pitting Gorge McGovern against Richard Millhouse Nixon. It begins with Thompson being sent by Rolling Stone to be the Washington D.C. correspondent for the magazine. From there the rollercoaster ride begins. HST chronicles the campaign from first, covering the Democratic primaries and running to the nomination of McGovern at the Democratic National Convention, and finally the Presidential election itself.
HST pioneered his own unique style of gonzo journalism and this book, along with the classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, defined him and his craft. Stark in its style and approach, the prospective provided by HST of what it is like to be out there on the campaign trail is unique to my knowledge. A dramatic inside story of the battles of the campaign trail emerges and fills in significant gaps in other press coverage of the time. HST's quest for truth, politics, and the eternal buzz paint a picture that the straight press never could because of restrictions like `objectivity' and the like. The result is perhaps the best account to date on what is really going on behind the scenes of a campaign for the highest office in the land.
The only drawback about reading HST is that it always gives me an incredible urge to drink and act in a semi-crazed style. It is says something about the infectious nature of his work and one often finds oneself wishing there were more gonzo journalists writing today.
This book is essential reading for anyone interested in politics and the machinery behind it. Even if politics aren't your cup up tea, HST brings a new dimension to any subject that he writes about, one that can be appreciated for its raw truth as well as its unconventional delivery. Although HST only provides one way of looking at politics out many possible, readers would be doing a disservice to themselves by passing over this book. Other views are widely espoused by many journalists and pundits, but to my knowledge no one else has tread where HST has dared to go.
This one gets 5 stars for being original, highly entertaining, and remaining relevant to this day.
here and now...and later.......2007-03-30
As I write this review, a dozen and a half presidential candidates are revved up to fly around the US, spending (all told) billions of dollars of Other People's Money, talking out of several sides of their mouth, slinging more mud than a construction crew, and falling over each other to get into the TV and newspaper spotlight.
It is astounding how much this book, written 35 years ago, can teach us about what is going on today. I have vowed to read this book again in 4-5 years.
Insight into America's lost innocence.......2007-03-27
For me this is Hunter's masterpiece - Its what crystallises all of his skill and insights as a writer. Fear and Loathing is an excellent book but its also a head trip which gives first time readers the wrong impression of Thomphson but its Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail that will show you the real Hunter in all his savage intelligence and wry observational skill - its a tour de force which shows so often the sharp mind behind the stories of drugs and debauchery - if you've only read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas then you don't know Hunter at all - this is a good starting point.
Its a picture of an America which has torn itself to pieces - the 1972 elections were a watershed in American politics, the death of Bobby Kennedy at the hands of Sirhan Sirhan in 1968 tore the heart of out the Democratic faithfull and was the major hinge of a series of events that led to the election of Richard Nixon in 68 when a country burned out on the divisive LBJ presidency voted Republican. The failure of the Democratic party to present a strong candidate in '68 led to the McGovern collapse in '72 as the party tore itself to pieces internally, consumed in infighting and political infighting that left it weakened and damaged.
Thompson's insights into the system go beyond mer reportage, he has an ability to get inside the process and lay it bare and clear and at the same time present a picture of the US on the eve of a recession and worn out from a long and divisive war. Oh and somebody mentioned how Hunter seemed unfair on Humphrey in the book - On the contrary he more than explains his reasons why he dislikes the candidate and some reading on Humphrey and history would enlighten - for one thing he won the Presidential Nomination in '68 without winning a single primary - Thompson and other democrats were quite justified in seeing him as the a political hack controlled by the likes of Chicago's power broker Mayor Daley.
Seriously. Read it. Distilled Hunter in so many ways and if youre expecting some sort of balance then youre in the wrong place - Hunter is here as always un comprimising - bitching about bias is missing the point - he never sets out to be balanced.
Lively & Exciting, if Biased.......2007-02-12
Journalist Hunter M. Thompson applies his gonzo style to the 1972 Presidential campaign, and makes us feel as if alongside the contenders as they move from rallies, to bus rides, to hotel rooms. The book focuses heavily on the Democratic primary campaign of Senator George McGovern, as he battled Hubert Humphrey, Ed Muskie, and several others for the Party's nomination. I enjoyed the author's fast-moving style and didn't mind his pro-McGovern bias, but saw no reason for his relentless slurs against Humprhey as a shameless phony - charges he never substantiates. McGovern won the nomination, but Thompson fails to see how the man's too-liberal positions and questionable competence (i.e. The Eagleton affair) doomed his chances. The author describes incumbent President Richard Nixon as devious and dangerous, but also sees him as rather human. Nixon wouldn't speak to Thompson, except for one brief interview granted on the condition that they only discuss one subject - football. It actually made interesting reading. This is a lively book, even if Thompson's kindly but bumbling candidate lost to the devious but skilled Nixon by a 61-38% landslide.
Many progressives loved Thompson's anti-establishment writing and didn't mind his lack of objectivity. Whatever your view, this book has a lively informative style that makes for fun, informative reading.
A Raw and Hilarious Account of U.S. Politics.......2006-08-03
'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72' is a fantastic journey through a spectacle which grips the U.S. every four years. It is a journey which in the hands of other authors would be thoroughly boring. But Hunter S. Thompson (HST) succeeds in combining great intelligence and insightful commentary with shocking hilarity and the result is a great book.
'Campaign Trail '72' doesn't have the same constant flow of wacky, laugh-out-loud humour and outrageous anecdotes as some of HST's other works, but then HST wrote this book as part of a year-long assignment to cover the Presidential campaign, not a week-long bender at the Kentucky Derby. In some respects, the length of time over which Thompson was reporting helps reveal a more 'everyday' side to an author who at other times appears to lead a wholly surreal lifestyle. Even the Doctor of Gonzo has down-time and boring days.
HST undoubtedly achieves what he set out to do in December '71. He gives his readers an insider's account of what it's like to cover a Presidential campaign. He reveals some of the underhand and downright corrupt tactics of the candidates and their entourages, the fickle nature of the electorate's support, the decisive role of the media in an election, and the importance of 'perception'. Thompson reports in a way that no one else is capable of reporting. He goes with gut instinct and from page 1 refuses to write from within the journalistic confines of objectivity. He openly supports Democratic candidate George McGovern, and sees Richard Nixon as a great threat to the U.S.A. and the rest of the world. Indeed, on a few occasions, he openly likens Nixon to Hitler; something which no other journalist would dare write, no matter how strongly they felt it.
Rick Steadman's sketches provide another interesting angle on the campaign and complement HST's writing excellently. The author also offers up a few timeless maxims on the nature of politics, which will strike a chord with anyone who lives in a Western 'Democracy'. In all, despite the fact that some of the detail in this book may seem mundane and dated to a present-day reader, most of HST's writing is timeless and one gets an overall sense that U.S. politics don't appear to have changed much since '72. Post-election, Thompson considers running for the office of Senator in Colorado; after reading this book, he certainly would have had my vote.
Book Description
In these three poignant essays, prolific author Wendell Berry reflects deeply on the current sources of world hope and despair. Thoughts in the Presence of Fear, written in response to the September 11 attacks, has since been reprinted in 73 countries and seven languages. The three essays provide a much-needed road map to a full cultural recovery.
Customer Reviews:
Berry should have been laughed out of the publishing world long ago.......2007-04-02
American presidents, understandably and out of what must be very close to grammatical necessity, have always used the pronoun "We" to speak of American policy. Yet in 2002, Berry said President Bush's use of this "We" was the royal "we" and ran counter to the Declaration of Independence.
Rather than being laughed at, Berry's essay has been anthologized and praised. It's time to speak the truth: never have inanity and insipidity been so fused in one author to the extent that they are fused in the ridiculous Wendell Berry.
already in "Citizenship Papers".......2006-11-18
These nice and thoughtful essays were already in Berry's "Citizenship Papers: Essays" I wish I had known that before I bought both.
Clarity of thinking.......2006-01-12
It has taken 5 years, but the ideas expressed by Wendell Berry shortly after 9/11 are finally starting to spread. Thought XXIII In the Presence of Fear - " We must not again allow public emotion or the public media to caricature our enemies. If our enemies are now to be some nations of Islam, then we should undertake to know those enemies. Our schools should begin to teach the histories, cultures, arts, and languages of the Islamic nations. And our leaders should have the humility and the wisdom to ask the reasons some of the people have for hating us."
As I hear more and more frustration from those caught in the mechanical web of phone tree "service" and the difficulty of having problems addressed by a real person, Berry's call for Local Economies rings loud and true. For the sake of real security, for the sake of community and knowing where your food or other goods come from, for the sake of jobs for our kids, his words should be carefully considered.
For fuller treatment of the subjects discussed in these essays, read Wendell Berry's new book, "The Way of Ignorance".
an eye opening analysis.......2003-10-27
This book helped me to see how modern so-called self-named "First World" countries are guided by the worship of the dollar. One can take it to the next level and say that ultimately racial and class issues today are a result of this love of the dollar and that white supremacism in this world is based on it. In order to dismantle white supremacy you need to get to the heart of it's greed which creates a necessary lack of respect for humanity and ultimately LIFE on earth. God's creations are sorely put upon for the sake of vain greed. America has caused problems in this world and has yet to fully face them. I say this as an igbo woman born here in america being forced daily to realize things mainstream whites can and do ignore.
Not the best Berry.......2003-09-01
A small book with little development. Perhaps if your taste runs to that, it might be okay. I think I would find it a confusing introduction to Berry and hesitate to recommend it to newcomers to Berry. The second essay is particularly brief. Readers who do not know Berry might better sample essays in The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry, a collection that locates Berry in his particular landscape, and explicates his ideas about "Agrarian Economics" and "Agrarian Religion." The first essay is a series of twenty-seven numbered statements. It can be found online. The third essay contains some solid ideas. Movement efforts are often "insincere," Berry argues, in that they focus on policy or other people's behavior, not on the behavior that we can best change--our own. This, in a sense takes us back to the numbered statements which are advices for living towards a changed world. Berry is worth reading, but this does not seem a book for beginners nor for experienced Berry readers.
Book Description
Boyles, who has lived and worked in France for several years, examines the internal crises--a falling birthrate, an expanding Muslim minority, economic stagnation, a lessening of international prestige--that have changed the personality of what was once La Belle France.
Download Description
In this bitingly funny and insightful polemic, Denis Boyles, who has lived and worked in France for several years, examines the internal crises-a falling birthrate, an expanding Muslim minority, economic stagnation, a lessening of international prestige-that have altered the personality of what was once "La Belle France," transforming it into a nation afflicted with status anxiety. He explains how a country that endlessly repeats its credentials as America's oldest ally has become one of our most resolute enemies, wielding the biggest weapon in its arsenal-the European Union-against the interests of an America that it fears and envies.
Customer Reviews:
Blinkered jingoism + intellectual dishonesty = this book.......2007-04-15
I wasn't going to waste the time dumping on this piece of dyspeptic intellectual chaff -- which was given to me, presumably as a joke, by a buddy of mine; but when I read that the author had urged his minions to give him 5-* ratings whether or not they'd read the book -- well, that tore it.
Any American ridiculing the ruling class in any other country -- whether by "ruling class" you mean "the political leadership" or "the wealthy" -- is so mind-numbingly hypocritical that it beggars the imagination. Take a look at *our* ruling class -- defined either way -- and we take a backseat to nobody else for egoism, egotism, narcissism, or sheer dishonesty. The gang in power in Washington -- who brought you "Mission Accomplished" three years ago (or, to put it in better perspective, 3000 American military lives ago, or several hundred billion dollars ago) -- has systematically and methodically lied its way into power, and systematically and methodically abused that power by heaping lie upon lie, all with the arrogance and self-righteousness of men (and it is mostly men) without scruples or conscience.
You support the men who have built a vast palace of glass, Mr. Boyles; how dare you throw stones? How dare you accuse anyone else of duplicity or cowardice while you support a gang of duplicitous cowards?
American ego.......2007-03-16
After reading the majority of comments posted for this book, it is clear that most Americans think you are either with them or against. No middle way. If you don't agree with every American whim (even tragic ones such as Iraq), you are anti-US. Sick and tired of it. Get a grip
We Are At War With America.......2006-11-24
With those words Francois Mitterand urged French support for the Maastricht Treaty and the European Union. And Denis Boyle goes on to prove that Mitterand meant every word. Vile France, as almost every reviewer reminded us, is kind to the people of France. Well-- understanding of their limitations might be a better phrase, but for those who live within Le Beltway: the journalists, the Labor Unions and their workers, the Universities and their jaded left-wing ageing Professoriate, the service crew such as waiters, hops, and clerks, Boyles is as incisive and biting as Silent Bob!
Want to knew why Chirac will be in jail after his Presidency, read here! Want to know who's rooting for (and conniving that) America takes a huge hit in Iraq, read here. Why the EU isn't about Europe, but about France and Germany, read here. Why the UN is a pretty useless place, read here.
This book is every Francophile's nightmare because it goes after the French with no John-Kerry like nuance whatsoever but a whole lot of funny, funny stuff. It's Boyles' version of South Park set in Paris.
This is only half of it!.......2005-12-31
Great book! With gallic humor!
The French do not like interference especially by American. They tried to kill me three times because, during WWII I discoverd their plans, and for having helped Ho Chi Minh. Because I was born in France they did not considered me a US Citizen. According to them I was a traitor subject to their rules until I die. I did not return to France for 43 years, only after those threatening me had died!
René J. Defourneaux, Author
The Winking Fox/The Tracks of the Fox
rene@defourneaux.com
This is not a book that bashes the French,,,.......2005-12-31
...but it does take a good poke at the French ruling elite -- something the French themselves do in their own books incidentally. The author makes this very clear in his introduction: The 'France' in the title is the 'ongoing invention of its...elitist, self-satisfied, self-obsessed...Paris-dwelling governing class' who, the author goes on to point out, treat the typical French citizen with 'cynical contempt.' Surely many French men and women would agree!
I received this book for Christmas as it was on my list. However I am quite surprised at the way these reviews are done. So I shall write one of my own as many of these seem to be a collection of disingenuous rants.
Most of the one-star 'reviews' here seem to be by people who quite obviously have not read the book but assume anything anti-French must be a right-wing rant. That's very odd. I reckon the American left must be reduced to thinking well of anyone who speaks ill of the US. (The author of this book points out that French behaviour toward the US is the same now as it was under Clinton and other presidents.)
But what is even more odd is the lengths to which some of these people have gone. 'Jonathan' for example quotes a line from page 144 of the book and says:
"Let me give just one example of what I mean. On Page 144 he says:
"'The economy of the eurozone rests on the solid bedrock of irrational faith.'
"Okay, so far - so good. I think I know where he's going here and I expect he'll finish it off with some good solid examples of the European's irrational economic faith. But here's what he says next:
"'Take, for example, the EU's economic stability pact, an agreement intended to make nations obey the God-given law of the checkbook. But don't take it seriously, because nobody else does.'
"And in the next paragraph he goes on to talk about something else.
"So, am I crazy?"
To which I would answer, no -- but 'Jonathan' is either a lazy reader or a dishonest one, since the author goes on for several pages through an entire section of a chapter to discuss the European stability pact, giving a summary of its history and the reasons for and results of its ineffectiveness.
I found this book to be witty and insightful. I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5 because it lacks an index and is frankly too brief. I wish there had been more. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a quick and balanced look at why the French govenment does what it does in relation to the US.
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