This series includes 21 books.
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Hegemony or Survival
America's Quest for Global Dominance
by Noam Chomsky
Description :
"Reading Chomsky today is sobering and instructive . . . He is a global phenomenon . . . perhaps the most widely read voice on foreign policy on the planet." - The New York Times Book Review An immediate national bestseller, Hegemony or Survival demonstrates how, for more than half a century the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. Our leaders have shown themselves willing-as in the Cuban missile crisis-to follow the dream of dominance no matter how high the risks. World-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky investigates how we came to this perilous moment and why our rulers are willing to jeopardize the future of our species. With the striking logic that is his trademark, Chomsky tracks the U.S. government's aggressive pursuit of "full spectrum dominance" and vividly lays out how the most recent manifestations of the politics of global control-from unilateralism to the dismantling of international agreements to state terrorism-cohere in a drive for hegemony that ultimately threatens our existence. Lucidly written, thoroughly documented, and featuring a new afterword by the author, Hegemony or Survival is a definitive statement from one of today's most influential thinkers.
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Nemesis
The Last Days of the American Republic
by Chalmers A. Johnson
Description :
The long-awaited final volume of Chalmers Johnson’s bestselling Blowback trilogy confronts the overreaching of the American empire and the threat it poses to the republic In his prophetic book Blowback , Chalmers Johnson linked the CIA’s clandestine activities abroad to disaster at home. In The Sorrows of Empire, he explored the ways in which the growth of American militarism and the garrisoning of the planet have jeopardized our stability. Now, in Nemesis , he shows how imperial overstretch is undermining the republic itself, both economically and politically. Delving into new areas—from plans to militarize outer space to Constitution-breaking presidential activities at home and the devastating corruption of a toothless Congress— Nemesis offers a striking description of the trap into which the dreams of America’s leaders have taken us. Drawing comparisons to empires past, Johnson explores in vivid detail just what the unintended consequences of our dependence on a permanent war economy are likely to be. What does it mean when a nation’s main intelligence organization becomes the president’s secret army? Or when the globe’s sole “hyperpower,” no longer capable of paying for the vaulting ambitions of its leaders, becomes the greatest hyper-debtor of all times? In his stunning conclusion, Johnson suggests that financial bankruptcy could herald the breakdown of constitutional government in America—a crisis that may ultimately prove to be the only path to a renewed nation.
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A Question of Torture
CIA Interrogation, from the Cold War to the War on Terror
by Alfred W. McCoy
Description :
In this revelatory account of the CIA+s secret, fifty-year effort to develop new forms of torture, historian Alfred W. McCoy uncovers the deep, disturbing roots of recent scandals at Abu Ghraib and Guant‡namo. Far from aberrations, as the White House has claimed, A Question of Torture shows that these abuses are the product of a long-standing covert program of interrogation.Developed at the cost of billions of dollars, the CIA+s method combined -sensory deprivation+ and -self-inflicted pain+ to create a revolutionary psychological approach-the first innovation in torture in centuries. The simple techniques-involving isolation, hooding, hours of standing, extremes of hot and cold, and manipulation of time-constitute an all-out assault on the victim+s senses, destroying the basis of personal identity. McCoy follows the years of research-which, he reveals, compromised universities and the U.S. Army-and the method+s dissemination, from Vietnam through Iran to Central America. He traces how after 9/11 torture became Washington+s weapon of choice in both the CIA+s global prisons and in -torture-friendly+ countries to which detainees are dispatched. Finally McCoy argues that information extracted by coercion is worthless, making a case for the legal approach favored by the FBI.Scrupulously documented and grippingly told, A Question of Torture is a devastating indictment of inhumane practices that have spread throughout the intelligence system, damaging American+s laws, military, and international standing.
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Ain't My America
The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism
by Bill Kauffman
Description :
From “the finest literary stylist of the American right,” a surprising and spirited account of how true conservatives have always been antiwar and anti-empire (Allan Carlson, author of The American Way ) Conservatives love war, empire, and the military-industrial complex. They abhor peace, the sole and rightful property of liberals. Right? Wrong. As Bill Kauffman makes clear, true conservatives have always resisted the imperial and military impulse: it drains the treasury, curtails domestic liberties, breaks down families, and vulgarizes culture. From the Federalists who opposed the War of 1812, to the striving of Robert Taft (known as “Mr. Republican”) to keep the United States out of Korea, to the latter-day libertarian critics of the Iraq war, there has historically been nothing freakish, cowardly, or even unusual about antiwar activists on the political right. And while these critics of U.S. military crusades have been vilified by the party of George W. Bush, their conservative vision of a peaceful, decentralized, and noninterventionist America gives us a glimpse of the country we could have had—and might yet attain. Passionate and witty, Ain’t My America is an eye-opening exploration of the forgotten history of right-wing peace movements—and a clarion manifesto for antiwar conservatives of today.
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How to Succeed at Globalization
A Primer for Roadside Vendors
by El Fisgón
Description :
n hopes of curing his business woes, Charro Machorro-windshield washer, roadside vendor, and free-market enthusiast-pays a visit to a faith healer in the Arizona desert and learns more than he bargained for about how the free market really works. To increase his profits, the healer suggests, he should establish his company during the Middle Ages, gain a monopoly, exploit natural resources, break up unions (though currently he's the only employee), and, of course, become a multinational corporation. The healer's $20,000 fee shows that she, at least, knows how to manage her own little business. In a single, hilarious rush, cartoonist Rafael Barajas, aka El Fisgn ('the peeper'), takes us from the dawn of capitalism to the age of global conglomerates, showing how the world economy developed and how it functions today. Amid the laughs, he offers a critique of a planet in which the few 'globalize' to their endless benefit, while everyone else suffers poverty, famine, migration, and war. El Fisgn's graphically stunning, visually sophisticated book, filled with allusions to the history of art and cartooning, cleverly reverses every self-help manual for playing the market, teaching us not how to become rich but rather why so many remain poor.
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War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution
by Peter H. Irons
Description :
A “compelling and unnerving” assessment of how the Constitution has been distorted to accomodate the drive to empire ( The Washington Post ) Concerned about the dangers of unchecked executive power, the Founding Fathers deliberately assigned Congress the sole authority to make war. But the last time Congress did so was in 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—since then, every president from Harry Truman to George W. Bush has used military force in pursuit of imperial objectives without congressional authorization. In vivid detail, War Powers recounts this story of subversion from above. Drawing on congressional hearings, Supreme Court opinions, media reports, and scholarly accounts, legal historian Peter Irons examines how the Constitution has been stretched, distorted, and violated as presidents usurped a shared, solemn power—eschewing congressional approval and often suspending civil liberties in the process. An insightful and rousing history, War Powers takes us up to the recent preemptive invasion of Iraq, offering a necessary account of our most pressing contemporary constitutional crisis.
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What We Say Goes
Conversations on U.S. Power in a Changing World
by Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian
Description :
An indispensable set of interviews on foreign and domestic issues with the bestselling author of Hegemony or Survival , “America’s most useful citizen.” ( The Boston Globe ) In this new collection of conversations, conducted in 2006 and 2007, Noam Chomsky explores the most immediate and urgent concerns: Iran’s challenge to the United States, the deterioration of the Israel-Palestine conflict, the ongoing occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the rise of China, and the growing power of the left in Latin America, as well as the Democratic victory in the 2006 U.S. midterm elections and the upcoming presidential race. As always, Chomsky presents his ideas vividly and accessibly, with uncompromising principle and clarifying insight. The latest volume from a long-established, trusted partnership, What We Say Goes shows once again that no interlocutor engages with Chomsky more effectively than David Barsamian. These interviews will inspire a new generation of readers, as well as longtime Chomsky fans eager for his latest thinking on the many crises we now confront, both at home and abroad. They confirm that Chomsky is an unparalleled resource for anyone seeking to understand our world today.
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The Sorrows of Empire
Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
by Chalmers A. Johnson
Description :
"Impressive . . . a powerful indictment of U.S. military and foreign policy." - Los Angeles Times Book Review , front page In the years after the Soviet Union imploded, the United States was described first as the globe's "lone superpower," then as a "reluctant sheriff," next as the "indispensable nation," and in the wake of 9/11, as a "New Rome." In this important national bestseller, Chalmers Johnson thoroughly explores the new militarism that is transforming America and compelling us to pick up the burden of empire. Recalling the classic warnings against militarism-from George Washington's Farewell Address to Dwight Eisenhower's denunciation of the military-industrial complex-Johnson uncovers its roots deep in our past. Turning to the present, he maps America's expanding empire of military bases and the vast web of services that support them. He offers a vivid look at the new caste of professional militarists who have infiltrated multiple branches of government, who classify as "secret" everything they do, and for whom the manipulation of the military budget is of vital interest. Among Johnson's provocative conclusions is that American militarism is already putting an end to the age of globalization and bankrupting the United States, even as it creates the conditions for a new century of virulent blowback. The Sorrows of Empire suggests that the former American republic has already crossed its Rubicon-with the Pentagon in the lead.
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A People's History of American Empire
by Mike Konopacki, Paul Buhle, Howard Zinn
Description :
Adapted from the bestselling grassroots history of the United States, the story of America in the world, told in comics form Since its landmark publication in 1980, A People’s History of the United States has had six new editions, sold more than 1.7 million copies, become required classroom reading throughout the country, and been turned into an acclaimed play. More than a successful book, A People’s History triggered a revolution in the way history is told, displacing the official versions with their emphasis on great men in high places to chronicle events as they were lived, from the bottom up. Now Howard Zinn, historian Paul Buhle, and cartoonist Mike Konopacki have collaborated to retell, in vibrant comics form, a most immediate and relevant chapter of A People’s History : the centuries-long story of America’s actions in the world. Narrated by Zinn, this version opens with the events of 9/11 and then jumps back to explore the cycles of U.S. expansionism from Wounded Knee to Iraq, stopping along the way at World War I, Central America, Vietnam, and the Iranian revolution. The book also follows the story of Zinn, the son of poor Jewish immigrants, from his childhood in the Brooklyn slums to his role as one of America’s leading historians. Shifting from world-shattering events to one family’s small revolutions, A People’s History of American Empire presents the classic ground-level history of America in a dazzling new form.
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Crusade
Chronicles of an Unjust War
by James Carroll
Description :
"The war in Iraq has been a victory of moral fervor over moral clarity. The first without the second is a curse on itself. James Carroll brings to bear-I hope not too late-the moral clarity we so badly need." -Garry Wills With the words "this Crusade, this war on terror," George W. Bush defined the purpose of his presidency. And just as promptly, James Carroll- Boston Globe columnist, bestselling author, and respected moral authority-began a week-by-week argument with the administration. In powerful, passionate bulletins, Carroll dissected the President's exploitation of the nation's fears, invocations of a Christian mission, and efforts to overturn America's traditional relations-with other nations and its own citizens. Combining clear moral consciousness, an acute sense of history, and a real-world grasp of the unforgiving demands of politics, Crusade is a compelling call for the rescue of America's noblest traditions.
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Devil's Game
How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam
by Robert Dreyfuss
Description :
“The most clear and engaging history of the deadly, historic partnership between Western powers and political Islam.”—Salon.com Devil’s Game is the first comprehensive account of America’s misguided efforts, stretching across decades, to dominate the strategically vital Middle East by courting and cultivating Islamic fundamentalism. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews with dozens of policy makers and CIA, Pentagon, and foreign service officials, Robert Dreyfuss follows the trail of American collusion from support for the Muslim Brotherhood in 1950s Egypt, to links with Khomeini and Afghani jihadists, to longstanding ties between radical Islamists and the leading banks of the West. The result is as tragic as it is paradoxical: originally deployed as pawns to foil nationalism and communism, extremist mullahs and ayatollahs now dominate the landscape, thundering against freedom of thought, science, women’s rights, secularism—and their former patron. Chronicling a history of double-dealing, cynical exploitation, and humiliating embarrassment that continues to this day, Devil’s Game reveals a pattern that, far from furthering democracy or security, ensures a future of blunders and blowback.
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Dilemmas of Domination
The Unmaking of the American Empire
by Walden F. Bello
Description :
From “the world’s leading no-nonsense revolutionary,” a bold and effective analysis of American military, economic, and political vulnerability (Naomi Klein) The empire seems unassailable, but the empire is weak—and precisely because of its quest for global domination. So argues Walden Bello in this provocative portrait of imperial self-destruction, which systematically dissects the dilemmas confronting America as a result of its drive for supremacy. Puncturing the myth of American invincibility, Bello exposes its carefully concealed contradictions: despite the enormity of the U.S. military apparatus, American forces are critically overextended and ever threatened by the simmering resistance each new “victory” breeds. Though America is still the land of unprecedented prosperity, economic breakdown looms, the consequence of gargantuan military costs, exploitative trade and investment relations with developing countries, and record-breaking deficits. A clear and prophetic examination, Dilemmas of Domination reveals a not-too-distant future in which the empire’s hidden weaknesses will yield fatal challenges to American omnipotence. “With unsentimental clarity, Walden Bello speaks the truth about American empire and why it is doomed by its own contradictions.” —William Greider, author of The Soul of Capitalism
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Imperial Ambitions
Conversations on the Post-9/11 World
by Noam Chomsky, David Barsamian
Description :
In this first collection of interviews since the bestselling 9-11, our foremost intellectual activist examines crucial new questions of U.S. foreign policy Timely, urgent, and powerfully elucidating, this important volume of previously unpublished interviews conducted by award-winning radio journalist David Barsamian features Noam Chomsky discussing America’s policies in an increasingly unstable world. With his famous insight, lucidity, and redoubtable grasp of history, Chomsky offers his views on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the doctrine of “preemptive” strikes against so-called rogue states, and the prospects of the second Bush administration, warning of the growing threat to international peace posed by the U.S. drive for domination. In his inimitable style, Chomsky also dissects the propaganda system that fabricates a mythic past and airbrushes inconvenient facts out of history. Barsamian, recipient of the ACLU’s Upton Sinclair Award for independent journalism, has conducted more interviews and radio broadcasts with Chomsky than has any other journalist. Enriched by their unique rapport, Imperial Ambitions explores topics Chomsky has never before discussed, among them the 2004 presidential campaign and election, the future of Social Security, and the increasing threat, including devastating weather patterns, of global warming. The result is an illuminating dialogue with one of the leading thinkers of our time—and a startling picture of the turbulent times in which we live.
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In the Name of Democracy
American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond
by Jeremy Brecher, Jill Cutler, Brendan Smith
Description :
A riveting documentary anthology that examines a deeply disturbing question: Is the United States guilty of war crimes in Iraq? Until recently, the possibility that the United States was responsible for war crimes seemed unthinkable to most Americans. But as previously suppressed information has started to emerge—photographs from Abu Ghraib; accounts of U.S. attacks on Iraqi hospitals, mosques, and residential neighborhoods; secret government reports defending unilateral aggression—Americans have begun an agonizing reappraisal of the Iraq war and the way in which their government has conducted it. Drawing on a wide range of documents—from the protocols of the Geneva Convention to FBI e-mails about prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay to executive-branch papers justifying the circumvention of international law—In the Name of Democracy examines the legality of the Iraq war and the occupation that followed. Included in this powerful investigation are eyewitness accounts, victim testimonials, statements by soldiers turned resisters and whistle-blowers, interviews with intelligence insiders, and contributions by Mark Danner and Seymour Hersh. The result is a controversial, chilling anthology that explores the culpability of officials as well as the responsibilities of ordinary citizens, and for the first time squarely confronts the matter of American impunity.
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The Complex
How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives
by Nick Turse
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A mind-boggling investigation of the allpervasive, constantly morphing presence of the Pentagon in daily life—a real-world Matrix come alive Here is the new, hip, high-tech military-industrial complex—an omnipresent, hidden-in-plain-sight system of systems that penetrates all our lives. From iPods to Starbucks to Oakley sunglasses, historian Nick Turse explores the Pentagon’s little-noticed contacts (and contracts) with the products and companies that now form the fabric of America. Turse investigates the remarkable range of military incursions into the civilian world: the Pentagon’s collaborations with Hollywood filmmakers; its outlandish schemes to weaponize the wild kingdom; its joint ventures with the World Wrestling Federation and NASCAR. He shows the inventive ways the military, desperate for new recruits, now targets children and young adults, tapping into the “culture of cool” by making “friends” on MySpace. A striking vision of this brave new world of remote-controlled rats and super-soldiers who need no sleep, The Complex will change our understanding of the militarization of America. We are a long way from Eisenhower’s military-industrial complex: this is the essential book for understanding its twenty-first-century progeny.
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Blood and Oil
The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum
by Michael T. Klare
Description :
In his pathbreaking Resource Wars , world security expert Michael Klare alerted us to the role of resources in conflicts in the post-cold-war world. Now, in Blood and Oil , he concentrates on a single precious commodity, petroleum, while issuing a warning to the United States—its most powerful, and most dependent, global consumer. Since September 11 and the commencement of the "war on terror," the world's attention has been focused on the relationship between U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the oceans of crude oil that lie beneath the region's soil. Klare traces oil's impact on international affairs since World War II, revealing its influence on the Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Carter doctrines. He shows how America's own wells are drying up as our demand increases; by 2010 the United States will need to import 60 percent of its oil. And since most of this supply will have to come from chronically unstable, often violently anti-American zones—the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea, Latin America, and Africa—our dependency is bound to lead to recurrent military involvement. With clarity and urgency, Blood and Oil delineates the United States' predicament and cautions that it is time to change our energy policies, before we spend the next decades paying for oil with blood.
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Empire's Workshop
Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism
by Greg Grandin
Description :
An eye-opening examination of Latin America ’s role as proving ground for U.S. imperial strategies and tactics In recent years, one book after another has sought to take the measure of the Bush administration’s aggressive foreign policy. In their search for precedents, they invoke the Roman and British empires as well as postwar reconstructions of Germany and Japan. Yet they consistently ignore the one place where the United States had its most formative imperial experience: Latin America. A brilliant excavation of a long-obscured history, Empire’s Workshop is the first book to show how Latin America has functioned as a laboratory for American extraterritorial rule. Historian Greg Grandin follows the United States’ imperial operations, from Thomas Jefferson’s aspirations for an “empire of liberty” in Cuba and Spanish Florida, to Ronald Reagan’s support for brutally oppressive but U.S.-friendly regimes in Central America. He traces the origins of Bush’s policies to Latin America, where many of the administration’s leading lights—John Negroponte, Elliott Abrams, Otto Reich—first embraced the deployment of military power to advance free-market economics and first enlisted the evangelical movement in support of their ventures. With much of Latin America now in open rebellion against U.S. domination, Grandin concludes with a vital question: If Washington has failed to bring prosperity and democracy to Latin America—its own backyard “workshop”—what are the chances it will do so for the world?
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Failed States
The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
by Noam Chomsky
Description :
“It’s hard to imagine any American reading this book and not seeing his country in a new, and deeply troubling, light.”— The New York Times Book Review The United States has repeatedly asserted its right to intervene militarily against “failed states” around the globe. In this much-anticipated follow-up to his international bestseller Hegemony or Survival , Noam Chomsky turns the tables, showing how the United States itself shares features with other failed states—suffering from a severe “democratic deficit,” eschewing domestic and international law, and adopting policies that increasingly endanger its own citizens and the world. Exploring the latest developments in U.S. foreign and domestic policy, Chomsky reveals Washington’s plans to further militarize the planet, greatly increasing the risks of nuclear war. He also assesses the dangerous consequences of the occupation of Iraq; documents Washington’s self-exemption from international norms, including the Geneva conventions and the Kyoto Protocol; and examines how the U.S. electoral system is designed to eliminate genuine political alternatives, impeding any meaningful democracy. Forceful, lucid, and meticulously documented, Failed States offers a comprehensive analysis of a global superpower that has long claimed the right to reshape other nations while its own democratic institutions are in severe crisis. Systematically dismantling the United States’ pretense of being the world’s arbiter of democracy, Failed States is Chomsky’s most focused—and urgent—critique to date.
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Iraq
The Logic of Withdrawal
by Anthony Arnove
Description :
A forceful argument for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Howard Zinn's book Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal , though it appeared five years before the United States eventually abandoned that war, argued with remarkable foresight that getting out was the only realistic option. Now, nearly forty years later, the United States is once again involved in a seemingly intractable foreign conflict. And, following in the footsteps of Zinn, Anthony Arnove (his co-editor on the widely acclaimed Voices of a People's History of the United States ) has written a book that will likely prove equally prescient. Arnove sets out a compelling case for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Countering widespread arguments made in support of the occupation by conservatives and liberals alike, Arnove insists that the U.S. presence is the major source of instability and suffering for the Iraqi people. He challenges the idea that George W. Bush has ever been interested in bringing democracy to the country and explores the real reasons behind the invasion, which centrally involve control over strategic Middle Eastern energy resources. And he sets out a constructive vision for the antiwar movement, one that involves soldiers, military families, and the many communities affected by the occupation, who together can build a coalition to bring the troops home.
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The Seventh Decade
The New Shape of Nuclear Danger
by Jonathan Schell
Description :
From the bestselling author of The Fate of the Earth , a provocative look at the urgent threat posed by America’s new nuclear policies When the cold war ended, many Americans believed the nuclear dilemma had ended with it. Instead, the bomb has moved to the dead center of foreign policy and even domestic scandal. From missing WMDs to the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, nuclear matters are back on the front page. In this provocative book, Jonathan Schell argues that a revolution in nuclear affairs has occurred under the watch of the Bush administration, including a historic embrace of a first-strike policy to combat proliferation. The administration has also encouraged a nuclear renaissance at home, with the development of new generations of such weaponry. Far from curbing nuclear buildup, Schell contends, our radical policy has provoked proliferation in Iran, North Korea, and elsewhere; exacerbated global trafficking in nuclear weapons; and taken the world into an era of unchecked nuclear terror. Incisive and passionately argued, The Seventh Decade offers essential insight into what may prove the most volatile decade of the nuclear age.
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The Limits of Power
The End of American Exceptionalism
by A. J. Bacevich
Description :
From an acclaimed conservative historian and former military officer, a bracing call for a pragmatic confrontation with the nation's problems The Limits of Power identifies a profound triple crisis facing America: the economy, in remarkable disarray, can no longer be fixed by relying on expansion abroad; the government, transformed by an imperial presidency, is a democracy in form only; U.S. involvement in endless wars, driven by a deep infatuation with military power, has been a catastrophe for the body politic. These pressing problems threaten all of us, Republicans and Democrats. If the nation is to solve its predicament, it will need the revival of a distinctly American approach: the neglected tradition of realism. Andrew J. Bacevich, uniquely respected across the political spectrum, offers a historical perspective on the illusions that have governed American policy since 1945. The realism he proposes includes respect for power and its limits; sensitivity to unintended consequences; aversion to claims of exceptionalism; skepticism of easy solutions, especially those involving force; and a conviction that the books will have to balance. Only a return to such principles, Bacevich argues, can provide common ground for fixing America’s urgent problems before the damage becomes irreparable.
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