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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorMy Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel
Ari Shavit · 445 pages
Not since Thomas L. Friedman’s groundbreaking From Beirut to Jerusalem has a book captured the essence and the beating heart of the Middle East as keenly and dynamically as My Promised Land. Facing unprecedented internal and external pressures, Israel today is at a moment of existential crisis. Ari Shavit draws on interviews, historical documents, private diaries, and letters, as well as his own f
Intent to Destroy: Russia’s Two-Hundred-Year Quest to Dominate Ukraine
Eugene Finkel · 336 pages
The Impossible State: North Korea, Past and Future
Victor Cha · 552 pages
Looks at the nation of North Korea, its history, social conditions, and place in world politics as it stands today and where it is likely to end up in the future. In this book the author, pulls back the curtain on provocative, isolationist North Korea, providing our best look yet at its history and the rise of the Kim family dynasty and the obsessive personality cult that empowers them. He illumin
America's War for the Greater Middle East
Andrew J. Bacevich · 370 pages
A critical assessment of America's foreign policy in the Middle East throughout the past four decades evaluates and connects regional engagements since 1990 while revealing their massive costs. From the end of World War II until 1980, virtually no American soldiers were killed in action while serving in the Greater Middle East. Since 1990, virtually no American soldiers have been killed in action
The Revenge Of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate
Robert D. Kaplan · 437 pages
Kaplan is a realist. This book is about the physical facts of the world we live on and what those facts mean for cultures and nations. Take for example, the two oceans that insulate the isolationist United States from any credible threats and compare this with the non-existence of any mountains or other barriers around Russia that make its’ land easy to invade and the Russians perennially insecure
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Chalmers Johnson · 268 pages
""Blowback," a term invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended consequences of American policies. In this sure-to-be-controversial book, Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. From a cas
Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia
Ahmed Rashid · 294 pages
Shrouding themselves and their aims in deepest secrecy, the leaders of the Taliban movement control Afghanistan with an inflexible, crushing fundamentalism. The most extreme and radical of all Islamic organizations, the Taliban inspires fascination, controversy, and especially fear in both the Muslim world and the West. Correspondent Ahmed Rashid brings the shadowy world of the Taliban into sharp
The Real North Korea: Life and Politics in the Failed Stalinist Utopia
Andrei Lankov · 283 pages
"In The Real North Korea, Lankov substitutes cold, clear analysis for the overheated rhetoric surrounding this opaque state. After providing an accessible history of the nation, he turns his focus to what North Korea is, what its leadership thinks, and how its people cope with living in such an oppressive and impoverished place. He argues that North Korea is not irrational, and nothing shows this
No god but God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam
Reza Aslan · 310 pages
Though it is the fastest growing religion in the world, Islam remains shrouded by ignorance and fear. What is the essence of this ancient faith? Is it a religion of peace or war? How does Allah differ from the God of Jews and Christians? Can an Islamic state be founded on democratic values such as pluralism and human rights? A writer and scholar of comparative religions, Reza Aslan has earned inte
In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in Mobutu's Congo
Michela Wrong · 353 pages
Known as "the Leopard," the president of Zaire for thirty-two years, Mobutu Sese Seko, showed all the cunning of his namesake -- seducing Western powers, buying up the opposition, and dominating his people with a devastating combination of brutality and charm. While the population was pauperized, he plundered the country's copper and diamond resources, downing pink champagne in his jungle palace l
The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering
Norman G. Finkelstein · 182 pages
The Duel: Pakistan On The Flight Path Of American Power
Tariq Ali · 304 pages
"Pakistan is the sixth most populous country in the world. It is the only Islamic state to have nuclear weapons. Its border with Afghanistan extends over one thousand miles and is the likely hideout of Osama bin Laden. It has been under military dictatorship for thirty-three of its fifty-year existence. Yet it is the linchpin in the United States' war on terror, receiving over $10 billion of Ameri
Tinderbox The Past And Future Of Pakistan
M.J. Akbar · 341 pages
The Second Amendment
Michael Waldman · 255 pages
"By the president of the prestigious Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, the life story of the most controversial, volatile, misunderstood provision of the Bill of Rights. At a time of renewed debate over guns in America, what does the Second Amendment mean? This book looks at history to provide some surprising, illuminating answers. The Amendment was written to calm public fear that
World Orders, Old and New
Noam Chomsky · 327 pages
**World Orders Old and New** is a book by Noam Chomsky, first published in 1994 and updated in 1996 by Columbia University Press. In the book, Chomsky writes about the international scene since 1945, devoting particular attention to events following the collapse of the Soviet Union. He critiques Western government, from imperialist foreign policies to the Clinton administration's promises to the p
And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East
Richard Engel · 241 pages
"Based on two decades of reporting, NBC's chief foreign correspondent's riveting story of the Middle East revolutions, the Arab Spring, war, and terrorism seen up-close--sometimes dangerously so. When he was just twenty-three, a recent graduate of Stanford University, Richard Engel set off to Cairo with $2,000 and dreams of being a reporter. Shortly thereafter he was working freelance for Arab new
Ill Fares the Land
Tony Judt · 256 pages
In "Ill Fares The Land," Tony Judt, one of our leading historians and thinkers, reveals how we have arrived at our present dangerously confused moment and offers the language we need to address our common needs, rejecting the nihilistic individualism of the far right and the debunked socialism of the past. To find a way forward, Judt argues that we must look to our not so distant past and to socia
Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet
James Mann · 437 pages
The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq
George Packer · 512 pages
"The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq recounts how the United States set about changing the history of the Middle East and became ensnared in a guerrilla war in Iraq. It brings to life the people and ideas that created the Bush administration's war policy and led America to the Assassins' Gate - the main point of entry into the American zone in Baghdad. The consequences of that policy are shown in
One Nation Under Blackmail, Vol. 1: The Sordid Union Between Intelligence and Crime that Gave Rise to Jeffrey Epstein
Whitney Alyse Webb · 544 pages
Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia
Robert Lacey · 462 pages
What happened in the Middle East's oil-rich powerhouse— while we weren't looking Saudi Arabia is a country defined by paradox. It is a modern state driven by contemporary technology and possessed of vast oil deposits, yet its powerful religious establishment would have its customs and practices rolled back a thousand years to match those of the prophet Muhammad. With Inside the Kingdom, journalist