Book Description
Zainab Salbi was eleven years old when her father was chosen to be Saddam Hussein's personal pilot and her family's life was grafted onto his. Her mother, the beautiful Alia, taught her daughter the skills she needed to survive. A plastic smile. Saying yes. Burying in boxes in her mind the horrors she glimpsed around her. "Learn to erase your memories," she instructed. "He can read eyes."
In this richly visual memoir, Salbi describes tyranny as she saw it--through the eyes of a privileged child, a rebellious teenager, a violated wife, and ultimately a public figure fighting to overcome the skill that once kept her alive: silence.
Between Two Worlds is a riveting quest for truth that deepens our understanding of the universal themes of power, fear, sexual subjugation, and the question one generation asks the one before it: How could you have let this happen to us? BACKCOVER:
Praise for Between Two Worlds:
"...a torrent of vividly recalled memories [that] reads with the sort of artless verve that can come only from one who's been unshackled from a lifetime of repression."
—Vogue
"A remarkable, astonishing memoir...more can be learned about Iraq from this book than from all the newscasts."
—Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple
“A country unravels and a loving family dissolves in Zainab Salbi's riveting, beautifully observed memoir...This is the exquisite if often painful story of Salbi's own emergence from victim to global activist on behalf of women survivors of violence and war everywhere. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down.”
—Ellen Chesler, author of Woman of Valor: Margaret Sanger and the Birth Control Movement in America
“A personal, intimate look at the soul-crushing impact of Hussein's Iraq. . . . Salbi deploys a straightforward, easy prose that is powerful in its simplicity. . . . Now, with her chilling memoir, the lies end.”
—The Washington Post
“Salbi has direct personal knowledge of Hussein that is both insightful and disturbing.”
—Ms. magazine
“Engrossing. . . . a unique insider perspective . . . an evocative and haunting memoir that proves that one courageous woman can rise above her own painful past in order to make a difference in the lives of others.”
—Bookreporter.com
“A remarkable tale of emotional and mental resilience.”
—Bookpage
“. . . a steadfast visionary spirit prevails, rendered with remarkable literary skill and complex personalities.”
—Bust
Customer Reviews:
review.......2007-08-05
it took a while to get here, but it was in good condition when it did.
Between Two Worlds.......2007-07-13
Zainab Salbi's life seems idyllic, but even as a child she senses the tension felt by her wealthy parents as they entertain and are entertained by Saddam. Salbi's story shows two sides of Saddam: the cruel and abusive despot and the genial manipulator. In spite of the web Saddam spins around her family, Salbi experiences adolescent rebellion, ignorant of the danger her parents see threatening her, just as it threatened her mother and eventually ruins her parents' marriage. Salbi's story is a fascinating portrayal of a family living in luxury under tyranny and the dangers faced whether the choice is to endure or to escape.
CAPTIVATING.......2007-07-02
There was not one moment during this book that I wasn't totally captivated. The author puts a human face on the struggle of those in Iraq who lived under Saddam Hussein. And throughout, you are constantly reminded that she was among the "fortunate" by comparison. I found it to be an excellent education in the history of the country and the evolution of it in recent decades as well. I read this book on a recent camping trip in New England when I should have been mesmerized by my surroundings. Instead, I found I could not put this book down.
Outstanding Memoir, Written With Humility!.......2007-04-17
Wow! This book knocked me out. I could NOT put it down. It really helped me understand some of the conflict within Iraq, but more importantly, the author and tone of this book is just very human, real, and accessible. As a youngster, and for all of her formative years, Saddam Hussein is in the background as a family "friend". Though her parents resisted his friendship, they found it more and more dangerous not to be his friend. It's like living with the devil! However, the author eventually gets out of Iraq and away from Saddam Hussien, due to an arranged marriage. I won't say how that goes as I don't want to ruin the ending.
I do feel that this is one of the absolute BEST memoires I ever read and it was written with a lof of grace and humility. For me, it was an important book, and I highly recommend you read it. I think it will become a classic memoire.
Information you don't get from the media.......2007-04-11
Short and sweet.. This is an awesome book. You see so many sides of Suddam. His dark side certainly made him a candidate for his execution!
Book Description
Sabine Kuegler's childhood was far from typical. The child of German linguists and missionaries, she spent her youth living among the Fayu tribe in the most remote jungles of West Papua, Indonesia. There, as her family struggled for acceptance among the tightly knit and fiercely loyal community, Sabine spent her time swimming with crocodiles, shooting poisonous spiders with arrows, and chewing on pieces of bat-wing in place of gum. And she was happy. It wasn't until the age of 17 when her world was upended that Sabine experienced true fear for the first time. She was sent off to a boarding school in Switzerland and forced to confront the culture clash of modern Western society--giving her plenty of reason to be afraid. This is her remarkable true story.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful book! .......2007-09-08
This book builds a bridge between two worlds and two cultures that are so far apart. Sabine Kuegler and her family went into the world of the Fayu, a tribal people who still lived in the stone age. These people lived by the law of brutal vengence and killing. They lived in daily fear as war and death were everpresent realities for them. The Kuegler family lived among them, learned from them, and taught them by example. Over the years they had a powerful and lasting impact on the Fayu.
Sabine Kuegler has successfully opened a window for us, allowing us a glimpse into the lives of the Fayu men, women, and children who have the same needs, fears, hopes, and dreams as we all have. She writes with great respect, love, and affection about a people who came to accept and love her family as their own. Over the years through the faith, work and life of the Kueglers the Fayu found that peace and forgiveness were possible and that such a life led to great improvements in their lives.
This book also challenges us to look at our western culture. We strive for progress and consider ourselves an advanced society with humane solutions to our dilemas. We treasure our physical comforts and possessions, but the emotional health of men, women, and children are a much greater challenge in our civilization than among the Fayu, whose lives are physically very hard but emotionally more whole.
AWESOME BOOK!.......2007-08-04
My parents are friends of Sabine's, and I grew up hearing tales of the Fayu people. I awaited this book with great anticipation. It did not let me down-- it was WELL worth the read! You will love this book!!
Better than interesting.......2007-07-10
When not fun, then fascinating; when not fascinating then interesting - and always well written.
I first read the start and the end of the book, about the meeting with the European world. Then I read the rest; and I took the hole book almost in one go in one evening.
Longing for Paradise Lost.......2007-05-01
G.K. Chesterton said, "the things common to all men are more important than the things peculiar to any men." Keugler writes of peculiar circumstances, but the deep, underlying story is one common to all: a deep, unfulfilled (yet) longing for Home. And because she clearly does not (yet) know where to turn to fulfill those longings, the book ends sadly with Sabine still lost: she does not belong in Germany, or among the Fayu, or anywhere. Yet.
But Kuegler's circumstances are familiar to some. I married a `child of the jungle'--same island, same jungle, different tribe. We know some of her places, and the book is especially interesting to us because we (both missionary kids) share some of her memories: jungles, multilingualism, cannibals, crocodiles, insects, intimate friendships with `natives,' helicopters, wars, boarding schools, and a traumatic transition to being westerners lost in the West--a poignant combination of comedy and tragedy.
Kuegler's childhood, like that of many `third culture kids,' was lived in snippets--little chunks of interrupted time (like her 2-4 page chapters): a few weeks or months in the village, then a trip `out' to Jayapura, then back to the village, then a semester at boarding school, then back to the village for Christmas vacation. Her book of short chapters is a skillfully interwoven (not disconnected), almost impressionistic, collection of topics and incidents.
The second half of Kuegler's book is pierced by a wistful, powerful `Sehnsucht' (a German word she does not use)--a deep longing for something she has difficulty describing, or even identifying. As she writes of death, of separation from family and Fayu friends, of feeling misfit among her `own kind,' readers can sense her longing to belong. She mourns paradise lost and fears there is none to be regained. In "Surprised by Joy," C. S. Lewis' life is also pervaded by this Sehnsucht, and then by the joy of its fulfillment. Kuegler, hopefully, will (like Lewis and Chesterton) look again to the `good Spirit' she briefly mentions in chapters 3, 30, and 45. This longing is His gift to prod us into finding our Home (Heb. 11:13-16). I hope then to read a more joyful sequel to Kuegler's delightful first book.
Primitive voice makes tale unsatisfying to modern reader.......2007-04-26
Sabine Kuegler is in an earnest struggle to find a home in the modern world - a place made incomprehensible by her Tarzan upbringing. Dependent on her missionary parents to explain the world, she is a young woman who accepts without question the value of her family's controversial work with a Stone Age tribe. The melancholy she exhibits belies the wisdom of such an unorthodox childhood.
Now a mother in Munich, she lies awake at night pondering the psychological stresses of current life and yearns to be back in the jungle although she knows she does not belong there. Her transition to life in the twenty-first century is incomplete -- the gap too far to bridge. Modern readers will find it hard to relate to "Mama and Papa" language reminiscent of wholesome Little House pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder, while Kuegler's wide-eyed value judgments weigh down views of both the contemporary world and the Lost Valley of Irian Jaya.
Book Description
If Turkey lived up to its potential, it could rule the world - but will it? A passionate report from the front lines
For centuries few terrors were more vivid in the West than fear of "the Turk," and many people still think of Turkey as repressive, wild, and dangerous. Crescent and Star is Stephen Kinzer's compelling report on the truth about this nation of contradictions - poised between Europe and Asia, caught between the glories of its Ottoman past and its hopes for a democratic future, between the dominance of its army and the needs of its civilian citizens, between its secular expectations and its Muslim traditions.
Kinzer vividly describes Turkey's captivating delights as he smokes a water pipe, searches for the ruins of lost civilizations, watches a camel fight, and discovers its greatest poet. But he is also attuned to the political landscape, taking us from Istanbul's elegant cafes to wild mountain outposts on Turkey's eastern borders, while along the way he talks to dissidents and patriots, villagers and cabinet ministers. He reports on political trials and on his own arrest by Turkish soldiers when he was trying to uncover secrets about the army's campaigns against Kurdish guerillas. He explores the nation's hope to join the European Union, the human-rights abuses that have kept it out, and its difficult relations with Kurds, Armenians, and Greeks.
Will this vibrant country, he asks, succeed in becoming a great democratic state? He makes it clear why Turkey is poised to become "the most audacious nation of the twenty-first century."
Customer Reviews:
GREAT BOOK!.......2007-05-03
WOW, THIS IS A GREAT BOOK, HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT, I HOPE TURKEY GETS RID OF ISLAMIST FASCISM, AND TURNS COMPLETELY TO THE WEST, AND LET FREEDOM OF SPEECH RULE.
Talk, talk talkin' sappy talk.......2007-01-28
What would you think of a foreign correspondent in America who wrote about the politics of the 1990s without exploring the influence of Christianity? New York Times correspondent Stephen Kinzer has written about Turkey in the `90s without any effort to take account of Islam.
America is a secular state with a Christian society. Turkey is a secular state with a Muslim society. If the object of your sermon -- "Crescent and Star" is a sermon not an analysis -- is to promote democracy, then Christianity is not too much of a problem. There are Christian democracies. But there are not any Muslim democracies, and it must be asked, is that a consequence or an accident?
Kinzer doesn't ask. He spends chapter after chapter on the Kurds, victims of a genocide in the `90s that most of the world chose not to see. Some pages on women, a few on economics. Several chapters on the army, which runs the country as a disguised military dictatorship. Page after page about the ineffectual political system and corrupt parties.
Kinzer is capable of breathtakingly stupid writing. My favorite example is his description of the father of the republic, Kemal Ataturk: "Ataturk and his comrades came to think of themselves as righteous crusaders." I doubt any Turk ever thought of himself as any kind of crusader.
Without providing the slightest evidence, Kinzer opines: "Many devout Muslims . . . want to cooperate with secularists in building an open, tolerant nation." But the only political act tied to Islam in the book describes how Turkish Hezballah (Party of Allah) subjected Konca Kuris, a Muslim woman "who had written many articles describing Islam as a gentle, tolerant faith that demanded equality for women" to "unspeakable tortures," which they videotaped for the enjoyment and political/religious edification of Turkish Muslims.
"Crescent and Star" was finished shortly before Sept. 11, 2001, but even then anyone with eyes could see that tolerant Islam was losing ground. Even then, the secular, corrupt political establishment had made a bargain with expansionist Muslims (the Welfare Party) to bring them into the government. Readers of historical experience are likely to be reminded of how the conservatives in Germany thought they could tame Hitlerism by bringing it into the government.
Turkey would be another Iran now if the secular army had not stepped in to force the Welfarist prime minister Erbakan out. Kinzer gets half of it, writing that "the worst legacy of Erbakan's disastrous year in power was that it convinced the army that Turks were still not ready for democracy."
But having just stated that Turks were unable to handle democracy, Kinzer also says Turks are "a people who are quite mature enough to deal with the challenge of freedom."
Kinzer adores Turkey and Turkishness. It is not clear whether he is blinded by love or just a silly twit.
Turkey.......2006-08-19
Writer in general tries to be neutral in his views but did not divert himself from prejudgment, tales and fabrications regarding the Armenian allegations.
Enjoyable, but a little heavy on the preaching........2006-07-20
This is a very interesting book, which should be read by anyone who is interested in Turkish culture. However, it gives a very narrow view of this culture and the political situation. Kinzer does a very good job of presenting what is happening in Turkey, but his endless preaching does get a little old. Other than that, I truely enjoyed this book.
Insightful Perspectives on Modern Turkey.......2006-06-10
Kinzer's book provides some excellent insight into the modern world of Turkey in addition to some fun mezes into Turkish culture. His review of the country is in-depth and his perspective is enhanced by actually talking with locals on the street. Here's a man who loves the Turks and wants the best for them.
Book Description
Is there really such a thing as a “good divorce”? Determined to uncover the truth, Elizabeth Marquardt—herself a child of divorce—conducted, with Professor Norval Glenn, a pioneering national study of children of divorce, surveying 1,500 young adults from both divorced and intact families between 2001 and 2003. In Between Two Worlds, she weaves the findings of that study together with powerful, unsentimental stories of the childhoods of young people from divorced families.
The hard truth, she says, is that while divorce is sometimes necessary, even amicable divorces sow lasting inner conflict in the lives of children. When a family breaks in two, children who stay in touch with both parents must travel between two worlds, trying alone to reconcile their parents’ often strikingly different beliefs, values, and ways of living. Authoritative, beautifully written, and alive with the voices of men and women whose lives were changed by divorce, Marquardt’s book is essential reading for anyone who grew up “between two worlds.”
“Makes a persuasive case against the culture of casual divorce.”
—Washington Post
“A poignant narrative of her own experience . . . Marquardt says she and other young adults who grew up in the divorce explosion of the 1970s and 1980s are still dealing with wounds that they could never talk about with their parents.”—Chicago Tribune
Customer Reviews:
What the heck are we doing to our children?.......2007-04-30
In "Between Two Worlds" Marquardt, explores the consequences of divorce for children. Marquardt herself was the child of divorce, and it left her caught between two houses and feeling safe nowhere.
The statistics show the changes over the last 50 years. A huge increase in divorce and single parenthood is matched by a huge increase in drug abuse, sexual abuse, school difficulties, and emotional problems for our children.
And yet for 50 years, there have been cheery idiot articles and books about how to manage a "good" divorce. But as Marquardt shows, there are no good divorces for children.
Worse, there doesn't seem to be any easy way to repair the damage. Remarriage, statistically,is tied to an even higher number of problems than mere divorce. It does not replace the first marriage. A raft of grim statistics show just how badly most children fare in blended families. Very few ever feel attached to the new parent, very few ever do well in school again, very few go on to lead happy lives. And the statistics on those who are sexually and emotionally abused in blended families is incredible.
We have harmed our children and therefore we have harmed the future.
The damning legacy of divorce.......2007-04-19
Since the 1960s, the Western world has embarked upon a novel and large scale social experiment: the demolition of marriage and the elevation of divorce. Never before in the West have so many marriages ended in divorce, and so many children been forced to endure the horrors of parental separation.
This seismic shift in marriage is as new as it is far-reaching. And because it is so recent, it has only been in the past few years that an entire generation of kids who have lived through divorce have grown up and are able to give their version of events.
And that story is uniformly damning: divorce hurts children, and it hurts them deeply and in a myriad of ways. And that hurt continues throughout adult life. Another clear message coming from the these children is that there is no such thing as a "good divorce".
Sure, in some cases divorce is the only option. But in the overwhelming majority of cases, divorce need not have been the option, and children of divorce desperately wished it did not happen. In truth, children of divorce "typically experience painful loses, moral confusion, spiritual suffering, strained or broken relationships, and higher rates of all kinds of social problems". Their world, in other words, is turned upside-down.
Marquardt argues that while divorce is a way for adults to cope with their problems, it is not in the best interests of the child in most cases. Allowing for certain obvious exceptions, most difficult marriages can be remedied if the parents are willing to work at it. Indeed, most marriages that end in divorce - two-thirds of them - are low-conflict. Children do not benefit from parental divorce. Indeed, "the best possible outcome for children is to live in one home with their mother and father".
And Marquardt has double reason to make these claims. One, she is herself the child of a divorce. And two, she has based her conclusions on a pioneering study of 1,500 young adults from both intact and divorced families. The study, conducted by her and sociologist Norval Glenn, have simply verified what most people know by common sense: divorce has numerous negative consequences for children, and many of those consequences stay with them for the rest of their lives.
This book examines in detail these findings. The actual facts and figures are there, but so too are numerous personal testimonies of those involved in the study. They put a human face on to the statistical data. And the face seen is a sad one indeed. Divorce impacts children profoundly, and the stories told here are tragic and moving.
The three year study made many disturbing discoveries. Meaty chapters explore the various negative outcomes for children of divorce. Consider just one area: the divided self of the child of divorce. The child is ripped out of a cohesive and unified environment (even where conflict takes place) and "suddenly inherits two distinct worlds in which to grow up".
Says Marquardt, every marriage experiences conflict, but there is an underlying cohesion and solidarity to the marriage which is radically destroyed by divorce. In marriage two individuals "become one flesh," but in divorce the parents are separated and become two people again. And the child - quite unprepared - is forced to deal with this new reality.
Adds Marquardt, "after a divorce the task that once belonged to the parents - to make sense of their different worlds - becomes the child's. The grown-ups can no longer manage the challenge, so the child is asked to try." But that is an adult responsibility which young children just cannot carry, a burden they cannot - and should not - bear.
As a result, children of divorce are much more likely than children of intact families to experience "confusion, isolation, and suffering". They are forced to become little adults. Their childhood is ripped away from them, and they are forced to grow up way too soon.
In an intact family, the children are the centre, the nucleus, and the parents work to protect them and nurture them. But after divorce, the two parents themselves become the centre, and children are left to fend for themselves.
In effect, adults start acting like children while the child is forced to act like an adult. That is an intolerable weight for any child to have to carry. And on it goes for the child of divorce. One painful chapter after another highlights the tremendous pressures and strains foisted upon the child of divorce, and the long-term wounds they cause.
Marquardt makes it clear that not every divorce is bad, and that she is not trying to argue that divorced parents are bad people. But she does insist that divorce is primarily about adults and their needs, and almost never about children and their needs. Very few have asked how divorce impacts the children involved.
This book makes it quite clear that children are overwhelmingly losers in divorce. There is very little good at all that children receive from parental divorce. The radical restructuring of a child's world after divorce should be our main consideration. But in most cases it is not.
Our world has been transformed from being a marriage-culture to a divorce-culture. Perhaps it is time that we became a child-friendly-culture. As Marquardt says, "we need to make sweeping changes to our thinking about marriage". And this book is a great place to begin with such a rethink.
Dead on accurate.......2007-04-17
As a child of the "ideal" divorce I think anyone considering a divorce should read this book first. This dose of reality will hopefully motivate them to seriously overhaul their broken relationships with their spouses and avoid spreading the misery. If that is impossible, as in cases of adultery or abuse, it will at least help them understand what their children are really experiencing.
Without turning this into a therapy session, I will say I was that kid. My parents divorced for legitimate reasons when my brother was a toddler and I was an infant. After the divorce both camps were genuinely cooperative and positive about each other. At 33 years old I still experience the ripple effect.
My husband is the only person I ever discussed my parents' divorce with. He read a review and a few quotes from this book and he said it was eerie how the author said almost word for word things I have said to him. He suggested I get it and read it.
Between Two Worlds is dead on accurate. I was stunned reading a book that a total stranger seemed to have written about my inner life. I have never ever in the first 20 years of my life spoken of any of it aloud, and yet my heart and mind were there in black and white right in front of me. It felt almost surreal.
Be warned children of divorce-this is not a book to read in a low place in your life or just before the holidays. When you do read it, loan it someone who loves you and can hear difficult and uncomfortable things from you without trying to tell you how you should feel. That's part of the problem. We've been told how to feel for so long by society that society may not know how to hear us.
Spouses of children of divorce would really benefit from reading this book. So many different issues are covered so thoroughly in ways a child of divorce just can't or won't articulate.
There is little discussion of the legacy of divorce in the marriages of adult children of divorce and none of how being a child of divorce affects you as a parent, but being a mom, I suspect we would find some patterns if we looked. The focus is primarily on the childhood years.
Maybe the ripple effect will be explored in the next book by the author.
The only gap in this book is probably because of the age difference between the author and her sibling. I have noticed that in some cases sibling bonds tighten after divorce in ways that other sibling relationships don't. My brother and I have that experience. That wasn't explored in this book.
A valuable resource.......2007-04-12
The important thing his book addresses is the idea of values. What values do our children acquire in a divorce? Afterward, they live in different houses, with different rules, different patterns, and pick up different values. Ms. Marquardt compares and contrasts life in an intact home and a divorced home through that lens. In an intact family, if the parents disagree about a choice of action, the kids see the disagreement and reasoning behind the choices, but there is only one course of action. Parents resolve the issue and from that choice, kids learn a value. In the two divorced homes, each parent chooses to do whatever they want to do. Kids are forced to evaluate all of the information, much like adults do, with little guidance. As a result, they don't learn values that are based on morals, they learn to get by.
It is unfair to children to push them into handling things like adults when they don't have the life experience that will help them figure things out.
Ms. Marquardt also makes clear that the mantra "a good divorce" is only good for the adults who are now free to pursue whatever they wish: a new lover, a new job, a new life. It is not good for kids. Kids end up acting the way they think parents want them to act. Many kids internalize the split and are guilty about it. No matter how much we tell them that they didn't cause the split, they still miss having two parents and internalize that.
I bought this book for my ex, a child of divorce, and she said that both she and her new husband, also a child of divorce, could identify with the behavior patterns Ms. Marquardt lays out. Here's to hoping that I can keep my kids from repeating the patterns of their mother.
Powerful and challenging - must read for parents and children of divorce.......2007-01-16
What a powerful and poignant book about the effects of divorce on children. In a culture that has bought the lie that divorce doesn't have significant adverse effects on children, Marquardt begs to differ; and not only with the facts of her own personal experience, but based on her cutting-edge research of the subject. Marquardt begins the book stating what is obvious to all children of divorce, but is often overlooked by so many others - that while divorce is perceived by most to be an ending (the end of a marriage relationship), from the child's perspective, it is the beginning of a life-long struggle for security, meaning, identity and wholeness. Even in the so-called "good divorces" where there is little conflict between the parents and the child is able to remain in contact with both parents following the divorce, Marquardt raises several powerful concerns from the child's perspective. Regardless of the proverbial "good" or "bad" divorce, every child is faced with a new reality - two parents, two homes, two different and often conflicting worlds. And the child, most often, is left to deal with their feelings, with their anger, with their questions alone.
Building on the revolutionary research of Judith Wallerstein (The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: A 25 Year Landmark Study), Marquardt echoes the concerns that divorce has far more significant and lasting effects on children than previously realized or recognized. While in college, I actually took a course based on the research of Wallerstein and this issue has been very interesting to me and became much more real when, at age 26, my parents divorced. Working with students today, I can see so many of the powerful and damaging effects of divorce on their lives. As Marquardt points out in her book, children of divorce are often lonely, confused, angry, and tired of having to live two completely different lives to survive in two separate worlds created by each parent. Marquardt also notes, and from personal experience I can echo her words, that children deal with the effects of divorce long after the actual incident - it affects their own marriage, their vacations and holidays, and their sense of wholeness and security long into their adult lives.
While Marquardt is clear that her intent is not to make divorced parents feel burdened, this is a heavy and profound book for every parent who is divorced (and might be good medicine for any parent thinking about divorce). But while that secondary effect may or may not exist, the book is aimed at the children of divorce themselves and the divorce-permissive culture in which they live. Marquardt shares her heart and experiences to give strength and wisdom to others, like her, caught between the two worlds created by divorce. And she challenges the culture at large to honestly examine the concept of marriage and the handling of divorce considering the perspective of what might be best for the interests of the children, not just the rights of the parents.
Between Two Worlds is a powerful book and would be an excellent read for anyone, but will be especially meaningful for those who are children of a divorced family or the parents themselves. The lie that children are resilient and will easily adapt to the new realities created by divorce are not found in the research and are definitely not born out in the personal testimonies and experiences of Marquardt and others she studied. Divorced parents would be wise to read this book and change their approach to the parenting of their children.
Book Description
This highly acclaimed volume is the ultimate reference on this period, closely documents the alternately giddy and depressed decades between the two world wars when New York first transformed itself into a skyscraper city. Every important building of the era is described with vital background information and ample archival photographs.
Customer Reviews:
GOLDEN AGE OF NYC ARCHITECTURE.......2007-01-22
This is the New York people fall in love with, the iconic Art Deco skyline, the great skyscrapers of the 20's and 30's. When you see pictures of the skyline of the late 30's you can't help but be impressed by the awesome beauty of the all the spires. The modern skyline today is full of mediocre "modern" skyscarpers and post modern pretenders, I mean have you seen the pictures of the proposed Freedom Tower of SOM's David Childs, the very definition of bland; 1,776 feet of boring. As for this fantastic book, it's perfect; the images are well presented and the text scholarly, really an education on NYC architecture between the Great Wars. Highly Recommended.
Another of Robert A.M. Stern's excellent books.......2007-01-11
on NY architecture.
The entire collection is a MUST for every lover of NY.
The Golden Age of New York City.......2001-11-18
When people talk about New York's Golden Age, they're usually referring to the late 1800s, but I would argue that New York's true Golden Age was the 1920s. With over 800 pages, this tome is difficult to handle, but nevertheless, it covers New York at its peak of glory, and is the best of Robert Stern's books about New York architecture (e.g., New York 1880, New York 1900, New York 1960). Especially noteworthy are the beautiful b&w photos, averaging more than one per page. There are also approximately 40 floor plans, although most page space is given over to text. The authors give attention to both exteriors and interiors of the era's buildings. Each chapter covers a specific type of building, with a special emphasis on Rockefeller Center, the 1939 World's Fair, 57th Street, and the works of architects Kahn, Walker, and Hood.
An excellent record of the idealized city.......2000-06-23
This is an encyclopedic description of New York as I remember it from my student years. The numerous neat clean photographs and drawings present an idealized city. But what is additionally fascinating are the rich background histories that illustrate the social and economic complexity of Gotham. I enjoy this book at two levels: one, as a valuable artistic document, two, as an encapsulation of the memories and fantasies of my youth. I bought a sport coat at Finchleys; I lived in the Greenpoint Housing Project; I wanted to work or live in those buildings; I wanted to draw like those architects and engineers. I loved these last embodiments of Art Deco construction and the grand civic projects.
This history presents New York from the viewpoint of the upper crust and the insulated, the planning was grand and well funded. The slums, the dirt, the menace of some streets and the ethnic tapestry are ignored. Just as memory tends to purge the unpleasent, so does this book, which is probably why I enjoyed it so much.
Customer Reviews:
Advice from a Master.......2007-04-05
As a Presbyterian minister who is always trying to improve in the pulpit, I returned once again, after a long hiatus, to this book that I had read in seminary days quite some time ago. Stott's book is filled with sage advice, wisdom from someone many of us would do well to emulate, and personal belief hammered out on the anvil of parish ministry. Seminary book stores are saturated with books on homiletics--from theory to commentary, to preaching inductively to preaching deductively, from preaching with notes to preaching narratively. This is all well and good and many of these books are by noted authors and preachers. Many of them classics also. This book however is one that has stood the test of time and comes from a noted pastor faithful over the years and recognized as being so--the book's advice is sound even though the illustrations are perhaps dated. Its timeless wisdom is what is so interesting about Stott's advice, not his clairvoyance or lack thereof. If you are wanting to improve in the pulpit in learning how not only to preach, but to perhaps preach a little better, and have read other books, then maybe this book by Stott will serve its purpose--which is to make one think a bit about being a more faithful herald of God.
Foundation for Biblical Preaching - Exhaustive.......2005-04-18
Between Two Worlds is a very comprehensive book that pulls from various resources and compiles a lot of information on the topic of preaching into one detailed book.
Stott shows that the first priority of Jesus among other things was to preach. Preaching was also the first priority to the apostles, as stated in Acts 6. Stott goes on to show how preaching was the greatest priority for the great church leaders of history, and that it was the expounding of Scripture that led the Reformation. He also says that it is when preaching God's truths is neglected that the church falls into darkness and loses its power and spirituality.
Stott answers the objections to preaching in our times. There are three main objections to preaching. The problems are the atmosphere of anti-authority, the "cybernetics revolution" and the loss of confidence in the gospel. It is argued that people do not want to hear preachers talking as if they are the authority on truth and are suspicious of the "institution" or "establishment" because of its "entrenched privilege or unassailable power." However, Stott points out though that Christ himself was somewhat of an anti-establishment figure himself. The environment is different these days because most everybody is educated and has an opinion, and pastors are no longer distinguished by their education. Nevertheless, Stott believes that people actually do want some clear guidance, though they may not want to hear some arrogant person trying to shove their opinions on other people. What they are really looking for is truth that resonates in their soul, that comes from God along and His authority, and convicts their hearts through the Holy Spirit-not just some other person's opinion. What they really need is only found in the authority of God's Word. (This was insightful.) This is a primary reason for why Stott believes expository preaching is very important and still relevant, even in these "post-modern" times. The sermon is supposed to be a revelation of God's message to His people, not merely the preacher's own opinion. He says, "The sermon is by its very nature a revelation, not an exhortation."
Another problem that people see with preaching is its relevance. Many people do not see the gospel as relevant to their lives. In order for it to be relevant to the lives of other people, it has to first affect the life of the preacher and that must be evident. Preachers can be more relevant by answering the questions that people have and dealing with the issues they face in their daily lives.
Stott also describes how the use of technology in communication has made an impact on attention span of audiences. People wonder if preaching is still an effective means of communicating with people. The book is somewhat dated because the Internet revolution had not even taken off when Stott wrote it, but he was perceptive enough to see the effect of computers and technology on communication. However, Stott argues that nothing will ever replace face-to-face communication. Stott argues that the sermon is the only effective way of fulfilling the diving imperative of communicating God's messages to his church in a relevant way. I also agree with his point about how television produces a mass-culture where people turn off their brains and merely accept what is being said, without using the necessary critical faculties. Nevertheless, we cannot take television away and it is here to stay-preachers have to be able to captivate their audience's attention.
The third problem that Stott deals with is the loss of confidence in the Gospel (not to mention the Bible). We need to believe that the Gospel has the power to give people better lives. If the preacher does not believe in what he is preaching, then he should not be preaching.
Stott's chapter on the theology of preaching was my other favorite chapter. The idea of preaching is based on several convictions. The first conviction is that God is light and truth and wants to be revealed. The second conviction is that God has taken the initiative to reveal himself through the course of history. The third conviction is that God has not merely communicated through nature, but that he has actually spoken through his Word. Stott believes that God's historical action and explanatory words go hand-in-hand. It is only because God has given us a message that we can speak with authority and not of our own opinion.
There are three convictions related to Scripture that serve as a foundation of Biblical preaching. The first is that God has spoken through Scripture. Even though they are not his direct words, the Bible claims that God inspired the writers of the Bible and they wrote what they learned in their own words. Jesus quoted from the Old Testament showing that he also believed in the authority of Scripture. We must believe that the Bible is not merely a "good book" but that it is an authoritative source of Truth that helps us understand God and the world around us. The second is that he still speaks through Scripture. We must also believe that Scripture is still relevant to us today, and that it has power to change lives. How does it have power to change lives? Because truth is a mighty force, capable of starting and stopping war when nothing else is as powerful. This is fundamental to the Christian faith. The Christian church depends on the authority of Scripture. When we preach, we are to preach with the authority of God by expounding on His messages as revealed through Scripture written by humans. Preaching caused the Reformation and the greatest spiritual revivals.
The pastor's role is as a shepherd who is responsible for guarding the spirituality of the church congregation and keeping them connected to God. As shepherds, they are responsible for the spiritual nourishment of the congregation through teaching and preaching.
Stott defines preaching as bridge building. It builds a bridge between the past, historical context and the truths contained in Scripture, connecting it to the present times in a contemporary context, thus the importance of exegesis and hermeneutics. He goes into the subject of Biblical exegesis and expository preaching. For a book that deals with preaching based on properly interpreting the Bible, see my review on "Biblical Preaching" by Robbinson. (ISBN 0801022622) The chapter on preparing sermons was mostly review for me.
We also must come to Scripture with expectancy-a hope that we will find something that God will speak to us through. However, Stott is concerned about preachers who spend all their time in their study without some practical real-world experience. He says that we should also study other things besides the Bible so we can know how to connect the Bible to modern-times.
Stott goes on to emphasize the importance of sincerity and earnestness. People want to know that we are honest, real people who really care about what we are talking about. He mentions that humor, when used properly, can be a powerful tool for breaking down defenses and connecting people on an emotional level. Finally, Stott talks about the need to be courageous in speaking about issues that may not be popular.
Bridging the Chasm through Preaching.......2004-05-14
Stott's modern classic, Between Two Worlds, argues that there is a chasm between the biblical world and the modern world. This chasm is bridged through the preaching and proclamation of the Word of God. It is the preacher, empowered through the Spirit, who stands in the gap between these two worlds. It is through preaching whereby the world of the Bible is brought into the world of modern hearers and modern culture is confronted with the Bible.
Stott begins by briefly surveying the history of preaching from Jesus to the 20th-Century. He continues by answering three objections, which are commonly leveled against preaching. First, he confronts the anti-authority mood of our culture by arguing that preaching should be dialogical - preaching is not a monologue but a conversation. The second objection is the ever-growing problem with the technological dominance of our culture. God is a speaking God and Christianity is very much a culture of the written and spoken word. How then is one to be heard in an ever-increasing culture of images? Stott shows that the sacraments are visual and most necessary our lives must visually reflect the message we proclaim. The last objection is the loss of confidence in the gospel. Founded upon strong conviction, Christian preaching, must regain confidence in the truth, relevance, and power of the gospel.
The heart of the book is found in chapters three and four. Chapter three highlights the theological foundations for preaching. One must have biblical convictions about God, Scripture, the Church, the pastorate, and preaching. We must allow the text to be master and preachers must recognize that they are servants to Scripture. In chapter four he proceeds to make the case that preaching is bridge-building. Modern people often question the relevance of ancient Scripture. It is the task of the preacher to show them Scripture's relevance and demand on their lives. Therefore preachers are to be men of the Word and men of the world.
In chapters five and six Stott offers help on the task of preaching. Chapter five deals with the roll of study in the life of the pastor. We are to study the Bible and the world and in doing such the purpose is not to gain intellectual knowledge but to learn to think and live more Christianly. Chapter six deals with the preparation and construction of sermons. He points to the necessity of noting the dominant thought of the text and using this as the basis and proposition statement of your sermon. Around this thought - the main point of the scriptural text - is to flow the entire sermon.
The final two chapters deal with the character of the preacher. Stott stresses that the preacher must the balance of sincerity and earnestness, courage and humility. The purpose of preaching is to both comfort and disturb the congregation. The preacher is to declare the sinfulness of humanity and the hope of the gospel of Christ. In doing so the preacher must speak to both the heart and the mind - the whole person is to be in view. Christian preaching is to be done in the humility of our human frailty yet in the power of the Spirit of God.
Stott's book is both a theological and practical argument for sound preaching. The chapter on the history of preaching, although terribly short, certainly serves to whet one's appetite for a deeper history on the preaching of God's Word. For filling in the blanks one should consult Hughes Oliphant-Old's magisterial The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church.
The book shows its age in dealing with the contemporary objections for another transmitter of information and images is the Internet. Between the Internet and TV the preacher has his work cut out for him. How is one to make the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments interesting and exciting for those who have the Internet and hundreds of television channels? It is truly a great and daunting task.
The section in which Stott makes suggestions in dealing with controversial issues is helpful. He suggests making good use of your congregation. Listen to your people and hear their opinions and ideas on such difficult questions. Let them speak and listen to their thoughts and ideas. Seek to know their hearts and minds and then preaching through the more difficult waters will be more safely charted.
The role of the preacher is a high and lofty task. Not only is he to know the Bible but he also must know his congregation and the world in which they exist. He is to be a man of the Bible and a man of the newspaper. The task of preaching is to bridge the chasm, which exists between the Biblical world and the modern world. It is a difficult yet great calling. Stott's book is a great guide to this end. It will benefit both the seasoned pastor and the preacher in training. And may this book serve as a call to reclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ in our preaching and ministry. To him be all the glory!
There are better books out there than this.......2003-08-11
Stott believes that preaching is indispensable to Christianity, for in the act of preaching God himself is speaking though the Word to the congregation. There is, however, a cultural divide between biblical and modern culture that must be bridged if effective communication is to take place and the preacher has the awesome responsibility to bridge the gap.
In the best tradition of the reformation, Stott emphasizes the centrality of preaching. In doing so, he is taking a stand which is increasingly lonely as the contemporary church is stressing worship, often at the expense of preaching. Like Chapell, he is somewhat suspicious of new forms of proclamation (narrative, drams, etc). The church, he states, stands or falls in preaching and preaching alone. Unfortunately, he does take quite a while to make this point.
The book is very dated filled with illustrations and studies from the 1970's. His projections how life will be by the year 2000 are way off the mark (Colonies on Mars and CB radios in every car and home are two of the more ridiculous examples). Often, Stott will drift off his subject into excessive social commentary. His long discussion on the influence of television on children is a prime example His advise to encourage debate with liberal Christian scholars misses the point- These scholars do not have the same world view we do, what's the use of a debate?
If this book was not required reading, I would have not completed it. It's too "British" for my tastes. Despite the helpful advice Stott does give, I believe that there are other books out there that can do a better job.
More than Preaching.......2003-04-16
John Stott is a preacher of great renown so it is both enlightening and encouraging to read about his struggles with preaching as well as the advice he gives after a lifetime in the pulpit. Throughout the book he inserted small parentheses which seem minuscule but are very helpful to the aspiring preacher. Another delight in reading Stott's book is his thorough scouring of many homiletical books of others. In reading this book, one gets the sense they are reading somewhere between 8-10 books since Stott is culling information from them. This book is a far cry from being a shot from the hip. Stott has researched his topic well. I found this book to be more than just an homiletics book but also a history book and a spiritual formation book. With the modern crisis in preaching of preachers who are ignorant of the history of preaching and more importantly impotent in their spirituality, I can hardly criticize Stott for giving more attention to these matters. Since I enjoy Church history a great deal, I was pleased to read the perspectives many of the great preachers had on the form, power and content of preaching. This bred a great deal of understanding in my own mind toward the task of preaching. I was also greatly encouraged to see the effects of God's Word as it has been preached from faithful vessels with God's glory in mind. If there is one thing I would want to communicate to others about this book it would be its emphasis on the mandatory spiritual life. From cover to cover Stott is emphatic in separating God's Word from man's word. Since the preacher is not preaching his own ideas but rather God's, it is imperative that the preacher not impede the power of the message with his own shoddy character. The preacher is first of all a man of God and secondly a receptacle and a distributor of God's Word.
Amazon.com
The perilous ramifications of the September 11 attacks on the United States are only now beginning to unfold. They will undoubtedly be felt for generations to come. This is one of many sad conclusions readers will draw from Craig Unger's exceptional book House of Bush House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties. As Unger claims in this incisive study, the seeds for the "Age of Terrorism" and September 11 were planted nearly 30 years ago in what, at the time, appeared to be savvy business transactions that subsequently translated into political currency and the union between the Saudi royal family and the extended political family of George H. W. Bush. On the surface, the claim may appear to be politically driven, but as Unger (a respected investigative journalist and editor) probes--with scores of documents and sources--the political tenor of the U.S. over the last 30 years, the Iran-Iraq War, the war in Afghanistan, the birth of Al Qaeda, the dubious connection between members of the Saudi Royal family and the exportation of terror, and the personal fortunes amassed by the Bush family from companies such as Harken Energy and the Carlyle Group, he exposes the "brilliantly hidden agendas and purposefully murky corporate relationships" between these astonishingly powerful families. His evidence is persuasive and reveals a devastating story of Orwellian proportions, replete with political deception, shifting allegiances, and lethal global consequences. Unger begins his book with the remarkable story of the repatriation of 140 Saudis directly following the September 11 attacks. He ends where Richard A. Clarke begins, questioning the efficacy of the war in Iraq in the battle against terrorism. We are unquestionably facing a global security crisis unlike any before. President Bush insists that we will prevail, yet as Unger so effectively concludes, "Never before has an American president been so closely tied to a foreign power that harbors and supports our country's mortal enemies." --Silvana Tropea
Book Description
Newsbreaking and controversial -- an award-winning investigative journalist uncovers the thirty-year relationship between the Bush family and the House of Saud and explains its impact on American foreign policy, business, and national security.
House of Bush, House of Saud begins with a politically explosive question: How is it that two days after 9/11, when U.S. air traffic was tightly restricted, 140 Saudis, many immediate kin to Osama Bin Laden, were permitted to leave the country without being questioned by U.S. intelligence?
The answer lies in a hidden relationship that began in the 1970s, when the oil-rich House of Saud began courting American politicians in a bid for military protection, influence, and investment opportunity. With the Bush family, the Saudis hit a gusher -- direct access to presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. To trace the amazing weave of Saud- Bush connections, Unger interviewed three former directors of the CIA, top Saudi and Israeli intelligence officials, and more than one hundred other sources. His access to major players is unparalleled and often exclusive -- including executives at the Carlyle Group, the giant investment firm where the House of Bush and the House of Saud each has a major stake.
Like Bob Woodward's The Veil, Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud features unprecedented reportage; like Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? Unger's book offers a political counter-narrative to official explanations; this deeply sourced account has already been cited by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, and sets 9/11, the two Gulf Wars, and the ongoing Middle East crisis in a new context: What really happened when America's most powerful political family became seduced by its Saudi counterparts?
Download Description
"Newsbreaking and controversial -- an award-winning investigative journalist uncovers the thirty-year relationship between the Bush family and the House of Saud and explains its impact on American foreign policy, business, and national security. House of Bush, House of Saud begins with a politically explosive question: How is it that two days after 9/11, when U.S. air traffic was tightly restricted, 140 Saudis, many immediate kin to Osama Bin Laden, were permitted to leave the country without being questioned by U.S. intelligence? The answer lies in a hidden relationship that began in the 1970s, when the oil-rich House of Saud began courting American politicians in a bid for military protection, influence, and investment opportunity. With the Bush family, the Saudis hit a gusher -- direct access to presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. To trace the amazing weave of Saud- Bush connections, Unger interviewed three former directors of the CIA, top Saudi and Israeli intelligence officials, and more than one hundred other sources. His access to major players is unparalleled and often exclusive -- including executives at the Carlyle Group, the giant investment firm where the House of Bush and the House of Saud each has a major stake. Like Bob Woodward's The Veil, Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud features unprecedented reportage; like Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? Unger's book offers a political counter-narrative to official explanations; this deeply sourced account has already been cited by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, and sets 9/11, the two Gulf Wars, and the ongoing Middle East crisis in a new context: What really happened when America's most powerful political family became seduced by its Saudi counterparts?"
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2007-09-26
Craig Unger has connected a lot of the dots! I think this should be required reading. It is depressing to read about all the crap that is going with our government and know that there is nothing that can be done about it. Left feeling outraged and helpless. At times it felt like a thriller and I am sorry that it is not fiction!
Politically correct!.......2007-07-26
It was during the 1930's that American geologists informed President Roosevelt about the immense oil resources of Saudi Arabia. Aware that the future of nations would greatly depend on oil, Roosevelt quickly established friendly diplomatic relations with the Saudi Royal family.
Then in 1974 a Texas aircraft broker named James Bath sold an F-27 turboprop to Salem bin Laden, Osama's older brother. (As a footnote, Salem bin Laden died in a small general aviation aircraft that he was piloting in Texas). From that moment onwards developed the "Houston-Jeddah Connection" which allowed wealthy Saudis to gain access to powerful Texas politicians and the Bush family that still lasts up till today.
The Saudis' ultimate goal was access to the inner sanctum of the US presidency. Businessmen such as BCCI's bin Mahfouz rescued American politicians' companies that were in financial distress. The author puts a price tag on the Saudis' contributions to the Bush family at a staggering $1.4 billion! Furthermore, $860 billion were invested by the Saudis in the US.
Then there is the Bush-Carlyle relationship. The Carlyle Group put George W. Bush on the board of one of its subsidiaries, Caterair, in 1990. From that moment on, the Bush family's relationship with the Carlyle Group began to become substantive. Key figures at the Carlyle Group included such powerful figures as James Baker, Frank Carlucci, and Richard Darman.
With former Secretary of Defense Carlucci guiding the acquisition of defense companies, Carlyle began making a lot of money from the Saudis, both through investments from the royal family, the bin Ladens and other members of the Saudi elite, and through lucrative defense investments.
The author shows how US leaders repeatedly chose to ignore the warning signs of Saudi extremism and corruption, in return for access to material wealth the Saudis promised them.
The Saudis also assisted the US in arming the Contras and Iraq.
According to the author, George W. Bush's narrow victory in the contested 2000 presidential election was due to the American-Arabs in Florida voting for Bush. They tipped the balance of the vote!
Many will find this Saudi-US relationship repugnant, especially when fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Despite this latter fact, the White House helped about 140 Saudi royals and bin Ladens to fly out of the U.S. only days after 9/11 when all commercial and private flights were grounded. At first, the FBI denied this fact. Later, it was substantiated. The author contends that, contrary to FBI's insistences, the Saudis weren't screened as required by the FBI. All this was happening behind closed doors when no one else was allowed to fly. Former President Clinton was stuck in Australia, and former Vice President Al Gore was stuck in Austria.
Craig Unger's book shows how world Presidents and politicians are more than just elected officials -- they are members of circles of family and friends out to serve their own purposes and goals.
This book might deceive the reader in believing that the powerful Saudi Royals can and do influence the US Government. This is absolutely not true, but rather the other way around. The US holds the Saudi Royals in a strait-jacket, and they know very well that should the US decide to remove them from power, they can easily do so. Seeking to maintain power at all cost, the Saudi Royals are nothing more than a US puppet regime making a strong effort to please the Americans at all cost. It's all about personal favors - you scratch my back and I scratch yours. To illustrate, Crown prince Abdullah was shocked when he saw a picture of an Israeli soldier with his foot on the face of a young Palestinian girl. He called his nephew, prince Bandar, then the Saudi Ambassador to the US, and asked him to deliver a personal message to Bush condemning the Israelis. The message used strong language and did not carry a friendly tone. Bush junior was shocked. He immediately replied with a handwritten letter, stating that he supported an independent Palestinian State and asked that the Saudi-US friendly relationship continue. Crown Prince Abdullah boosted about this letter to Arab leaders, displaying the power the Saudi government had over the US. This boosting was short lived, for days later the events of 9/11 unfolded, and the Saudis found themselves on the defensive. They could not influence the US; it was the other way around. The US now held the Saudis by the throat!
You might ask how was it possible for all planes to be grounded after the 9/11 attacks except for those planes that were carrying Saudis? Bush has a lot to gain personally to extend favors to his rich friends!
This book is also an expose of the US role in the creation of the Mujahedeen or "Holy warriors", Osama bin Laden, and of Saddam Hussein. The Mujahedeen were created by the US to fight for the American cause under the pretext of fighting in the cause of Islam against the atheist foreign invaders. One of these Muslim "Holy warriors" was Osama bin Laden, who was transformed from a spoiled rich kid educated in the US to the Mujahedeen leader. The US was not bothered by the Mujahedeen as long as they served the US goal of weakening the Soviets.
Saddam Hussein was created by the US to fight the Iranians who were viewed as a threat to the US. At first, under the Shah of Iran, the US supported Iran and armed it to the teeth. When the Shah of Iran was overthrown by the Ayatollah Khomeini and the US Embassy at Tehran was taken hostage, the US changed positions. Carter encouraged Saddam Hussein to attack Iran to ultimately free the US hostages. However, America soon realized that Iraq was gaining strength, so they once more changed positions and financed Iran. The US was giving Iran and Iraq conventional, chemical, and biological weapons to use on each other! This ping pong policy went on during Carter's presidency.
Reagan and Bush senior supported Saddam Hussein, even after they found out he was using chemical weapons against his own Kurdish citizens. Bush senior, during his Vice Presidency, went to the Middle East to give Iraq weapons of mass destruction and the media showed the meeting as "moving the peace process forward".
Of course the US was not bothered by Saddam Hussein as long as he served the US goal of weakening Iran. Saddam may have been a brutal dictator, but he was the US-made dictator. This is how the age of terrorism was born, sculpted by no other than the United States of America.
Saddam's relationship with Bush senior quickly deteriorated after Saddam invaded Kuwait and threatened to invade Saudi Arabia, thus endangering the global market for petroleum. The US asked King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to offer it bases in order to strike Saddam. Osama bin Laden, now viewed as a hero by all Arab nations for defeating the Soviets, asked King Fahd to deny the US request. King Fahd refused, and allowed the US to establish bases on Saudi soil. This angered Osama, and he declared a jihad against the United States because U.S. soldiers were being based in Saudi Arabia, the holy land of the two holy mosques in Medina al-Monawara and Mecca. Osama viewed the American bases as a blasphemy against Islam, with the "infidels" now standing on the "sacred soil". This rupture caused the King to send Osama into exile and confiscated his passport. Osama was therefore no longer a Saudi citizen. However, the other members of the wealthy bin Laden family remained close to the Saudi royals.
With its bases now in Saudi Arabia within easy striking distance to the Iraqi forces, the US, with the help of an international army, expelled the Iraqi army from Kuwait and imposed strict sanctions on Iraq as punishment. As a footnote, the author claims that Saddam Hussein did not amass a large army into Kuwait. The author alleges that two Soviet commercial satellites showed no Iraqi troop buildup in Kuwait except America's own troops.
Time went by, and Clinton was elected president. He continued the sanctions against Iraq and on several occasions bombed Iraq. But no crippling attempts were made against Iraq or removing Saddam from power. But when Bush junior came into power, he was determined to finish off what his father had started in Iraq. His goal also involved a highly personal grudge, as Saddam had previously attempted to have Bush senior assassinated while he visited his troops in Kuwait.
Prior to Bush junior's election, a policy favoring the overthrow of Saddam had already been written up by a neo-conservative group called "Project for a New American Century". Now Bush was waiting for any excuse to invade Iraq. This excuse came after 9/11. Bush junior grabbed this opportunity to invade Iraq, even though no Iraqis were on any of the airplanes in the terrorist attacks of 9/11; no al-Qaeda camps were present on Iraqi soil; and no weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq.
On March 28, 2002, Abu Zubaydah, a top al-Qaeda operative, was arrested in Pakistan. He was interrogated, and named three Saudi princes, including Prince Ahmed bin Salman, as al-Qaeda's link to the Saudi royal family. Zubaydah said Ahmed knew of 9/11 in advance. Prince Ahmed bin Salman died suspiciously on July 22, 2002, and the other Saudi princes named by Zubaydah mysteriously died as well by the end of the year.
Here are a few interesting comments by some reviewers on amazon.com:
"It goes without saying that the current Saudi monarchial regime is better than the alternative -- a radical Islamist theocracy."
"So what the heck are we doing dealing with these people? Three words: oil, oil, oil."
"How can you expect Bush to protect us from terrorism when he hangs out with the main financial backers of terrorism?"
"Have you ever wondered how the Saudi elite can be the playboys of the Western world, have homes in the United States, and still be the rulers of a strict Islamic nation that openly and vehemently despises anything Western and especially American?"
"Why was the Bush Administration opposed to an official investigation of 9/11? Remember, the 9/11 hijackers were mostly Saudis, and a few Egyptians -- no Iraqis or Afghans. Why did the Bush Administration censor 26 pages in the Congressional investigation of 9/11 about the U.S.-Saudi relationship? What secrets are the House of Bush and the House of Saud hiding from their respective peoples and the rest of the world?"
This book will leave you scratching and shaking your head in disbelief at the inner workings of governments. It will certainly change the way you think about politicians!
It Connects the Dots - Every Little, Bitty One........2007-07-08
I've been researching the "House of Bush" personally for over 20 years - peaked by the Iran-Contra Affair.
This copiously noted and researched book will put you on the top of the info wave....just in time for Bush43rd's turn at the helm of a Titanic ofa presidency.
With this information in hand, I am sure the Congress will be able to make their case for investigation of any and all trade agreements and security arrangements that Bush43 has been arranging with the House of Saud and their friends.
Great book for a long summer week out camping. Just remember to bring along Post-Its....you will be bookmarking every other paragraph for 'future reference'.
An Insightful Investigation Revealing a Lucrative Relationship .......2007-06-04
I must praise Unger for breaking down every detail for a clear understanding. I especially appreciated him jumping back to the roots of a secretive relationship between the "Bush Dynasty" and the wealthy elites of the desert monarchy of Saudi Arabia, to reveal the unknown wealth transferred between the two friends and how that money landed into the hands of the most notorious terrorist known to the modern world. Knowing the history of any relationship, event and or situation does enlighten ones eyes to the truths that lay hidden to citizens of the world, and Unger does just that, by revealing the secrets of the money transferring through the BCCI. I did enjoy the first half of the book more than the last half, only because Unger seemed to get wordy with descriptions, and declined to share with the readers critical information about the first gulf war (this is just one example: how Bush senior didn't want to invade Iraq itself, after deeming Saddam as dangerous not because he didn't want to start a war but because Iran would end up controlling the potentially weakened, Shiite majority country, and that is exactly what is happening today) Overall personally Unger was not as tell all as I thought he would be, and was a bit too conservative for my radical point of view.
The frightening truth.......2006-11-27
This is a must read for all. After reading this, if you still want to vote republican, fine. At least you are informed. For those who can really stand by the PNAC, go for it. The rest of us would like a democracy.
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Bridge of Light: Yiddish Film Between Two Worlds
J. Hoberman
Manufacturer: Temple University Press
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Book Description
This fascinating cultural and social history places Yiddish-language cinema in the contexts of twentieth-century Jewish history, the history of motion pictures—particularly in the United States, Poland, and the Soviet Union—and the development of Yiddish secular culture. From the legendary moviehouses and figures to the classic and forgotten films, Bridge of Light is a testament to Yiddish cinema's glory days and an homage to it in its decline.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic.......2000-04-26
This book is a perfect introduction to Yiddish film. Very little has actually been written about Yiddish film. Hoberman compiles the extant scholarship and couples it with astute and original analysis of the films. He brings Yiddish film away from being a novelty; he contextualizes Yiddish film in such a way as to show its general importance in mainstream film and American and European life. Yiddish movies portrayed the experience of Jews in the world; but more interesting is the effect Yiddish film had in the Americanization of Yiddish-speaking immigrants. For scholars interested in Yiddish film, this is a good first stop. For non-scholars, it is the only book you could want on the subject: entertaining, wonderful pictures and anecdotes, and interesting to browse through.
Fantastic.......2000-04-26
This book is a perfect introduction to Yiddish film. Very little has actually been written about Yiddish film. Hoberman compiles the extant scholarship and couples it with astute and original analysis of the films. He brings Yiddish film away from being a novelty; he contextualizes Yiddish film in such a way as to show its general importance in mainstream film and American and European life. Yiddish movies portrayed the experience of Jews in the world; but more interesting is the effect Yiddish film had in the Americanization of Yiddish-speaking immigrants. For scholars interested in Yiddish film, this is a good first stop. For non-scholars, it is the only book you could want on the subject: entertaining, wonderful pictures and anecdotes, and interesting to browse through.
Book Description
Cemal Kafadar offers a much more subtle and complex interpretation of the early Ottoman period than that provided by other historians. His careful analysis of medieval as well as modern historiography from the perspective of a cultural historian demonstrates how ethnic, tribal, linguistic, religious, and political affiliations were all at play in the struggle for power in Anatolia and the Balkans during the late Middle Ages.
This highly original look at the rise of the Ottoman empire--the longest-lived political entity in human history--shows the transformation of a tiny frontier enterprise into a centralized imperial state that saw itself as both leader of the world's Muslims and heir to the Eastern Roman Empire.
Customer Reviews:
A Sophisticated Book.......2001-07-21
Reading this book requires quite a background on the theses of the foundation of the Ottoman Empire. The author questions the accounts about the nature of the early Ottoman state. Did it consist of tribal Turks (extension of Seljuks) with the purpose of propagating Islam as asserted by Koprulu or were they heteredox gazis cooperating with Christian Byzantine locals as asserted by Wittek? Or were they just plunderers as claimed by a couple of Greek historians? Kafadar is very analytical. It is quite stimulating to read his logical deductions where historical data are not available. He seems to reach a synthesis closer to Wittek but not quite Wittek though. It seems more like Lindner who revised Wittek's argument in 1980's. Kafadar further discusses how the centralization of the Ottoman administration during the early 15th century eliminated the gaza spirit over time. The book is analytic and presents interesting facts and possibilites such as the real name (or the second name) of Osman.
The only drag is the abbreviations. For example, the author uses Apz for Asikpasazade or OE for Ottoman Empire throughout the text.
It is very well worth reading if you are interested in the nature of early Ottomans.
Out of this world.......2001-04-10
Reading Kafadar's book is not only reading a history of the Ottoman Empire, but it is remembering the complexity of history. Kafadar's book analyses the forces at play, their effects, and their results on the creation of the Ottoman Empire. The questions Kafadar asks in this book are not only very important to uncover the often misunderstood beginnings of the Ottoman's; but it also addresses "the myths of creation" about the Ottoman Empire, which were to serve political purposes. Last but not least Kafadar's style is very powerful and capable of working on such a problematic period and yet make the reader flow through his arguments so easily. I can recommend this book to all interested in the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East and generally in great historical analysis, do not shy away from it because it is not a popular historical account.
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