1990 Books

... to tell your truth.

This epochal work illustrates the gap between reality and the historical cliches acccepted by most people in these United States, as enshrined for example in San Antonio's Alamo. It de-demonizes the Mexicans (whose laws banned slavery) and their President Santa-Anna (who had every right to try to get rid of "illegal immigrants"--isn't that an irony now that the shoe is on the other foot!) while shedding a corrective light on the Anglo-Texans' goals (exercize their "freedom" to occupy a foreign territory to then illegally introduce therein an otherwise banned "peculiar" practice).

More importantly, Professor Taylor documents in this book, in exemplary and objective fashion, the complex fate of an American minority and its long-standing efforts to regain, at long last, its constitutionally recognized unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Taylor's book represents a monumental achievement. This is a tremendous book that covers the history of Blacks in the West more completely and with greater detail than any previous work. It easily supplants William Katz's "The Black West" and W. Sherman Savage's "Blacks in the West" as the definitive work in the field. This book should be required reading for every student in American history.

What is initially strking about this masterful endeavor is its scope--from its chronological detail to its rich geographic attention to the broader West. An engaging scholarly work that certainly qualifies within the the realm of required reading for any curriculum in U.S. History or African American studies. It is refreshing to find a more recently compiled history of the black experience, one that focuses on the broad range of African American social evolution throughout the American West. I was particularly interested in his narrative on the cultural assimilation of blacks into Native American society. Highly impressive in its bibliographic scope, this work rates as a definitive contribution to more current historiographic material.

Written in 1990,one might think that this book is incredibly out of date and of little relevance. To the contrary, the book contains a wealth of information which is still extremely appropriate for our understanding of current events involving the PLO.

The book describes how Yasser Arafat, after being driven out of Lebanon in 1982, travelled the World with all of the fanfare and honour normally accorded a head of state. Despite, as is described here, the extensive knowledge of his involvement in International terrorism with Arafat even being described as the " father" of international terror and the "inventor" of aircraft hi-jackings.

This book contains often shocking information, often from intelligence sources, about Yasser Arafat & his followers plus the complex structure of the PLO and it's International machinations. Besides the many terrorist elements revealed are also the "protection rackets" and extortions which have helped the PLO to become the richest terrorist organisation in the entire World whilst ordinary Palestinians are allowed by their leadership to live in squalor. The book also reveals the direct involvement of Yasser Arafat in the murders of at least two US Ambassadors. The book pulls no punches in describing how the PLO under Yasser Arafat has lined up politically and militarily with the enemies of the USA.

The book, which as stated was written in 1990, states that even then Arafat had yet to demonstrate his ability or desire to "police" his own community and provide the kind of assurances necessary for Israel to take him at his word. (Page 29). The book elaborating that a PLO ruled state in the "West Bank" and Gaza might "might even turn out to be an even greater source of instability than the present stateless PLO...".

The book also queries the potential relationship of such a future state with what would be "neighbouring" Jordan, whose population is described as mostly Palestinian. The possible dangers and potential "military alliances" are voiced.

The book describes, how even over a decade ago, public appearances of Yasser Arafat were carefully orchestrated to downplay his "terrorist" image and to make him appear more benign and "statesmanlike". It being further stated that Arafat's "handlers" were always careful to ensure that he looked the part of the "victim".

Much of the PLO's history is documented from it's establishment in 1964, including the "Black September" conflict with Jordan where some six to ten thousand Palestinians are stated as having lost their lives in fighting with Jordanian forces, before the PLO was forcibly ejected. The book describing the end of a "state within a state" in Jordan and the beginning of a "state within a state" in Lebanon.

The book reveals Yasser Arafat to have been born in Cairo, Egypt in 1928 with the name of Abed a-Rachman Abed a-Rauf Arafat al-Qudwah al-Husseini. Also illustrated are his claims, based on political expediency, to have been born in "Palestine" in both Gaza & Jerusalem. The book depicted how, early in life, Arafat dropped any reference to his last name to distance himself from what the book describes as "his illustrious relative" Haj Amin al-Husseini who collaborated with Adolf Hitler during World War 2 & the "final solution" to the "Jewish problem".

The book describes the internal structure of the PLO, it's constituent elements and it's relationship to other terrorist organisations throughout the World, plus it's "secret agenda" pertaining to Israel and the Palestinian National Charter that calls for the eradication of Israel.

I respectfully recommend that all those interested in the "peace process" obtain a copy of this book.

One of the best books I've ever encountered. Buy it now, don't hesitate. I guarantee you won't regret it. This book will leave a lasting impression on you and will change your opinion, while informing you about the things that you've never heard before. Buy this book RIGHT NOW. DO NOT HESITATE!

This book takes us inside the complicated machinery that is the PLO. It removes the whitewash and demonstrates conclusively the PLO's hand in numerous terrost incidents. A must read for anyone interested in the middle east scene and how Americans have been lied to.

I was fortunate enough to have a class taught by Dr. Roach, and I have to say that this book is superb. Each concept has an essay that concisely explains the topic. It's very clear and very helpful in understanding anything concerning international relations, especially the international political economy. I'm keeping it after the class because it's so useful.

This book is quite useful for the student of international studies. Very clear and informative.

This book provides an excellent introduction to International Relations through an examination of concise essays concerning such areas as Terrorism, the Cold War, Human Rights and Globalisation among others. For a better understanding of the complexities of world events and to be well informed about historical concepts, this book is an excellent read. The subjects are placed in the broad sweep of history, pointing to relationships that will encourage discursive reading. International Relations - The Key Concepts, will remain the pre-eminent reference work, that in my view will be unsurpassed.

A great presentation of what I expected to be an unexciting topic. Examines the workings of the political system in a highly readable way. I was not only well-informed after I read the book, but entertained as well!

This is excellent material if you are conducting any kind of serious research on NAFTA and its negotiations' development and outcome. It provides with a huge theoretical framework, every step of the process. If your line of work is game theory, this book will really help you (or at least it worked wonders for me). This is mandatory reference material for anyone interested in studying NAFTA.

Mayer rivals Grisham. He enfolds the strategy of NAFTA like a good murder-mystery. More proof that reality is more entertaining than fiction. It's a thriller, a nail-biter. I couldn't put it down!

A specialist in Japanese politics and military affairs, Peter Woolley understands the current and growing importance of Japan's Navy, the most powerful navy, besides that of the US, operating in the Pacific. Woolley has in turn written a valuable study of Japan's Navy and the political processes that continue to refine its role. Woolley comments that while many in the US brush aside Japan as being economic competitors and little else, the Japanese Self Defense Forces "...are the greatest complement to the US force structure in the pacific," and he sees their role growing as Japan becomes more willing to participate in UN operations and humanitarian interventions throughout Asia. The US demonstrated during the crisis in E. Timor that it is not always willing to use its arms and treasure to resolve Asian troubles. Here Woolley sees Japan becoming the US' regional surrogate. Japan's Navy : Politics and Paradox is a valuable asset that belongs in the library of any student of Asian or international politics.

Peter Woolley's new book is brief,, accessible, packed with information, and provocative. It effectively corrects many of the all-too-common misconceptions about Japan's contribution to Western defenses during the Cold War, and after. It will be a valuable resource not only for those concerned with Japanese security questions, but also for the very large audience interested in the emerging power configuration in the increasingly vital Pacific Basin.

In the 1980's when Japan's economy was hot, it was fashionable for Americans to worry about Japan becoming the next superpower and, at the same time, critisize Japan for not spending enough on defense. What was the bizarre logic? Perhaps it was that Japan should spend generously on defense and thereby undermine its prosperity. More likely the idea was that Japan was getting a free ride in defense matters and should pony up. But who really WANTED Japan to spend more on its armed forces?

Woolley's book examines Japan's defense policies from the early 1970's through the present and puts Japan's defense policies in some reasonable perspective: that Japan contributed greatly to Western defense, to the Cold War, and to peace in the Pacific while laboring under extremely delicate political conditions at home. These constraints--legal, popular, and even international--forced defense to be a low-profile issue with low-profile policies. But that low-profile did not make Japan's defense any less important.

Japan's best defense investments went into the lowest profile of service: the navy. The warships went off to the vast expanse of the Pacific blue for ops and, what's more, could practice their trade in the shadow of the US Navy.

Today, the Soviet Navy has rusted and China's navy is at least 20 years behind in technology. But Japan's navy is still the highly useful, dependable and low-profile partner of the United States. (Ask anyone who is worried about the mysterious North Korean government or the unending spat between the PRC and Taiwan.)

And now, with the Cold War over and Japan's economy apparently much less threatening to the rest of the world (except if it goes in the tank), Japan has been able to raise its defense profile, beginning to contribute now to UN operations. While these contributions have not attracted much attention--or much praise, Japan has nonetheless been able to send troops abroad, using the navy, army, and airforce.

Of course, still no one refers to these organizations as army, airforce or navy. They are "self defense forces." So be it.

For the average reader, the first chapter, a "primer" on Japanese politics will be most useful. Japan is too often compared to the United States rather than to the whole range of modern democracies.

For the more attentive reader, chapters on sealane defense and UN operations will be informative and sometimes amusing. Woolley has a way of subtly mocking pop-critisism of Japan.

For the nitty-gritty naval buff, however, there might be little here. Woolley is much more focused on the political than on the nuts an bolts of naval ops.

It is certainly recommended for any library on Japan, recent international relations, or US military relations.

La revolución granadina de 1979 1983 fue una experiencia política de inmensa importancia, tanto por los pueblos del Caribe como trabajadores y campesinos del mundo entero. Un país pequeño, con apenas 100 mil habitantes, pero con una rica lucha revolucionaria estableció un gobierno de los trabajadores y campesinos. Junto con Cuba y Nicaragua sandinista, Granada fue uno de los "tres gigantes" de aquellos años. Granada enfrentó todos los problemas del mundo actual: la dominación del imperialismo, el subdesarrollo, el racismo. Y tomó pasos gigantes en el camino para construir una nueva sociedad, basada en la solidaridad humana e el internacionalismo.

Este folleto -- realmente un libro-- publica el discurso de Maurice Bishop, el dirigente central de la revolución, ante una multitud de personas reunidas en la universidad Hunter College en Nueva York en junio de 1983; el discurso de Fidel Castro en al acto de mases conmemorando los trabajadores cubanos muertos en combate contra la invasión norteamericana de la isla en octubre de 1983; y un largo análisis de los logros y la caída de la revolución escrito por Steve Clark como introducción al libro Maurice Bishop Speaks.

Entre las cuestiones más importantes para la humanidad es la tarea de la construcción de una vanguardia revolucionaria capaz de encabezar la lucha de masas en el mundo de hoy -- y evitar lo que al fin pasó en Granada, un levantamiento contrarrevolucionario desde dentro de la misma dirigencia revolucionaria. Los hechos documentados en este folleto bien vale ser estudiado, tanto para conocer nuestra historia verdadera y para preparar mejor las luchas obreras que se avecinen.

The revolution in Grenada was the first socialist revolution in the English-speaking world, the first socialist revolution in a country of Africa descended people,and sadly the first revolution smashed by the combination of Stalinist counterrevolution and imperialist invasion. As the world in general, and the West Indies, Africa, and Black people in America are already facing conditions as bad as those of the great depression, working people will return to this battle, and seize not just the spirit and courage of this small island fighting against the imperialist monster, but of the concrete lessons, bad and good, won in their blood. This small pamphlet recounts that history, those lessons, and that spirit, not in the style of some history teacher, or in the style of sentimentalist wanting you to cry over Grenada's past. It is written so the blood and struggle of the Grenadian people can teach today's fighting workers and farmers, across the globe to win their triumphs and avoid their defeats.

Este folleto cuenta la historia de una gran revolución en una isla pequeñita; en 1979 el movimiento encabezado por Maurice Bishop derrocó el dictador de Granada, Eric Gairy, acto que también derrocó el dominio imperialismo de este país caribeño. Las nuevas políticas: la reforma agraria, la educación y el seguro social -ambos ya gratuitos-, las nuevas formas del poder popular obrero y campesino en lugar de la "democracia parlamentaria" anterior, el desarrollo de la agricultura y el turismo como industrias nacionales en beneficio de los obreros y campesinos en lugar que los superricos patrones extranjeros, todas ellas enfurecieron a los imperialistas y su gobierno en Washington, pero sobre todo los imperialistas odiaron y temieron el hecho de que Granada marchó al lado de las otras revoluciones anticapitalistas en la región: las revoluciones sandinista y cubana. Lee este folleto y aprenda porque Fidel Castro calificó a Cuba, Nicaragua y Granada como tres gigantes que alzan en el umbral del imperialismo. Esta obra también explica por un lado el golpe del estado estalinista que asesinó a Bishop y así dio paso a la invasión brutal, y por otro la complicidad de los políticos del Partido Demócrata estadounidense en esa invasión.

This is the best material processing book for lasers that I know of. A good starter and reference book. The only other good source of reading that I know of are the LIA publications. Most importantly it describes in a surprisingly clear way the properties of a beam as they relate to processing, and good basic equations for heat transfer.

This book is amazingly good for those who are new in this field. It starts from the scratch and then makes your concepts. I think everybody should have one copy.

You can't think of a process in the laser business that isn't described in this book. Especially if you are an not a pro in laserstuff but still interested in the basics of laserprocessing, like welding, hardening, cutting etc.

Every chapter ends with a funny cartoon on something to do with the subject of that chapter. This comes in handy for presentations or other intermezzos.

But this cannot be called a shallow book, some real tough formulas can be found here, they are explained so well though, you can really understand them after only reading them twice or so.
Actually if you want to publish stuff in this field you might consider using this book as a reference. It is that good.

Ronald Popma
(PhD-student University of Twente the Netherlands)

This book is the one to read if you want to understand the violence--both public and private--that shook Latin America in the last 15 to 20 years. Hollander goes behind cliches about "latin", "Argentinians" and other pat explanations for the Dirty War, the coup in Chile and other right-wing activity against both soldier and civilian. Hollander shows both the class and psychological underpinnings of this period, intertwining marxist theory with psychoanalytic insight. She tells the story through ten psychoanalysts who fought the military in their various countries, who had to either flee or go into hiding, but who all strove to understand their countries. The combination of the analytical and human stories is spellbinding.

Hollander has done a marvelous job of situating her subject in the context of modern Latin American history. Using this book as a supplemental text, teachers can enrich courses in political science, sociology, anthropology, Latin American studies and 20th century history. For certain courses in social psychology this book is essential. Students of the history and psychology of the Holocaust will want to read Hollander. High school teachers who have had "Facing History" training will find this book full of suggestive ideas and curriculum materials.

Not many US psychologists know a lot about psychology in Latin America, whether in terms of history or theory. Nancy Caro Hollander's book provides an interesting introduction to both through the use of historical memoir centering upon six prominent psychologists--many of them European emigres--situated in the Southern Cone region (Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay). Her narrative examines how their classical psychoanalytic training, animated yet challenged by their Marxist political commitments, ultimately unfolded and became transformed in the crucible of the revolutionary (and counter-revolutionary) political environment of mid-century Latin America. These psychologists developed and courageously enacted a personally, professionally, and politically risky activist psychotherapeutic praxis which stands as an interesting counterpoint to traditional US approaches. This book will be an enlightening and thought-provoking read for those psychologists who are genuinely interested in cross-cultural perspectives on psychological theory and praxis, politically-engaged psychology, activist psychology, and/or history of psychology from a global perspective. The book's interdisciplinary approach, which combined history, political science, and psychology, was quite intellectually stimulating. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to others.

In a tapestry of made-up minds, honest reporters live at risk. Gloria Emerson was such a reporter in Vietnam and in Gaza. She pays affectionate tribute to perhaps the greatest thriller writer in "Loving Graham Greene" by sending quirky heiress Molly Benson, the female protagonist Greene never attempted, to a doomed Algeria to hire bodyguards for honest journalists. Like many Greene characters, Benson is a decent person over her head amid evil, whose good works do harm. Her reporter's eye and ear won Emerson's "Winners and Losers" the National Book Award with telling details like the GI who looked in a mirror and said, "I had no idea who that was." Her writing skills turn a clever conceit into a brilliant novel. The determined Molly Benson and her companions are richly-drawn characters in a sparse world of countervailing menaces, the police state versus Islamic fundamentalism. The civil war in the shadows tightens its noose as the innocents look for ways to save the outspoken. The naïve, half-informed Pyle in Greene's "The Quiet American" was "impregnably armoured by his good intentions and his ignorance." Emerson's Benson has a capacity to understand there is a great deal she doesn't understand. She's an ironic, irritating heroine - a tall, middle-aged, ferociously liberal woman whose brother Harry was a reporter martyred in El Salvador. Molly knows every book Greene ever wrote, down to the names of the dogs, met him once by chance, pestered him with letters and undertakes her mission to carry on his spirit and Harry's after their deaths. Emerson writes with a scalpel dipped in ink, every detail as perfect as the story and characters. This funny, literate thriller is tribute to the power of the word to inspire action in the face of despair.

I really enjoyed this well-written, brief story. The tale of Molly Benson, the spacey Graham Greene-obsessed do-gooder and her ill-advised trip to Algeria is entertaining and amusing. Gloria Emerson has a knack of drawing characters with obvious and amusing flaws, without making her narrative or characterization seem obvious, contrived or hackneyed. This is a short novel, one that you can enjoy in a few gulps, but you won't get the sense of being cheated. Molly is quite a character. She met Graham Greene, briefly, once and from that meeting believed, in her own mind that she and Greene were quite close. After his death, she believes he would have wanted her to lead an expedition to Algeria and she drags a couple of her friends there. Molly lives in a world of delusion. You'll read about her and think, "This woman is a little nuts, the world is simply not as she imagines it". Her life is both funny and sad. Funny in that her delusions lead her to do amusing things, sad in that she has the delusions at all. I think, though, that most will find slivers of themselves in her, for who doesn't act believing in something that just is not true, or won't happen, out of sheer hopefulness. Emerson has given us an amusing character study and a very well-written novel. Enjoy.

This short book packs much more of a whallop than all the self-indulgent, over-written books all too prevalent these days. I had just finished Atwood's The Blind Assasin (a book three times longer than it needed to be--assuming it needed to be at all) when I read this. What refreshment it was! It's not too short, but perfect in its economy.

It's the story of a wealthy, earnest woman seeking to do good in this troubled world by taking as her model the life and works of Graham Greene, who she met briefly and corresponded with excessively. (The aging author must have questioned the outcome of his life's work and resulting fame by this exhausting and passionate fan.) Gloria Emerson tells her story in a way that is funny, precise, and wise. A group of well-intentioned meddlars with lofty aims muddle through Algeria, attempting to liberate a politically incorrect writer. All are presented with clear eyed irony, precise and telling characterization. It's sufficient to say that their misguided innocence makes an even greater mess of things in Algeria. Read it and find more.

Loving Graham Greene made me want to return to the novels of the master. He would have been proud.

Maripol's book is amazing look at downtown New York City's underground scene during the 1980's.

This book is an amazing insight into the New York fashion scene in the early eighties. With so many stars looking fabulous either before they were famous or just as their celebrity careers were about to take off.

Madonna, Debbie Mazar, the B52s, Blondie and Grace Jones are just a few of the familiar faces in the hundreds of personal and candid Polaroid shots that innovative stylist, Maripol took at that magical time and place in fashion history.

I have always said that if i could go back in time to any one time or place in history i would have gone to NY in the late 70s early 80s... this book has only increased my desire.

I would highly recommned this book to fans of 80s pop culture, lovers of 70s/80s fashion and styling, Madonna fans (for the rare Madonna pics) and anyone who ever fell in love with New York.

this is an amazing book that captures
the true spirit of the 80's downtown new york scene.
great pictures a must have coffe table book!