Politics Government Books

Gave me an unexpected and refreshing perspective on the history of the Jewish people. They have much to be proud of, I learned, particularly in their need to excel without armies, national power, or centralized wealth and influence in the centuries before establishment of the present State of Israil. The perspective is especially interesting in considering the current conflict with Palestinians in the Middle East.

In this relatively short book, Ruth Wisse manages to cover thousands of years of Jewish history and to point out the basic aspect of Jewish faith, that God knows why everything occurs, that He has a reason for it, but that at the end, if we are good people, He will bring us back to our home in Jerusalem. Jews also understood, until recently, that they were alive a the good will of the local authorities and that the best way to maintain this good will was to make themselves indispensable. Which led to many of them acquiring advanced skills. Only after 1948 did Israel provide a defense of its citizens. Ruth Wisse style is direct and fluid.

A very nice work and a very informative read.

Jacques Beser, Ph.D.
Newport beach, CA

As a book that seeks to begin a debate about Jews' ambiguous relationship to (and even more ambiguous feelings about) political power, this book works quite well. It works far less well, however, when Ruth Wisse strays into an analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Here's where the book works. Wisse traces the Jewish communities' Diaspora politics of accommodation which resulted in highly flexible and democratic communities whose first instinct was to see whether there was anything that the community could have done or could do better in the existing circumstances and a desire to please others at the community's own expense. Wisse also does a good job of pointing out the spiritual facet of that politics which made the Jewish communities reluctant to assume political or military power and, in turn, made a fighting force the last institution the Jews developed under the Mandate. (In this context, it would have been interesting to see Ruth Wisse comment on whether this political tradition--which put so much emphasis on not doing wrong as opposed to risking doing wrong in the name of the community--had anything to do with the fact that, Ben Zakkai, a pacifist was instrumental in launching Diaspora politics.)

The book breaks down however in Wisse's analysis of anti-Semitism (it's the non-Jews' problem) and in her analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian/Israeli-Arab conflicts. Firstly, it is true that the nobility found it easy to "sacrifice" the Jews to fend off the mobs. However, in most of Europe, the majority of Jews were not well off. So the argument that they stood out more than the Gypsies did not convince me. Anti-Semitism has been described as "the rumor about Jews," in other words the West's and the East's longest-running conspiracy theory. Rather than dismiss this argument (or rather not even mention it), Ruth Wisse would have done herself and us a great service by frankly engaging with it.

Secondly, there is her treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian and Israeli-Arab conflict. Although she dismisses the claims of both the ultra-Right and the ultra-Left ("the first [claim] is not subject to proof; the second is demonstrably bogus") she essentializes Arabs (a people who she says are the opposite of Jews) and Palestinians (a people who are the opposite of Jews and who seek to take on Jewish symbols) and hence makes any sort of analysis of the conflict impossible. What is more this whole line of argument was not even necessary for Ruth Wisse to make her point. All she had to do was point out the callousness with which some Jews treat Jewish claims--and contrast that to the sensitivity these same Jews show to (identical or equivalent) Arab and Palestinian claims. That, I feel, would have made her point (that Diaspora politics plays a tremendous role in shaping Israeli politics) far better than what she did. This, after all, is a book about Jewish; not Arab politics--and when it sticks to its subject it works well; when it does not it does not work and sometimes becomes downright insulting.

For anyone interested in a stimulating discussion about Jewish Diaspora politics I would recommend this book with the proviso to read section on the Arab/Palestinian-Israeli conflict with more than a grain of salt.

To me the strangest thing about the "Arab-Israeli" conflict is that while the facts on the ground are similar to what has happened in many other parts of the world (Indian/Pakistani conflict, Greek/Turkish conflict, etc) one of the sides (the Arabs) has never accepted the reality. While Indians and Pakistanis or Greeks and Turks may not love each other, they have accepted the results and resettled their own refugees. Why the Arabs refuse to accept reality and why many countries support them? Wisse points out the unusal situation but she does not point to the not so secret Arab weapon, the oil. Even some of the "friends" of Israel are too concerned about the "feelings" of the major oil producers. Two of the Arab countries that made peace with Israel (Egypt and Jordan) are not oil producers. The large social problems of the Arab countries make it necessary for their rulers to look for a scapegoat and Israel fits that role perfectly. While there are several Israeli actions that could be criticized, I do not think a different Isreali behavior would have made a difference, given the above factors.

Wisse covers a long period of history and, as a result, she does not treat it with depth. She considers the failed revolts against the Romans as the start of the Jewish diaspora even though she mentions that a large Jewish community existed in Alexendria two hundred years earlier. The travels of Paul of Tarsus (that took place before the revolts) point to the existence of numerous Jewish communities quite far more Israel. She also metions briefly the role of Jews as the "middleman minority" without considering that this may have a characteristic of the Jews going all the way back to the Egypt of the Hyksos times.

There are several historical details that, in my view, Wisse got wrong. For example, the Armenians were not the only middleman minority in the Ottoman empire, Jews also filled some of the role, and, most numerous were the Greeks. I have read that the estabishment of a Greek state in early 19th century was part of the inspiration that led Herzl to Zionism. Here was a "middleman minority" that established an ethnic state in a land with whom had ancient links, even though at the time "Greeks" lived all over the Balkan peninsula, Asia Minor and other lands of the Byzantine Empire. Wisse mentions that Herzl was inspired by the re-unification of Italy but that parallel seems far weaker.

In short, it is a book that presents a thesis (with which I generally agree) but with no serious analysis backing it. In other words the author "preaches exclusively to the choir."

As Prof.Kevin MacDonald says(READ HIS BOOKS)-- Jews are again portrayed as history's powerless victims. Wisse summarizes the history of Jewish economic behavior as altruistically providing goods and services to non-Jews at the price of being politically vulnerable. Such a view ignores competition between Jews and non-Jews over the middleman economic niche, and it ignores the common role of Jews in traditional societies as willing agents of oppressive alien elites. It also ignores the emergence of Jews as a hostile elite in European societies and in America beginning in the late 19th century: Yuri Slezkine's aptly named The Jewish Century could not possibly be remotely factual if Jews were nothing more than politically vulnerable victims. Wisse's view of Jews as altruistic middlemen even applies to Israel: "Israel still lived by strategies of accommodation, trying to supply its neighborhood with useful services and goods such as medical, agricultural and technological know-how."

This is a grotesque gloss on the reality of Israeli aggression against the Palestinians and against its neighbors since the founding of Israel. Since Mearsheimer and Walt are bête noires for Wisse, it is worth pointing to some of the examples they provide: Israel is an expansionist state whose leaders were not satisfied with the original partition of 1948--a time when Jews comprised 35% of the population of Palestine and controlled 7% of the land. Israelis "continued to impose terrible violence and discrimination against the Palestinians for decades" after the founding of the state, including ethnic cleansing after the 1967 war and, according to Israeli historian Benny Morris, an occupation based on "brute force, repression and fear, collaboration and treachery, beatings and torture chambers, and daily intimidation, humiliation, and manipulation" (p. 100). Mearsheimer and Walt also point out the horrors of the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and the wanton destruction of the bombing of Lebanon in the summer of 2006. They also show how Israel has aggressively promoted regime change throughout the region, using the power of the United States harnessed by the Israel lobby.

Wisse not only sees Israel as too timid, she argues that the Israel lobby in America is also weak. Her basis for this is that Edward Said, a Palestinian critic of Israel, held a position at Columbia University, and his right to speak out on Middle East issues was supported by some Jewish academics. Apparently for Wisse, the existence of even a few marginalized, powerless critics is a sign of the weakness of the lobby -- never mind its stranglehold over Congress and presidents.

Despite bewailing the impotence of the lobby, she does see hope because of the intersection of Jewish and American interests: "The Arab war against Israel and radical Islam's war against the United States are in almost perfect alignment, which means that resistance to one supports resistance to the other." That seems reasonable -- except for the fact that, as Mearsheimer and Walt note, "the United States has a terrorism problem in good part because it has long been so supportive of Israel" (p. 64).

Wisse concludes as follows:

It is seductive to hope that by accommodating our enemies, we will be allowed to live in peace. But the strategy of accommodation that historically turned Jews into a no-fail target is the course least likely to stop ongoing acts of aggression against them. Indeed, anti-Jewish politics will end only when those who practice it accept the democratic values of religious pluralism and political choice -- or are forced to pay a high enough price for flouting them.

What is most poisonous about this is that Wisse is completely blind to Jewish aggression, both on the part of Israel and on the part of the lobby. (Harnessing the power of the United States to effect regime change of governments that Israel doesn't like is nothing if not aggressive.) In her view, Jews are surrounded by enemies who desire their destruction simply because of the morally superior qualities of Jews: Jews "function as a lodestar of religious and political freedom: The Jews' attackers oppose such liberties, and their defenders promote them." She sees Jews as altruistic martyrs throughout history who will once again suffer martyrdom unless they eschew their altruism and become aggressive. Accommodation simply leads to more martyrdom, and this rationalizes even more aggression toward their enemies.

If there is anything beyond ethnocentric delusion in all of this, I think that behind Wisse's aggressive stance is the belief that they can win, where winning is defined as removing the Palestinians from most of the West Bank, enclosing the Palestinians in walled-off Bantustans where conditions are so horrible that many will eventually emigrate, and establishing hegemony in the entire area.

As a Government Major, this book is invaluable. I got it in time for class, in perfect condition. Thank you.

Edited by two British academics, this superb reference tool has quickly found pride of place near my elbow at the location where I think and write. Smallish but crystal-clear fontwork allows hundreds of concise, well-edited articles to fill up just over six hundred pages in complement with a rather full bibliography.

An intense cross-referencing system leads the reader productively from article to related article, allowing for either a quick dip into the material or an extended foray.

I withhold the fifth star in this review not because of any intrinsic defect in the book but rather because events since 1999 make an update almost obligatory.

Although intended as a single-consult reference dictionary, this work actually makes for an enjoyable extended read.

Kudos to Penguin for producing an eminently useful small dictionary.

It's a good unexpensive choice to look for specific reference of world politics. Of course that for a profound analisys, you have to resort to more comprehensive books. I recommend it for undergraduate students.

Almost full, really useful and clear. Good for specialized readers, might be a bit difficult for amateurs

Aside from the massive changes in the last 4 years, this book is otherwise dated in that it simply re-hashes info from other (older) sources.

Maybe they will publish a new edition that may be worthwhile...

Re-Saturday Review of Literature
Oscar Acosta disappeared in Mexico in 1974, not 1971 (the year of his trip to Las Vegas with Dr. Thompson).

This is the most realistic book I have ever seen about Mexican American hippies in Aztlan, the Chicanos of the 1960's neo-freedom movements. It will surely become a collector's item worth saving in this era of gung-ho Americanism which does not know the kind of objectivity Acosta displays with regard to how we think and why we believe as we do. Hunter S. Thompson described the author better than I can in his introduction to the book, highlighting his uniqueness while lamenting his untimely passing. I will write more after I give the book a more thorough second reading.

I read this book after finding out that Oscar Zeta Acosta was the fat Samoan lawyer from "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Acosta's style is similar, with a lot of drugs and sex with minors. The differences are that Acosta isn't tripping the whole time and he has time to incite political rallies. I love when they protest the Catholic church, or when he pleasures himself with some nubile young high schoolers under a blanket during a sit-in.... For those interested in the turbulent times that was the 60s, this is a must-read.

After reading this book, and actually living through those turbulent times of the 60's and 70' s , it was refreshing to read and feel the burning frustration and love that this man was experiencing and the way he expressed his anger against the machine. This type of awareness has been lost , due to us the forefathers of the Chicano Movement, to teach our own and other's children of how important those actions were, so that we may emphasize education, political power and family values. We have implemented a course in Chicano Studies in schools, we now have political representation in our governments, and many more success stories that are due to the work of such people as Cesar Chavez, Ruben Salazar and Corky Gonzales. Oscar Zeta was a man amongst his own that was afraid of nothing and no one.My thanks to him for fighting the powers that be and for creating an example for all of us, regardless of race. You have to stand up for what you believe and Acosta is atrue testament to that.

Re-Saturday Review of Literature
Oscar Acosta disappeared in Mexico in 1974, not 1971 (the year of his trip to Las Vegas with Dr. Thompson).

Solzhenitsyn wrote this work at a time when there still was an Iron Curtain and a Cold War. His warning was an effort to somehow reinstill in the West, spiritual values and an awareness of its true duties. The essence of his message was given in his famous Harvard Commencement address,
"If humanism were right in declaring that man is born to be happy, he would not be born to die. Since his body is doomed to die, his task on earth evidently must be of a more spiritual nature. It cannot unrestrained enjoyment of everyday life. It cannot be the search for the best ways to obtain material goods and then cheerfully get the most out of them. It has to be the fulfillment of a permanent, earnest duty so that one's life journey may become an experience of moral growth, so that one may leave life a better human being than one started it. It is imperative to review the table of widespread human values. Its present incorrectness is astounding. It is not possible that assessment of the President's performance be reduced to the question of how much money one makes or of unlimited availability of gasoline. Only voluntary, inspired self-restraint can raise man above the world stream of materialism."

This rejection of Western materialism is also for Solzhenitsyn a rejection of what he sees as too great a focus placed on legal rights, on individual happiness, on a freedom to seek after pleasure.
He believes that all this has ' weakened the West' and that it therefore stands threatened by what he believes are the stronger characters of those who have lived in systems of oppression in the East.
This of course has, as we have seen with the fall of the Soviet Union and the threat Solzhenitsyn so feared, proven to be illusory. The people of the former Soviet Union and especially those in Russia and Ukraine have revealed no special powers and skills in confronting the world.
However the warning to the West ironically does have relevance today in relation to the new threat to Civlization, that from Radical Islamic Terrorism. Here there is something to be said about ' the best lacking all conviction and the worst being full of passionate intensity'. I do believe that the internal divisions within the West itself, the kinds of self- defeating trends Solzhenitsyn noticed are still here.
One more point. Solzhenitsyn fell into a certain disfavor after his warning to the West, because many secular liberals who had supported him were dismayed to see that fundamentally and most deeply he was a Russian Orthodox Christian whose view of the world is far from that of post-modern relativists.
My own sense is that Solzhenitsyn somehow missed the special spirit of freedom which is at the heart of American greatness. My sense is that he somehow did not 'get' America.
But his warning is powerful and strong and certainly touches upon many points of weakness there is much to say and think about.
One other point. The great Solzhenitsyn is not the Solzhenitsyn who is making a Warning to the West, or who is as it were being a Prophet of Mankind as a whole. The great Solzhenitsyn is the one who told of the horrific world of suffering which is Archipelag Gulag. In doing that he was one of mankind's great writer- witnesses.

It is a somewhat daunting task to attempt to write an articulate review when Solzhenitsyn is so incredibly articulate himself. Suffice it to say that this book should be required reading for all world citizens, but especially those of us who carry American citizenship. We have much to learn from this book and we have a great deal to offer if we choose to engage.

The book is actually a collection of five speeches given in 1975 and 1976; three in the U.S. and two in the U.K.

There are numerous lessons and insights that are highly relevant. Perhaps a selected quote from the author's last speech provides a glimpse at why this work is so worth reading and contemplating. "We have become hopelessly enmeshed in our slavish worship of all that is pleasant, all that is comfortable, all that is material -- we worship things, we worship products. Will we ever succeed in shaking off this burden, in giving free rein to the spirit that was breathed into us at birth, that spirit which distinguishes us from the animal world."

I returned to this slim volume following the Sept. 11 attacks. While America is now said to be fighting "terrorism," few have pointed out the similarities between terrorism and our old foe communism. Reading Solzhenitsyn is at once alarming and comforting. In reading these words, now a quarter of a century old, it is not at all a stretch to apply them to our present situation. He writes: "I would like to call upon America to be more careful with its trust to prevent those pundits who are attempting to establish fine degrees of justice and even finer legal shades of equality (some because of their distorted outlook, others because of short-sightedness, still others out of self-interest)to prevent them from using the struggle for peace and social justice to lead you down a false road. They are trying to weaken you; they are trying to disarm your strong and magnificent country in the face of this fearful threat -- one which has never before been seen in the history or the world. Not only in the history of the country, but in the history of the world." This treatise had a monumental effect on me when I was in college, helping to shape much of my politics. Going back and re-reading it, I find that its content is as powerful and as applicable as ever. To boot, Solzhenitsyn writes with a sense of urgency that is uniquely Russian -- he is similar to Dostoevsky in that way -- and, like Dostoevsky, for having been in the Gulag, his words ring powerfully, indeed. A wonderful companion volume to this would be his Nobel lecture (he won the Nobel for literature in 1970), where in speaking about writing and art, he says, "One word of truth outweighs the world." In short, he is one of the most important thinkers/writers of the century. It is disheartening that these speeches are out of print.

Read this book if you are wondering how polical correctness got this far. He nails the pseudopacifist in their feel good rush from responsibility. I believe he is right in questioning the ethos of the persuit of happiness. What does it mean to be an American? If we have nothing we will die for, don't be suprised when others who do, kill us.

Being new to the family daycare business I really needed a book that would put me on the right track, this was it. I was able to write my contract and policy handbook knowing it was complete in every way. There is other good information in it as well. This is a wonderful book!

I have most of all Mr. Copeland's books related to starting a child care.Including his software prgram.This book shows both new and exsisting Child Care Providers how to put together a simple and professional contract. It also has examples and samples.Protect Yourself and your business today !

I have most of all Mr. Copelnad's books related to staring a child care.Including his software prgram.This book shows New and exsisting Child Care Providers how to put together a simple and professional contract. It also has examples an samples.Protect Yourself and your business today !

Burke's most important work "Reflections on the Revolution in France" is reduced from nearly 200 pages to 60 pages in this volume. Yet nowhere in the book does the editor describe what he selected or what he dropped, or the basis for his decisions.

Comparing my copy of "Reflections.." to this chopped version I found that Kramnick had dropped passages that were highly insightful.

When I discovered this, I could no longer be confident that the other works were not similarly mangled. I will now search for an anthology of works that is more respectful of the originals (or at least one where the editor is more open about his approach).

Presenting Edmund Burke thematically is perhaps the only way to really approach Burke, as Conor Cruise O'Brien or Russell Kirk (Burke's best biographers) would probably agree. So unlike `On Empire, Liberty, and Reform,' which is chronological, the portable Edmund Burke instead tackles Burke under the themes of America, Ireland, India, and the French Revolution, and a couple other sub-themes, with invaluable commentary. By the end of the book, Burke is better enveloped here than in most biographies, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

"The Portable Edmund Burke" is useful in supplying a number of pieces not otherwise easily obtainable. It, like most books in the Viking Portable Library series, is missing the notes and especially the index that many people would have found useful. To make room for the 47 selections, several have been severely abridged. "Reflections on the Revolution is France" is whittled to leave only about 30% of it. Anyone needing this should look to a full-length treatment. Good ones include the Yale edition of Frank M. Turner, which has an excellent index, occasional notes, and several first-class essas; and Oxford World's Classic edition of L.G. Mitchell, which also has a helpful index and good notes. The speech on conciliation with America is similar chopped to a mere shadow of itself. The Lamont edition is not easily obtainable, which is a pity, but the notes and index of the Cambridge edition of Ian Harris will do well enough for most students. 'A Vindication of Natural Society' survives better (about half of it survives in this edition), but again the Harris edition is a better choice.

If you want a wide picture of Burke's writing, this text is probably for you. If you want to read any of his important texts, then choose something else.

The best book of its kind -- and for now the only one of its kind.

Vindicating Lincoln is a most necessary corrective to the raft of atrocious, mendacious, and vindictive anti-Lincoln scholarship that has cropped up over the last 25 years at least. A perverse alliance has been forged between, on the one hand, far right libertarians and neo-Confederates and, on the other hand, far left politically correct and anti-American ideologues. They may not agree on much, but they agree that they have found a villain for all seasons: Abraham Lincoln.

This is the book for you if you have ever been puzzled by the arguments that Lincoln was a "tyrant," a "racist," the "father of big government," or that Lincoln cared nothing about slavery but fought the Civil War only protect the economic interests of the ruling class. This is also the book for you if all you know of Lincoln is his grand monument and the afterglow of his once great reputation, and want an honest assessment of why generations considered him the greatest American of them all -- greater even than Washington or any of the Founding generation.

Every anti-Lincoln myth is carefully stated, and understood exactly as its proponents wish to be understood, and then patiently demolished.

This is also perhaps the best book in a generation on the Civil War -- its causes, its justice, its necessity. Krannawitter clearly describes every step in the long path that led to war, and elucidates every controversy. He does justice to both sides, knowing full well that doing full justice to the arguments of the Confederate side not only serves intellectual honesty, but better illuminates the truthfulness and righteousness of Lincoln's case.

The Civil War was a necessary war, and Abraham Lincoln was a great man. It has a taken many years and an unholly alliance of liars and cranks to muddy the waters. But this one book will clear them up again, for all those who have eyes to see and a brain to think.

This is probably the best book I have read on economics. The authors really simplifies macroeconomics in laymen's terms. I would recommend this to everyone who want to understand why american economy is so weak and will continue to be so unless fundamental changes happen.

Factual and detailed, this book helps people understand just what happened to cause the present downfall of our once great country. I highly recommend this book to all. I also recommend Kotlikoff's book The Generational Storm...another winner with some solid investment advice.

I could hardly get through this. There was copious academic jargon that was used to mask the true lack of understanding the author had of the everyday principles that drive everything from Wall Street to a guy selling hot dogs on the street. I chalk this mistake up to an author that has spent too much time viewing the world from his ivory tower. Don't waste your time on this like I did.

I almost feel sorry for this guy, everything he predicts has been proven wrong. Now he wants to rewrite history? It is amazing how such a 'boring' man in Greenspan is so fasinating, but for Batra to take the time to smear a man who takes home women and reads them journal articles on monetary policy to impress his date?

I picked this book up for amusement, I couldnt possible believe people here could have taken him seriously! It is a good laugh but after he discredits Greenspan for having success and not even having a PHD!!! Pure LOL

Batra correctly points out that Greenspan is responsible for mishandling monetary policy by continually bailing out the Wall Street investment banking houses,as well as their all to willing commercial bank accomplices following the 1999 repeal of the Glass -Steagall Act, that have been primarily responsible for converting America from an entrepreneurial-enterprise-investment economy to a speculator economy based on manipulating the financial assets and balance sheets of American corporations in order to generate paper profits without production .The result has been that 3 stock market bubbles have been created-one in the 1980's,one in the 1990's,and one in the 2000's.This last bubble is potentially the most dangerous.It has significant similarities with the Great Depression of the 1930's and the Japanese Depression of 1994-2003.

The real question then becomes how responsible was Greenspan ? Batra glosses over the fact that there are three other regulatory players involved besides the Federal Reserve System's Federal Open Market Committee(FOMC),a quasi private,quasi public agency that controls monetary policy.The other 3 regulatory agencies are the Comptroller of the Currency,the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC),and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation(Federal Savings and Loans Insurance Corporation).All of these agencies have failed to enforce basic loan and creditworthiness standards and requirements.Probably the greatest blame can be assigned to the various chairmen of the SEC after Bill Casey.They have all failed egregiously by failing to protect Main Street from the Wall Street bubble makers.None of these bubbles would have had a chance to get going if Casey were still running the SEC.Greenspan can be assigned no more than 25% of the blame. Batra's other criticisms,such as Greenspan's statements on Social Security and its future prospects as the Baby Boomers retire,is not really relevant since Greenspan had no explicit policy making power in this area.

Excellent book, it's helping me a lot with my Thesis at School.... I love it

incredibly depressing and negative, leaves one with a sick feeling in the stomach. but its happening in China every day.

This is an astounding book, but very difficult to read. I still shake my head in disbelief.

"The River Runs Black" by Elizabeth C. Economy is an intelligent analysis of contemporary China and its burgeoning environmental crisis. This engaging book helps us understand how globalization is reshaping China and issues an urgent plea for international cooperation to help monitor and rectify an increasingly worrysome situation.

Ms. Economy tells us how China's environment has been steadily deteriorating over the past centuries due to wars, political power struggles and overpopulation. However, today's problems
are attributable to specific policy decisions by China's government that has favored rapid economic development through engagement with the international business community. Unfortunately, the particular kinds of economic development favored by China's rulers has led to myriad environmental problems including deforestation, desertification, and air and water pollution. The collusion of local government and business interests has made it difficult to obtain reliable data or to implement solutions where it is feared that plant shutdowns might
result in mass unemployment and social unrest, making difficult problems seem untractable.

Environmental consciousness in China has increased as the problems have become more visible and as the country has engaged with the world economy. Ms. Economy profiles some of the courageous and inspirational individuals who have struggled for conservation, urban renewal and grass-roots democracy such as Tang Xiyang, He Bochuan, Dai Qing and others. While environmentalists have achieved some successes (such as protecting endangered species of monkeys and antelopes), the author believes that the government's championing of highly destructive projects such as the Three Gorges Dam proves that much more needs to be done.

Ms. Economy recounts the experiences of the former Communist nations of Eastern Europe to gain insight into how China might resolve its environmental problems. The Chernobyl disaster catalyzed local environmental groups into pushing for political reforms that brought down the Communists in the USSR and elsewhere. Recognizing that China's Communist Party is a "patronage machine committed to rapid economic development" and devoid of any ideological purpose other than self-perpetuation, Ms. Economy believes that increasing democratization in China could easily undermine the country's single Party system. Of course, China's leaders are keenly aware of this threat and consequently have tightly circumscribed the activities of environmental organizations, but the author is hopeful that the contradictions between increasing environmental degradation and the lack of a meaningful democracy will eventually force China's political system to change.

In the last section, Ms. Economy speculates about the manner in which China may develop in the future. The author envisions three possible scenarios: China goes green; inertia sets in; and environmental meltdown. Ms. Economy thinks that the U.S. should take the lead in encouraging China to develop its regulatory system and implement green technologies so that the country can embark on an environmentally sustainable path. Indeed, the unpredictable consequences of a Chinese environmental meltdown should give the international community pause to consider how it might help China -- and by extension all of us -- to avoid a worse case scenario.

I highly recommend this superbly written book to everyone.

Previous reviewers have said good things about this book, and I can only agree. It is notably superior to other recent books about the Chinese environment, which (though often scholarly) are long on polemics and short on comprehensive vision.
Dr. Economy focuses on politics and policies. These have been notoriously awful under Communism, but there is now a realization of the damage being done, and thus some hope. Dr. Economy is as optimistic as one could reasonably be. Incidentally, interested readers should also look up her very fine chapter in Kristen Day's worthy edited volume CHINA'S ENVIRONMENT AND THE CHALLENGE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.
I am not so optimistic. One reason is that my training is more in biology, and I am aware that the devastating damage China has done to its environment will not be clear for 50 to 100 years. It takes that long for pollution and environmental degradation to show themselves fully.
As Dr. Economy says, China wanted to be "first rich, then clean" (that's the literal Chinese; she actually phrases it more academically). They thought that the west had done this. No, the west started conservation and scientific management long ago. The United States' golden age of conservation was under Theodore Roosevelt, when the US was still poor and rural. The US and western Europe never allowed anything close to what China has done. There was much degradation, but reaction always came eventually. China, like all Communist-led countries, missed this lesson. Marx had spoken: production is all, and top-down control is the way to do it. This has led, everywhere, to dismal environmental records, though much good has come from distributing food, health care, housing, etc., more evenly (this may no longer be the case). It is now too late. The white-flag dolphin, once common and resilient, is extinct, the Three Gorges are dammed, and much else has gone beyond possibility of repair.
Dr. Economy does not draw as sharp a contrast as I would between traditional management and Communist excess. Traditional China had major Malthusian problems, but they were caused more by imperial policy than by environmental mismanagement at the riceroots level. The peasants and workers created a system based on harmony and balance. The system was full of problems, and never got as harmonious as we would now wish, but it worked; it kept hundreds of millions of people alive in spite of a premodern technology, and it managed the key resources--topsoil, water, forests, and so on--sustainably enough that there was quite a bit left by 1950. Recent books trashing the old system have titles significantly featuring elephants and tigers instead of people. Even if you prefer the charismatic megafauna, note that China had some elephants and a lot of tigers in 1950.
So a flawed, antiquated, underproductive, but still well-designed and eminently functional system was sacrificed, and the result has been a royal mess. Yields of food are way up, thanks to modern technology (some of it developed in China by the Communists--to their credit), but the future is cloudy indeed.
If you want the best account of what can be done and what is being done, look no further than this book.

Not an easy read, but one that many Americans probably should...it demonstrates well how our life styles here in the US increases demand for cheap consumer goods, resulting in corporations poisoning other parts of the planet to supply them quickly and without major expense to us.

Incredibly sickening injury to the planet is well documented and presented in a professional way, and the book is very readable.

Recommended for all of those who need a greater repetoire of evidence that we are rather quickly destroying the planet, and as a means of strengthening arguments against "globalization" and consumerism.