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A review by kosr
Against Empire by Michael Parenti
5.0
Imperialism 101
I have to admit, Parenti is as witty in writing as when I first heard him speak via a YouTube video, in which he debated Christopher Hitchens on the Iraq war in 2005 (April to be precise). It's one of the only times I've seen Hitchens genuinely frustrated at his opponent, and he pretty much heckles the audience at the end as a result.*
I can't recommend this book enough as a truly '101' in a number of books a reader could pick up on American Imperialism. In fact I dearly wish it had an update for today's 15-25 year olds growing up and, despite risking repeating a cliche heard so many times in book reviews, I think every school in America (as well as other countries) should have a copy of this title. I say this despite knowing that most school systems would pull all sorts of gymnastics to stop a text like this from getting into the general populations consciousness (ironically I learned about this issue in detail from this book).
Parenti writes so clearly and openly, that anyone - and I mean anyone - could understand the topic covered here. He writes broadly, whilst remaining concise in his criticisms, allowing for needle sharp attacks on very specific aspects of American Imperialism and its many issues. If anyone needs to have their mind opened to another way of viewing our political climate right now, then I think Against Empire is a fantastic start in giving them the opportunity to develop a language in which to criticise it.
There are small misgivings in the book. There's a severe lack of footnoting or sourcing, something that would send alarm bells ringing, if it weren't for the fact I'd actually read about many of the issues Parenti mentions in other work which have been sourced and are well known (Chomsky, Zimmer, Hedges, William Blum, Abby Martins Empire Files on YouTube, Ilan Pappe etc.).
As a closer to this review, for anyone going onto further reading, I must recommend some other books that you could continue with after Against Empire (feel free to add to this):
Giants: The Global Power Elite - Peter Philip
The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress - Chris Hedges
Americas Deadliest Export - William Blum
Understanding Power - Noam Chomsky
A Peoples History of the United States - Howard Zinn
A Peoples History of The World - Chris Harman
The Power Elite - C. Wright Mills
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nik0273l8K4
I have to admit, Parenti is as witty in writing as when I first heard him speak via a YouTube video, in which he debated Christopher Hitchens on the Iraq war in 2005 (April to be precise). It's one of the only times I've seen Hitchens genuinely frustrated at his opponent, and he pretty much heckles the audience at the end as a result.*
I can't recommend this book enough as a truly '101' in a number of books a reader could pick up on American Imperialism. In fact I dearly wish it had an update for today's 15-25 year olds growing up and, despite risking repeating a cliche heard so many times in book reviews, I think every school in America (as well as other countries) should have a copy of this title. I say this despite knowing that most school systems would pull all sorts of gymnastics to stop a text like this from getting into the general populations consciousness (ironically I learned about this issue in detail from this book).
Parenti writes so clearly and openly, that anyone - and I mean anyone - could understand the topic covered here. He writes broadly, whilst remaining concise in his criticisms, allowing for needle sharp attacks on very specific aspects of American Imperialism and its many issues. If anyone needs to have their mind opened to another way of viewing our political climate right now, then I think Against Empire is a fantastic start in giving them the opportunity to develop a language in which to criticise it.
There are small misgivings in the book. There's a severe lack of footnoting or sourcing, something that would send alarm bells ringing, if it weren't for the fact I'd actually read about many of the issues Parenti mentions in other work which have been sourced and are well known (Chomsky, Zimmer, Hedges, William Blum, Abby Martins Empire Files on YouTube, Ilan Pappe etc.).
As a closer to this review, for anyone going onto further reading, I must recommend some other books that you could continue with after Against Empire (feel free to add to this):
Giants: The Global Power Elite - Peter Philip
The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress - Chris Hedges
Americas Deadliest Export - William Blum
Understanding Power - Noam Chomsky
A Peoples History of the United States - Howard Zinn
A Peoples History of The World - Chris Harman
The Power Elite - C. Wright Mills
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nik0273l8K4