In 1975, Angola was tumbling into pandemonium; everyone who could was packing crates, desperate to abandon the beleaguered colony. With his trademark bravura, Ryszard Kapuscinski went the other way, begging his was from Lisbon and comfort to Luandayes'>#8212;once famed as Africa's Rio de Janeiroyes'>#8212;and chaos.Angola, a slave colony later given over to mining and plantations, was a promised land for generations of poor Portuguese. It had belonged to Portugal since before there were Englishspeakers in North America. After the collapse of the fascist dictatorship in Portugal in 1974, Angola was brusquely cut loose, spurring the catastrophe of a stillongoing civil war. Kapuscinski plunged right into the middle of the drama, driving past thousands of haphazardly placed checkpoints, where using the wrong shibboleth was a matter of life and death; recording his imporessions of the young soldiersyes'>#8212;from Cuba, Angola, South Africa, Portugalyes'>#8212;fighting a nebulous war with global repercussions; and examining the peculiar brutality of a country surprised and divided by its newfound freedom.Translated from the Polish by William R. Brand and Katarzyna MroczkowskaBrand.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Examining China's history from the classical era to the present day, this title describes the essence of its millennia-old approach to diplomacy, strategy and negotiation, reflecting on these attitudes for our own uncertain future.
From Moses to Nelson Mandela, speeches have changed the way we see the world and the way the world is shaped. The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches gathers together the world's greatest speeches, bringing together the words of over one hundred men and women. These brilliant and passionate declarations by Socrates, Robespierre, Lincoln, Queen Elizabeth I, Churchill, Washington, Pankhurst, Gandhi and many others provide a vivid glimpse of history in the making while retaining their power to move and inspire today. 'Impeccable. MacArthur prefaces each address with a short but scholarly historical explanation that sets the scene perfectly. An attractive volume' Andrew Roberts, Sunday Times 'Works well not just as an anthology but as a history' Independent on Sunday
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DAVID AARONOVITCH The Communist Manifesto was first published in London, by two young men in their late twenties, in 1848. Its impact reverberated across the globe and throughout the next century, and it has come to be recognised as one of the most important political texts ever written. Maintaining that the history of all societies is a history of class struggle, the manifesto proclaims that communism is the only route to equality, and is a call to action aimed at the proletariat. It is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand our modern political landscape.
Machiavelli is one of the most famous strategists of all time. In this collection he discusses the dangers of conspiracies, and the component parts of an army, vital for gaining and holding power in his day. He also gives advice on tactics and discipline, and explains why promises made under force ought not to be kept.
GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
Tagore was a fierce opponent of British rule in India. In this work he discusses the resurgence of the East and the challenge it poses to Western supremacy, calling for a future beyond nationalism, based instead on cooperation and racial tolerance.
GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
In 1815 the shocked and exhausted victors of the decades of fighting that had engulfed Europe for a generation agreed to a new system for keeping the peace. This book recreates two centuries of international government - the struggle to spread values and build institutions to bring order to an anarchic and dangerous state system.
'One of our best-known living philosophers' Guardian How do we respond to the refugee crisis - by opening our doors, or pulling up the drawbridge? Both solutions, argues Slavoj Zizek, offer ideological blackmail, and both are wrong. He proposes that instead we see the crisis as an opportunity: a unique chance for Europe to redefine itself and its future. 'Zizek identifies the refugee crisis as one of the major global challenges of our time ... he argues for a politics of solidarity' The Times Literary Supplement
From the author of Al- Qaeda, Jason Burke's The 9/11 Wars is an essential book for understanding the dangerous and unstable world of the twenty-first century. On September 11th 2001, in a series of coordinated suicide attacks, terrorists destroyed New York's World Trade Center and a substantial portion of the Pentagon. Since the Twin Towers fell, the world has seen the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the downfall of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, bombings, battles and riots. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in the 'war on terror'. Whether reporting on the riots in France or the attack on Mumbai, suicide bombers in Iraq or British troops fighting in Helmand Province in Afghanistan, Jason Burke's The 9/11 Wars , named 2011 Book of the Year by the Daily Telegraph , Economist and Independent , tells the story of a world that changed forever when the hijacked planes flew out of the brilliant blue sky above Manhattan on September 11th. 'The best overview of the 9/11 decade so far in print' ;; Economist 'A magisterial history of the last decade' ;;Pankaj Mishra, Guardian 'At a time when there are more books out on terrorism than ever before ... this is likely to be among the best' ;; Sunday Telegraph 'Potent ... journalism of a high order ... essential for understanding the past decade' ;;Sherard Cowper-Coles, Sunday Times Jason Burke is the South Asia correspondent for the Guardian . He has reported around the world for both the Guardian and the Observer . He is the author of two other widely praised books, both published by Penguin: Al-Qaeda and On the Road to Kandahar . He lives in New Delhi.
Forget everything you think you know about Blackwater. And get ready for a thrilling, true story that will make you rethink who the good guys and bad guys have been since 9/11.
No company in our time has been as mysterious or as controversial as Blackwater. Founded by former Navy SEAL Erik Prince in 1997, it recruited special forces veterans and others with the skills and courage to take on the riskiest security jobs in the world. As its reputation grew, government demand for its services escalated, and Blackwater's men eventually completed nearly one hundred thousand missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both the Bush and Obama administrations found the company indispensible.
It sounds like a classic startup success story, except for one problem: Blackwater has been demonized around the world. From uninformed news coverage to grossly distorted fictional portrayals, Blackwater employees have been smeared as mercenaries, profiteers, jackbooted thugs, and worse.
Because of the secrecy requirements of Blackwater's contracts with the Pentagon, the State Department, and the CIA, Prince was unable to speak out when his company's opponents spread false information. But now he's able to tell the full and often shocking story of Blackwater's rise and fall.
In Civilian Warriors, Prince pulls no punches and spares no details. He explains his original goal of building an elite center for military and law enforcement training. He recounts how the company shifted gears after 9/11. He honors our troops while challenging the Pentagon's top leadership. And he reveals why highly efficient private military contractors have been essential to running our armed forces, since long before Blackwater came along.
Above all, Prince debunks myths about Blackwater that spread while he was forced to remain silent-'myths that tarnished the memory of men who gave their lives for their country but never got the recognition they deserved. He reveals new information about some of the biggest controversies of the War on Terror, including:
- The true story of the Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad.
- The actual details of Blackwater's so-called impunity in Iraq.
- The events leading up to the televised deaths of Blackwater contractors in Fallujah.
Prince doesn't pretend to be perfect, and he doesn't hide the sometimes painful details of his private life. But he has done a great public service by setting the record straight. His book reads like a thriller but is too improbable to be fiction.
Shows what the resolutions mean for the people who must live in Somalia, Haiti and Rwanda, and for the UN soldiers who are sent to bring order to the terrifying chaos.
Features articles that examine numerous topics, including the financial crisis, Obama's presidency, WikiLeaks and the conflicts in the Middle East. Restating and refining the author's commitment to democracy and finding inspiration in the popular uprisings of the Arab Spring, this book offers his fiercely-argued comment on a fast-changing world.
What happens when nobody's running the world? The US is in financial crisis and can't hold onto the reins of the G-20. Welcome to the G-Zero world, in which no single country has the power to shape a truly global agenda. The author reveals how world powers are rapidly turning into gated communities, locked in competition.
Heard the one about the Spanish Ambassador who arrived in the scorching Saharan desert fully suited and with a mysteriously enormous suitcase? Or the horse they gave Prime Minister John Major in Turkmenistan - which hapless embassy officials had to rescue from the clutches of the Moscow railway? This title deals with these questions.
Communism was one of the most powerful political and intellectual movements of the modern world; at the height of its influence over a third of the world's population lived under Communist rule. And yet very few predicted either its bewildering rise or sudden decline, while even close observers were mystified by its frequent convulsions and turbulent politics.
In The Red Flag, David Priestland provides an original account of the Communist movement that fully explores its global impact. He not only discusses the ideas and motivations of its principal thinkers and leaders - from Marx to Mao, from Stalin to Che Guevara, but also asks why Communism inspired its rank and file - from the militants of 1920s Russia and the guerrilla fighters of China to the Marxist students of Ethiopia and the urban terrorists of Europe in the 1970s. At same the time The Red Flag explores the experience of living under Communism for its millions of subjects.
In his lively and absorbing narrative Priestland stresses how varied a phenomenon Communism was. He traces its emergence in the aftermath of the French Revolution, and shows how those early ideas evolved and mutated as they moved across time and place, from the barricades of Europe in 1848 to the villages of Nepal today.
At a time when the post-Cold War order is itself in crisis and we enter a new phase of global political and economic uncertainty, The Red Flag is essential reading.
'A mesmerizing survey of the ideological and political history of communism. Priestland successfully crafts a global account of communism's development and mutation across nations and generations, deftly combining academic rigour, personal histories and an engaging narrative. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall The Red Flag provides a formative account of communism's rise and fall and its extraordinary impact on the lives of millions.' Tristram Hunt
Argues that we need to reforge links that societies have made between law and strategy; to realize how the evolution of modern states has produced a globally networked terrorism that changes as fast as we can identify it; to combine humanitarian interests with strategies of intervention; and, to rethink what 'victory' in such a war.
'We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes' Theodor Herzl's passionate advocacy of the founding of a Jewish state grew out of his conviction that Jews would never be assimilated into the populations in which they lived. Herzl concluded that the only solution for the majority of Jews would be organised emigration to a state of their own.
Herzl's political and social plea was the result of centuries of restrictions, hostilities and pogroms on the Jews of Europe. His revolutionary proposal for the solution to anti-Semitism was a Jewish state, where they could live in peace, free from persecution - and this hugely influential essay led directly to the creation of Israel.
GREAT IDEAS. Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves - and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives - and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization and helped make us who we are.
In boom and in bust, Ireland has been led by Fianna Fáil. Showtime gets behind the party's remarkable dominance of the political landscape and leading political writer Pat Leahy, tells the gripping story of how it won, kept and has used power since the mid-1990s.
Showtime is politics in the raw: the exciting, enlightening and sometimes disturbing story of a remarkable era that changed the face of modern Ireland.
Michael Klare traces oil's impact on international affairs since World War II, revealing its influence on the Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon and Carter governments. He shows how America's own wells are drying up as demand increases and warns that by 2010 the US will need to import 60 per cent of its oil.
