Ten years ago, in the wake of the traumatic event now known simply as “9/11,” Choice editors gathered up and reprinted reviews of works that seemed, in hindsight, particularly relevant–insightful, instructional–post 9/11.  Taking advantage of keyword searching on Choice Reviews Online, a group of editors culled reviews that had appeared in the magazine since 1988, doing a wide sweep in all subject areas in order to capture materials that would shed light on the events of 2001.  Using words related to broad concepts–the Middle East, the Arab world, terrorism, and so on–we came up with some 2,000 reviews (recommended and suitable for undergraduates), which we then whittled down to a manageable 150.  We arranged the reviews thematically and reprinted them in the June 2002 issue, under the title “Waking Up to a Different Reality: Choice Reviews on Understanding September 11,” a title we labored over and that now seems all too appropriate.

Now, ten years after 9/11, one can barely imagine a world before that monumental event.  To honor that milestone, Choice editors decided to do another “9/11” reprint feature, this one reflecting the post-9/11 world.  Our mission–in a nutshell–was to find titles that would never have been written or published had 9/11 not occurred.  Thus the feature would include only titles appearing in the decade since 9/11.  Editors again went to Choice Reviews Online and, using a different set of keywords, developed the reprint feature that follows.  In doing this, we realized that many of the search terms we were using were either new to our vocabulary–for example, “waterboarding,” “War on Terror,” “Homeland Security,” “threat level”–or had taken on new meaning or become standard in the lexicon–“ground zero” (which now summons up the site of the World Trade Center, rather than Hiroshima and Nagasaki), “enhanced interrogation” “embed,” “twin towers.”  Even “skyscraper” and “emergency responder” have taken on new meaning.

Googling “9/11” brings up some 332,000,000 hits, so we were not surprised that our preliminary searches brought up about 1,300 reviews of titles that could be construed to have bearing on 9/11.  Also to no one’s surprise, more than a thousand of these reviews had appeared in our political science sections. Accordingly, in order to meet our goal of interdisciplinarity, we were more stringent in our criteria for political science titles than for titles in other disciplines.  We also focused on more recent books, limited our selection to works deemed highly recommended or essential, and included only titles appropriate for undergraduates.  And, as with previous interdisciplinary features, we were generous with reviews of reference resources, including a broader sweep of titles and listing them, without reviews, in a sidebar.

We selected “Living in the New Reality” as the title for this new feature not only because it harkens back to the original feature title but also because the feature reflects what has become the norm.  In the West, Osama bin Laden–apprehended and killed as we were preparing this feature–has become the symbol of evil; Al Qaeda, the US’s most-feared enemy. Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (previously a little-thought-of naval base in an unlikely place), now symbolize perfidy on the part of the US.  This “new” reality embraces all this not to mention a new way of thinking about communication, enhanced airport security (removal of shoes, monitoring carry-on liquids, full-body scans), wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, alas, paranoia about people of Arab descent–as identified by what they wear, their names, or their appearance.  This is the new now that these resources address.

HUMANITIES

43-3979  BP182   2004-26561 CIP
Cook, David.  Understanding Jihad.  California, 2005.  259p bibl index afp ISBN 0520244486 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0520244486 pbk, $19.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2006mar CHOICE.
Cook (Rice Univ.) has written one of the most insightful books on Islam in recent years. Rejecting the definition of jihad as “holy war,” a Christian concept, Cook considers its Arabic root as “striving.” Unlike most Western scholars and Muslim apologists, however, he demonstrates that the notion of the greater jihad–the striving against temptations within–cannot be adequately supported by the Qur’an or the Hadith. Examining jihad from its inception in the early years of Muslim history, the author indicates the important role it played in the expansion and shaping of Islam. Given the frequent references to jihad by later authors and the identification of the early battles with Allah’s intervention, Cook maintains that jihad remains crucial to Islamic culture. Muslims perceive jihad as salvific, concerned with the proclamation of Islam. For radical, militant Muslims the salvific nature of jihad lies in the effort to bring Islam to world domination; hence, the martyrdom/suicide operations. The appendix offers some translated documents from current Muslim organizations committed to militant jihad. The afterword suggests that militant jihad, though continuing marginally, will in the end fail. This book is not a condemnation of Islam but a scholarly examination of a concept the West has yet to grasp. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-level undergraduates and above.—M. F. Nefsky, emerita, University of Lethbridge

42-3352  BP195   2003-16382 CIP
DeLong-Bas, Natana J.  Wahhabi Islam: from revival and reform to global Jihad.  Oxford, 2004.  370p bibl index afp ISBN 0-19-516991-3 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-19-516991-3, $30.00. Reviewed in 2005feb CHOICE.
Delong-Bas (Georgetown Univ.) offers here the startling thesis that portrayals of the 18th-century founder of Wahhabi Islam, Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab, as a narrow literalist, misogynist, and spiritual founder of violent jihad derive from religious political rivals and are wholly inaccurate. Based on a thorough critical analysis of Wahhab’s writings and the witness of his contemporaries, Delong-Bas substantiates that Wahhab (1) sought to apply the Qur’an and authoritative traditions of Muhammad according to their spirit rather than their letter, and against what he viewed as tribal custom and idiosyncratic or self-serving teaching; (2) defended women’s rights and responsibilities in the public sphere; and (3) sought to convert through education and discussion rather than violence. She contrasts Wahhab’s thought on jihad not only with that of preceding Islamic interpreters, but also with the thinking of 19th-century modernists, 20th-century fundamentalists, and contemporary radicals. In particular, the author attributes the violent global jihad of Osama bin Laden and other extremists today to such thinkers as the medieval scholar Ibn Taymiyya and his 20th-century interpreter, the Muslim Brotherhood leader Sayyid Qutb, rather than to Wahhab. The scholarly apparatus includes a glossary of Arabic terms. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers.—P. S. Spalding, Illinois College

47-6803  BP161   2009-18732 CIP
Esposito, John L.  The future of Islam.  Oxford, 2010.  234p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780195165210 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780195165210, $24.95. Reviewed in 2010aug CHOICE.
This volume does not represent an attempt to sketch out or project a future for Islam, as the title might at first seem to suggest. Rather it is an attempt to identify and address those issues that almost inevitably will lie at the center of Islam’s relationship with the West in the coming decades. In this volume, addressed primarily to a Western readership, Esposito (Georgetown Univ.) aims to sketch out the contours of a productive relationship that will serve the interests and needs of both the Muslim world and the West. In his view, Islam and the West are not condemned to a violent and contentious relationship as the history of the past two centuries might seem to suggest. If the West is to confront successfully the challenge posed by Islam’s existence, it will need to broaden its horizons to see Islam as an integral part of a family of religious traditions that includes both Judaism and Christianity. A carefully conceived and sensitive work, this volume is one that formulators of American foreign policy will need to read with great care. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Both public and academic libraries; general readers, lower- and upper-level undergraduates, and graduate students.—M. Swartz, Boston University

44-0869  B105   2005-6171 CIP
The Ethics of war: shared problems in different traditions, ed. by Richard Sorabji and David Rodin.  Ashgate, 2006.  253p index ISBN 0754654494 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0754654494 pbk, $29.95. Reviewed in 2006oct CHOICE.
The collection is well written and argued, timely, and a valuable addition. The first seven chapters deal with the historical and religious traditions of the morality of war by considering Greco-Roman, Byzantine, Christian, Islamic, Jewish, and Hindu theories as well as the Geneva Conventions. The last six chapters consider some of the important contemporary moral issues of war. There are first-rate pieces on asymmetric war, preventive war, humanitarian intervention, and moral restraint; two pieces apply just war theory to recent wars. All are written by thinkers working within the tradition. Omitted are pieces from the traditions of absolute or pragmatic pacifism or utilitarianism. Along with realism, these traditions are hardly mentioned. So a more accurate title would be “Just War Theory.” The book is broader in scope than the recent anthologies War after September 11, ed. by V. V. Gehring (2002), and Ethics and Weapons of Mass Destruction, ed. by S. H. Hashmi and S. P. Lee (CH, Feb’05, 42-3355), yet reminiscent of the latter’s similar structure. One wonders if any war can be just if people enter it knowing that innocent children will be massacred, especially given the tendency to hubris in prewar assessment and the unpredictable consequences of waging war, which tend to go badly. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels.—R. Werner, Hamilton College

42-0193  PN1993  2003-10378 CIP
Film and television after 9/11, ed. by Wheeler Winston Dixon.  Southern Illinois, 2004.  262p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8093-2555-1 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-8093-2555-1, $60.00; ISBN 0-8093-2556-X http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-8093-2556-X pbk, $30.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2004sep CHOICE.
This vital anthology explores the commercial film response to the “bleak landscape of personal loss, paranoia, and political cynicism” in the US after September 11th. Dixon (English and film, Univ. of Nebraska) provides a useful introduction, after which come contributions by scholars in a variety of disciplines. Steven Schneider and Murray Pomerance explore the film treatment of the World Trade Center towers before and after September 11th; David Sterritt and Marcia Landry relate the coverage to representations of the Holocaust and Pearl Harbor, respectively; Juan Suarez considers the experimental city film and the destroyed city’s self-re-creation; Rebecca Bell-Martineau surveys the “Ur-Fascist” paranoia film “that values sacrifice, obedience, the cult of the hero, and the doctrine of constant warfare”; Jonathan Markovitz examines the pertinence of such adventure/terror films as Black Hawk Down and Panic Room; Mikita Brottman explores the futility and dangerous effects of censoring graphic images. Individual studies are accorded Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Kandahar and The West Wing. Uniformly excellent, the informed, closely argued, and clearly written essays collected here demonstrate how popular films reflect not just the open issues of their day but its sunken anxieties–e.g., the notion that criticism of American policy is anti-Americanism. Summing Up: Essential. All levels.—M. Yacowar, University of Calgary

45-0105  PN4738  2006-28548 CIP
Finnegan, Lisa.  No questions asked: news coverage since 9/11.  Praeger, 2007.  189p bibl index afp ISBN 0-275-99335-3 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-275-99335-3, $49.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2007sep CHOICE.
Finnegan’s convincing, readable, and meticulously researched book concerns the failure of the US press to adequately cover “real” news since the 9/11 attacks. Conservatives will probably accuse Finnegan (an award-winning journalist and a scholar of the psychology of terrorism and the media) of a liberal bias in maintaining that the Bush administration and Fox News bullied a compliant media into censoring key news stories and printing pro-administration propaganda pieces. But no one can deny that the alarming evidence Finnegan presents in support of that contention is well documented and raises questions that need to be asked. This book is more substantive than some other books on the subject (Bernard Goldberg’s work comes to mind), many of which are underresearched and rancorous in their attempts to expose the media as liberal, and it is easier to read than David Barker’s heavily footnoted, statistic-laden Rushed to Judgment (2002), which argues that the media are conservative. Although the debate over whether the media–in the collective sense–is fundamentally left- or right-wing may never be settled, Finnegan addresses the controversy with a minimum of snarkiness and moral outrage and a preponderance of facts and intelligent analysis. Summing Up: Essential. All readers; all levels.—M. E. DiPaolo, Alvernia College

47-4356  BP190   2009-5174 CIP
Glucklich, Ariel.  Dying for heaven: holy pleasure & suicide bombers–why the best qualities of religion are also its most dangerous.  HarperOne, 2009.  345p index; ISBN 9780061430817 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780061430817, $25.99. Reviewed in 2010apr CHOICE.
Glucklich (Georgetown Univ.) posits that pleasure is the motivation for religious action; on the face of it, this idea may not appear especially convincing. Readers should bear in mind, however, that Glucklich describes religionists who are dying for heaven, including suicide bombers, and develops the intriguing idea that the best qualities of religion are also its most dangerous, as noted in the subtitle. He theorizes that “religious happiness” is an “evolutionary product.” Pleasure begets happiness, including the phenomenon of religion, which can result in physically destructive behavior. In evolutionary terms, religious qualities are not particularly problematic but presently, with suicide bombings and a religiously motivated nuclear arms race, they are. The book is of interest because the author counters the argument that terrorists act out of hatred and are dying for a next-worldly paradise and that religious extremism is irrational. Glucklich advances the idea that religiously destructive people believe they are motivated by love, are troubled by enemies within their societies, and seek acclaim in this world. He illuminatingly demonstrates that religion, as a mental construct, is just as much Osama bin Laden as it is Mother Theresa. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers.—G. M. Smith, Delaware County Community College

41-4597  BP166   2003-5644 CIP
Islam and the West: critical perspectives on modernity, ed. by Michael J. Thompson.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.  188p bibl index afp ISBN 0-7425-3106-6 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-7425-3106-6, $70.00; ISBN 0-7425-3107-4 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-7425-3107-4 pbk, $24.95. Reviewed in 2004apr CHOICE.
This work is a collection of essays written in response to the events of September 11, 2001. The nine chapters represent the thought of various scholars about the difficult and challenging task of understanding the causes of this attack on the “West,” and the “clash of civilizations.” Overall, there is an attempt to present a fusion of many different perspectives concerning Islam’s clash with the West and possible solutions in the future. It is therefore “through an overlapping of social, historic, economic, and cultural/philosophical layers that the complexity of Islam’s relation to the West and the idea of modernity are best characterized.” The contributors (mainly from the social sciences) seek to broaden discussion of the relationship between Islam, the West, and modernity “through political, historical, philosophical and social scientific lenses …” This book offers readers very helpful insights and understanding of “one of the great … tensions of modern times.” Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers; upper-division undergraduates and graduate students.—T. M. Pucelik, Bradley University

42-3974  BP163    MARC
Islamic thought in the twentieth century, ed. by Suha Taji-Farouki and Basheer M. Nafi.  I.B.Tauris, 2004.  387p bibl index ISBN 1-85043-425-5 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-85043-425-5, $69.50.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2005mar CHOICE.
Since September 11, 2001, Islam has been a major focus of contention. This edited volume provides a critical assessment of Islam as it relates to ten currently significant topics, including the rise of reform Islam and Islam’s thinking on economic development, gender, and family. Written by a scholar with expertise in Islam, each chapter provides a historical background so that readers may more fully understand Islamic thought in the 20th century. The book considers crucial issues such as the relationship between reform Islam and traditional Islam; the intersection between Arab nationalism and pan-Islamism; the conflict between spiritual Islam and political Islam; and the impact of Western anti-Semitic notions on the Islamic perception of the Jew. The chapters continually remind readers that there are numerous forms of what is glibly called “Islam”; like other world religions Islam has, in its 1,400 years of existence and with its worldwide appeal, developed a symbiosis with local cultures and customs. To generalize about it is to create a false impression of one of the largest world religions today. Each chapter is well documented with a list of further readings. This is a very helpful text for understanding what is occurring in the world today. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above.—M. F. Nefsky, emerita, University of Lethbridge

46-1423  BL65   2007-34721 CIP
Jones, James W.  Blood that cries out from the earth: the psychology of religious terrorism.  Oxford, 2008.  190p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780195335972 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780195335972, $24.95. Reviewed in 2008nov CHOICE.
After sketching psychological models of terrorism, Jones (Rutgers) focuses on psycho-religious themes in acts of terrorism (shame, apocalyptic thinking that isolates participants from others and demonizes them to aggrandize and purify themselves and their world) that comprise an authoritarian, sacrificial religious system providing union with a deity for participants and destruction for victims, who account for the evil in the lives of those humiliated by their wider society. The psychodynamic factors that underlie terrorist theory and activity include a patriarchal, punitive god who demands submission; a dichotomy between the “good” terrorists and the “bad” victims of terrorism (that enables terrorists to find spiritual renewal and moral seriousness in their lives by serving a vengeful, demanding god); the sense of threat that humiliation stimulates; and the totalizing and absolute claims that terrorists find in their religious sources. Jones’s main test cases of Muslim jihadists (actual violence), Japanese Aum Shinrikyo (small-scale actual violence), and the “Left Behind” series of the American Christian right (potential violence) display the psychological factors Jones develops and lay bare the essential ambiguity and ambivalence of religion: some believers engage in violence, others forswear it. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above; general readers.—L. J. Alderink, emeritus, Concordia College

40-6363  BL65   2002-7099 CIP
Lincoln, Bruce.  Holy terrors: thinking about religion after September 11.  Chicago, 2003.  142p index afp ISBN 0-226-48192-1 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-226-48192-1, $25.00. Reviewed in 2003jul CHOICE.
Lincoln (Univ. of Chicago) recognizes that there can be a very close and serious interaction, as well as a distinction, among religion, culture, and politics. The first part of this book involves a close reading of key texts, including the instruction manual that Mohammad Atta and others studied, Bush’s address to the nation on October 7, bin Laden’s speech released the same day, and Jerry Falwell and Pat Roberts’ interpretations of September 11. Following the first three chapters on studying key texts, the author turns to other data related to three movements: (1) the period from the Reformation through the Enlightenment, when religion in Europe took “a much diminished role in culture”; (2) 19th- to 20th-century colonial and neocolonial domination, which “sought to impose [a] minimalist model of religion on the rest of the world”; and (3) post-Cold War reactions, when activists “sought to reassert religion’s dominating position in culture.” This is an important scholarly work for all seeking to evaluate and understand the complexities of the role that religion plays within sociopolitical revolutionary change. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers and undergraduates.—T. M. Pucelik, Bradley University

42-3344  BJ352   2003-23953 CIP
Margolis, Joseph.  Moral philosophy after 9/11.  Pennsylvania State, 2004.  150p index afp ISBN 0-271-02447-X http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-271-02447-X, $29.95. Reviewed in 2005feb CHOICE.
Margolis (Temple Univ.) takes the events of 9/11 as an occasion for reflection upon the failings of traditional moral philosophy and its proper task. He is the author of more than 20 books, including Science without Unity (CH, Jun’88), Pragmatism without Foundations (CH, Jun’87), and, with Tom Rockmore, The Philosophy of Interpretation (1999). With this new book Margolis follows a now-familiar tack. He holds that there is no eternally existing, history-transcendent ground for the truth of moral judgments and that, nevertheless, the identification and intellectual occupation of this (supposed) ground has been the goal of much traditional philosophy. Margolis adopts instead what he refers to as a “second-best” morality, according to which the actual practices of societies and social groups must be recognized and respected. Whether a moral disagreement has to do with relatively well-known issues, such as those associated with abortion, or with those brought to our attention by sudden and dramatic events–such as occurred on 9/11–there is no neutral ground on which a universally satisfactory description of the issue and associated phenomena can be produced. Moral philosophy should seek instead a resolution of the issue in practical terms. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels.—S. Satris, Clemson University

43-2000  HE8700  2004-54064 CIP
Miles, Hugh.  Al-Jazeera: the inside story of the Arab news channel that is challenging the West.  Grove Press, 2005.  438p index ISBN 0-8021-1789-9 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-8021-1789-9, $24.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2005dec CHOICE.
In a very short period of time, Qatar-based Al Jazeera has become of the most widely watched news channels in the world and probably the most controversial. The bane of the Bush and Blair administrations, Western talk shows, and some at CNN and Fox Network, the station has endured the US bombing of its Kabul bureau, closure of some bureaus (including those in Jordan and Kuwait), censorship of its footage by US television networks, and numerous smear campaigns. Simultaneously, since 9/11 international mass media (including those in the US) have depended on Al Jazeera as a news source, and it has delivered some the biggest scoops in television history. Journalist Hugh Miles conducted exhaustive interviews with Al Jazeera staff and with a whole range of individuals from many professions around the world, and he successfully shows how the channel has been the subject of gross misrepresentation. Indeed, the author claims, Al Jazeera is “probably less biased than any of the mainstream American news networks” and serves as a “model of professionalism and objectivity.” His case for Al Jazeera as an eye on the Arab world and an important alternative voice is well defended in this articulate book, which deserves a wide readership in these times when the public sphere is regularly and systematically manipulated and in danger of being totally closed. Summing Up: Essential. All readers; all collections.—J. A. Lent, Temple University

47-3700  PN1993  2009-13483 CIP
Prince, Stephen.  Firestorm: American film in the age of terrorism.  Columbia, 2009.  388p bibl filmography index afp; ISBN 9890231148719 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9890231148719 pbk, $27.50; ISBN 9780231148702 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780231148702, $87.50.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2010mar CHOICE.
Systematically surveying the US’s filmic responses to 9/11, Prince (Virginia Tech) begins this beautifully organized book by looking at both 20th-century terrorism and terrorism as represented by 20th-century Hollywood. He then describes the many responses to the 9/11 attacks by both Hollywood and documentary film. He not only brings forward some lesser-known conspiracy films (which argue that the US government itself destroyed the World Trade Center) but also does an excellent job of showing how less-obviously linked films–e.g., V for Vendetta (2005) and the Saw films (2004-08)–are products of 9/11 culture. Prince continues by collecting fictional and documentary films that take the war in Iraq as their focus. Wheeler Winston Dixon began the discussion of this topic with his outstanding edited volume Film and Television after 9/11 (CH, Sep’04, 42-0193); the present volume, with its historical timeline and filmography, now provides the definitive survey of post-9/11 film. By providing clear historical and political context for each group of films, Prince’s impressively thorough and intelligently written book will serve as a guide for some years to this visually indelible episode in American history. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.
— S. C. Dillon, Bates College

43-0806  HQ1170  2004-21771 CIP
Shattering the stereotypes: Muslim women speak out, ed. by Fawzia Afzal-Khan.  Olive Branch, 2005.  338p ISBN 1566565693 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1566565693 pbk, $20.00. Reviewed in 2005oct CHOICE.
Afzal-Khan (Montclair State Univ.) has put together an impressive collection of radical writings by US Muslim women, most of them born in the Arab world (Afghanistan, Iran, South Asia). Some of the contributors pose questions about what it means to be a Muslim woman–is it a religious or a political identity?–and almost all are concerned with the fate of Muslims in the US in the wake of 9/11. Some draw comparisons between their own situation and that of Palestinians under Israeli rule. Others ask how the US will accommodate Muslim women’s difference. But the essays look inward as well as outward, with a special focus on the ways in which Islamic law has been used to intimidate and marginalize women. Afzal-Khan includes a range of genres: essays, poetry, journalism, religious discourse, fiction, and drama. She emphasizes the importance of plays that deal with personal and political conflicts “in their rawest, most immediate form.” This powerful book will surely shatter many Americans’ stereotypes of oppressed Muslim women. It will be particularly useful to beginners studying American ethnic literature. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-/upper-division undergraduates; general readers.—M. Cooke, Duke University

42-3348  HV6431  2004-50424 CIP
Terrorism: the philosophical issues, ed. by Igor Primoratz.  Palgrave, 2004.  215p bibl index ISBN 1-4039-1816-3 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-4039-1816-3, $75.00; ISBN 1403918171 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1403918171 pbk, $24.95. Reviewed in 2005feb CHOICE.
Primoratz (Hebrew Univ.) has edited an interesting volume of original and updated essays authored mainly by professional philosophers. Together, the essays telescope the main lines of philosophical ethics (from nonconsequentialism to consequentialism) as applied to the analysis and issue of contemporary terrorism in a number of historical and political contexts. Contributors address the matter of both nonstate and state actors. The editor’s introduction is a well-written overview of the conceptual problems of “terrorism” as they relate to the essays he selected for this collection. Since terrorism invariably involves deliberate, unwarranted, violent attacks on civilians (or noncombatants), this reviewer finds most congenial B.M. Leiser’s essay because it makes a convincing case that all instances of terrorism are essentially a disaffirmation of human life and civilization (irrespective of their rationale and explanations related to a specific context). Though somewhat sympathetic to Leiser’s viewpoint, V. Held’s view would seem to excuse terrorism if perpetuated for ideals like rights and justice. Worse yet, the consequentialists typically relativize their final assessments of terrorism, thus rendering any universal ground for condemnation highly improbable. This small volume is indispensable for any final philosophical evaluation of terrorism. Includes a modest selected bibliography and adequate index. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.—A. S. Rosenbaum, Cleveland State University

47-4292  PS374   2008-52348 CIP
Versluys, Kristiaan.  Out of the blue: September 11 and the novel.  Columbia, 2009.  226p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780231149365 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780231149365, $79.50; ISBN 9780231149372 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780231149372 pbk, $24.50. Reviewed in 2010apr CHOICE.
In engaging recent works by Don DeLillo, Art Spiegelman, Jonathan Safran Foer, Martin Amis, Frédéric Beigbeder, and John Updike, among others, Versluys (Ghent Univ., Belgium) addresses the best of the novels that have tried to deal fictively with 9/11. The author relies on the topic of these novels, rather than a comprehensive argument about them, to bind together his study, but he does use the problematic paradox of artistically representing trauma and Freud’s ideas about melancholy and mourning as touchstones. The book reads in places as a series of intelligent individual essays, rather than as a cohesive whole. This is surprising because as one of the first scholars to attempt a comprehensive discussion of novels about 9/11, Versluys would not be identifying trends within a genre so much as dissecting how authors have dealt with the issue of speaking about this unspeakable event. The best chapters are those on DeLillo and on authors who have written from the perspective of the other. The least successful is the chapter on Beigbeder, whose 9/11 novel Windows on the World Versluys deems not very good to begin with. Due largely to its scholarly, sometimes jargony vocabulary, this study is not appropriate for beginners. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.—E. K. Rosen, Muhlenberg College

47-2498  HV8593  2008-43687 CIP
Wisnewski, Jeremy.  The ethics of torture, by J. Jeremy Wisnewski and R.D. Emerick.  Continuum International Publishers Group, 2009.  164p bibl index; ISBN 9780826498892 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780826498892, $120.00; ISBN 9780826498908 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780826498908 pbk, $18.95. Reviewed in 2010jan CHOICE.
The analytical subtlety with which Wisnewski (Hartwick College) and Emerick (Palomar College) look at the practice of torture makes their work noteworthy; otherwise, it would seem perfectly obvious that the deliberate, undeserved inflicting of pain by one moral agent on another is “morally impermissible.” Yet the doctrine of military necessity has been used, especially since 9/11, to justify torture in the name of national defense. The authors argue that, even in the instance of the so-called “ticking bomb” terrorist, torture for any reason is still immoral. They seek to explain their opposition while avoiding the charge of untenable, abstract idealism. The authors acknowledge the obvious fact that different types of torture exist, but also that different paradigms are involved in any evaluation of torture, viz., the economic, the phenomenological, the dramaturgical, and the communicative. They deploy arguments against those prominent scholars who justify the application of torture in certain legal and moral circumstances. As the authors observe, torture endures and so do its proponents. This book reminds readers that a subtle moral analysis of torture is crucial if the moral inclination of the civilized world is to avoid too many concessions to the nefarious tactics of barbarism and thereby become their reflection. Excellent bibliography; good index. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels.—A. S. Rosenbaum, Cleveland State University

SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

48-3439 E184  2010-14051 CIP
Ahmed, Akbar.  Journey into America: the challenge of Islam.  Brookings, 2010.  528p index afp ISBN 0-8157-0387-2 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-8157-0387-2, $29.95; ISBN 9780815703877 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780815703877, $29.95. Reviewed in 2011feb CHOICE.
Ahmed’s bid to become one of the foremost scholars of Islam in the US has resulted in an expansive inquiry into the Muslim community through a journey into the US itself. Visiting over 75 cities and over 100 mosques and engaging in over 2,000 interviews over the course of a year, Ahmed (American Univ.) and two of his students have produced an extraordinary text. The author makes a compelling argument for the acceptance of Muslim immigrants. What is missing is the in-depth analysis expected in anthropological studies, where immersion is longer than a few hours. Because of the expanse of this text, there is little opportunity to witness changes in attitudes or even much of the context of attitudes. However, this engaging text, completed in an astonishingly short time, claims to be the first study of its kind and the answer to all questions about Muslims in the US. Readers will have to decide if the book fulfills its goal, but regardless, this is a must read–a new de Tocqueville on America for the 21st century. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.—A. B. McCloud, DePaul University

45-2875  HV8593  2006-27537 CIP
Bagaric, Mirko.  Torture: when the unthinkable is morally permissible, by Mirko Bagaric and Julie Clarke.  State University of New York, 2007.  114p index afp; ISBN 9780791471531 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780791471531, $53.50; ISBN 9780791471548 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780791471548 pbk, $17.95. Reviewed in 2008jan CHOICE.
The war on terrorism, stories of secret CIA camps, and the questioning of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons have thrust the use of torture into the news. But while universally condemned, is torture always morally wrong? Bagaric and Clarke controversially contend that it is sometimes permissible, arguing that in a limited number of cases torture is a legitimate tool to save an innocent victim when there is no other means available to secure information. This brief, highly readable book makes the moral case for the use of torture, developing arguments along both philosophical and pragmatic fronts. Philosophically, the authors argue torture is compatible both with utilitarian and rights-based theories of ethics. Pragmatically, they argue that torture can work; arguments against it, that it is anti-democratic or not effective, are addressed. Finally, the authors note that the widespread use of torture in the world questions presumptions against its moral use. There is a lot to disagree with in this book, but it is a must read for students and scholars wishing to engage the torture debate. Excellent for collections on ethics, law, terrorism, and criminal justice. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.—D. Schultz, Hamline University

45-1742 BP67  2006-11404 CIP
Barrett, Paul M.  American Islam: the struggle for the soul of a religion.  Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2007.  304p bibl index afp ISBN 0-374-10423-9 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-374-10423-9, $25.00; ISBN 9780374104238 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780374104238, $25.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
Barrett (Business Week) makes his view of Islam in the US clear in his book’s subtitle. Six years after September 11, he investigates “what, for Muslims, is a normal American life?” Seeking answers and exposing the diversity of US Islam along the way, Barrett traveled from coast to coast, interviewed hundreds, and selected seven individuals to represent different answers to the question. In true journalistic style, he faithfully records his respondents but also interrogates those responses. While the answer to the question is the same–life in the US is full of challenges–Barrett actually pays more attention to other questions. Standing in as the average American, he steers his reportage to issues such as, can or will Muslims assimilate? Where are the moderate Muslims, if any? Are there terrorists among US Muslims? Are Muslim women oppressed? His seven profiles are largely of newsworthy US Muslims whose opinions are already well known, but Barrett’s savvy comes in his interrogations and engaging style. In the spectrum of texts, this one is worth reading, valuable because of the insight it provides on a complex topic. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.—A. B. McCloud, DePaul University

45-4660  HV6432  2007-7578 CIP
Bolton, M. Kent.  U.S. national security and foreign policymaking after 9/11: present at the re-creation.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.  433p bibl index afp ISBN 0-7425-4847-3 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-7425-4847-3, $80.00; ISBN 0742559009 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0742559009 pbk, $29.95; ISBN 9780742548473 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780742548473, $80.00; ISBN 9780742559004 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780742559004 pbk, $29.95. Reviewed in 2008apr CHOICE.
In this book Bolton (California State Univ.) traces the development of the National Security Council (NSC) and its role in US foreign policy making. His task is to uncover the effects that the 9/11 attacks and the implementation of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (IRTPA) have had on the functioning of the NSC. Bolton focuses attention on the institutional, bureaucratic, and operational changes brought about by external government and societal factors influencing US foreign policy. After a definitional discussion of major concepts, the analysis moves to how and why the NSC has evolved since the Truman administration into a central and important foreign policy body under George W. Bush. Finally, Bolton identifies the inputs that led to changes in US foreign policy in the post-9/11 period and the implementation of the IRTPA. For readers interested in how and why the US national security bureaucracy has gained advantage over US democratic institutions, the book is an excellent source. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers and all undergraduates.
— B. Grosscup, California State University—Chico

48-2750 DS79  2009-44962 CIP
Bonn, Scott A.  Mass deception: moral panic and the U.S. war on Iraq.  Rutgers, 2010.  190p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780813547886 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780813547886, $72.00; ISBN 9780813547893 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780813547893 pbk, $24.95. Reviewed in 2011jan CHOICE.
The 2003 preemptive invasion of Iraq by the US is widely viewed as a catastrophic enterprise. Bonn (Drew Univ.), a criminologist with two decades of experience in the media corporate world, systematically explores the forces leading up to the invasion. He adopts the “moral panic” concept popularized by Stanley Cohen as a fundamental framework for a deeper understanding of how the Bush administration “manufactured” public support for the invasion decision. The moral panic phenomenon was originally applied to campaigns directed at delinquents, but Bonn here shows it to apply to campaigns that target state leaders as well. The author draws extensively on the work of critical criminologists (e.g., Ronald Kramer and Dawn Rothe) who have advanced a criminological approach to the crimes of states. Bonn more broadly uses an interdisciplinary approach drawing upon critical communications theory, critical sociology, and social constructionism to make his case. A large section of the book applies content analysis and survey data to document the core claims about a moral panic. Altogether, an impressively documented and researched study of an immensely consequential topic that deserves a wide readership. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries.—D. O. Friedrichs, University of Scranton

43-0507 BP182  2004-51152 CIP
Bonney, Richard.  Jihād: from Qur’ān to Bin Laden.  Palgrave, 2004.  594p bibl index ISBN 1-4039-3372-3 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-4039-3372-3, $35.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2005sep CHOICE.
Jihad–in both individual and collective Muslim struggles to meet Islam’s highest ideals as defined in the Qur’an and sunna (i.e., the Islamic way of life as lived by the Prophet, Muhammad)–is a complex subject, especially concerning Islam’s relations with nonbelievers in the Dar al-Harb (Abode of War). This book is without question the most comprehensive yet available in English. Bonney (Univ. of Leicester) has brought together an impressive range of sources and also provides a full-length glossary, history, and detailed notes. Many of his sources, such as ideologues Rachid Ghannouchi, Sayyid Mawdudi, Sayyid Qutb, and Hassan al-Banna, are unfamiliar in the West. Bonney’s purpose is “to increase understanding of the varieties of jihad and their history, thereby facilitating greater understanding of mainstream Islam among Westerners.” Bonney considers in sequence Qur’anic jihad, jihad in Islamic states, jihad in global revolution, and jihad in its modern distortions, notably that of Osama Bin Laden. It is the author’s concluding hope that mainstream Muslims will join a “global jihad” for justice and human rights. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.—W. Spencer, Flagler College

48-4007 G535  2010-3617 CIP
Burgess, D. R.  The world for ransom: piracy is terrorism, terrorism is piracy.  Prometheus Books, 2010.  312p bibl index afp; ISBN 9781616141738 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781616141738, $26.00. Reviewed in 2011mar CHOICE.
The war on terror has raged for nine years with no end in sight. The struggle has forced US policy makers to compromise fundamental democratic values. Unfortunately, the US reaction not only inflamed the Islamic world, but also played into the terrorist narrative that claims the West seeks to destroy Islam. Even more important, many of those measures adopted amid the crisis atmosphere of 2001 were outside the bounds of international law. Burgess (Yeshiva Univ.) examines the response to terrorism and argues that those policies ultimately alienated many traditional US allies. The remedy, according to the author, is not to develop a new judicial system, one that is difficult to justify, but instead to look to the past. His solution is simple: treat terrorists as pirates. A legal framework is already in place that would allow the world community to deny terrorists a safe haven and bring them to justice. By reviewing the past, Burgess believes, the West can overcome the legal quandary confronting it when dealing with international outlaws. This book is not only timely, but also noteworthy when studying the phenomenon of modern terrorism. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.
— C. C. Lovett, Emporia State University

47-5960 E184  2009-3523 CIP
Cainkar, Louise A.  Homeland insecurity: the Arab American and Muslim American experience after 9/11.  Russell Sage Foundation, 2009.  325p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780871540485 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780871540485, $35.00. Reviewed in 2010jun CHOICE.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have been perceived as a unifying moment for the US, one that brought people together regardless of political ideology or any other potentially divisive feature. Such a view ignores the experiences of Arab and Muslim Americans who found themselves the targets of much of this unity. Sociologist Cainkar (Marquette Univ.) provides a summary of these experiences, mixing general trends of persecution and prejudice with specific examples of those who lived it. Her aim is not to sensationalize Arab and Muslim American treatment in this era but rather to provide, as closely as possible, descriptions of authentic and everyday experiences. Central to this portrayal is the process of “de-Americanization,” in which persons who are citizens have that status stripped away in the court of public opinion because of negative perceptions. Cainkar embeds this process in the larger historical context of how Arabs and Muslims have been perceived in the US. In doing so, she encapsulates previous work on the topic in a contemporary application, making this book an important contribution not only to Arab American studies but also to US history collections. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.—G. C. David, Bentley University

43-0388 D1056  2004-44763 CIP
Cesari, Jocelyne.  When Islam and democracy meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States.  Palgrave, 2004.  267p bibl index ISBN 0-312-29401-8 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-312-29401-8, $65.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2005sep CHOICE.
Cesari (research associate, Harvard) examines the highly complicated issue of Muslim minority integration and acculturation to mainstream culture and secularization in western European countries and the US. The author explains that “it has been necessary to examine those dimensions of Muslim life that are crucial to the formation of both identities and religious practices. These dimensions are the meta-narrative currently circulating on Islam, the influence of the cultural and political structures of the host countries, the complex interaction between religion and ethnicity, and the influence of global Islam.” This is a challenge, particularly because the makeup of most Western Muslim communities has not been uniform. For example, Muslims include Turks in Germany, Algerians and Moroccans in France, Albanians in Italy, Muslims from the Indian subcontinent in the UK, the Nation of Islam in the US, etc. Cesari’s research is very impressive and her presentation lucid and objective. The bibliography is extensive and the appendixes offer very useful statistical data and comprehensive lists of Muslim organizations and societies in the West. This book is absolutely necessary for understanding the growing tension between the majority of Europeans and Americans and their Muslim neighbors, and offers some guidelines on how to deal with it. Summing Up: Essential. All public/academic levels/libraries.—N. Rassekh, Lewis and Clark College

45-6239  HV6432 2007-1657 CIP
Cole, David.  Less safe, less free: why America is losing the war on terror, by David Cole and Jules Lobel.  Free Press, 2007.  326p bibl index ISBN 1-59558-133-2 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-59558-133-2, $26.95; ISBN 9781595581334 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781595581334, $26.95. Reviewed in 2008jul CHOICE.
Law professors Cole (Georgetown) and Lobel (Pittsburgh) have written what amounts to a powerful, severe, double-barreled lawyers’ indictment of the Bush administration for violating the norms of civil liberties at home and international law abroad. They argue that in a variety of ways, these violations have not only trampled on fundamental rights (such as those to a speedy trial and to freedom from torture) and traditional diplomatic norms (such as the illegality of unilateral preventive wars), but have failed to make the US more secure and, in fact, have weakened the country by undercutting the legitimacy of the US government both at home and, especially, abroad. Although the essence of this argument and its supporting evidence will not be startlingly new to readers of the quality press, Cole and Lobel have helpfully gathered a great mass of up-to-date information that, for most readers, would otherwise likely remain scattered in newspapers, magazines, and Internet sites. The coverage is very broad and therefore sometimes a little thin, and although fully footnoted, the volume would benefit from a bibliographical essay to guide readers through the mass of cited sources. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels/libraries.—R. J. Goldstein, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor

46-0472 CS1129 2007-42748 CIP
Coll, Steve.  The bin Ladens: an Arabian family in the American century.  Penguin, 2008.  671p bibl index; ISBN 9781594201646 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781594201646, $35.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2008sep CHOICE.
This remarkably well-written account of the bin Laden family and its involvement with Saudi Arabia and the Middle East is a timely contribution to understanding one of the world’s most significant areas. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Coll takes on the complex story of the enormous bin Laden family, beginning with Mohamed bin Laden, born circa 1905 in present-day Yemen. During his youth in the 1930s, Mohamed moved to Jeddah and beyond to eastern Saudi Arabia, where he made his home. From the 1940s to 1967, he married a large number of women and fathered 54 children. He and his family built a “unique and important partnership” with Saudi Arabia’s royal family, engaging in an array of business enterprises including construction and road building. Extremely competent, they became immensely wealthy. Their investments and land purchases in their adopted homeland, Europe, and in other countries, especially the US from Florida to Beverly Hills, drew international attention. Mohamed bin Laden’s son Osama, born in 1958, became painfully anti-American and anti-Semitic after some years in Afghanistan and after the first New York World Trade Center attack in 1993. Hated in Saudi Arabia, he was stripped of his citizenship in 1994. A brilliantly researched, frightening, thoroughly accurate, marvelously informative work. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.—J. W. Walt, Simpson College (IA)

48-4056 E745  2010-20395 CIP
Dower, John W.  Cultures of war: Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11/Iraq.  W.W. Norton, 2010.  596p index ISBN 0-393-06150-7
http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-393-06150-7, $29.95; ISBN 9780393061505 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780393061505, $29.95. Reviewed in 2011mar CHOICE.
Dower (emer., MIT), author of over a dozen books, mostly concerning the history of Japan, has produced an exceedingly impressive study that compares the events surrounding Pearl Harbor with the most recent US adventure in Iraq. Dower examines how Americans reacted to both surprise attacks (Pearl Harbor and 9/11), how failures in communication in both instances led to catastrophic results, and how the government dealt with the postwar challenges in Japan from 1945 to 1952 and in Iraq from 2003 to the present. Dower’s knowledge of Japan’s postwar history is impressive, but he also brings a sophisticated understanding to the actions of President Bush and his advisers in their poorly planned response to the post-Saddam era in Iraq. Dower is highly critical of Bush’s faith-based policy approach to helping Iraq transition to a new independent country. This is a highly recommended and exceptionally well-done comparative history working with large themes and complex issues. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.—E. A. Goedeken, Iowa State University

43-5994  HD6431  2005-16251 CIP
Enders, Walter.  The political economy of terrorism, by Walter Enders and Todd Sandler.  Cambridge, 2006.  278p bibl indexes ISBN 0-521-85100-9 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-521-85100-9, $65.00; ISBN 0521616506 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0521616506 pbk, $23.99.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2006jun CHOICE.
Three cheers for Enders (Univ. of Alabama) and Sandler (Univ. of Southern California), whose new book fills a gaping hole in the literature on terrorism. Their reliance on economic logic brings to bear a perspective sorely lacking in other books on the subject. Other social scientists may resist their approach, given that many noneconomists do not believe that terrorists are rational; a fuller exploration of this assumption would have been useful. The authors use game theory to discuss such issues as whether to negotiate for hostages and how to foster greater international cooperation in the war on terror. The argument that defensive measures create an incentive for terrorists to substitute “soft” targets for “hardened” ones should generate interesting discussion. The analysis of the tradeoff between homeland security and civil liberties is excellent, as is the discussion of the vulnerabilities of liberal democracies. The chapter on statistical studies is especially weak, which is surprising in light of the authors’ extensive work in this area. Criticisms notwithstanding, Enders and Sandler have written what is, at least for now, the definitive book on the economic approach to understanding terrorism. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections.—J. H. Turek, Lynchburg College

48-1662 HV6432  2009-17156 CIP
Fellman, Michael.  In the name of God and country: reconsidering terrorism in American history.  Yale, 2010.  272p index afp; ISBN 9780300115109 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780300115109, $29.95. Reviewed in 2010nov CHOICE.
The attacks on September 11, 2001, unleashed a nine-year debate over how to defend the US from further attacks while maintaining the country’s democratic traditions and institutions. In this provocative book, historian Fellman (emer., Simon Fraser Univ.) places the 9/11 attacks and the “War on Terrorism” within the broader context of US history. Well grounded in both primary and secondary sources, the author employs a case-study approach and focuses on well-known events, notably John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, Klan activity during Reconstruction, the Haymarket Square riots, and the imperialist US war in the Philippines. Fellman establishes a tether between the 19th century and the present, arguing that the state has regularly employed terrorism to meet desired goals. Some discerning readers will be unconvinced that historical US shortcomings are relevant to the contemporary threat those committed to the destruction of the US present, but one need not completely embrace the author’s thesis to appreciate his analysis and insights. Nevertheless, as the title suggests, this work will certainly elicit lively discussion in any senior seminar or graduate level history course. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.—J. B. Cook, North Greenville University

41-5421  LC196  2002-35514 CIP
Giroux, Henry A.  The abandoned generation: democracy beyond the culture of fear.  Palgrave, 2003.  234p index ISBN 1-4039-6138-7 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-4039-6138-7, $24.95. Reviewed in 2004may CHOICE.
Giroux presents a powerful critique of the US’s social, political, economic, and educational climate in the post-September 11th context. He starkly portrays the diminishing of individual freedom in the culture of fear created and perpetuated by US policies and popular media. His examination of the relationship among security, freedom, and democracy buttresses his assertions that the purpose of schools in a democratic society is to foster critical citizenship and public participation. Giroux carefully articulates the rise of unchecked global capitalism, the dismantling of the welfare state, and the undermining of public education. He dissects conservative educational rhetoric concerning accountability, choice, and standards, and argues that these policies deprofessionalize teaching, erode the status of schools as a forum for social discourse, and reduce schools to agencies of social reproduction. Giroux illustrates how schools and popular culture marginalize disempowered groups. He asserts the role of pedagogy and representational politics for addressing institutional inequities. His critical analysis of higher education illustrates the invasion of corporate culture and the academy’s surrender to marketplace values. Giroux powerfully argues for the role of universities as guardians of civic freedom and social responsibility. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduate through professional collections.—P. S. Kelly, Truman State University

45-7054  E183   2007-32944 CIP
Gutman, Roy.  How we missed the story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and the hijacking of Afghanistan.  United States Institute of Peace, 2008.  321p index afp; ISBN 9781601270245 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781601270245, $26.00. Reviewed in 2008aug CHOICE.
This is a critical examination of the performance of the news media and of the actions of Bush administration leaders. One of a growing number of analyses of the US’s role in the Middle East, this book was written by the foreign editor for McClatchy. Although Gutman’s primary concern here is with the failure of journalists to understand what was happening, he also is critical of leaders in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, Capitol Hill, and think tanks. Key personnel in each of these groups were guilty of making serious miscalculations about the relationship between bin Laden and the Taliban and the consequences of their control of Afghanistan. One of the strengths of the book is Gutman’s unwrapping in graphic, yet highly readable, detail the progression of key events and US miscalculations in Afghanistan from 1989 to September 10, 2001. Ultimately this book is about an array of mistakes, misperceptions, and false assumptions. Gutman effectively supports his view that the 9/11 attack was an American “strategic foreign policy failure” rather than one of intelligence or military shortcomings. The book has a dramatis personae at the end which most readers will find useful. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, students of all levels, and research faculty.—R. E. Dewhirst, Northwest Missouri State University

44-0639 E184  2005-20204 CIP
Haddad, Yvonne Yazbeck.  Muslim women in America: the challenge of Islamic identity today, by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad, Jane I. Smith, and Kathleen M. Moore.  Oxford, 2006.  190p bibl index afp ISBN 0-19-517783-5 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-19-517783-5, $29.95. Reviewed in 2006sep CHOICE.
To broaden understanding of Islam, three specialists on Islam in the US discuss the lives of Muslim women in the US, the country with the most diverse population of any area in the history of Islam. Haddad (Georgetown Univ.), Smith (Hartford Theological Seminary), and Moore (Univ. of California-Santa Barbara) address the impact of the events of 9/11 and explain why this date is possibly a watershed moment for Muslim women in the US. In chapters on stereotypes, conversion, Islam-related practices, gender and the family, legal issues, public life, and competing discourses, the writers examine views about and experiences of gender among Muslims, including immigrants, their descendants, converts, and African Americans (a third of the Muslim population in the US). They demonstrate the ways that Muslim women are reinterpreting traditions and creating a uniquely “American” Islam while they struggle to balance their faith, family responsibilities, education, work, and community service. The authors focus on women of the middle and upper middle classes, in part because Muslim women in this category have written much of the existing literature. The book contains a glossary. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All libraries, scholars, and students.—L. Beck, Washington University in Saint Louis

47-5135  HV6432  2008-55138 CIP
The Impact of 9/11 on business and economics: the business of terror: the day that changed everything?, ed. by Matthew J. Morgan.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.  268p index afp ISBN 0-230-60837-X http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-230-60837-X, $89.95; ISBN 9780230608375 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780230608375, $89.95. Reviewed in 2010may CHOICE.
Morgan has compiled a timely, thought-provoking collection exploring the global economic and financial impact of America’s 9/11 terrorist attack. A foreword by Nobel laureate James J. Heckman sets the tone for the volume’s essays, which are divided into three parts: “The Impact on Organizations and Institutions,” “Industry Impacts,” and “The Impact on the International Financial Systems.” Contributors include academics, public policy analysts, and researchers who present unique perspectives and assessments of the geopolitical and socioeconomic aftermaths of the attack. They challenge the reader to reflect, from the esoteric to the pragmatic, on the changes that have occurred and that will continue to affect global business and the ways in which business and finance are conducted. This volume, part of “The Day That Changed Everything?” series, covers a range of important topics including 9/11 and the management of American human capital; the survival of the travel and tourism industry; the financial foundation of terrorism; 9/11 and the debt markets; strategic trade flows; risk management and insurance; food and water safety; and an emerging war service industry. See related, The Economic Costs and Consequences of Terrorism, ed. by Harry W. Richardson et al. (CH, Jan’08, 45-2715). Summing Up: Recommended. All levels of undergraduate students, professionals, and general readers.—S. R. Kahn, University of Cincinnati

45-4501  HV6431  2007-18413 CIP
Krueger, Alan B.  What makes a terrorist: economics and the roots of terrorism.  Princeton, 2007.  180p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780691134383 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780691134383, $24.95. Reviewed in 2008apr CHOICE.
To challenge the widespread view that terrorism is caused by economic deprivation and lack of education, Krueger (economics and public policy, Princeton Univ.) redirects thinking about terrorism by raising three provocative questions that can be answered by scrutiny of evidence from an economic perspective. Who is likely to participate in terrorist activity? According to Krueger, people with strong commitment (supply side) to the cause of redressing geopolitical grievances against the West attract people willing to engage in acts of terrorism (demand side). Which countries are likely to produce terrorists, and which are likely to be targets of terrorists? Krueger shows that links between civil liberties and political freedoms lead to the provocative conclusion that terrorism “should be viewed more as a violent political act than as a response to economic conditions.” What does terrorism accomplish? Krueger argues that the economic, psychological, and political consequences may be big or more likely small. Krueger shows how complex the data and issues are, the dangers of moving from correlation to cause–and how to think clearly and courageously about politically motivated violence. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional audiences, general readers.—L. J. Alderink, emeritus, Concordia College

47-1599 VA68  2008-21092 CIP
Lipman, Jana K.  Guantánamo: a working-class history between empire and revolution.  California, 2009.  325p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780520255395 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780520255395, $60.00; ISBN 9780520255401 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780520255401 pbk, $24.95. Reviewed in 2009nov CHOICE.
The great value of this working-class study of Guantánamo Bay Naval Base (GTMO) is how US hegemonic foreign policy impacted Cuban and immigrant Caribbean laborers, male and female, who maintained the base and cleaned residences before and after Castro came to power. This social analysis illuminates the tension between neocolonial imposition and nationalist resistance. What emerges is superb transnational history that focuses on local more than bilateral strains that emerged as part of the US compelling Cuba to accept the Platt Amendment in 1903. Even before internment of alleged terrorists after 9/11, GTMO had “morphed into the ultimate symbol of US imperialism and unchecked power” (p. 217). Lipman (Tulane) deftly expands GTMO’s diplomatic importance by providing a much-needed “social and political context” (p. 5). Readers learn that the base became both a desired source of income for Cuban laborers who toiled on the facility, and a recurring stimulant to anticolonialism as nationalists recoiled in the face of working-class exploitation. The numerous, information laden, voluminous notes drawn from interviews and archives in Cuba are unexpected gems. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.– T. Zoumaras, Truman State University

41-4745 HN59  2003-1340 CIP
Lyon, David.  Surveillance after September 11.  Polity, 2003.  197p index ISBN 0-7456-3180-0 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-7456-3180-0, $54.95; ISBN 0-7456-3181-9 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-7456-3181-9 pbk, $19.95. Reviewed in 2004apr CHOICE.
This book is an exceptionally timely addition to the publisher’s attractive “Themes for the 21st Century” series, insofar as the expansion of surveillance has been one of the most conspicuous outcomes of the post-9/11 era in the US. State surveillance of citizens has a long history, and modern technology enhances the capability of such surveillance (as was famously recognized by George Orwell in 1984). Canadian sociologist Lyon (Queen’s Univ.) has published earlier books on surveillance, and clearly has an impressive and richly informed command of the relevant literature. The book’s six chapters address, in order, understanding, intensifying, automating, integrating, globalizing, and resisting surveillance. The author demonstrates how specific policies and procedures adopted since 9/11 have produced new ways to track and categorize people. It is far from clear that this enhanced surveillance makes us safer from terrorism, but it has various demonstrably harmful consequences. The book concludes by identifying social, political, and technological challenges arising out of the new surveillance. Altogether, a highly useful survey of the present status of an important issue. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.—D. O. Friedrichs, University of Scranton

45-2108 HV551  2006-37984 CIP
Perrow, Charles.  The next catastrophe: reducing our vulnerabilities to natural, industrial, and terrorist disasters.  Princeton, 2007.  377p bibl index afp ISBN 0-691-12997-5 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-691-12997-5, $29.95; ISBN 9780691129976 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780691129976, $29.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2007dec CHOICE.
Hurricane Katrina and the 9/11 attacks have exposed the US’s vulnerabilities to natural and unnatural disasters. What should be done to prevent such catastrophes in the future? Acclaimed sociologist and systems analyst Perrow (emer., sociology, Yale), addresses this question. He identifies three classes of disasters–natural, organizational (industrial accidents), and deliberate (terrorism)–and argues that they each arise from a concentration of industrial and critical infrastructures. He locates the sources of these disasters in the concentration of energy (e.g., explosive, toxic, and flammable substances and water dams), human populations, and economic and political power, especially the power industry, the Internet, and food production. Perrow contests the government’s excessive focus on protecting these concentrated targets and instead argues for their deconcentration to make them less attractive to terrorists and less vulnerable to natural and unnatural disasters. The dispersed infrastructures, he concludes, would only make the US more secure without sacrificing efficiency. The book is written in a highly readable prose that is accessible to general audiences. Indispensable for undergraduate/graduate collections in disaster management studies and risk assessment studies, and extremely useful for environmental studies and environmental sociology. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.—T. Niazi, University of Wisconsin

41-0623  HV6431  2002-72845 CIP
The Psychology of terrorism, ed. by Chris E. Stout.  Praeger, 2002.  4v bibl afp ISBN 0-275-97771-4 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-275-97771-4, $300.00. Reviewed in 2003sep CHOICE.
This four-volume collection of writings by more than 40 academics, clinicians, thinkers, and activists represents another ambitious attempt to address the causes of terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11. Published under the auspices of The World Economic Forum, and in the “Psychological Dimensions to War and Peace” series, these volumes offer readers diverse opinions and perspectives in order to generate further thinking on the complex subject of terrorism. Although the authors touch on many disciplines, most are rooted in the field of psychology, which provides an integrating disciplinary framework for the different contributions. Volume 1 is an overview to deepen public understanding of terrorism; volume 2 focuses on clinical aspects of dealing with the emotional impact of political violence; volume 3 offers psychological perspectives intertwined with religion, politics, globalization, and social injustice; volume 4 deals with preventative and therapeutic programs related to children, adolescents, families, schools, and communities. Although disparate in content, these contributions go a long way in expanding readers’ general knowledge of politically motivated violence, as well as elucidating the causes and consequences of 9/11. Summing Up: Essential. For those interested in the psychology of political violence–from general readers and undergraduates to faculty, diplomats, and policy makers.—R. H. Dekmejian, University of Southern California

46-1774  RC552  2007-30542 CIP
Seeley, Karen M.  Therapy after terror: 9/11, psychotherapists, and mental health.  Cambridge, 2008.  242p bibl index; ISBN 9780521884228 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780521884228, $ 35.00. Reviewed in 2008nov CHOICE.
A licensed, clinical social worker, Seeley (anthropology, Columbia Univ.) offers a riveting, comprehensive examination of the work and experiences of psychotherapists following 9/11. She begins by reviewing and describing the inconsistent attention on the part of professionals to psychic trauma as a precipitant of emotional distress. She then recounts the earliest psychic responses to 9/11 and the growing call for therapeutic services as the weeks and months passed. At the heart of the book is Seeley’s discussion of “trauma contagion,” a phenomenon she distinguishes from vicarious trauma. Trauma contagion, the author argues, was endemic to 9/11, and practitioners and clients needed to come to grips with it as they processed an unprecedented tragedy in a time of insecurity and uncertainty. Seeley goes on to examine the politics and history of diagnostic practices and concludes with an examination of the impact of 9/11 on mental health practitioners. Integrating health treatment, theory, and ethics, this is a valuable resource for policymakers as well as students and practitioners. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, professionals.—A. N. Douglas, Mount Holyoke College

43-5962 HV6432 2005-296377 MARC
The Selling of 9/11: how a national tragedy became a commodity, ed. and introd. by Dana Heller.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.  296p index ISBN 1-4039-6817-9 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-4039-6817-9, $35.00. Reviewed in 2006jun CHOICE.
The effects of the 9/11 tragedies will continue to be assessed as perspective lengthens, but the 14 contributors to this collection already offer useful insights. They argue that Americans reacted to the attacks largely within preexisting consumer culture patterns. Thus, citizens purchased and displayed flags as if they were a “national trademark” for expressing their patriotic solidarity. Purveyors of clothes, trinkets, entertainment, and even plane tickets encouraged this “fashion event” to reinvigorate sales lost during the crisis; top politicians urged consumption to show patriotism. Editor Heller (English, Old Dominion Univ.) weaves a strong introduction to the volume’s cases into her own consumer-oriented, psychological analysis. Eleven other essays, some illustrated, explore varieties of evidence that range from fierce comic-book figures to comforting Norman Rockwell images, from documentary filmmaking to memorabilia collecting and retail promotions. Country musicians expressed the nation’s desire for unity with the two wounded metropolises. The ascendancy of working-class heroism, especially of firefighters, characterized popular sentiment and commercial exploitation. Gender analysis, psychoanalysis, and communication theory often guide these rich–but not exhaustive–interpretations. Although some essays are jargon laden, all are accessible. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; students, lower-division undergraduate and up; faculty and researchers.—P. W. Laird, University of Colorado at Denver

45-6251 HV6431 2007-4837 CIP
Smelser, Neil J.  The faces of terrorism: social and psychological dimensions.  Princeton, 2007.  285p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780691133089 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780691133089, $29.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2008jul CHOICE.
World-renowned sociologist and expert on terrorist violence Smelser (emer., Berkeley) offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the causes and conditions of terrorism, its perpetrators, their motives and operational strategies, and policy responses. He synthesizes behavioral and social science research and builds general explanations of unconventional violence. In particular, chapters on the causes and conditions of terrorism, its ideological bases, and motivational factors give the book a thoroughness that makes it an unrivaled study in the field. Smelser goes beyond the Durkheimian model of monocausal explanation of social reality to build a complex of causality that helps readers understand terrorism in all its complexity. As a lifelong scholar of collective behavior, the author mines past and present research on the subject and documents it in this compact volume. In particular, he draws upon the latest research in anthropology, economics, history, psychology, psychiatry, and sociology to comprehend the phenomenon of terrorism. Written in a highly accessible language for both general and specialized audiences. Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduate/graduate collections in terrorism or risk assessment studies. Highly recommended. Behavioral sciences collections.—T. Niazi, University of Wisconsin

45-0394  HV6431  2006-35059 CIP
Terrorism financing and state responses: a comparative perspective, ed. by Jeanne K. Giraldo and Harold A. Trinkunas.  Stanford, 2007.  365p index afp; ISBN 9780804755658 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780804755658, $65.00; ISBN 9780804755665 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780804755665 pbk, $24.95. Reviewed in 2007sep CHOICE.
Giraldo and Trinkunas (Naval Postgraduate School) have assembled essays from academics and government officials, mostly American. Five survey essays examine such issues as terrorist organizations’ financial vulnerabilities, warning indicators of terrorism financing, and terrorists’ relations to organized crime. Seven look at efforts to control terrorism financing in Arab countries, Europe, South America, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and the US. In both sections, many authors warn that limits on terrorism financing, while useful, should not be expected to produce spectacular results in reducing terrorism. Several contributors discuss authorities’ reluctance to act against charities, even those suspected of channeling funds to terrorists. Some point out that measures to control terrorism financing would threaten unsavory local political financing arrangements. The volume’s major weakness is that little attention is devoted to state sponsorship of terrorism, compared to funds raised from criminal activities and from public donations, including from diaspora populations. Controls on private financing may have little impact if ample funds from state sponsors are available, as suggested in the essays on insurgents in Afghanistan and Hezbollah in Lebanon; by contrast, the essay on al Qaeda does not highlight state sponsorship. Those concerned with terrorism financing will find this volume of interest. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; students, upper-division undergraduate and up; researchers and professionals.—P. Clawson, Washington Institute for Near East Policy

45-2154  HV6431  2006-34246 CIP
Terrornomics, ed. by Sean S. Costigan and David Gold.  Ashgate, 2007.  225p bibl index; ISBN 9780754649953 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780754649953, $69.95. Reviewed in 2007dec CHOICE.
Terrornomics, a timely, multifaceted, and well-written and well-edited volume, addresses one of the most critical threats of this new century–the financing of terrorist networks. Part 1, “Financing Terror,” deals with the sources, evolution, and sophistication of the financing of the terrorist jihadists. Despite having factual knowledge of the sources of this finance, the governments of the US and Europe have been only marginally successful in restricting these financial activities. Rachel Ehrenfeld’s essay authentically documents the volatile and explosive nexus of terrorists and criminal organizations. Part 2, “Issues and Analyses,” examines the frightening nature of the kinds of arms acquired by terrorists and their use of state-of-the-art technology such as the Internet to exploit the free trade in arms. The analytics of the costs and benefits of terrorism are elegant, readable, and presented without undue technicalities. The last part concentrates on policy recommendations, which include a blend of actions by private and public enterprises. This reviewer wishes that the problem of the Palestinians had been dealt with sympathetically and adequately. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All collections.– C. J. Talele, Columbia State Community College

45-2729  HV6432   MARC
Warde, Ibrahim.  The price of fear: the truth behind the financial war on terror.  California, 2007.  262p index afp; ISBN 9780520253704 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780520253704, $24.95. Reviewed in 2008jan CHOICE.
The one aspect of the war on terror expected to be least controversial (and perhaps most effective) is the attempt to close down the financial streams that finance terror and terrorists. Warde (adjunct professor, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts Univ.) argues that this is far from the case and that the financial war on terrorism was misguided and ineffective from the start–“fraught with dysfunctions, unintended consequences and collateral damage.” The book analyzes the actual role of international finance in terrorism and compares this to the myths that have guided the Bush administration policy. The author concludes that current policies are unlikely to have much effect on terrorism because they are faulty on every level, focusing on transfers of very large sums, for example, when evidence indicates that most terrorist activities involve much smaller amounts of money. Warde argues that some aspects of the flawed policies resulted from unwise use of tools developed for other purposes, as for example the focus on money laundering based on anti-drug trade practice. See also Terrornomics, ed. by Sean S. Costigan and David Gold (CH, Dec’07, 45-2154) Summing Up: Recommended. All levels of readers.—M. Veseth, University of Puget Sound 

POLITICAL SCIENCE

41-4912  HV6433  2003-47046 CIP
Abuza, Zachary.  Militant Islam in Southeast Asia: crucible of terror.  L. Rienner, 2003.  281p bibl index afp ISBN 1-58826-212-X http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-58826-212-X, $55.00; ISBN 1-58826-237-5 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-58826-237-5 pbk, $19.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2004apr CHOICE.
Abuza’s excellent and timely study on militant Islam in Southeast Asia fills a gap in the literature. Drawing on intensive on-the-ground investigation and interviews with key militants, Abuza explores and masterfully details the origins of various terrorist cells and their connections throughout Southeast Asia to larger networks such as al Qaeda. The book is divided into six chapters. In the first chapter, the author examines why Southeast Asia became a major theater of operations for al Qaeda operatives. Chapter 2 provides a brief historical overview of Islamic politics in the region and an explanation of why more fundamental and radical Islam emerged. The next chapter examines al Qaeda’s base operations in the Philippines from 1991 to 1995. Chapter 4 studies the development of Jemaah Islamiya, the regional arm of al-Qaeda established between 1993 and 1994. Chapter 5 focuses on what states are doing to confront al-Qaeda and what their policy responses are to the rising fundamentalism. The final chapter analyzes six pitfalls in defeating terrorism in Southeast Asia. Overall, a significant contribution, highly recommended for those interested in al Qaeda and militant Islam in Southeast Asia. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.
— S. Ayubi, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden

45-4053  KF5060  2007-21676 CIP
Ball, Howard.  Bush, the detainees & the Constitution: the battle over presidential power in the war on terror.  University Press of Kansas, 2007.  275p index afp; ISBN 9780700615292 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780700615292, $34.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2008mar CHOICE.
Since the declaration of a “war on terror” in 2001, scholars from a variety of fields have begun to investigate a wide range of issues surrounding this conflict. The most recent offering is from Ball (emer., Vermont Law School), who has written a passionate polemic regarding presidential power in wartime. In his comprehensive and detailed analysis, Ball focuses on the issue of enemy combatants, giving a systematic and expansive probing of the development, contradictions, and legal exercises surrounding this controversial designation by the president. Ball presents the conflicting, and, at times, troubling relationship between the three branches of government. This book should enlighten not only scholars but also the general public about the issues confronting the nation in this war on terror, including a strong, unitary presidency that may or may not be countered by the constitutional checks within the US governing system. Ball is critical of the unitary presidency theory, and advances arguments for the constitutional checks on the presidency at this time. His arguments are compelling and thoughtful, and should be required reading for understanding the US’s complex system, which encompasses separate institutions that may jealously guard, and often attempt to expand, their own powers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.—J. Michael Bitzer, Catawba College

41-2454  HV6431  2002-15644 CIP
Berman, Paul.  Terror and liberalism.  W.W. Norton, 2003.  214p ISBN 0-393-05775-5 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-393-05775-5, $21.00. Reviewed in 2003dec CHOICE.
Berman argues that, contrary to the view that Islamist political movements represent a radically new challenge to the West, they are only another variety of totalitarianism, inspired by many of the same philosophical ideas as traditional varieties against which liberals have fought in the past and must continue to fight today. Like earlier forms of totalitarianism, Islamism has given rise to an irrational vision of death, epitomized by suicide bombers. While endorsing a vigorous response to the terrorist threat since 9/11, Berman argues that the most crucial area of contestation is the sphere of culture and ideas. He calls for a new liberal interventionism designed to promote freedom abroad, one that avoids both the Left’s reluctance to use force and the Right’s reliance on military power. The book is clear and accessible, presenting a powerful but controversial analysis and prescription. It is wide-ranging, drawing on a great variety of literatures and touching on the major cultural and political movements of the last 200 years. Though not an academic book, it will appeal to general (though educated) audiences. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public and undergraduate libraries. Also useful for courses on contemporary affairs.—J. D. Moon, Wesleyan University

48-5340  HV6432  2010-5427 CIP
Blum, Gabriella.  Laws, outlaws, and terrorists: lessons from the war on terrorism, by Gabriella Blum and Philip B. Heymann.  MIT, 2010.  225p index afp ISBN 0-262-01475-0 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-262-01475-0, $21.95; ISBN 9780262014755 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780262014755, $21.95. Reviewed in 2011may CHOICE.
The goal of this excellent book is to examine antiterrorism public policy from the perspective of the rule of law, beyond the pressures of a constant sense of emergency, since the war on terrorism is likely to be of indefinite duration and varying intensity. Blum and Heymann (both, Harvard Law School) analyze the policies of the Bush administration. Their tone is professional. They argue that US policies dealing with coercive measures such as targeted killings, the detention of suspects captured outside a combat zone, and interrogations can fit either of two traditional paradigms–law enforcement or the law of war–and still protect security. They concede there are occasions for “a middle ground between a more aggressive law enforcement paradigm and a tamer war paradigm” such as the Israeli Supreme Court sought, but there is no need for a “black hole” of no law. If a ticking-bomb scenario arises, presidents should take personal responsibility for action beyond the law, as in the precedent set by Lincoln in the Civil War. The last third of the book is a nonlegal discussion about ways to reduce moral support of terrorism within Islam and when it is appropriate to negotiate with terrorists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduate collections.–T. M. Jackson, Marywood University

46-6472  KF9430  2008-38055 CIP
Blum, Stephanie Cooper.  The necessary evil of preventive detention in the war on terror: a plan for a more moderate and sustainable solution.  Cambria Press, 2008.  260p bibl index afp; ISBN 9781604975666 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781604975666, $104.95. Reviewed in 2009jul CHOICE.
To deal with the threat, likely to be of long duration, of terrorists seeking to set off weapons of mass destruction in US cities, the Bush administration authorized the preventive detention of suspected terrorists including US citizens and legal residents. President Bush asserted that the commander-in-chief power authorized the indefinite detention without trial of US citizens or residents determined by the executive to be enemy combatants. Three persons have been detained, and we can expect more. The chapter on the antiterror policies of Britain and Israel, rule-of-law democracies with long histories of dealing with terrorism, is key as the presentation moves toward chapter 7’s climactic consideration of alternatives that provide a better balance between security and liberty. Blum proposes to expand the jurisdiction of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as a low bureaucratic-cost alternative to build on the FISA court’s experience in national security cases. The amended act would end unilateral presidential action and authorize interrogation of arrested suspects for actionable intelligence. It would also provide judicial monitoring of interrogation to inoculate the criminal process from infection by excluding evidence derived from interrogation in the Article III criminal trial guaranteed by the amended act. The book presents a timely and cogent argument. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.–T. M. Jackson, Marywood University

47-4701  KF5060  2008-49820 CIP
Bruff, Harold H.  Bad advice: Bush’s lawyers in the war on terror.  University Press of Kansas, 2009.  403p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780700616435 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780700616435, $34.95. Reviewed in 2010apr CHOICE.
Bruff’s important book was written during George W. Bush’s second term and is an indictment of Bush’s legal advisers and the president himself. As such, the book may be dismissed in some quarters as partisan, but the reality is that Bruff’s book very skillfully advances several case studies of poor legal advice in the Bush administration–in particular, advice regarding the war on terror, surveillance by the National Security Agency, enemy combatants, and military trials for war crimes. In so doing, it offers insight into the complexity of the US constitutional system of shared powers, as well as the delicate manner in which the success of the rule of law relies upon rulers and advisers of good judgment. Drawing on the experiences of Bush and his predecessors, Bruff (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) offers advice for presidential advisers that takes into account both the nation’s need for fidelity to the Constitution and the president’s perceived need for counselors to act creatively on their behalf and in pursuit of their institutional needs. Bad Advice succeeds admirably at the microlevel of case study as well as at the macrolevel of constitutional theory. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.—M. E. Bailey, Berry College

42-1204  HV6431  2003-28319 MARC
Burke, Jason.  Al-Qaeda: casting a shadow of terror.  I.B. Tauris, 2003.  292p bibl index ISBN 1-85043-396-8 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-85043-396-8, $24.95. Reviewed in 2004oct CHOICE.
British journalist (the Observer) Burke synthesizes many published sources with his own interviews from throughout the Muslim world for one of the better books on Islamic terrorism. Burke disaggregates the diffuse complexity of al Qaeda, often reified by the media and Pentagon as monolithic and centralized. (India and the Philippines tend to label every Muslim movement as “al Qaeda.”) Osama is more a public-relations symbol with a small inner circle of conspirators, surrounded by a hard core of jihad is (most of whom fought or trained in Afghanistan). The wider circle includes dozens of disparate, local Islamic revolutionary groups, which al Qaeda co-opts as it suits. Al Qaeda is less an organization than a revolutionary mood with a strong sense of social injustice, targeted at corrupt Arab regimes and the US. Distinct from “political Islam,” which aims at seizing state power, al Qaeda revives the old “salafi” rejection of states in favor of a pan-Islam umma. They use the revolutionary theory of a vanguard raising salafi consciousness by means of spectacular violence. Recruiting is easy from the growing numbers of educated, unemployed young males of the Muslim world. Extremely diffuse, al Qaeda cannot be eliminated by simple military means, but only by rejection by a moderate Muslim majority. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through researchers and faculty.—M. G. Roskin, Lycoming College

45-2860  HV6431   Brit. CIP
Chandler, Michael.  Countering terrorism: can we meet the threat of global violence?, by Michael Chandler and Rohan Gunaratna.  Reaktion Books Ltd, 2007.  240p bibl index ISBN 1-86189-308-6 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-86189-308-6, $22.95; ISBN 9781861893086 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781861893086, $22.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2008jan CHOICE.
Chandler (former chair of the UN group to monitor sanctions against the Taliban and the al Qaeda network) and Gunaratna (Tufts) provide a comprehensive, detailed analysis of many aspects of transnational terrorism. The bulk of the discussion centers on an extensive historical account of the Taliban and al Qaeda network, and what the international community needs to counter current and future threats from transnational terrorism. The authors argue that the international community failed woefully to capitalize on the golden opportunity presented after 9/11 to combat transnational terrorism through concerted, coordinated, and collaborative effort. Instead, the responses to terrorist threats have thus far relied heavily on military solutions, to the detriment of social, political, economic, and cultural interventions. A thorough analytical work with the potential to transform thinking about the present strategies on the war against terror, this book should be required reading for White House, Pentagon, and State Department officials responsible for counterterrorist operations. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.—L. O. Imade, Shaw University

42-0599  HV6432 MARC
Countering terrorism: dimensions of preparedness, ed. by Arnold M. Howitt and Robyn L. Pangi.  MIT, 2003.  477p index ISBN 0-262-58239-2 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-262-58239-2 pbk, $25.00. Reviewed in 2004sep CHOICE.
Howitt and Pangi’s edited volume is an excellent resource for those wishing to study the nuts and bolts of the new homeland security agenda. While the national security side of homeland security gets the most attention, the selections in this book are crucial reminders that the protection of US soil is a job that cuts across all levels of government and requires coordination between the public and private sector. Individual chapters deal with some of the key tasks of homeland defense; however, several important themes are highlighted, providing guideposts for both scholars and policy makers. The need for intergovernmental coordination, from local law enforcement up to the president, may be the most critical conclusion of this work. Without it, all other efforts will fail. A second prominent theme is that the US infrastructure–from hospitals to telecommunications–is not yet adequate to the new challenges it faces. In particular, chapters on medical readiness and cyberterrorism are clear reminders of the road ahead. The chapters present clear-eyed and analytical assessments of the strengths and weakness of emergency preparedness before and after the September 11th attacks. An invaluable contribution to the literature. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.—W. W. Newmann, Virginia Commonwealth University

47-5287  HV6431  2009-4555 CIP
Cronin, Audrey Kurth.  How terrorism ends: understanding the decline and demise of terrorist campaigns.  Princeton, 2009.  311p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780691139487 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780691139487, $29.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2010may CHOICE.
Cronin (US National War College) makes a significant contribution to the scholarly literature on terrorism and counterterrorism. While other scholars have written extensively on the motivations, methods, and means of terrorism, Cronin is the first to look seriously and historically at how terrorist campaigns come to an end. Like all other human institutions, terrorist organizations sooner or later cease to exist. Whether it is through decapitation (removal of the organization’s leadership), reorientation (transition to nonterroristic methods), or another of the six closing scenarios Cronin examines, even terrorist campaigns eventually run their course. The author engagingly synthesizes theory, practice, and thoroughly researched historical case studies to establish a comprehensive framework of terrorism’s various types of endings. Not surprisingly, the final chapter then applies that framework to today’s most notorious terrorist organization, al Qaeda, with a view toward understanding how Osama bin Laden’s terror campaign might also come to a close. Perhaps most impressively, the work remains at once accessible to general readers yet useful to scholars and professionals. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, research, and professional collections.—R. D. Stacey, Houston Baptist University

45-1727  JC599   2006-27800 CIP
Davis, Darren W.  Negative liberty: public opinion and the terrorist attacks on America.  Russell Sage Foundation, 2007.  276p bibl index afp ISBN 0-87154-322-2 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-87154-322-2, $35.00; ISBN 9780871543226 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780871543226, $35.00. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
This work is essential reading for scholars of American public opinion and sheds much light on post-9/11 American politics. Davis (Michigan State Univ.) has written an enlightening study of Americans’ opinions regarding liberty and security since September 11, 2001. Employing a variety of surveys original to the study, including three cross sections and a three-wave panel, he reveals how and why public opinion on civil liberties, trust in government, and national security shifted during the three years from November 2001 to November 2004. The work covers many important aspects of public opinion regarding the topic, including partisan orientations, social group affect, and racial reactions. Several important findings emerge. Democrats initially rallied to President Bush’s support, but later, unlike Republicans, lost trust in his administration as controversies mounted concerning its prosecution of the war in Iraq and broader war on terror. Throughout this time, African Americans diverged from both Latinos and whites in their lower support of political community and political authorities. Most broadly, his multivariate analysis reveals that the public’s “willingness to compromise rights for security proved only temporary and was tied to trust in political authorities.” Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through practitioners.—S. E. Schier, Carleton College

41-1824  BP190  2003-41327 CIP
Davis, Joyce M.  Martyrs: innocence, vengeance, and despair in the Middle East.  Palgrave, 2003.  214p bibl index ISBN 0-312-29616-9 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-312-29616-9, $24.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2003nov CHOICE.
September 11 has come and gone, but several questions remain unanswered: Was the threat against the US directly related to its support of the Jewish state? Does Islamic religion fuel acts of terrorism? Why would anyone call suicide bombers shuhada–martyrs? In this timely, informative, and well-written book, Davis, deputy foreign editor at Knight Ridder newspapers, attempts to answer these questions through provocative and chilling interviews with Islamic scholars, youths, and avowed militants in Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, and Palestinian refugee camps. The bulk of the study deals with Islam’s teachings on shuhada–martyrdom–in Islam. The first section focuses on “how extremists have twisted those teachings to justify attacks against innocents.” The second section examines “how the conflict in the Middle East has degenerated into tit-for-tat-murders” of innocent civilians, both in the Middle East and the US. The final section looks at the “grief and anguish such actions cause innocent people.” Davis summarizes the literature dealing with the innocence, vengeance, and despair associated with today’s suicide bombings. A “must read” book for those seeking to understand the above questions. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General and academic collections at all levels.
— L. O. Imade, Shaw University

47-6532  PN4784  2009-29090 CIP
Exoo, Calvin F.  The pen and the sword: press, war, and terror in the 21st century.  Sage Publications, CA, 2010.  233p bibl index afp; ISBN 9781412953603 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781412953603 pbk, $34.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2010jul CHOICE.
Exoo (St. Lawrence Univ.) has written an exceptionally thoughtful contribution to the politics and media literature. He provides ample evidence to support his argument that US media have not met the obligation to be watchdogs on behalf of the public. He pointedly stresses the failure of the mass media to cover, or to downplay coverage of, topics important to the public. In addition, the media have provided one-sided coverage of numerous events, thereby misleading the public. For example, dissenting opinions about the nation’s role in world affairs or US involvement in Afghanistan simply were not provided. A subsequent chapter examines unquestioning news coverage of the public relations campaign to drum up support for invading Iraq. A chapter exploring the favorable war coverage provided by embedded reporters and analysis provided by experts carefully selected for their views unquestionably supporting the war follows. Exoo maintains that the media’s failures are inherent to the current state of the news business (i.e., an insatiable profit drive, overreliance on officials as sources, and extensive dominance by the public relations and advertising industries). This is one of the best books on media and politics in print and is strongly recommended to all audiences. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.—R. E. Dewhirst, Northwest Missouri State University

40-6072  HV6432  2002-8389 CIP
Falk, Richard.  The great terror war.  Olive Branch Press, 2003.  203p bibl index ISBN 1-56656-460-3 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-56656-460-3 pbk, $17.95. Reviewed in 2003jun CHOICE.
In a passionate and critical evaluation of US foreign policy, Falk (emer., international law, Princeton) applies his knowledge of international law and foreign relations to the current war on terror. Falk worries that the war on terror is degenerating into a conflict that will be fought without the restrictions of international law to safeguard human rights. In order to prevent this, he calls for the creation of a new framework of international law, instead of stretching old conventions designed to mediate the actions of sovereign states. In his view, a fresh interpretation of the just-war framework would provide appropriate limits for conflicts between nations and networks. He assesses American actions in the war in Afghanistan, in response to the root causes of terrorism, and in regard to al Qaeda as an international network. Falk fears that the US policy is more consistent with empire building than with effective peace building, and he believes that it needs to be redirected. This provocative book will spur debate among general readers and undergraduate students. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers and lower- and upper-division undergraduates.—J. S. Holmes, University of Texas at Dallas

41-2455  BP173    MARC
Fuller, Graham E.  The future of political Islam.  Palgrave, 2003.  227p index ISBN 1-4039-6136-0 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-4039-6136-0, $29.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2003dec CHOICE.
Thorough research enriched by years of living among Muslims enables Fuller to present an accurate, sympathetic report about Islam as religion and political movement. In a survey of the Islamic world, except sub-Saharan Africa, Fuller does justice to Islamist activists even as he shows their shortcomings. His sweep is broad but well informed and unfailingly objective. He explains how dedicated Muslims, dismayed by ineffective authoritarian regimes, join forces to provide community services and basic social justice. They discern that current regimes will not improve and, driven by faith, militate for thorough political reform. Fuller emphasizes the democratic tendencies among political Islamists, acknowledges their struggle to endorse liberal goals, especially basic human rights and advances for women, and points to their support of institutions promoting civil society. Still, he thinks the poor record of Islamist revolutionary regimes to date and increasing American hostility toward Islamism make it imperative for political Islamists to focus on reformist goals and pursue moderation. Unless pressing current dilemmas are solved–in particular, Palestinian statehood and general economic development–political Islam may give way to rebellion. A must-read for students and scholars of political Islam. Summing Up: Essential. All levels.—C. E. Butterworth, University of Maryland College Park

44-0596  JZ1480  2005-13076 CIP
Gardner, Hall.  American global strategy and the “war on terrorism.”  Ashgate, 2005.  231p bibl index ISBN 0-7546-4512-6 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-7546-4512-6, $89.95. Reviewed in 2006sep CHOICE.
Here is a tightly written, well-supported, extensively documented analysis of the US grand strategy to deal with the international threat of terrorism. Gardner (American Univ., Paris) has coined a particular approach to his critique, “non-traditional” or “alternative realism.” His approach is to examine the Bush administration’s response to the events of 9/11, adopting the policy of preemptive strikes against targets labeled as rogue states. This bold new policy was conceptualized by “neo-cons,” who abandoned the old school of realism for an idealistic foreign policy of regime change. The policy critique is followed by a discussion on the relationship of the threat of terrorism to the further proliferation of nuclear weapons. Gardner then jumps to indict Pakistani foreign policy, manipulating American decision makers to emphasize Pakistan’s geopolitical position and leverage it in favor of a policy that strengthened Pakistan’s position on Kashmir. The continued American military expansion, it is argued, tends to mask the real issue of the emergence of the new political-economic powers, Ukraine, Turkey, and China. A series of significant conclusions is proffered by the author, who calls for realigning American interests with policy to bring about an international equilibrium. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through practitioners.—S. R. Silverburg, Catawba College

48-6580  KF9011  2010-26424 CIP
Hafetz, Jonathan.  Habeas corpus after 9/11: confronting America’s new global detention system.  New York University, 2011.  321p index afp; ISBN 9780814737033 <http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780814737033> , $39.00; ISBN 9780814773437 e-book <http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780814773437 e-book>, contact publisher for price. Reviewed in 2011jul CHOICE.
Habeas corpus is a fundamental right in the US Constitution whose origins go back to British common law.  It is the right to be brought before a judge to determine the legality of one’s incarceration.  Throughout US history, including the Civil War and WW I and II, habeas corpus was respected and defended by the courts.  Yet the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the Bush administration’s decision to incarcerate enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay without trial, tested the scope and commitment of this constitutional right.  Hafetz’s book is an excellent account of the five major Supreme Court cases addressing habeas corpus and constitutional rights to a fair trial after 9/11.  Hafetz (Seton Hall Law School) explores how the Bush-declared War on Terror challenged and bypassed habeas corpus.  He does this by explaining the Bush administration’s legal arguments for detention without trial, how it contended that global terrorism necessitated new national security methods, and how it responded to the different Supreme Court decisions by shifting legal arguments and tactics.  The book concludes by asserting that the Obama administration has mostly continued the Bush arguments and practices.  Excellent for collections on law, terrorism, and national security.  Summing Up: Highly recommended.  All readership levels.—D. Schultz,  Hamline University

44-0598  JC599   2005-47923 CIP
Heymann, Philip B.  Protecting liberty in an age of terror, by Philip B. Heymann and Juliettte N. Kayyem.  MIT, 2005.  194p index afp ISBN 0-262-58257-0 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-262-58257-0, $30.00. Reviewed in 2006sep CHOICE.
This volume, edited by Heymann of Harvard Law School and Kayyem of Harvard University’s Belfer Center, presents the findings of the Long-Term Legal Strategy Project for Preserving Security and Democratic Freedoms in the War on Terrorism. The commission included mainly senior governmental counterterrorism experts from the US and the UK. The study contains policy recommendations concerning ten aspects of the US’s conduct of the war on terror. Taken as a whole, the recommendations comprehensively address the potential threats to political liberties in the US presented by the war on terror. Among the areas included for consideration are coercive interrogation, indefinite detention, targeted killing, information collection, and oversight of extraordinary measures. Each of the chapters includes well-considered, specific suggestions for rules to guide the conduct of operations undertaken in the war on terror. The utility of the volume could have been improved for audiences less well versed in legal issues by expanding its length to provide more comprehensive explanations of the logic behind many recommendations. Nevertheless, the book is highly recommended for virtually all audiences. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, lower-division undergraduates through practitioners.—C. W. Herrick, Muhlenberg College

41-4923  HV6432  2003-51126 CIP
Heymann, Philip B.  Terrorism, freedom, and security: winning without war.  MIT, 2003.  210p index afp ISBN 0-262-08327-2 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-262-08327-2, $24.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2004apr CHOICE.
This is one of the more thoughtful and insightful books among the plethora published on terrorism since the cataclysm of 9/11. Heymann’s analysis departs from the Bush administration’s approach by rejecting its mistaken characterization of terrorism as a conventional war. Instead, he provides a sober assessment of the dynamics of terrorism as a prerequisite to devising effective responses. He reminds readers that terrorism is the weapon of the powerless, and forceful action against them is likely to increase their anger and commitment to violence. Finally, Heymann (law, Harvard Univ.) warns about the dangers that a protracted war on terror poses to democratic liberties and the US position of world leadership. He argues for the need of a broader range of US politics–i.e., strengthening intelligence gathering and analysis capabilities; effective diplomacy to promote multilateral cooperation; respect for international law; and strategic choices that reflect moral leadership based on the values of American democracy. This is a compelling book in asserting that the US can successfully confront the threat of terrorism without being an autocratic “intelligence state.” Summing Up: Highly recommended. Policy makers, pundits, scholars, analysts, and undergraduate and graduate students.–R. H. Dekmejian, University of Southern California

43-5548  JC585   2005-13325 CIP
Human rights in the ‘war on terror,’ ed. by Richard Ashby Wilson.  Cambridge, 2005.  347p bibl index ISBN 0-521-85319-2 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-521-85319-2, $75.00. Reviewed in 2006may CHOICE.
This timely, well-crafted volume brings together a galaxy of stars in the human rights firmament. The sixteen chapters (plus an introduction by Wilson, director of the Human Rights Institute at the Univ. of Connecticut) were initially presented at the Institute’s 2004 inaugural conference. Authors range from those at the top of the UN hierarchy (Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights) to prominent NGO leaders (Aryeh Neier of the Soros Foundation; Ken Roth of Human Rights) to well-known international jurists (Richard Goldstone, Geoff Robertson) and academics (Thomas Cushman, Richard Falk, Julie Mertus). They find common ground in the deleterious impacts of 9/11 on the promotion and protection of human rights. What had been growing international and national acceptance of human rights was brought to an abrupt halt, leading to torture, weakened effectiveness of appeals to democratize, and substantial erosion of American commitment to human rights in terms of the 1990s consensus. Particularly incisive chapters include those by Neil Hicks on the impact of counterterror, editor Richard Ashby Wilson’s synthesizing introduction, Peter Galison and Martha Minow’s analysis of privacy and technological intrusions, and Thomas Cushman’s consequentialist case for the war in Iraq. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, lower-division undergraduates and above.—C. E. Welch, University at Buffalo, SUNY 

46-3505  HV6431  2007-41399 CIP
Imre, Robert.  Responding to terrorism: political, philosophical and legal perspectives, by Robert Imre, T. Brian Mooney, and Benjamin Clarke.  Ashgate, 2008.  299p bibl indexes; ISBN 9780754672777 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780754672777, $99.95. Reviewed in 2009feb CHOICE.
Imre (Univ. of Newcastle, Australia), Mooney (Singapore Management Univ.), and Clarke (Univ. of Notre Dame, Australia) have added an exceptional contribution to the scholarly literature on terrorism and counterterrorism. The book is unique in its sociopolitical, philosophical, and legal approach, which creates an alternative to the numerous economic, military, and area studies perspectives that generally dominate the literature. Chapters focusing on the use of torture on suspected terrorists emphasize the unique structure of the book. Chapters examine, in sequence, the use of torture as a counterterrorism policy, the morality of torture, and the legality of torture. The section on counterterrorism follows this structure, assessing the successes and failures of specific counterterrorist policies, the legal justification or lack thereof for various counterterrorism tools, and the philosophical aspects of the use of violence against subnational groups in the context of just war tradition. Importantly, the book does not focus solely on the post-September 11 context. It is broadly historical, using analyses and examples from the fight against left-wing and ethnonationalist terrorism, rather than a narrow focus on al Qaeda. The book is an excellent resource for upper-division undergraduates and graduate students in political science, sociology, law, and philosophy programs. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections.—W. W. Newmann, Virginia Commonwealth University

47-2837  DS371  2009-11740 CIP
Jones, Seth G.  In the graveyard of empires: America’s war in Afghanistan.  W.W. Norton, 2009.  414p bibl index; ISBN 9780393068986 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780393068986, $27.95. Reviewed in 2010jan CHOICE.
The first battle in America’s war on terror was fought in Afghanistan. Eight years later, it is still going on. Jones (analyst, RAND Corporation) has done an excellent job of retelling the story of the pivotal role that Afghanistan played at the end of the Cold War and in the origins of al Qaeda. He provides both a rich historical context and a nuanced analysis of the current complexities in the unruly regions on either side of Afghanistan’s border with Pakistan. Based on standard histories, news accounts, and the author’s own interviews with officials in Washington and Kabul, the book provides a clear picture of the difficult problems the US faces in Afghanistan. The author is realistic but not optimistic about prospects for dealing with those problems. At the end, he quotes a Taliban detainee who told his US captors that “you may have the watches, but we have the time.” Time will tell whether counterinsurgency, nation building, democratization, and the other daunting tasks in the war on terror have any prospects for succeeding in lands long inhospitable to foreign armies and central government. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.—R. A. Strong, Washington & Lee University

45-6421  BP190   2007-11930 CIP
Kelsay, John.  Arguing the just war in Islam.  Harvard, 2007.  263p index afp ISBN 0-674-02639-X http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-674-02639-X, $24.95; ISBN 9780674026391 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780674026391, $24.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2008jul CHOICE.
Islamic jihad is often counterpoised to Western just war, but this outstanding work investigates the in-house clash between Muslim militants and nonmilitants over the true nature of Islamic just war. Kelsay (religion, Florida State Univ.) employs Sharia reasoning, Islam’s primary method of jurisprudence, to evaluate the claims of both sides. He explains the sources and processes of Sharia reasoning and then traces its application to the criteria for just war from Muhammad forward in time, noting cultural connections and adaptations to changing circumstances, including the current “democratization” of the Sharia process. Kelsay’s meticulous historical research offers readers a fascinating encounter with gifted thinkers from Islam’s past. Current Islamic personalities also figure prominently; the reasoning of al-Qaida’s bin Laden and al-Zawahiri and Iran’s Ahmadinejad, for example, are contrasted with those of Islamic scholar Abdulaziz Sachedina. This is a seriously substantive and lucid inquiry into the conceptual underpinnings of al-Qaida, Hamas, and other militant Muslim groups and how their reasoning differs from that of nonmilitant Muslims. Kelsay has provided precisely what is needed to further Islamic just war studies. This is a timely must read for serious upper-level students, academicians, and policy makers. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, research, and professional collections.—A. C. Wyman, Missouri Southern State University

41-2449  HV6431  2002-15195 CIP
Laqueur, Walter.  No end to war: terrorism in the 21st century.  Continuum Publishing, 2003.  288p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8264-1435-4 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-8264-1435-4, $24.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2003dec CHOICE.
This is the latest of Laqueur’s many authoritative books on political violence, all produced in the last three decades. In the aftermath of the cataclysmic attacks of September 11, 2001, Laqueur takes a fresh look at the phenomenon of terrorism and its different manifestations to offer answers to some key questions: What actions constitute terrorism? What is new about the new wave of terrorism as distinct from previous such actions? Why is the Muslim world the most potent crucible of terrorism? While the broad sweep of this book includes both Leftist and Rightist violence, its major focus is on Islamist terrorism, which is seen as the prime danger to the US because of its unrestrained goals and an international network capable of mass destruction. Beyond the US, Laqueur sees India, Central and South Asia, and Africa as future battlefields of Islamist terror. Laqueur does not offer a general theory of terrorism, but he expects religious and nationalist fanaticism to continue to trigger catastrophes, possibly with weapons of mass destruction. Although many of Laqueur’s views are controversial, this book raises significant questions about the dangerous state of the human condition. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Public, academic, and professional collections.–R. H. Dekmejian, University of Southern California

40-6077  HV6432  2002-14053 CIP
Levitt, Matthew.  Targeting terror: U.S. policy toward Middle Eastern state sponsors and terrorist organizations, post-September 11.  Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2002.  141p ISBN 0-944029-81-7 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-944029-81-7 pbk, $19.95. Reviewed in 2003jun CHOICE.
Levitt (Washington Institute for Near East Policy) offers a sweeping tour of the landscape of terrorist threats facing the US and its allies. His conclusion is forcefully stated: terrorism cannot be eradicated unless all terrorist groups are targeted. Defeating al Qaeda is a necessity, but the US is really combating the “practice of terrorism itself.” Terrorist networks link nation-state supporters, private financiers, and terrorist cells. Each of them must be fought or the battle cannot be won. Levitt uses short but comprehensive chapters illustrating the nature of nation-state support for terrorist groups and the extent of the activities of major terrorist groups throughout the Middle East. He also examines the contradictions of US policy, in which some groups are condemned as foreign terrorist organizations, while other groups that engage in the same activities are not. In his view, this undermines the antiterror effort, even if these choices are made with strategic considerations in mind (soft-pedaling the involvement of Arafat’s Palestinian Authority in terrorism in hope that it will renew its efforts to achieve peace). To Levitt, the war on terrorism overrides other strategic concerns and must take priority. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.—W. W. Newmann, Virginia Commonwealth University

42-3091  KF4765  2003-27630 CIP
Mack, Raneta Lawson.  Equal justice in the balance: America’s legal responses to the emerging terrorist threat, by Raneta Lawson Mack and Michael J. Kelly.  Michigan, 2004.  296p bibl index afp ISBN 0-472-11394-1 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-472-11394-1, $35.00. Reviewed in 2005jan CHOICE.
The cover of Equal Justice in the Balance bills it as “a wake-up call … to the dangers posed to our civil rights in a reactionary post-9/11 world,” i.e., the American government’s rolling back civil liberties in its zeal to combat terrorism. Yet the volume is not a mere polemic, but a carefully reasoned, thoroughly documented analysis of the challenges of confronting terrorism while maintaining a tradition of individual rights. The threat is real and grave: initial chapters outline the motivations and strategies of terrorists; catalog the risks associated with available biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, as well as next-generation threats of cyberterrorism and information warfare; and assess American responses to terrorism pre-9/11. The heart of the authors’ criticism is found in two chapters on the Patriot Act and associated executive policies. Numerous constitutional problems and civil liberties abuses–even more troubling, indifference or outright hostility to the existence of these abuses–are clearly explained. The authors’ case is compelling, although their bleak forecasts of judicial complicity are undermined somewhat by the Supreme Court’s subsequent resolution of the Rasul (GuantD’anamo Bay detainees) and Hamdi (domestic detainees) cases against the Bush administration. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.—D. E. Smith, Northwest Missouri State University

47-3445  HV6431  2009-5890 CIP
Mendelsohn, Barak.  Combating jihadism: American hegemony and interstate cooperation in the war on terrorism.  Chicago, 2009.  293p bibl index afp ISBN 0-226-52011-0 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-226-52011-0, $45.00; ISBN 9780226520117 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780226520117, $45.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2010feb CHOICE.
Mendelsohn (Haverford College) explains interstate cooperation in opposing Islamic extremism since 2001 with reference to the English School of international relations, as founded by Hedley Bull. Specifically, Mendelsohn examines the international response to September 11 in three areas: combating terrorist funding, stemming the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and implementing border controls. He argues that the decision by states to work with both the US and the UN in these areas is best understood with reference to the nature of al Qaeda as a threat to international society and its shared values and goals, rather than with reference to individual state interests (as the realist view would suggest). His argument is unique, well stated, and well written. This book is essential reading for international relations scholars on all levels, from the newest undergraduates to more seasoned researchers and professionals, and it should have a place on every library shelf by virtue of the novelty of the argument and approach. Summing Up: Essential. All readership levels.—M. B. Manjikian, Robertson School of Government, Regent University

46-7064  HV6431  2008-10830 CIP
Moghadam, Assaf.  The globalization of martyrdom: Al Qaeda, Salafi jihad, and the diffusion of suicide attacks.  Johns Hopkins, 2008.  343p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8018-9055-1 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-8018-9055-1, $45.00; ISBN 9780801890550 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780801890550, $45.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2009aug CHOICE.
Moghadam’s study stands out from the many studies of terrorism because of the clarity of its argument and presentation, as well as the strength and distinctive character of its thesis about suicide attacks. After tracing the history of the use of suicide as a military-political strategy, Moghadam (West Point) avoids narrowly focusing on “suicide terrorism” as a political act or as deriving from desperate economic or psychosocial conditions. Moghadam analyzes the ideology–Salafi doctrines–that has guided more than 1,200 terror strikes on a global scale between 1981 and 2007, when suicide missions underwent a transition from a localized to a globalized strategy. He also provides information on the main organizations and networks, chief among them al Qaeda, that espouse Salafism, or the movement to institute Islamic religious law and the lifestyle of Muhammad and his companions; his discussion of the leading thinkers and their political goals is particularly useful for exploring the ideas that serve as the foundation for suicide missions and the political goals they serve. Clear thinking and skilled writing make The Globalization of Martyrdom appealing for both scholarly exchange and classroom discussion. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, and above.—L. J. Alderink, emeritus, Concordia College

47-4072  K3249  2008-45107 CIP
Mokhtari, Shadi.  After Abu Ghraib: exploring human rights in America and the Middle East.  Cambridge, 2009.  252p bibl index; ISBN 9780521767538 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780521767538, $85.00. Reviewed in 2010mar CHOICE.
Mokhtari’s comparative study of human rights in the US and Middle East is very original. She has conducted empirical research in Jordan and Yemen and writes about the subject with intimate knowledge. She includes a most interesting section about Arab reactions to US wars and foreign policy from the standpoint of human rights. Rarely have Arab criticisms of US human rights violations received attention in the US, and Mokhtari does an excellent job in studying these reactions. However, her treatment is incomplete because she relies on English-language publications and English translations. Nevertheless, she succeeds in her approach. She refuses to accept the human rights claims of the US and examines the record in great detail. She studies human rights in the Middle East without resorting to clichés about the exceptionalism of the region or assumptions about the role of Islam. Readers may wish that she included more about the human rights situation in Jordan and Yemen and the roles of nongovernmental organizations in those countries. This interesting, critical book is a refreshing contribution to the literature: it can be used in undergraduate courses and in courses at law schools that deal with human rights, but it can also be enjoyed by general readers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.—A. AbuKhalil, California State University, Stanislaus

42-6135  DS35   2004-21173 CIP
The Muslim world after 9/11, by Angel M. Rabasa et al.  Rand, 2004.  525p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8330-3712-9 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-8330-3712-9, $55.00; ISBN 0833035347 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0833035347 pbk, $40.00. Reviewed in 2005jun CHOICE.
RAND has produced an excellent overview and digest of most Islamic movements with special attention to extremist ones. Written under an Air Force contract, this is an extremely useful handbook for scholars, journalists, and government officials, current through 2003. Organized geographically, the largest chapter, by Angel Rabasa, covers the Arab Middle East. Shorter chapters cover the Maghreb, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Nigeria, and the Muslim diaspora. Consistency comes with a common structure: (1) underlying conditions, (2) the process of Islamic resurgence, and (3) recent catalytic events, such as several wars, that have jolted the process along. The studies are good mix of historical and current factors. Rabasa finds that the spread of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, created a radical substratum throughout the region. Al Jazeera television, he asserts, follows a Brotherhood line. Islamists in many lands are the largest and best organized opposition groups. Regimes deal with them by combinations of suppression and cooptation. The work takes no position on current US policies toward Islamist threats but suggests restrained policies that can win over mainstream Muslim governments and movements. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.—M. G. Roskin, Lycoming College

47-7148  HV6431  2009-32542 CIP
Perry, Mark.  Talking to terrorists: why America must engage with its enemies.  Basic Books, 2010.  253p index afp; ISBN 9780465011179 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780465011179, $26.95. Reviewed in 2010aug CHOICE.
In his well-crafted, fascinating book, Perry raises a provocative issue: the potential for direct talks with terrorist or insurgent organizations. The book includes case studies of the US rapprochement with elements of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq that ultimately led to an alliance against the foreign fighters of al Qaeda, talks between Western groups and Hamas, and similar contacts with Hezbollah. Each case began informally with private contacts, but grew to include governmental representatives. The case of Iraq highlights not only the mistrust between the antagonists, but also battles within the US government over whether direct talks would be beneficial to policy or near heresy. Perry argues that understanding the nature of these groups and their objectives might lead to an end to the conflict. He classifies the Iraqi insurgency, Hamas, and Hezbollah as resistance movements, fighting against what they perceive as foreign intervention, not fighting a revolution, something that differentiates them from al Qaeda. The work is history, rather than political science, but suggests that more systematic study of which terrorist organizations might be candidates for direct talks and which may not is crucial to US and global counterterrorist policy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.—W. W. Newmann, Virginia Commonwealth University

41-6814  E902   2003-10692 CIP
The Politics of terror: the U.S. response to 9/11, ed. by William Crotty.  Northeastern University, 2004.  322p bibl index afp ISBN 1-55553-577-1 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-55553-577-1 pbk, $24.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2004jul CHOICE.
The US confronts unprecedented challenges. One involves threat to national security at home and abroad; the other, abridging and ignoring democracy and open society. As recently as the Clinton administration, terrorism received passing attention. The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was viewed as a one-time action of limited success. In this brief but well-ordered volume, some dozen experts, jurists, and scholars ask a host of pertinent questions. Are there conditions under which terrorism is morally justified? How does one distinguish terrorists and freedom fighters? Have terrorists forced the recasting of American politics? How do a president’s predilections shape responses to terrorism? Should leaders always be required to balance national security interests against safeguarding freedom and liberty? What do the data show about attitudes toward laws like the Patriot Act? How does US bombing in WW II compare with wars of terrorism? The volume is divided into four sections: “Moral Dilemmas,” “The Public Response: Democratic Values, Patriotism and Citizenship, “Civil Liberties,” and “Institutions and Public Polity.” One of the best chapters is the editor’s “On the Home Front.” Richard J. Powell offers “The Presidency Responds.” This should be required reading for all Americans. Summing Up: Essential. General readers, and upper-division undergraduates and above.—K. W. Thompson, University of Virginia

45-0544  KF5060  2006-7848 CIP
Posner, Eric A.  Terror in the balance: security, liberty, and the courts, by Eric A. Posner and Adrian Vermeule.  Oxford, 2007.  319p bibl index afp ISBN 0-19-531025-X http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-19-531025-X, $29.95; ISBN 9780195310252 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780195310252, $29.95. Reviewed in 2007sep CHOICE.
Posner (Univ. of Chicago) and Vermeule (Harvard) have performed a vital service for academia. Recently, legal scholars have produced a hefty shelf of books on the civil liberties implications of the war on terror. Most trot out the usual court decisions, cobble together the usual arguments, and reach the usual conclusion: the war on terror is a grave threat to civil liberties, and the courts must vigorously resist it. Posner and Vermeule take a much different tack. They argue that because times of crisis demand secrecy, speed, and flexibility, the courts and the legislature should defer, and historically have deferred, to the executive branch. The act of governing always involves trade-offs between liberty and security, and new threats shift the balance. The very virtues that make the judicial and legislative branches so effective in stable periods may become vices and liabilities in times of crisis. Theirs is a hard-nosed argument–one that many academics, at a safe remove from the frontlines of national security, will likely reject. But one that should be heard nonetheless. Summing Up: Highly recommended Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.—R. D. Stacey, Regent University 

45-7063  E184   2007-39522 CIP
Race and Arab Americans before and after 9/11: from invisible citizens to visible subjects, ed. by Amaney Jamal and Nadine Naber.  Syracuse, 2008.  378p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780815631521 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780815631521, $55.00; ISBN 97808156317754 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/97808156317754
pbk, $29.95. Reviewed in 2008aug CHOICE.
Jamal (Princeton Univ.) and Naber (Univ. of Michigan) bring together eight social scientists to examine Arab Americans through the lens of race theory. The result is a volume with a consistent theme–the “racialization process” of Arab Americans after 9/11–and a rich discursive analysis of “whiteness,” “blackness,” and “otherization.” Several chapters are based on survey data about the perceptions of Arab Americans by themselves and the general public. “Contrary to the stereotype that it is mostly an immigrant Muslim population, over one-half of Arab Americans are US-born, 82 percent are US citizens, and estimated two-thirds are Christian,” the book states. The reader also finds data about discrimination, from lynching in 1929 to racial profiling in the aftermath of 9/11. The analysis of misrepresentations in The New York Times is particularly interesting. Some contributors successfully examine the impact of international factors, such as 1967 Arab-Israeli War, on Arab Americans. The missing part is a set of explicit recommendations to policy makers and social activists to solve problems listed in the book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels.—A.T. Kuru, Columbia University

42-2472  HV6431  2003-70524 CIP
Sageman, Marc.  Understanding terror networks.  Pennsylvania, 2004.  220p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8122-3808-7 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-8122-3808-7, $29.95. Reviewed in 2004dec CHOICE.
Among the many studies on Islamist terrorism published after 9/11, Sageman’s book is unique because of its focus on social networks that have inspired alienated young Muslims to join the jihad against the US, using modern technology with devastating impact. Authored by a former Foreign Service officer who holds doctorates in medicine and political sociology, this book systematically analyzes the biographies of 172 terrorists gathered from open sources. The author effectively refutes the traditional explanation that factors such as poverty, trauma, madness, or ignorance drive people to terrorism. Instead, he highlights the crucial role of social networks in the transformation of socially isolated individuals into fanatical mujahideen. A social background analysis reveals the configuration of the global jihadi structure consisting of four major clusters, surrounded by cliques that permit flexibility and innovation within an informal and decentralized structure. The author concludes with a list of practical recommendations to confront the terrorist threat. Although it does not delve into the macrotriggers of Islamist terrorism, this thoughtful book combines theories with empirical data to provide valuable insights into a complex phenomenon. Appendix of terrorists’ names, glossary, bibliography, and index. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.—R. H. Dekmejian, University of Southern California

48-2340  U43   2010-10983 CIP
Shimko, Keith L.  The Iraq wars and America’s military revolution.  Cambridge, 2010.  249p index; ISBN 9780521111515 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780521111515, $85.00; ISBN 9780521128841 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780521128841 pbk, $27.99. Reviewed in 2010dec CHOICE.
This is a most useful volume. So many other works on recent US wars treat them as discrete entities, but Shimko (Purdue Univ.) puts the Vietnam, Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars on a temporal and geographic continuum, using the concept of a revolution in military affairs (RMA) as a unifying device. At the same time, he provides separate analyses of Iraq I and II and Afghanistan I (conventional warfare phases) and Iraq III and Afghanistan II (counterinsurgency warfare phases) with considerable effect. The result is a lucid portrait of what an RMA is and is not. Shimko believes the American RMA (in terms of precision-guided munitions and computer, informational, and digital advances) rightly belongs with the RMAs of the French Revolution, Napoleon in the 1800s, and the German blitzkrieg of the 1930s as seminal changes in the way wars are fought. The author nevertheless makes clear that the American RMA does not revolutionize every task a military may have to perform. It revolutionized the way war is waged, not war affairs or war tasks, and therefore demands a “coherent strategic analysis” to determine which situations it might affect most beneficially. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, and above.–C. Potholm II, Bowdoin College

40-6690  HV6431  2001-8628 CIP
Striking terror: America’s new war, by Philip C. Wilcox Jr. et al; ed. by Robert B. Silvers and Barbara Epstein.  New York Review Books, 2002.  374p afp ISBN 1-59017-012-1 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-59017-012-1 pbk, $14.95. Reviewed in 2003jul CHOICE.
This anthology of articles from The New York Review of Books covers the historical background of the September 11, 2001, attacks, the possible and eventual US responses through Afghanistan and Iraq, and current and future terrorist threats. This collection of critical essays is useful to document the public debate immediately after September 11, to provide varied perspectives and analysis, and to guard against selective retrospective memory. Editors Silvers and Epstein succeed in choosing articles that will have lasting relevance. The contributing authors are scholars, commentators, philosophers, and diplomats. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers and undergraduate students.—J. S. Holmes, University of Texas at Dallas

44-0620  KF7225  2005-3039 CIP
Terrorism, the laws of war, and the Constitution: debating the enemy combatant cases, ed. by Peter Berkowitz.  Hoover Institution, 2005.  196p index afp  (Hoover Institution Press publication series, 537) ISBN 0817946225 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0817946225 pbk, $15.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2006sep CHOICE.
This is an excellent collection of original articles on the enemy-combatant cases recently decided by the Supreme Court. A diverse group of prominent scholars and practitioners provides a range of perspectives on how the Supreme Court decided those cases, and the impact of those decisions on the continuing debate about how much authority Congress delegated to the president under the USA Patriot Act and the AUMF Resolution, to detain and try those combatants, and how much authority a president has under the Constitution to act unilaterally in such matters. John Yoo is the most prominent spokesperson for the “unitary executive” view that the president derives full authority from his role as commander in chief to defend the US as he sees fit, and that the judiciary has no legitimate role to play. Other authors reject this extreme position and try to explain the Supreme Court’s “minimalist” decisions as consistent with history. Justice O’Connor’s bold, and much quoted, remark that “a state of war is not a blank check for the President when it comes to the rights of the nation’s citizens,” must be balanced against the remainder of her opinion, which largely defers to the government’s position. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, lower-division undergraduates through practitioners.—J. B. Grossman, Johns Hopkins University

42-5545  HV8593  2004-8860 CIP
Torture: a collection, ed. by Sanford Levinson.  Oxford, 2004.  319p bibl index afp ISBN 0-19-517289-2 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-19-517289-2, $29.95. Reviewed in 2005may CHOICE.
Although torture is universally condemned, this evil practice persists. Some authoritarian regimes rely on torture as a means of political control, while constitutional governments periodically rely on coercive interrogation (“torture lite”) in confronting terrorism, justifying it as a “lesser evil.” This superior collection of essays by 17 leading scholars provides a timely, penetrating investigation into this morally challenging but important topic. The essays examine issues such as how to define torture and how best to prohibit it, even while seeking to prevent major society-wide threats. Among the chapters are portions of two classic essays–one by Michael Walzer on “dirty hands” and the other by Henry Shue on torture–as well as the 1999 Israeli Supreme Court judgment over allowable interrogation methods by the state. Other noted contributors include Ariel Dorfman, Elaine Scarry, Alan Dershowitz, Richard Posner, and Jean Bethke Elshtain. The introduction by editor Sanford Levinson provides a helpful overview of some of the key moral and legal issues in the torture debate. Most importantly, he ensures that the different views and perspectives are integrated into a coherent study. It is a pleasure to read an edited book in which the chapters speak to each other. This is a well-crafted study in political ethics. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic libraries.
— M. Amstutz, Wheaton College

43-1231  HV6431  2004-49006 CIP
Webel, Charles P.  Terror, terrorism, and the human condition.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.  156p bibl index ISBN 1-4039-6161-1 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-4039-6161-1, $39.95. Reviewed in 2005oct CHOICE.
Webel (Univ. of California, Berkeley) makes a brave effort to depoliticize the discussion of terrorism, arguing that the current war on terrorism cannot be won and is primarily a propaganda tool used to rationalize the “civilized world’s” own terrorism. Webel’s view is refreshing and courageous since it runs counter to the current “politically correct” jingoist treatment of terrorism. He distinguishes between terrorism and terror and notes that terror is part of the human condition but terrorism is not and thus offers hope for its being “un-created.” His brief history of terrorism notes that there are neither just nor unjust wars and that today’s imperial states, like those of the past, are responsible for the greatest terror. In giving voice to “the terrified” and the “survivors of the unendurable” through personal case studies, he demonstrates how terrorism and terror illustrate the complexity of the human condition rather than its simplicity. Webel concludes that as political leaders encourage the public to focus on terrorism from below (individuals, groups, and small states), terrorism from above (powerful imperial states) wreaks havoc in the name of counterterrorism. This welcome addition to terrorism literature gives hope that terrorism can and should be diminished but only if the current jingoist framework is abandoned. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.—B. Grosscup, California State University, Chico

47-6553  KF5060  2009-16482 CIP
Weinberger, Seth.  Restoring the balance: war powers in an age of terror.  Praeger, 2009.  181p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780313360398 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780313360398, $39.95. Reviewed in 2010jul CHOICE.
Weinberger (Univ. of Puget Sound) pursues a formidably challenging set of goals in Restoring the Balance, and he succeeds remarkably well in achieving them. Weinberger’s subject is war powers in the US constitutional system, and he seeks to advance a model for war making that is respectful of the powers of both Congress and the president and that moves away from an unhealthy reliance on the courts. Weinberger calls for the revitalization of Congress’s authority to declare war, but what sharply distinguishes his work from others is that he does not believe that the declare war clause is required for the president to send troops into action. Its constitutional utility rests in its capacity to signal to the president Congress’s understanding of the president’s authority and responsibilities with respect to domestic, not foreign, policy making (i.e., wiretapping and habeas corpus). Military conflict alone does not constitutionally warrant expanded presidential powers in areas constitutionally designated to Congress–Congress must delegate such powers, and declaration of war is the instrument for such a delegation. Weinberger’s brilliantly clever and largely persuasive book cuts through hardened dogmas on the issue but as a result is bound to displease conservatives and liberals, defenders and opponents of strong executive power. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.—M. E. Bailey, Berry College

45-1718  E902   2006-25453 CIP
What they think of us: international perceptions of the United States since 9/11, ed. by David Farber.  Princeton, 2007.  187p bibl index afp ISBN 0-691-13025-6 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-691-13025-6, $24.95; ISBN 9780691130255 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780691130255, $24.95. Reviewed in 2007nov CHOICE.
Seven fine essays may shock Americans on the depth of estrangement of Iraqis, Indonesians, Turks, Chinese, Russians, Latin Americans, and Europeans from US policy. Not focusing on survey research (for that, go to the Pew Research Center online), the writers, academics from various nations, mostly cite intellectuals to explain the setting and ideology of anti-Americanism. Several common themes emerge. These views have been building for years: 9/11 and especially the Iraq War just amplified them. All perceive the US as an international bully; some think the US got what it deserved on 9/11. Each nationality views US policy through the prism of its own culture and national interests, often as defined by governments. The Chinese, for example, care little about Iraq but much about Taiwan. American culture has little to do with it; many like US culture and free institutions. Anti-American feeling is a reaction to US policies, not culture. Intellectuals hold firmer and stronger anti-US views than ordinary citizens. This short book could be useful in certain courses but especially worthwhile for the next administration. Washington has been largely oblivious to this deep estrangement, which now severely limits US foreign policy. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduates through practitioners.—M. G. Roskin, Lycoming College

47-7129  DS371  2009-43874 CIP
Wildman, David.  Ending the US war in Afghanistan: a primer, by David Wildman and Phyllis Bennis.  Olive Branch Press, 2010.  216p bibl; ISBN 9781566567855 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781566567855 pbk, $10.00. Reviewed in 2010aug CHOICE.
This is a sobering, straightforward critical analysis of the US war in Afghanistan. The authors eschew obfuscation and analyze the war in Afghanistan in clearly articulated, jargon-free terms that are understandable to both specialists and general readers alike. The assault on Afghanistan began October 7, 2001, motivated partly by the desire to bring those responsible for the 9/11 attack to justice. It was assumed that once the all-out air and ground assault on Afghanistan was complete and the country occupied, Osama bin Laden and other top figures in al Qaeda and the Taliban movement in Afghanistan would be captured and a secure, pro-Western, peaceful, unified Afghanistan would emerge. As Wildman and Bennis explain, this assumption was based on an illusion driven by fear and wishful thinking in Washington. The authors seek to provide commonsense answers to issues surrounding the devastating war in Afghanistan. The human and economic costs of the war, Washington’s changing rationale for the continuation of the war, and the role of other players, including Afghanistan’s neighbors, are among the central questions examined in this book. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, undergraduate students, graduate students, and research faculty.—N. Entessar, University of South Alabama

44-4704  HV6432  2006-41032 CIP
Wright, Lawrence.  The looming tower: Al-Qaeda and the road to 9/11.  Knopf, 2006.  469p bibl index ISBN 0-375-41486-X http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-375-41486-X, $27.95; ISBN 9780375414862 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780375414862, $27.95.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2007apr CHOICE.
Wright is a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine, has published several previous works on a variety of subjects, and has lived and taught in the Middle East. The current study provides a well-written, dispassionate history and analysis, meticulously researched, of the series of events and personalities over a lengthy period of time that culminated in 9/11. Wright examines the impact of secularism, “Americanism,” Israel, and the growing influence of radical Islam. Rival radical Islamic thinkers from Egypt to the Gulf States influenced the formation of al Qaeda as a distinct group. The importance of such thinkers as Sayyid Qutb, Abdullah Azzam, and Osama bin Laden are carefully reviewed. This study will put to rest the notion that Islamism is characterized simply by nihilistic fanaticism, or a monolithic movement. Personal rivalries as well as doctrinal disputes are described alongside the progress and setbacks of the Islamists’ cause. Also critical is the appraisal of how various American agencies and intelligence professionals view the threat. Unusual in a trade book, endnotes, bibliography, and list of interviewees are included. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduates through faculty.—M. Slann, Macon State College

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

40-6440  RC88   2002-8415 CIP
Bioterrorism: guidelines for medical and public health management, ed. by Donald A. Henderson, Thomas V. Inglesby, and Tara O’Toole.  JAMA & Archives Journals, 2002.  244p bibl index ISBN 1-57947-280-X http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-57947-280-X pbk, $29.95. Reviewed in 2003jul CHOICE.
This timely work provides current and comprehensive information on the threat of bioterrorism from an individual, medical, and public health perspective to all interested in recognizing, diagnosing, treating, and managing the threat. Individual authors identify the diseases believed to be the weapons of bioterrorism: anthrax, botulism, hemorrhagic fever viruses (HFV), plague, smallpox, and tularemia. Criteria used for the selection of these diseases is presented. Several chapters focus on the anthrax attacks after September 11, 2001, including in-depth case studies of inhalation and cutaneous anthrax and reviews of deaths and recoveries. Each of the above-mentioned diseases is covered, including a description of the disease, consensus methods used by experts in compiling the data, history and potential of biological weapons, epidemiology, microbiology and pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, therapy, postexposure prophylaxis, vaccine, infection control, decontamination, and ongoing research and proposed agenda. Extensive chapter reference lists. Finally, the authors address the ramifications of large-scale quarantine efforts from several perspectives. Summing Up: Recommended–All readers interested in the current threat; Highly recommended–Everyone involved in managing the threat at any level. All levels.—M. L. Hopkins, Elmira College

45-0828  HV6432  2007-6171 MARC
Griffin, David Ray.  Debunking 9/11 debunking: an answer to Popular Mechanics and other defenders of the official conspiracy theory.  Olive Branch, 2007.  392p ISBN 156656686x http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/156656686x pbk, $20.00; ISBN 9781566566865 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781566566865 pbk, $20.00. Reviewed in 2007oct CHOICE.
Griffin, emeritus professor of philosophy of religion and theology, systematically challenges the principal official and semiofficial defenses of the standard account of 9/11 events. He demonstrates how everyone, by definition, holds a conspiracy theory about 9/11 “because everyone believes that the 9/11 attacks resulted from a secret agreement to perform illegal, treacherous, and evil acts. People differ only about the identity of the conspirators. The official conspiracy theory holds that the conspirators were Osama bin Laden and other members of al Qaeda. The alternative theory holds that the conspirators were, or at least included, people within our own institutions.” Griffin documents the “widespread practice of making judgments about the alternative 9/11 theory without seriously examining the relevant evidence” and argues that such practices are aided by “paradigmatic thinking” and “wishful-and-fearful thinking,” both subverting efforts to form conclusions based on relevant empirical evidence. Throughout, he exhibits exceptional skill in detailed scholarly analysis. He wants full public discussion to expose the truth about 9/11, whatever it is. Indeed, such “truth” has not yet been revealed due to extensive gaps and contradictions in official theories that Griffin documents in detail. The resolution of these issues must come from evidence-based scholarship, using proper scientific methodology whenever possible. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.—T. Eastman, formerly, University of Maryland

43-4621  Q127    MARC
Lucena, Juan C.  Defending the nation: U.S. policymaking to create scientists and engineers from Sputnik to the ‘war against terrorism.’ University Press of America, 2005.  183p bibl index afp ISBN 0-7618-3156-8 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-7618-3156-8, $59.00.  Outstanding Title! Reviewed in 2006apr CHOICE.
This is an important addition to the literature on science, technology, and public policy making. Lucena (Colorado School of Mines) uses a framework taken from the philosopher/social historian Michel Foucault to analyze the making of scientists and engineers from the Sputnik era through the current concerns of world competition and global terrorism. He takes a leap at explaining that the promulgation and diffusion of various crises during the past half century by government, politicians, and the media combine to create new realities for the evolving focuses of technoscience. The search of media and government reports provide a fascinating portrait of a nation redefining the nature of the domestic and international environment. Most of the facts are well known, but the interpretative use of Foucault is groundbreaking and important. Every scientist, engineer, and student of public policy making interested in the growth of technoscience should read this brief but fascinating study. Summing Up: Essential. Collections with a science, technology, or public policy focus; upper-division undergraduates and above.
— E. Lewis, New College of Florida

43-2252  HM851  2004-56397 CIP
O’Harrow, Robert, Jr.  No place to hide.  Free Press, 2005.  348p bibl index ISBN 0-7432-5480-5 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-7432-5480-5, $26.00. Reviewed in 2005dec CHOICE.
With the events of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent enactment of the Patriot Act as a backdrop, O’Harrow (Washington Post) examines a large number of private-sector data-gathering and surveillance companies in a consistently engaging and overall balanced manner. Frequent interviews and/or profiles of computer program developers, industry officials, and to a lesser extent, government officials, offer some insight into the private data-gathering market. O’Harrow offers several examples to support his assertion that information gathered by private-sector companies has begun to supplant the traditional “sixth sense” of law enforcement and intelligence agency officials. Investigations into the misuse of private data illustrate the potentially negative impact of lax data security standards. The implications of emerging biometric identification technology such as face recognition and retinal scanning are covered in extensive detail. The overriding theme is that as computer processing power and digital storage space increase, a headlong rush to connect the dots of private information is outpacing society’s control or even an understanding of its implications. A very well-researched and timely work. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.—K. D. Winward, Missouri State University

44-2740  RA395  2006-7396 CIP
Rosner, David.  Are we ready?: public health since 9/11, by David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz.  California/Milbank Memorial Fund, 2006.  193p bibl index afp  (California/Milbank books on health and the public, 15) ISBN 0-520-24920-8 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-520-24920-8, $45.00; ISBN 9780520250383 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780520250383 pbk, $16.95; ISBN 9780520249202 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780520249202, $45.00; ISBN 0520250389 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0520250389 pbk, $16.95. Reviewed in 2007jan CHOICE.
The answer to the title’s question is an ambivalent “maybe,” and is contingent on many “ifs.” Rosner (Columbia) and Markowitz (John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center) direct their study’s findings at public officials. They interviewed many of these officials in the aftermaths of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the subsequent anthrax cases and smallpox campaign. The Gulf Coast Hurricane Katrina disaster of 2005 would have been a logical addition had it occurred three years earlier. Preparedness is the key concept, and that, in turn, hinges on a proper public health infrastructure at all levels–not only the physical infrastructure but also the logistics of response. Satisfactory funding is an obvious necessity, as is effective leadership in time of crisis. This book provides an excellent overview of the country’s strengths and weaknesses for coping with unsettling disasters as they affect public health. It is a preliminary blueprint that the US must adhere to and improve upon if human and material sacrifices are to be minimized with future occurrences. Optimists might even argue that preparedness spells prevention. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers.–M. Kroger, emeritus, Pennsylvania State University, University Park Campus

REFERENCE

46-1255  HV6432  2008-4185 CIP
Atkins, Stephen E.  The 9/11 encyclopedia.  Praeger Security International, 2008.  2v bibl index afp; ISBN 9780275994310 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780275994310, $199.95. Reviewed in 2008nov CHOICE.

42-3688  KF4850  2004-5430 CIP
Ball, Howard.  The U.S.A. Patriot Act of 2001: balancing civil liberties and national security: a reference handbook.  ABC-Clio, 2004.  265p index afp ISBN 1-85109-722-8 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-85109-722-8, $55.00; ISBN 1851097279 e-book http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1851097279 e-book, $60.00. Reviewed in 2005feb CHOICE.

46-0037  CT1866  2007-28169 CIP
Biographical encyclopedia of the modern Middle East and North Africa, ed. by Michael R. Fischbach et al.  Gale, part of Cengage Learning, 2008.  2v bibl index; ISBN 9781414418896 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781414418896, $235.00. Reviewed in 2008sep CHOICE.

43-1929  HV6432  2005-3390 CIP
Burns, Vincent.  Terrorism: a documentary and reference guide, by Vincent Burns and Kate Dempsey Peterson.  Greenwood, 2005.  293p bibl index afp ISBN 0-313-33213-4 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-313-33213-4, $75.00. Reviewed in 2005dec CHOICE.

46-0619  BP161   2007-26092 CIP
Calvert, John.  Islamism: a documentary and reference guide.  Greenwood, 2008.  280p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780313338564 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780313338564, $85.00. Reviewed in 2008oct CHOICE.

43-1931  HV6432  2004-42290 CIP
Community preparedness and response to terrorism: v.1: The terrorist threat and community response; v.2: The role of community organizations and business; v.3: Communication and the media, ed. by H. Dan O’Hair, Robert L. Heath, and Gerald R. Ledlow with James A. Johnson and Mark A. Cwiek.  Praeger, 2005.  3v bibl index afp ISBN 0-275-98366-8 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-275-98366-8, $225.00. Reviewed in 2005dec CHOICE.

42-6249  JF1525  2003-13036 CIP
Encyclopedia of intelligence and counterintelligence, ed. by Rodney Carlisle.  Sharpe Reference, 2005.  2v bibl index afp ISBN 0-7656-8068-8 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-7656-8068-8, $199.00. Reviewed in 2005jul CHOICE.

48-4241  DS63   2010-33812 CIP
The Encyclopedia of Middle East wars: the United States in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq conflicts, ed. by Spencer C. Tucker with Priscilla Mary Roberts et al.  ABC-CLIO, 2010.  5v bibl index afp; ISBN 9781851099474 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781851099474, $495.00. Reviewed in 2011apr CHOICE.

44-0701  HN90   2005-35599 CIP
Extremist groups: information for students.  Thomson-Gale, 2006.  2v bibl index afp ISBN 1-4144-0345-3 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-4144-0345-3, $180.00. Reviewed in 2006oct CHOICE.

46-1813  BP40    MARC
Glassé, Cyril.  The new encyclopedia of Islam.  3rd ed.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2008.  718p bibl afp; ISBN 9780742562967 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780742562967, $99.95. Reviewed in 2008dec CHOICE.

45-0044
Global perspectives on the United States: a nation by nation survey, ed. by David Levinson and Karen Christensen.  Berkshire Publishing Group, 2007.  2v bibl index; ISBN 9781933782065 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781933782065, $275.00. Reviewed in 2007sep CHOICE.

41-2568  HV6431  2003-44071 CIP
Herbst, Philip.  Talking terrorism: a dictionary of the loaded language of political violence.  Greenwood, 2003.  220p bibl index afp ISBN 0-313-32486-7 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-313-32486-7, $49.95. Reviewed in 2004jan CHOICE.

42-1960  HV6431  2004-6619 CIP
Kronenwetter, Michael.  Terrorism: a guide to events and documents.  Greenwood, 2004.  298p bibl index afp ISBN 0-313-32578-2 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-313-32578-2, $55.00. Reviewed in 2004dec CHOICE.

48-6051           KF4744                      CIP
Latimer, Christopher Peter.  Civil liberties and the state: a documentary and reference guide.  Greenwood, 2011.  367p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780313379345 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780313379345, $95.00; ISBN 9780313379352 e-book http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780313379352 e-book , contact publisher for price. Reviewed in 2011jul CHOICE.

40-4978  HV6431  2002-15105 CIP
Maxwell, Bruce.  Terrorism: a documentary history.  Congressional Quarterly, 2003.  494p bibl index afp ISBN 1-56802-767-2 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-56802-767-2, $99.95. Reviewed in 2003may CHOICE.

47-3572  HV6433  2009-3340 CIP
Mickolus, Edward E.  The terrorist list: the Middle East.  Praeger, 2009.  2v index afp; ISBN 9780313357664 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780313357664, $300.00. Reviewed in 2010mar CHOICE.

44-0709  HV6431  2005-26976 CIP
Patterns of global terrorism, 1985-2005: U.S. Department of State reports with supplementary documents and statistics, ed. by Anna Sabasteanski.  Berkshire Publishing Group, 2005.  2v index ISBN 0-9743091-3-3 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-9743091-3-3, $325.00. Reviewed in 2006oct CHOICE.

45-3566  HV6432  2006-29477 CIP
Robertson, Ann E.  Terrorism and global security.  Facts on File, 2007.  408p bibl index afp ISBN 0-8160-6766-X http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-8160-6766-X, $45.00. Reviewed in 2008mar CHOICE.

46-0053  HV6431  2007-39657 CIP
Rubin, Barry.  Chronologies of modern terrorism, by Barry Rubin and Judith Colp Rubin.  M.E. Sharpe, 2008.  405p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780765620477 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780765620477, $99.95. Reviewed in 2008sep CHOICE.

48-3643  HV6432  2010-19889 CIP
September 11 in popular culture: a guide, ed. by Sara E. Quay and Amy M. Damico.  Greenwood, 2010.  349p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780313355059 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9780313355059, $85.00. Reviewed in 2011mar CHOICE.

44-0063  HV6431  2005-24002 CIP
Terrorism: essential primary sources, ed. by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner.  Thomson Gale, 2006.  493p bibl index afp ISBN 1-4144-0621-5 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-4144-0621-5, $110.00. Reviewed in 2006sep CHOICE.

43-1333  DS79    MARC
The Torture papers: the road to Abu Ghraib, ed. by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel.  Cambridge, 2005.  1,249p index ISBN 0-521-85324-9 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/0-521-85324-9, $50.00. Reviewed in 2005nov CHOICE.

48-3065  HV8139  2010-9662 CIP
Warner, Judith A.  U.S. border security: a reference handbook.  ABC-CLIO, 2010.  381p index afp ISBN 1-59884-407-5 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/1-59884-407-5, $55.00; ISBN 9781598844078 http://worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/isbn/9781598844078, $55.00. Reviewed in 2011feb CHOICE.