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A history of militant fundamentalism in Islam: We hear more about Muslim extremists than ever before, but Kepel argues that the terrorism seen today throughout the world results from the failure of Islamic fundamentalism and not its success. Beginning...

Full commentary on "Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam"

The news behind the events; the news mainstream media isn't reporting: The most complete book I know of, summarizing the relevant background and foreground intersecting upon the events of September 11... -- Barry Zwicker, Vision TV Insight...

Full commentary on "The War on Freedom: How and Why America was Attacked, September 11, 2001"

One of my site visitors bought this book today. Looks interesting. It's a bit of a perk for being an Amazon.com affiliate: monitoring my site's Amazon sales and clicks stats is constantly expanding my reading list....

Full commentary on "The Manipulated Mind: Brainwashing, Conditioning and Indoctrination"

This little play, Wallace Shawn's monologue of 112 pages, rocked me when I first encountered it at the Vancouver Fringe Festival sometime in the mid '90s. Perhaps I'll add some commentary later, but for now, try these links: A reading...

Full commentary on "The Fever"

Another in a series of books from Desmond Morris determined to upend the flattering view of ourselves as primarily rational beings, as anything other than The Naked Ape. Additional titles by other authors along parallel lines of inquiry include The...

Full commentary on "The Human Zoo"

Doris Lessing's 1986 Massey Lectures expose many aspects of being human that are agonisingly familiar to our social scientists and psychologists but which have not risen to public consciousness. These include traits used against us as individuals and groups to...

Full commentary on "Prisons We Choose to Live Inside"

According to reviews I've read, be prepared to question your understanding of "freedom." Consider which freedom is the most valuable: to speak freely or to feed your family. For example, in dealing with enemies (say, Pol Pot, or Maoist China),...

Full commentary on "Development as Freedom"

I found the following in a ZNet newsgroup: This is an excellent book for anyone who would like to understand economics from the anthropological perspective, that is, that the market principle isn't operative in many cultures. In today's capitalist economy...

Full commentary on "The Humbled Anthropologist: Tales from the Pacific"

As of this writing, this book is not yet on the shelves....

Full commentary on "The Man Who Shocked the World: The Life and Legacy of Stanley Milgram"

I've just put this on my reading list. Here's an excerpt from a review on Amazon.com The essays and studies making this book treasurable (beyond their research value) can get one very emotional at times, especially when reading about some...

Full commentary on "Obedience to Authority: Current Perspectives on the Milgram Paradigm"