Reviews

Perhaps if I had known who half the (predominantly) men in this book were before I read it, Marc Estrin's novel could have been quite irritating. Thankfully my ignorance of famous 20th Century male thinkers, scientists, inventors and so on, probably saved me!

In fact, I rather liked this book. Its main character is one Gregor Samsa - half-man, half-cockroach. Samsa is an escapee from a Kafka novel (Metamorphosis) and this is a tale which reflects on some of the last century's most significant international political events…

If it weren't for the generous injection of black humour, this book would feel almost unbearable. There's no doubting it's a great read, full of revelatory investigation into a huge array of issues, but it's enough to bring you out in a sweat every time you pick it up, with its extensive evidence on how every corner of corporate life is riddled with systemic abuse, and every self-declaring bastion of democracy is hiding some big secrets.

Few of the bigger stories are new in themselves - Bush stealing the Presidency, US involvement…

Could it be that cities get the literary detectives they deserve? What does Ian Rankin's Rebus tell us about contemporary Edinburgh, or even Colin Dexter's Morse about Oxford's dreaming spires?

Well, it's time to add a new name and metropolis to the pantheon, and this guy is distinctive in that he manages to occupy an unlikely middle-ground when it comes to attitude and inclination.

Jean-Claude Izzo's complex creation, the Marseille-dwelling Inspector Montale, is a bon viveur and sensualist, but faces severe challenges to his…

Palestine, Palestine is an unusual creature, a film about this beautiful and terrible land which shows something of everyday life in the West Bank.

It is not a documentary as such, although it deals with real people and their day-to-day existence. It has more life and lyricism than that. But it is also grounded in reality and makes inescapable the way that the Israeli presence is not just a matter of the brutal incursions which hit the Western news but a daily challenge to the ingenuity and dignity of a people under occupation by a…

The name Arthur Wragg will no doubt be familiar to some of PN's more senior readers. He joined the Peace Pledge Union in 1935, and contributed regularly to Peace News in the late 1930s. Later, he would design posters for the PPU, and his pacifism and social radicalism would inform much of his work during a career which spanned over five decades.

It is difficult now to fully appreciate the impact that Wragg's drawings would have had on contemporary audiences. Yet leafing through the pages of this excellent volume I…

In his novel Slowness, Czech writer Milan Kundera makes the astute remark that we slow down to remember and speed up to forget. If this is true then, according to Norwegian Social Anthropologist Eriksen, we might be in danger of becoming an amnesiac species sooner rather than later, due to our fixation with acceleration.

His thesis here is simply and lucidly put: the exponential growth in “time-saving” communication technologies is leading paradoxically to less time being left available for the pursuits of life itself, as…

Diana Francis' book appears at a time when it seems almost impossible to stop the war-machine. In the face of this reality, her book gives us some hope that people determined to achieve lasting peace can make a difference.

It is fascinating and instructive to see how she handles both uncertainties and certainties and how she extends the scope of conflict transformation by introducing nonviolence not only as a means but also as a philosophy and a way of life.

She encourages academics and practitioners to acknowledge…

Ever wondered what's the best way to practically disarm the military? Well, this helpful little book is full of tips on how to cut, crush, burn, melt and bend weapons to the point where they no longer present a menace to society.

There are sections containing practical information and diagrams with details of what equipment and personnel are required, plus helpful hints on where to cut or bend. However, the section on deep-sea dumping is probably best avoided! As the book says, “The destruction of small arms and light weapons is…

This 348-page anthology contains the most significant documents of the last 30 years of MOC - the Spanish movement for conscientious objection. The story begins with the pioneer conscientious objector, Pepe Beunza, declaring his refusal to join the military back in 1971 - still in the days of General Franco's dictatorship. It comes right up to the date with MOCs response to the end of conscription in 2000 and a chronology that goes right up to 2002. The texts are mainly short and peppered with graphics, including one of my favourites - a…

Peter Brocks copious writings on the history of pacifism are well known. However, this book marks a slight departure from his previous output in that its subject is Brock himself, and the six months he spent in British jails as a conscientious objector during World War II.

At the time of his imprisonment Brock was a diffident young pacifist in his early twenties, educated first at an English Public School, and then at Oxford University. His mother was a generals daughter, and his brother a professional army officer who served at the…

“Yet another book on globalisation.” With the recent focus of the mass media on anti-globalisation protests and the success of books such as No Logo (Naomi Klein) and Captive State (George Monbiot), any attempt to plough a similar furrow must expect this sort of greeting.

But this approach assumes that the emerging movements deserve no more than the creation of a niche in the big bookstore chains; a handful of specialist books, rather than a discussion that goes beyond any one genre. A deeper look at the processes…

War's Offensive on Women catalogues the failure of the international humanitarian community to address the needs - and rights - of women in war, and provides that community with concrete recommendations for respecting women's human rights in war.

Mertus makes a useful addition to the debate on gender-sensitive approaches to both the protection of refugees and internally displaced persons, and the administration of humanitarian and development assistance.

Identifying the different protection needs of refugee women,…

This book was first published in 1961, when the Cold War was in full swing. Not surprisingly, it is a product of its time. It was written with the clear conviction that a nuclear war of catastrophic proportions was highly likely within ten years unless something radical was done to prevent it. A lack of faith in most of the politicians of the day is evident throughout. Consequently, one of the principal themes of the book is that an international government of some kind is required in order to deal with the failures of national ones.

Bush-backers beware! Michael Moore, filmmaker, author and ruthless critic of North American culture and politics, is back with his caustic new book, Stupid White Men.

Stupid White Men is brimming with satirical wit and cunning condemnation. Moore knocks every dubious character in the US's political cast, from the “Thief-in-Chief”, George W Bush, to Bill Clinton, “one of the best Republican Presidents [the US has] ever had”.

But Moore doesn't just rail politicians. Some of his most insightful (and…

As states increasingly contravene or discard international treaties in the name of the war against terror, the task that Trident Ploughshares (TP) 2000 set itself in 1998 seems more challenging, but at the same time increasingly more necessary.

Through attempts at the practical disarmament of Britain's Trident nuclear submarines, and subsequent appearances in British courts, TP aims to challenge to the legality of Trident, and so ensure that the British government respects the body of international law, which they and others believe…