Book Description
Unlike most Soviet-centered histories, A Vision Unfulfilled begins with a chapter summarizing late nineteenth-century Russian history, allowing instructors to begin their course with 1894, 1905, 1914, or 1917. The book also gives fuller attention to the history of the non-Russian populations in the tsarist and Soviet empires than other texts of its kind.
Amazon.com
The Haunted Wood fills in a valuable part of cold war history: the Soviet Union's attempts to spy on the United States from the time of FDR's New Deal, through the Second World War, and into the 1950s. Allen Weinstein (author of a highly regarded history of the Hiss-Chambers case, Perjury) and Alexander Vassiliev (a KGB agent turned journalist) show that among the Americans caught in the Soviet orbit were many top government officials, including a Congressman from New York and a close advisor to President Roosevelt, as well as an American ambassador's daughter. Most of these early spies were leftists driven by ideology--as opposed to money, which seems to have motivated many of the later cold war traitors, such as Aldrich Ames. (The Congressman, interestingly, is an exception--he demanded so much compensation that the Soviets gave him the code name "Crook.") The greatest windfall for the U.S.S.R. during this period was the acquisition of atomic secrets, with contributions from agents like Ted Hall, Klaus Fuchs, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (the authors do not believe, however, that the scientist Robert Oppenheimer was a Soviet spook). Yet there were also notable failures, many brought on by Stalin's insatiable appetite for purges; defections by Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley also dealt several mortal blows. By the end of the 1940s, the Soviet spy ring in the United States was in serious breakdown. Weinstein and Vassiliev make use of both American sources and Soviet archives to deliver what will surely be an authoritative account for many years--or at least until more top-secret archives on both sides of the Atlantic become declassified. And don't expect that to happen anytime soon. --John J. Miller
Book Description
Based upon previously secret KGB records, The Haunted Wood reveals for the first time the riveting story of Soviet espionage's "golden age" in the United States throughout the 1930s, World War II, and the early Cold War. Historian Allen Weinstein, author of Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case, and Alexander Vassiliev, a former KGB agent-turned-journalist, were provided unique access to thousands of classified Soviet intelligence dispatches that documented the KGB's success in acquiring America's most valuable atomic, military, and diplomatic secrets.
The Haunted Wood narrates the triumphs and failures of Soviet operatives and their American agents during the 1930s and 1940s, describing as well the compelling human dramas involved.
Reconstructed from Moscow's messages to its operatives and reports from Soviet recruits in America, The Haunted Wood describes many previously unknown personal tales: struggles for control among contending Soviet operatives and American agents, love affairs, business ventures, defections, and plotted or actual murders. The authors also detail the remarkable range of classified government documents and information stolen for Soviet intelligence during the 1930s and the war years.
Complementing its use of the KGB archives, The Haunted Wood incorporates, also for the first time, a number of the previously classified VENONA cables released in 1995-96 by the CIA and NSA. Among these thousands of translated intercepts sent by Soviet agents in the United States to the USSR during World War II were dozens that matched those found in the Moscow records.
The highly placed Americans who assisted Soviet intelligence operatives during this period included:
the passionate daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Nazi Germany
an influential member of the U.S. Congress
one of President Roosevelt's personal assistants
key officials of the OSS, America's wartime spy agency
a flamboyant Hollywood producer-director
the head of the American Communist Party
Several chapters provide major new accounts from Moscow's own record of its relations with Alger Hiss and atomic spies Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold, David Greenglass, Theodore Hall, and Julius Rosenberg, among others, along with fresh information on Soviet espionage in the United States by British agents for the Kremlin--Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, and Harold "Kim" Philby.
The Haunted Wood's pages are filled with extraordinary and previously untold stories, including those of one war-time American spy ring whose head lived in a domestic ménage à trois with other agents, of Soviet involvement in a Hollywood music publishing company and possible major film investments, and of a station chief who proposed (with Moscow's agreement) funding U.S. journalists and congressional political campaigns.
The authors show how defection at war's end by a single emotionally depressed agent, despondent since the death of her Soviet station-chief lover, provoked the swift and virtually complete shutdown of Moscow's intelligence operations in the United States--ironically, years before the FBI and congressional investigations began their decade-long pursuit of "Soviet agents," who, by then, had either returned to Moscow or left the U.S. government!
With its new and uniquely documented information, The Haunted Wood offers the first fresh, realistic, and non-judgmental understanding of Soviet espionage in the United States during the Stalin era.
Customer Reviews:
The Soviet Penetration of the Roosevelt Administration.......2006-11-27
Authors Weinstein and Vassiliev were in the relatively unique position, in writing "The Haunted Wood", of having access to the Soviet as well as the American side of the story. They took advantage of a brief period of access to Soviet espionage achives after the breakup of the Soviet Union. What emerges is an exhaustive study of the penetration by Soviet spies of the U.S. government in the 1930's and 1940's.
The Soviets were materially aided in their espionage efforts by an admiration of Soviet communism shared by some Americans. This admiration looks badly misguided in retrospect, but apparently seemed very rational in the context of the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the subsequent Great Depression and rise of Fascism. This admiration produced a generation of American (and British) traitors who gave away information on American foreign policy, military and industrial secrets.
Some of the names are familiar: Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs, among others. Less familiar may be the names and operating methods of their Soviet handlers, who worked not just against American counterintelligence but also against the increasing paranoia of the Soviet Government they served. Despite the continuing delivery of invaluable information, Josef Stalin repeatedly purged Soviet intelligence. The disruption caused by the purges almost certainly kept the Soviets from acquiring even more information than they did.
"The Haunted Wood" is written primarily for an audience already fascinated by the topic of espionage. The average reader may find long stretches of dry and sometimes repetitive reading. This book is highly recommended for those studying the history of espionage.
partially an advertisement for two Soviet Agent's talent.......2005-01-02
This book was written with the help of several present and former Soviet Intelligence officers. Be aware that that colored the book with favorable views of these people's talent level and Soviet Intelligence in general. The book does contain valuable information along with important omission and advertising style hot air. I would suggest that you consider Venona by John Earl Haynes or The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors by Herbert Romerstein. The former is an academic description of the 450+ Soviet agents disclosed by the US breaking Soviet codes used during the war. The latter is an inside story by two US espionage agents and experts. One of the gems it reveals is that President FDR was gullible and had several advisors who were Soviet agents. Stalin was afraid of a two front war in Europe and with Japan in the Pacific. He composed an insulting message for his agents to present to FDR who sent as is it to the Japanese government. This provoked the war in the Pacific. Had this not been done, The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor would have been done much later or not at all.
Second thoughts.......2002-06-27
I reviewed this book in 1999, and gave it three stars. Over time, I've decided it was better than I first thought, and came back here to up it to four...
A Critical View of "The Haunted Wood".......2002-06-04
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A Critical View of "The Haunted Wood"
The thesis of this book is that KGB documents prove many New Deal and other US government officials were spies for the Soviet Union. The documentation in the book, however, does not support the thesis, in my opinion.
The co-authors state that one of them, a former KGB agent named Alexander Vassiliev, saw the KGB documents in Moscow on an exclusive basis, in exchange for payments by the publisher, Random House, to an association of former KGB agents. There is no way to verify the authenticity of the KGB documents; no way to check the accuracy of the excerpts and paraphrases printed in the book; no way to study their context, such as the rest of the file from which a particular document came, which every historian and student knows can be crucial to a correct reading and interpretation. We do not even know whether the documents Vassiliev saw are in the Russian language and, if they are, who translated them and how accurately.
The book contains 1099 numbered footnotes, of which 1049 are citations to those off-limits KGB documents. Readers may well ask why those footnotes are there at all. Another frustrating puzzle for readers is the way the co-authors purport to quote KGB documents that contain code names (which the Soviet intelligence agencies routinely assigned to spies and occasionally to non-spies such as Roosevelt, Truman, Churchill, and lesser figures): the co-authors delete the code names and replace them with real names in square brackets -- but often without disclosing what code names they have deleted, and without citing any KGB document or otherwise explaining how or where they got the real names. Compounding the confusion, they state that the Soviets sometimes assigned the same code name to more than one person and sometimes assigned two or three code names to the same person. For instance, the co-authors assert that the American diplomat Alger Hiss had two code names, "Ales" and "Lawyer", while the US Treasury official Harry Dexter White had three code names, "Lawyer", "Richard", and "Reed".
In The Haunted Wood, the co-authors do not explain why they cite no authority or source for ascribing "Lawyer" as a code name for Hiss. For their assertion that "Ales" was another code name for Hiss, they do not cite any KGB documentary source, but they reproduce (and misquote) a so-called "Venona" document, released in 1996 by the US National Security Agency and said to bear a translation of a partially decrypted 1945 KGB cablegram about "Ales". In 1950, an FBI agent tentatively identified Ales as Hiss and said the FBI would attempt to verify the identification; but it never did so, nor could it have done so.
The Venona-KGB cablegram itself, reproduced with the photographs in the book, shows that Ales could not have been Hiss. Ales was a military intelligence (GRU) agent who obtained only military information. Hiss, however, was charged with obtaining only non-military State Department materials; the papers that were used to convict him were copies of State Department documents. Ales was the leader of a group of GRU agents, whereas Hiss was accused of acting alone (except for his wife and his accuser, Whittaker Chambers). Ales conducted espionage throughout the eleven years 1935-45, whereas Hiss was accused of having conducted espionage not later than 1938, etc. etc. But The Haunted Wood does not mention, let alone attempt to explain away, any of those discrepancies that preclude Ales as having been Hiss.
Furthermore, there is an earlier Venona document that tends to exonerate Hiss, but I can not find any mention of it in the book. It contains a fragment of a GRU message that, in the original, included the name "Hiss" spelled out in the Latin alphabet, rather than the Cyrillic. For the GRU to use the Latin alphabet just for the name strongly suggests that the GRU had never before heard of Hiss and wanted to be sure to get the name right. (No first name is given, so we can not tell whether "Hiss" was Alger or his brother Donald, who was also in the State Department.) Moreover, for the GRU to use Hiss's real name suggests that he had no code name and was not an espionage agent, because Soviet intelligence agencies, for reasons of security, normally assigned code names to their agents and referred to them only by their code names. Given the many pages that The Haunted Wood devotes to Hiss, Ales, the GRU, and Venona, it is a serious lapse, in my view, for the co-authors not to tell their readers about this GRU message and not to discuss its implications.
The lack of verifiable documentation in The Haunted Wood, its plethora of errors, and its strategic omissions leave it demonstrably untrustworthy. In my opinion, the book falls too far below minimal standards of scholarly or journalistic rigor for any serious consideration.
Very informative. One of the best. But it is a boring read.......2000-11-25
I have read many books on the issue of intelligence. The insight provided by this book is excellent. In particular, the nature and history of America's volunteer ideological spies is the very best I have ever read. But I have found it a hard read. It is possible to be too through. Honest, it is. I had an easier time with Mitrokhin.
Book Description
This breakthrough book provides a detailed reconstruction of Stalin’s leadership from the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 to his death in 1953. Making use of a wealth of new material from Russian archives, Geoffrey Roberts challenges a long list of standard perceptions of Stalin: his qualities as a leader; his relationships with his own generals and with other great world leaders; his foreign policy; and his role in instigating the Cold War. While frankly exploring the full extent of Stalin’s brutalities and their impact on the Soviet people, Roberts also uncovers evidence leading to the stunning conclusion that Stalin was both the greatest military leader of the twentieth century and a remarkable politician who sought to avoid the Cold War and establish a long-term detente with the capitalist world.
By means of an integrated military, political, and diplomatic narrative, the author draws a sustained and compelling personal portrait of the Soviet leader. The resulting picture is fascinating and contradictory, and it will inevitably change the way we understand Stalin and his place in history. Roberts depicts a despot who helped save the world for democracy, a personal charmer who disciplined mercilessly, a utopian ideologue who could be a practical realist, and a warlord who undertook the role of architect of post-war peace.
Customer Reviews:
Warm and fuzzy Uncle Joe.......2007-09-12
Mr. Podmore has it all wrong. He makes it seem that the West started the cold war- PLEASE!
The U.S. knew what Soviet "liberation" was all about and wanted Western Europe not to fall under the yolk of nightmarish communism. If you really understood what the "benevolent" Red Army and NKVD butchers did to Poland and the Baltic states 1939/40 and at the end of the war (not to mention the rest of Eastern Europe -mass arrests, mass deportations, death by bullet or labor), then you'd probably have a different opinion of ole Uncle Joe.
A REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT.......2007-06-19
Little by little we learn more about the war in the East in WWII. Until the Russians opened their archives to Western historians, most of the events were described through the eyes of German generals who had their own axes to grind. This remarkable volume by an Irish scholar attempts to see the victory through the mind of Stalin. If there are any diaries or other personal memoirs by Stalin, they are still closed to the West. What the author gives us is Stalin's thinking through examination of his daily calender, review of what he said to his colleagues and others such as ambassadors, etc as they reported it, and an analysis of his messages and letters.
He also introduces another aspect of the early defeat of the Soviet forces. He states the Soviet thinking was confined to offense, and it was unprepared to take on major defense as a strategy in the initial stages. There is support for this analysis in Fugate & Dovoretsky's volume, Thunder on the Dnepr. They mention a top secret war game (the third) whose documentation is still closed to the West which gave the Soviets confidence they could defeat the Germans through defense in depth.
Despite his claims, Mannstein was not the originator of the tactical implementation of this strategy.
Citino's book, the German Way of War, reinforces the knowledge that the superiority of German general officers lay in their unquestioned competence in operational matters. Their great wealmess was the inability to grasp the strategic implications of their operations. Here, the author points out was one of Stalin's great strengths. Even in 1943, before the great battle of Kursk, he was already thinking about post war implications.
Perrett' book, Knights of the Black Cross, describes how the Germans stripped a regiment out of each panzer division to build enough divisions for the attack on Russia. It built a fundamental weakness into the plan. Now we have Tooze's new book describing, among other things, the inherent industrial weakness of Germany fortelling the ultimate failure of the attack. Thomas Childer's Teaching Company lectures, WWII: A Military and Social History, describes how the German infantry officers encountered a different war than the panzer divisions. Overcoming Russian resistance in the encirlced forces was far more difficult than contemplated.
Roberts doesn't blink at the odious consequences of Stalin's torment of the Soviet people, nor does he attempt to coat over it. It's not the purpose of his volume to go over ground that is well-known. He gives the reader insight into how the man managed the Soviet victory. He joins in creating a useable picture for students of WWII of what the man was like in conducting his affairs. His discussion of Stalin's remarkable intelligence supports the narration in Hasegawa's Racing the Enemy. Stalin's grasp of Russian history, his understanding of his armed forces and the thrust of how to conduct the war are awesome. The author points out Stalin's mistakes as well as his success. Regardless of the other sides of the man, as one reviewer emphasized, his place in this area of WWII history continues to grow.
I recommend this volume to any serious student of WWII as well as those curious about how Stalin operated on a day-to-day basis during this slice of his life. The Cold War Years portion of the book were not as interesting to me. Perhaps that era needs more time for history to digest it as well as there may be more archival releases on both sides to give us a balanced view.
This volume belongs in any library that claims to have a military history section as well as the libraries of those who wish to have a better understanding of the events of WWII or how Soviet leadership operated. It will be an important reference work for many years to come.
Stalin was Stalin, Still .......2007-03-26
This treatise comes as close as I ever want to see to an apology for its cruel and vicious subject. The author claims he wants to balance the view we have of Stalin, but "balance" is not to be found here.
If Stalin was a good wartime and political leader, then what does that make Churchill or FDR?
This book is not worth reading.
Brilliant study of the Second World War and the Cold War.......2007-03-21
This book is a very useful corrective to myths about the Second World War and the Cold War. It shows how the Soviet Union played a key role in winning the World War, defeating more than 75% of Hitler's divisions. As President Roosevelt said, "The Russian armies are killing more Axis personnel and destroying more Axis material than all the other twenty-five United Nations put together."
Roberts concludes, "Stalin was a very effective and highly successful war leader ... [who] was indispensable to the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany." Churchill continually promised to help the Soviet war effort. For example, in August 1942, he told Stalin that by spring 1943 a million British and US troops would have opened a second front in Western Europe. But Churchill delayed the second front until June 1944.
Roberts argues, "Stalin worked hard to make the Grand Alliance a success and wanted to see it continue after the war." The postwar Attlee government, on the other hand, worked hard to break up the Alliance, being more concerned to save the Empire than to keep the peace. Stalin said the Labour government was more conservative than the Conservatives in their defence of the British ruling class's imperial interests.
In 1947, President Truman adopted Labour's hostility to the Soviet Union and peaceful coexistence and launched the Marshall Plan. "For Stalin the Marshall Plan was the breaking point in postwar relations with the United States." The Plan put Western European countries under US control, enabling the US state to interfere in their internal affairs. It led straight to the formation of the anti-Soviet Western bloc, which started the Cold War and split the world into two camps.
Stalin's policy of peaceful coexistence did not mean accepting whatever the imperialists did. Two years after US forces intervened in Korea, he said, "One must be firm when dealing with America ... It's been already two years. And the USA has still not subdued little Korea. ... They want to subjugate the whole world, yet they cannot subdue little Korea."
Moving toward a better understanding of Stalin.......2007-01-19
This is one of the few books that takes a more objective view of Stalin. Taken is the fact that the man was responsible for many deaths throughout his tenure as leader of the Soviet Union. But at the same time it is presented that there was much more to him than simply being labeled a 'killer.' Starting from the beginning of the Second World War the reader is presented with the activities within the Soviet Union to first avert the war, that is make an alliance with England and France against Germany, and then to create the best possible position for the USSR to be in, that is to make a pact with Nazi Germany. Some might think this a betrayal of some sort but the fact remains that Stalin and the USSR were the first to propose an alliance against Hitler, when the Munich conference went through without Stalin even being invited this in essence showed what the west thought of him. Up until 1941 the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany had trade relations from which both benefited and Stalin was trying his best to avert war even when told that it was imminent. While he made mistakes in this instance it is also true that he authorized troop movements, the calling up of reserves, etc that were meant to help the Red Army combat any enemy activity. Sadly, this proved to have been unable to stem the tide of the German advance into the Soviet Union. Throughout the beginning period of war, that is up until the battle of Stalingrad, Stalin was responsible for some of the mistakes which cost the Red Army hundreds of thousands of casualties. But it should be kept in mind that Stalin never took a decision on his own. There were also those that choose to side with a certain action and those who wanted to go against it, at times Stalin would choose the worse action but he was never a sole figure advocating for it. While this doesn't excuse him it sheds light on the fact that he was not the only one making mistakes at this point in time. Eventually he would relegate more control to his generals and Marshals with the outcome being greater and better organized operations like Uranus, Bagration, etc. While the military takes up a large chunk of the book it should also be noted that this is also a political history. Mainly looking at the activities of Stalin and his wartime allies, the US and England. Various meetings were held throughout the war; Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam which made arrangements for what relations would be like after the war was over. The Polish question was on everyone's mind as well as the question of what would happen to Germany and of course the USSR and her entry into the war against Japan was always a main point for Roosevelt. One of the interesting aspects of this book are the ideas behind Stalin's insistence that Eastern Europe should be a Soviet sphere of influence. What's interesting is that when asked to leave Greece to England, he agreed. He took little interest in the developments in Norway, Holland, and a number of other territories freed by the western allies and established once more as independent states and within the US and England's sphere of influence. Yet when it came to Poland or Hungary and Bulgaria there were the allies having to voice their opinions about what should be going on there. Stalin's thinking was that it took Germany 20 years to get into another war, it could take another 20 for WWIII to begin so why shouldn't the USSR do the most to protect itself? These Eastern European states would become the buffer zone for her to protect her from future German aggression, especially since Germany wasn't going to be broken up as he had proposed again and again. Of course I am only presenting details from here and there in the book, there is much more useful information to be found in this work about Stalin's thinking and actions and how they fit into the grand scheme of things. Many archival sources are used which adds a lot of interesting information as well as recent works on the Soviet Union which can't be tainted, as is sometimes done by some, as 'propaganda.' In my opinion an excellent addition to literature on this time period and especially on Stalin.
Book Description
John McCormick's Understanding the European Union provides a uniquely broad-ranging but concise introduction to the EU, covering in one volume all major aspects of European integration. The third edition is systematically revised and updated throughout reflecting the major changes brought about by the 2004 enlargement round. It also includes a full assessment of the EU constitution, the impact of the Euro, and much expanded coverage of EU policies and policy making.
Customer Reviews:
Great introductory book to think about the FUTURE of EUROPE!!!!!.......2006-02-23
Do you live, or are you planning to live in Europe? Then, this is a must read book.
I am very pleased that I had the chance to read this book. I have recently moved to U.K. and realized the huge impact that the EU had on each European country. You as a citizen of European Union need to understand how EU works and how it can affect your life. If you have not been following the EU development as I (I had been living outside Europe all my life), this book is a great tool to catch up. This book will guide you through the history, issues, and policies of EU which will help you understand the current situation. In the introduction and through out the book the author mentions that so many of the European people do not understand how the EU works... well, lets read this book and learn. This is an introductory book to EU and it is not difficult to read. I am a non native speaker of English but I did not have any problem understanding the content. This is a well researched book giving you up to date information with interesting data represented in figures.
Now that I have caught up with the up to date information about the EU, I am feeling very excited about the future of European Union and individual European countries (sometimes referred as "the states" of the United States of Europe). As I am studying future forecasting, this book not only helped me to understand the history and the current situations in Europe but also gave me hints and ideas about the future of Europe. With the knowledge I gained from this book, now I will understand the news better than I did before, and know what I need to look for in the development of the EU. What policies will be made to integrate the European market? Will it be "single market"? How will the EU's economic power change the balance of the world's economy? Is it going to be NO1 economic power? Cultural and political issues are more difficult to forecast... What will be identified as the culture of EU? What is the balance between the national and EU culture? Is the European Parliament (this is the only European institution that have direct influence from European voters) going to have more influence on EU policy making? Is EU heading towards federalism? The author asks "will it happen, should it happen, what form will it take, what impact will it have if it succeeds, and what impact will it have if it fails?"
I have learnt that it is important to have the right questions when you forecast about the future. This book has definitely provided me with the chance to think about questions that I should be asking for.
As I did, you will have some idea or wishes about the future of Europe by the end of the book. This is the third edition of the book, and I am sure there will be more editions to come.
Excellent Overall Review.......2005-10-24
I'm currently taking a course on the EU in which the professor gave us carte blanche to purchase our own books on the EU. I was delighted to find out that this book was written by a professor who understands what and how to communicate this information to students. Plus, since the writer is a British immigrant, he could incorporate the European perspective of the EU from first-hand experience as opposed to a vicarious one. This book was very good at providing background info (without harping too much on history) and bringing the reader up-to-speed with current events as well as personal thoughts on the EU's future. Kudos to the writer. Thank you very much. Your book was very helpful. Cheers!
Book Description
Written in late 2004 shortly before his election as Pope Benedict XVI, Ratzinger raises serious questions about the issues facing Europe amidst the new European Union and forming of a European Constitution.
Some of the main issues he raises include: How did Europe originate and what are its boundaries? Who has the right to call himself European and be admitted into the new Europe? What about the spiritual roots of Europe and the moral foundation she is founded on?
Ratzinger sees the lack of focus on these fundamental questions in the forming of a new Europe as a very serious dilemma for the future of Europe, and the world. The ties that Europe has to the USA, and the rest of the world make these questions and reflections by the current Pontiff of critical importance for facing the future together.
Customer Reviews:
"Is there a European identity that has a future?".......2007-08-01
"Is there a European identity that has a future?" "Europe...is a cultural and historical concept," but many, it seems, appear to think otherwise. But "There is no such thing as an ahistorical State based on abstract reason.""Europe, precisely in this hour of its greatest success seems to have become hallowed out, paralyzed in a certain sense by a crisis of its circulatory system, a crisis that endangers its life, which depends, so to speak, on transplants, which then, however, cannot help undermining its identity." "Meanwhile, the manipulation of man by man is proceeding apace with even greater impudence. The visions of Huxley are definitely becoming a reality: the human being must be no longer begotten irrationally but rather produced rationally. But man as a product is at the disposal of man. The imperfect specimens are discarded, so as to develop the perfect man by way of planning and production." and "more and more often the principle of behavior is affirmed that states that it is permissible for man to do everything he is capable of doing."
"In a world that is understood in an evolutionary way, it is also self-evident that there cannot be any absolute values, things that are always bad or things that are always good; instead the weighing of goods is the only way to discern moral norms." "Whereas currently the once legendary success of the word revolution is on the decline, definite and far-reaching reforms are being demanded and promised all the more. One would have to conclude, however, that in modern society a deep sense of dissatisfaction predominates, and this precisely in places where well-being and freedom have reached a level heretofore unknown. The world is perceived as hard to endure; it must improve, and bringing this about seems to be the task of politics." In short, "Suffering must disappear; life must be nothing but pleasant." "Learning to live," however, Pope Benedict argues, "also means learning to suffer." Heaven is not possible on Earth, in other words. "A definitively well-run society would presuppose the end of freedom." And from freedom everything else comes. This is the subject of parts 3 & 4 of this albeit very short work: Responsibility for the Peace and Pope Benedict's reflections on "The occasion of the 60th anniversary of the landing of the Allied Forces in France (speeches he made during events commemorating such). "The process of reconciliation that has taken place in Europe, thanks in particular to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has changed the course of world history; this process has its origins in the Christian spirit." He instructs us that such a progression ought be respected and built upon; not cast aside. After all, Pope Benedict asks "...has the world really become brighter, freer, happier after setting God aside?"
In Pope Benedict's view, one of the primary reasons Islamists are hostile to the West is their perception of the West as Godless. Hence Pope Benedict's admonition that by being more religious/more respectful of our own religious heritage perhaps the West and Islamic states can move somewhat closer to each other; that we in the Judeo-Christian West may be able to moderate aspects of the Muslim faith by standing firm for Freedom. Abandoning Europe's faith, in contradistinction, is akin, in effect, to conceding the moral high ground to an otherwise respectable faith, but one which has not progressed much in the way of individual and women's rights; which does not respect individual freedom, nor a distinction between secular politics and faith. (07Jul) God Bless
An Invitation for a Moral Rebirth.......2007-05-30
Ratzinger is at his finest- not writing above our heads as with some theological works, but as a teacher warning us about the inevitable consequences of our behavior.
A gentler version of The Cube & The Cathedral by Weigel, Ratzinger explains how the refusal of Europeans to accept their Christian roots is contributing to a declining culture. The text examines models of government, specifically the two totalitarian regimes of the previous century and insists that we allow the state to provide moral guidelines once again.
Finally, a good argument against the acceptance of Turkey into the EU is explained, drawing on the ancient history of this continent we call Europe today and how Christianity forged those boundaries, cultural identities and systems of faith.
This is a call to return to the moral center; a faith based civilization that was once great but has recently shunned the core that made it so. This is an example of how man's enlightenment and greatness should be accepted as gifts from God and therefore attributed as such.
Amazon.com
While the United States flexes its economic and military muscles around the world as the dominant global player, it may soon have company. According to the Washington Post's T.R. Reid, the nations of Europe are setting aside differences to form an entity that's gaining strength, all seemingly unbeknownst to the U.S. and its citizens. The new Europe, Reid says, "has more people, more wealth, and more trade than the United States of America," plus more leverage gained through membership in international organizations and generous foreign aid policies that reap political clout. Reid tells how European countries were willing to discontinue their individual centuries-old currencies and adopt the Euro, the monetary unit that is now a dominant force in world markets. This is noteworthy not just for exploring the considerable economic impact of the Euro, but also for what that spirit of cooperation means for every facet of Europe in the 21st century, where governments and citizens alike believe that the rewards of banding together are worth a loss in sovereignty. Reid's most compelling portrait of this trend is in the young Europeans known as "Generation E" who see themselves not as Spaniards or Czechs but simply as Europeans. To illustrate America's obliviousness to this trend, Reid tells of former GE CEO Jack Welch, who never bothered to factor European objections into a proposed multi-billion dollar merger with Honeywell, leading to the deal being torpedoed and Welch disgraced. But what is most striking in The United States of Europe is the contrast between the new Europe and the United States. The Europeans cannot match the raw military size of the U.S., but by mixing wealth with diplomacy and continental unity (helped along by antipathy toward George W. Bush's brand of Americanism), they are forming an innovative and powerful superpower. --John Moe
Book Description
To Americans accustomed to unilateralism abroad and social belt-tightening at home, few books could be more revelatory—or controversial—than this timely, lucid, and informative portrait of the new European Union.
Now comprising 25 nations and 450 million citizens, the EU has more people, more wealth, and more votes on every international body than the United States. It eschews military force but offers guaranteed health care and free university educations. And the new “United States of Europe” is determined to be a superpower. Tracing the EU's emergence from the ruins of World War II and its influence everywhere from international courts to supermarket shelves, T. R. Reid explores the challenge it poses to American political and economic supremacy. The United States of Europe is essential reading.
Customer Reviews:
js.......2007-06-10
This is a well written book which is very enlightening. As a US citizen it is important to recognize our diminishing stature worldwide. Its time for America to take some cues from Europe to improve our standard of living, save America's middle class, and become globally competative.
Poorly researched and overly sympathetic........2007-06-01
T.R. Reid's "The United States of Europe" doesn't stand up to scrutiny. The basic premise seems sound enough, but the book sounds like it was lifted from an EU pamphlet. Reid doesn't engage in analysis, he engages in pure praise without any visible criticism of the EU. Does he mean to say that the EU and its member states have absolutely no problems? That's hard to believe.
Furthermore, his theory doesn't hold up when looking at the Iraq war. In fact, Reid hardly mentions this critical event except in a handful of pages in his book. If Europe is as united as he claims and sees itself as such a counter force to American power, then why did so many European states support invasion including Italy, Spain, and Denmark among others? Surely the EU would have been able to exercise influence over its members if the book's claims were true. Reid hardly even considers the event.
In fact, France and Germany's prominent resistance to the war was, as is usually the case in the face of American militarism, helpless to do anything. Reid explains this by saying that Europe goes for diplomacy and deals mainly with reconstruction and nation building (the "peacekeepers"). So essentially Europe is powerless to stop military aggression, even from a close ally and instead picks up the slack after the damage is done proving that "soft power" still cannot match military might.
You can get a good feel for this book's academic content by flipping to the notes/works cited section. Most scholarly books have at the least a dozen pages, often a chapter purely for citations. Reid has a total of roughly 5 sources that he used to write a 300 page book on. In other words, Reid seems to have done no academic research which would explain the poor content and analysis of this book.
The underlying idea is promising, but without substantial research to confirm his claims, Reid's book is useless.
The United States of Europe is a must-read........2007-03-24
The United States of Europe is an intelligent, well-written and eye-opening look at the European Union; its history, its euro, its ever growing market and political muscle. Although the book is clearly aimed at the US, Europeans will certainly benefit from reading it.
T. R. Reid writes in a strong and confident style, submits names, dates and numbers with authority, and anecdotes like a belly-laughing buddy on a Saturday night over a couple of Heinekens.
The United States of Europe is a must-read.
great book!.......2007-02-20
The book is great in content, and it gives readers a sense of how contemporary Europeans think of their current union and how that will challenge United State's role as superpower in today's world. The author uses great analogies and it's a very down to earth book that anyone with a college degree can appreciate.
The Other Side of the Ocean.......2007-01-22
This is a great book. Reid spells out the ascendancy of Europe from the ashes of WWII into a corporate nanny state - no politics in that statement, it just seems like a deliberate choice on the part of the Europeans.
The history alone is worthwhile but Reid has several sections which should be taught in schools as Things We Should Have Paid Attention To Instead Of Our Usual Pop Culture Navel-Gazing:
1. The rise of the EU as a force deliberately created as a counterbalance to American hegemony;
2. The implied racism of seeing China/Japan/India ascendancy as a threat to our livelihoods while cheerfully accepting European ownership of significant elements of American commerce and standards because they're white and our Nanna (or Nanna's nanna) lived there once;
3. The invasion of Iraq and the whole "Freedom Fries" and Rummy's dismissal of the "Old Europe" still resonates over there and will color American/European relations for a good long while after 43 goes back to brush-cutting;
4. America arguably has the world's strongest military in some part because the Europeans choose not to compete with us, not because they couldn't. They are happy to let us pay for the carrier battle groups and 4,000 casualties in Iraq. They're only invested in Afghanistan because that's relevant to their interests;
5. How the rise of the euro currency is a threat to American dominance and if it is successful in replacing the dollar as the investment of choice (and things appear to be heading that way) that will be the beginning of a possible slide into Argentina-like currency devaluation. Then we will find out that all of the yellow ribbons in the world imploring God's support of America don't amount to a whole heck of a lot vis-a-vis international currency market speculation;
6. Jack Welch was a God-like figure in Corporate America, but after he met the Europeans they were the ones wearing the pants.
Great powers stay great because they hunger for greatness. That sounds like an idiotic maxim from a strategic planning offsite, but it's true.
The leaderships of Europe, China and India hunger for it. Do we? Read this book and form your own answer.
Amazon.com
From its opening-line salvo—"It is time to stop pretending that Europeans and Americans share a common view of the world, or even that they occupy the same world"—Of Paradise and Power announces a new phase in the relationship between the United States and Europe. Robert Kagan begins this illuminating essay by laying out the general differences as he sees them: the U.S. is quicker to use military force, less patient with diplomacy, and more willing to coerce (or bribe) other nations in order to get a desired result. Europe, on the other hand, places greater emphasis on diplomacy, takes a much longer view of history and problem solving, and has greater faith in international law and cooperation. Kagan does not view these differences as the result of innate national character, but as a time-honored historical reality--the U.S. is merely behaving like the powerful nation it is, just as the great European nations once did when they ruled the world. Now, Europe must act multilaterally because it has no choice. The "UN Security Council is a substitute for the power they lack," he writes.
Kagan also emphasizes the inherent ironies present in the relationship. European nations have enjoyed an "American security guarantee" for nearly 60 years, allowing them to cut back on defense spending while criticizing the U.S. for not doing the same. Yet Europe relies upon the U.S. for protection. This has led America and Europe to view the same threats much differently, as evidenced by the split over how to deal with Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Kagan points out that some European leaders are more afraid of how the U.S. will wield its power in the Middle East than they are of the thought of Hussein or other "rogue state" leaders acquiring weapons of mass destruction.
Kagan's brevity is as impressive as it is appreciated; most writers would have required thrice as many pages to get to their point. At any length, the book is nothing short of brilliant. This is essential reading for those seeking to understand the post-Cold War world. --Shawn Carkonen
Book Description
From a leading scholar of our country’s foreign policy, the brilliant essay about America and the world that has caused a storm in international circles now expanded into book form.
European leaders, increasingly disturbed by U.S. policy and actions abroad, feel they are headed for what the New York Times (July 21, 2002) describes as a “moment of truth.” After years of mutual resentment and tension, there is a sudden recognition that the real interests of America and its allies are diverging sharply and that the trans-atlantic relationship itself has changed, possibly irreversibly. Europe sees the United States as high-handed, unilateralist, and unnecessarily belligerent; the United States sees Europe as spent, unserious, and weak. The anger and mistrust on both sides are hardening into incomprehension.
This past summer, in Policy Review, Robert Kagan reached incisively into this impasse to force both sides to see themselves through the eyes of the other. Tracing the widely differing histories of Europe and America since the end of World War II, he makes clear how for one the need to escape a bloody past has led to a new set of transnational beliefs about power and threat, while the other has perforce evolved into the guarantor of that “postmodern paradise” by dint of its might and global reach. This remarkable analysis is being discussed from Washington to Paris to Tokyo. It is esssential reading.
Customer Reviews:
Welcome to the desert of the neocon.......2007-05-13
This book is useful for insight into the thinking of neoconservatives, but has little to do with the real world.
Kagan states that appeasement policies of the 1930's were "a product not of analysis but of weakness." That's funny considering the USSR was the biggest appeaser of any country in Europe, actively conspiring with Hitler to invade Poland. Yet the USSR chewed up the vast bulk of Germany's continental armies and occupied half of Europe. To claim the USSR, Britain, and France all followed policies of appeasement for the same single reason would be dubious no matter the reason. To say the reason was weakness is stupid.
The United States is compared to a heroic Sheriff protecting the weak townsfolk against rogues and outlaws. I suggest Kagan read up on the history of the old west, in fact lawmen were often no better then outlaws and they frequently switched places. Hardly an example to follow if you intend to be a hegemon for long.
Perhaps most delusional is the analogy where he compares dealing with Iraq to shooting a bear. C'mon, wasn't it supposed to be more like shooting a cow?
Throughout the book Kagan conflates Europe with some mythical all powerful female figure. The essay at heart is a cry for liberation from her feminine strictures, a call for men to act like men and shoot each other.
Not very good policy, but this volume is a near perfect time-capsule of neoconservative thought. Future psychologists and social historians are indebted.
God It Has Aged.......2007-04-26
Luckily this book got an afterword in 2004. The initial text is definitely obsolete. But even so three years have passed and the book is quite largely obsolete. First and foremost today the main objection at the decision of the Bush administration to go at war in Iraq is that all evidence, intelligence and testimonies brought to our attention at the time has been revealed as nothing but lies. And maybe even worse than that. The recently revealed top secret classified papers from the French Ministry of Defense have revealed that terrorist attacks were planned with highjacked commercial planes at least nine months before 9/11. Did the Minister of Defense at the time, a socialist, not communicate this intelligence to the newly elected President Bush? Or did the newly elected President Bush neglect this intelligence. A second investigation is necessary. What did the two administrations, French and US, do at the time? And don't forget this field of expertise (military and foreign policies) is the privileged area of presidential governance in France. So Chirac had some kind of say in the decision to communicate or not this intelligence to the US. But that does not change the fact that all arguments used by Colin Powell or President Bush in 2002-2003 were a pack of lies. But even so, and trust cannot be built on lies, the other essential objection of Europeans and many other nations, including China and Russia, was that this war would open up a box of surprises, each one of them worse than all the others. Today in 2007 we are forced say that all these fears have come true. I will overlook the torturing of prisoners in El Ghraib or Guantanamo. I will overlook the nullification of habeas corpus for the prisoners in Guantanamo. I will only look at two elements that cannot be solved in any way by any number of GIs, no matter how many. Iraq is on the verge of a possible explosion that will send waves and tremors a lot farther than the Middle East. Who can imagine what would happen if a reunified Kurdistan was becoming a reality? Who can imagine what would happen if a reunified Shiite nation were to be recomposed, essentially what's more a reunified Shiite nation that would not be Arabic in spite of its being Moslem? What remains on the table is that Iraq has become ungovernable with three million refugees all around the world, and essentially in Syria and Jordania, with at least 600,000 civilian victims so far and the number grows everyday by the hundreds and not by the units. That's why we, the Europeans and many others, said the war was an absurdity. No WMDs but results that are deadly. Iran is running on an everyday more radical road. Hizbollah has taken over Moslem Lebanon. Hamas has been elected in Palestine, and there is no end to that long line of consequences. President Bush has opened up a Pandora's box that threatens to be a well timed but unpredictable bomb. When will it explode? We don't know. Will Israel's nuclear weapons be enough to stop it? We don't know. What will the Russia or Chinese reaction be? We don't know. That's why this book has to be read and meditated upon. It is the revelation of the most extreme impossibility for some American intellectuals to listen to the world and understand history is changing. So far class struggle and war were the engines of history. Today economic welfare and development are becoming this engine because everyone wants electricity, cars, fridges and washing machines. Henry Ford's answer when he was asked why his T Model was black is typical of the extreme dictatorship the mass economy of the mass consumer's society we are living in or aspiring to be living in imposes onto us, and without any kind of a war possible out of it: "I have no objection to any other color, provided it is black." Humanity started its long road towards freedom and democracy and welfare as soon as the homo sapiens, Cromagnon in Europe, decided to develop the division of labor imposed by the premature state of its little babies into an economic division of labor that created then the market economy, since some had goods or services others did not have and they had to start pooling together and exchanging things. The future of the world is democratic because the mass market of our mass consumer's society requires peace and freedom, peace and democracy, peace and personal individual responsibility and creativity. President Bush maybe wants to go faster than the hands of the Big Ben of history. Impossible. One has to desire something to accept to have it, better even to earn it, win it or deserve it. A gift is a gift but if it a basic vital thing it becomes an alienation or a humiliation. The Americans did not understand that, even in Europe. I remember a colleague professor of mine in Davis, CA, presenting the land around the campus as the richest land in the world. Vanity fair, nothing else. In de Gaulle's time hotel managers in Paris explained American tourists that they did not have the biggest king size beds in the world, nor the most spacious bath cum toilet restrooms, but they did have the biggest fleas and all French people were proud of their fleas. Robert Kagan is behind his time, just like President Bush. And I did have a petition signed after 9/11 to express my and many other people's grief and solidarity with the victims and I did have a petition widely signed in my city at the time against the war in Iraq after Babylon had been attacked. So please don't argue the point and the trauma of 9/11 that some of my students read 9-1-1.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne
Breaking down trends in transatlantic relations.......2007-04-19
For such a short book, Kagan simply and adeptly lays out his beliefs on why America and Europe seem to behave differently in the international arena.
Some salient points: Where we are today is merely a reversal of roles--Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries wielded great power, while America played the role of a minor power. Today, America wields great power, while the Europeans have not collectively come together as a great power on the international stage.
Kagan outlines the paradox of this situation: simply put, America, in the post-war era, created, to an extent, the situation that we have today. By providing security to Europe in the Cold War, the Europeans were able to reallocate resources that would have been spent on defense. Which was a problem during the crises in the Balkans, where Europe found itself hamstrung to effectively deal with problems close to home.
While dated, it is still relevant today. While America would like to see the Europeans shoulder more of a defense burden around the globe, it remains a target of European criticism for taking action that others can not. Therein lies the dilemma. Great read, and should be of interest to anyone studying international relations and transatlantic relations.
Discredited Neocon.......2007-02-17
If you want the warmongering neocon point of view, from those same guys who brought us the Project for the New American Century, pre-emptive war on Iraq based on falsified intelligence, and who are now foaming at the mouth to invade Iran, subjugating US foreign policy to Israeli interests and perhaps create a world-wide war in the process....go right ahead!
Everybody in America should read this book.......2007-01-23
To the author, Robert Kagan.
Your book "of Paradise and Power" confirms what the French have known for many years. America took positions which were extremely hostile to France in the period 1920-1940. This led to the second World War, and millions of dead. If America also had supported France in 1914 as G. Kennan says in "America Diplomacy", page 55-73, there would not have been WWI. So America's responsibility in the desasters of the last century is huge, almost criminal.
The above to introduce the present and my disagreement with Mr Kagan. America says it can solve the problems of the world alone. This is just not true. America alone is a disaster. It should have learnt its lesson in Viet-Nam, but it did not and now we have the complete mess in Iraq. If America thinks that it can solve problems by launching rockets, drop bombs and send a few marines, it is 100% wrong. No nation can be "domesticated" by taking such actions. it requires more work. And the European way is the way: long, patient work. America must work with other nations, first of all Europe, and it is the only way to solve the problems. Foch, the winner of the WWI said: "stay united and we will avoid wars"...
Today, terrorism is a minor problem compared to global Warming. This can only be solved if we work together. America must be part of the world.
The book shows very well what can be achieved by America's well understood interest and generosity such in the period 1947/52. The last two pages of this book gives me hope.
Average customer rating:
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European Union Encyclopedia and Directory 2007 (European Union Encyclopedia and Directory)
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Book Description
The seventh edition of this well-informed and comprehensive encyclopedia and directory charts the European Union's development. Thoroughly updated, this extensive reference source provides in-depth information on all matters relating to the European Union: the expansion of the EU under the Nice Treaty is covered, and the future of the union is addressed. A glossary of key terms, a statistical survey, and a directory section provide a unique guide to the workings of the EU as well as up-to-date contact details of MEPs and other EU officials.
Features include:
· Up-to date chronology of the EU (from 1947 to present)
· An A-Z section contains concise definitions and explanations of organizations, acronyms and terms, and articles on each member state. Comprising over 1,000 entries compiled by acknowledged experts, terms listed include: the Convention on the Future of Europe; the Rapid Reaction Mechanism; the Charter of Fundamental Rights; the Laeken Declaration; enlargement; and immigrationpolicy
· A series of introductory articles provide an overall view of the policies and activities of the EU. Essay subjects include: defense policies of the EU; the EU economy; European Monetary Union; the governance, legal and social frameworks of the EU; enlargement; external relations, and immigration and asylum policy
· An extensive directory of key names, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail and internet addresses of all major European Union institutions and their official bodies. This information is supplemented by summaries of important treaties, details of information sources in the EU, and details of EU trade associations. Also in this section, details of MEPs - their political groups and national parties, members of major committees, Directorates-General, EU-level bodies, interest and lobbying groups and professional associations
· A statistical survey provides tables covering areas such as: population, employment, agriculture, energy and mining, industry, finance, trade, transport and communications, tourism, health and welfare, and education across the EU
This title will prove invaluable to academic and public libraries, politicians and government agencies and the media, as well as to all those in need of accurate and reliable information on the European Union.
Book Description
In 2004 the European Union and NATO each added ten new member states, most from the post-communist countries of Eastern and Central Europe. In order to qualify for membership, these countries had to make a myriad of changes. They often emulated practices common in Western Europe, sometimes resulting in more effective and efficient institutions, sometimes resulting in failures. Wade Jacoby examines the trends in various fields and in several countries.
Book Description
In this first book-length treatment of integration theory for many years, Ben Rosamond provides an accessible and stimulating critical introduction to the full range of classical and contemporary perspectives. The book explains the centrality of theoretical work to the study of integration and the EU and carefully locates different theories within their wider intellectual and "real world" contexts. This thoroughly researched book engages with the key debates that have arisen from theoretical deliberations about European integration. It develops its own distinctive contribution, emphasizing the importance of "sociology of knowledge" questions when evaluating integration theory and stressing the continued significance of international theory to the study of the EU.
Customer Reviews:
Theories of European Integration.......2000-12-07
Ben Rosamond's book describes the current (and past) political science approaches regarding the EU. A strange animal indeed: not a federality or a state, but takes some of the members' soveirgnity; sometimes its an international organisation, sometimes it isn't.
It is an important book to read BEFORE any other about the EU, so you'll understand to which "side" in the approaches debate other writers belongs.
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