Music of the post.
So, International Politics On the World Stage 1 by John T. Rourke and Mark A. Boyer is... well my political sciences book. I expect politics, I just don't expect repeated attempts at propaganda within the book disguised as teaching.
Our book's cover is a great place to start. Looking from top left, we have a picture of middle eastern women in Islamic garb holding signs that say "Pray for peace". A good message, except looking closer reveals that it's for the Gaza strip and Palestine and features pictures of everyone's favorite Token president. I'm sure I could come up with a better name for him, but calling him the black Jimmy Carter doesn't seem to flow quite right. To that picture's right is Mao Zedong. Below that are outheld hands in the "Give me" gesture and to the left of that is a polar bear. Why an English book features Chairman Mao on it's cover and not some of the famous refugees is.. really beyond me.
Inside the book, one of the first impressions I got was a section describing different political views. Right wing politics were largely given negative sounding names, left wing were given largely positive sounding names. The book regularly hounds on the US's actions throughout recent history and never tries to offer an opposing viewpoint. I can tolerate that to a degree, it's almost expected in the academic elite though.
Really though, there's a few things in this book that are just mind numbing. There's a picture of an Israeli soldier at the wall checking out a Palestinian woman with English graffiti behind him all while the book questions the motives. The picture really bothered me though, it's blatantly obvious that it's a propaganda picture. A soldier standing before the graffiti that just happens to be English, framed in the picture just right so you can read it? There's condemning of cluster munitions and a man who is missing both hands because he tried to disarm the bomb. It doesn't mention that it's a very well known fact to MOST people of the world that you don't play with explosives, they're dangerous and if you find them you should call in the professionals. It makes a point of singling out America as a country having ignored the treaty, but doesn't mention any others whatsoever.
It spends at least half of it's time condemning other practices the Americans follow and very rarely shows us as doing anything good, but praises the UN without touching on the various bribery scandals, rape issues and poor decisions. I mean, whoever heard of Oil for Food, the Congo, the white cliffs, putting China on a human rights commission...
Another pretty funny moment was seeing them mention famous female leaders and then fail to mention the Iron Lady herself, Margaret Thatcher, let alone any famous historic leaders or famous examples of early female leadership like with the Mongols. I guess I can't expect guys writing about history to research history though.
I also enjoyed the book quoting Putin's comment about the world being more dangerous now than during the cold war because of America. I guess Putin's trying to pretend he's forgotten Afghanistan. And the Falklands, the Bay of Pigs, Korea, Vietnam... And no, the book doesn't bother to mention any counter points or you know, simple fact like I just listed. Yes I'm aware I missed a few of the wars.
The book also patently tries to avoid mentioning other things that would contradict it's statements rather than offering it's point and the counterpoint, which is how a book like this SHOULD be done. Instead we get Condemnation of America, but none of North Korea, China, various South American countries, Mexico, France, Russia, Germany, South Africa (No one likes remembering all the dead WHITE farms I think. It breaks certain spiels). It's also quite confident the UN is successful and that it's sanctions mean fuck all to most of the people they issue it too. Oh and the book mentions the various wrong things America's done to step on people's toes lately. I mentioned that right? A few times at least? Because this book fucking loves the idea.
So much for writing a review on books from authors I like. Maybe I'll start reviewing the Black Company series if I can find all my errant copies various people are holding on to.
(EDIT: Hey, I missed the last chapter in the review. It was pretty much dedicated to global warming. I will give them credit for at least looking into more credible problems like water issues though. Too bad those were... maybe 3-4 pages all together and the rest of the entire chapter was on Global Warming. Not as biased as it could have been there overall though.)
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