Politics

In late spring of 2005, George Galloway, a newly elected member of British Parliament, came to Washington, D.C., to appear before a Senate subcommittee that claimed—without ever talking to him—that he had enriched himself through the scandal-plagued Iraq oil-for-food program.

What happened next was a rare political moment: to the surprise of the assembled senators, congressional aides, and press, Galloway turned the tables on his accusers, calling attention to the dishonesty and hypocrisy that led to the war in Iraq. This is the story of Galloway’s relationship with Saddam Hussein (including details of their private meetings) and of his remarkable visit to Washington in which he dared to set the record straight—not just his own record but also that of the U.S. government. Filled with the passion and wit that are Galloway trademarks, the book includes the complete transcript of the famed Senate testimony and is packed with facts about the United States’ ignominious history in Iraq—facts that are easy to forget but crucial to remember.

From the California recall circus, in which Gary Coleman, Larry Flynt, and Arianna Huffington vied with over one hundred other candidates to replace a supposedly inept governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger emerged triumphant. How did this onetime bodybuilding champion and gay pinup, with no political experience and a string of mediocre action movies to his name, come to take over the world’s fifth-largest economy?

In The Schwarzenegger Syndrome, celebrated journalist and novelist Gary Indiana makes the case that this tale is a product of a mediasoaked culture in which image matters more than substance. The recall process, a parody of direct democracy, gave Schwarzenegger the chance of a lifetime. With so many candidates in the race, he certainly wasn’t the most qualified, the most articulate, or the most credible—but he was the most famous. And for the majority of Californians, that was enough. A witty and biting travelogue through the intersection of celebrity culture with American political life, The Schwarzenegger Syndrome lays bare the dark implications of Schwarzenegger’s rise to power in the Golden State.

The roster of security measures enacted by the Bush administration in the panic that followed September 11th is by now well known. Common to all of those initiatives from The Homeland Security Presidential Directive 2 to the USA Patriot Actis concern about the link between migration and security.

This new appreciation of how people on the move pose a threat—whether real or imagined—will be a recurring theme of domestic policy and international relations for years to come. But the “securitization of migration” must first confront a perplexing tangle of long borders, large-scale labor migration, and throngs of tourist and student visitors. Policy makers are only beginning to catch up with this complicated reality.

Raising vital questions about government policy, The Maze of Fear explores the many dimensions of the migration–security link, including discussions of civil liberties, transnational organizations, refugee populations, and politically active diasporas.

When terrorists flew jets into World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the social effects were as dramatic as the visual images. Individual lives, families, friendship networks, corporations, global financial flows, and politics were all transformed. Moving beyond the headlines, first impressions, political speeches, and soundbites, Understanding September 11 is a basic resource for making sense of these changes. Knowledge from the social sciences fills in necessary background, provides contexts for interpretation, and offers vital analytic perspectives. It helps us see the underlying roots of the current crisis, as well as the influence of social change. It shows how religious and cultural factors intertwine with economic and security concerns. It allows us to make sense of the role of Islam, the impact on international relations, and the challenges for democratic societies.

Written by many of today’s foremost anthropologists, economists, historians, political scientists, and sociologists, Understanding September 11 offers the most complete account available, not just of terror and tragedy but of the challenges we now face, and the issues we must understand in order to make informed choices about our future.