history

A New Look at Jonestown

The 1978 Jonestown Massacre in Guyana is considered one of the greatest peacetime horrors. Almost all of the lives lost were Americans. The death toll exceeded 900, including some 300 who were age 17 and under, making this one of the largest mass deaths in American history.

At the time, Guyanese Prime Minister Burnham dismissed it as “an American problem.” All the books until now on the subject were written by people from outside Guyana. This book is the first by a Guyanese resident and is now available in the US for the first time.

Jim Jones was a charismatic US cult leader who founded what became the Peoples Temple in the 1950s. Following negative media attention in the 1970s, the powerful, controlling preacher moved with some 1,000 of his followers to the Guyanese jungle, where he promised they would establish a utopian community.

On November 18, 1978, U.S. Representative Leo Ryan went to Jonestown to investigate claims of abuse and was murdered along with four members of his delegation. That same day, Jones ordered his followers to ingest poison-laced punch while armed guards stood by. In total, 918 lives were lost.

This is the story of Jonestown finally told from a Guyanese perspective, written by one of Guyana’s most distinguished political leaders who is often referred to as “Guyana’s Gandhi.” Also included are excerpts from the writings of several other Guyanese, including George Danns, Walter Rodney, and Jan Carew.

“A New Look at Jonestown is an elucidating, mesmerising read that transcends Jones' captivating, precipitous slide into madness..” —The Gleaner

“Well worth reading.” —Kaieteur News

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Barrio Rising

Blending rich narrative accounts with incisive analyses of urban space, politics, and everyday life, Barrio Rising offers a sweeping reinterpretation of modern Venezuelan history as seen not by its leaders but by residents of one of the country’s most distinctive popular neighborhoods.

Beginning in the late 1950s political leaders in Venezuela built what they celebrated as Latin America’s most stable democracy. But outside the staid halls of power, in the gritty barrios of a rapidly urbanizing country, another politics was rising—unruly, contentious, and clamoring for inclusion.

In the mid-1950s, a military government bent on modernizing Venezuela razed dozens of slums in the heart of the capital Caracas, replacing them with massive buildings to house the city’s working poor. The project remained unfinished when the dictatorship fell on January 23, 1958, and in a matter of days city residents illegally occupied thousands of apartments, squatted on green spaces, and renamed the neighborhood to honor the emerging democracy: el veintitrés (the 23rd).

During the next 30 years, through eviction efforts, guerrilla conflict, state violence, internal strife, and official neglect, inhabitants of el veintitrés learned to use their strategic location and symbolic tie to the promise of democracy in order to demand a better life. Granting legitimacy to the state through the vote but protesting its failings with violent street actions when necessary, they laid the foundation for an expansive understanding of democracy—both radical and electoral—whose features still resonate today.

“Barrio Rising should appeal to both the general public and specialists, possessing the rare quality of being highly accessible and scholarly in equal measure. This is an exemplary effort of combining archival and ethnographic research to demystify one of Venezuela’s most politically charged neighborhoods, and in doing so, provides crucial insights into the country’s often volatile and complex political history.” —Latin Americanist

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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Notes from the Hyena's Belly

Part autobiography and part social history, Notes from the Hyena's Belly offers an unforgettable portrait of Ethiopia, and of Africa, during the 1970s and '80s, an era of civil war, widespread famine, and mass execution. “We children lived like the donkey,” Mezlekia remembers, “careful not to wander off the beaten trail and end up in the hyena's belly.”

His memoir sheds light not only on the violence and disorder that beset his native country, but on the rich spiritual and cultural life of Ethiopia itself. Throughout, he portrays the careful divisions in dress, language, and culture between the Muslims and Christians of the Ethiopian landscape. Mezlekia also explores the struggle between western European interests and communist influences that caused the collapse of Ethiopia's social and political structure—and that forced him, at age 18, to join a guerrilla army.

Through droughts, floods, imprisonment, and killing sprees at the hands of military juntas, Mezlekia survived, eventually emigrating to Canada. In Notes from the Hyena's Belly he bears witness to a time and place that few Westerners have understood.

“Mezlekia has a born storyteller's knack for pacing, and in his musical voice he manages to convey the helter-skelter of his existence . . . A story of high drama told with aplomb.” —Kirkus Reviews

“By skillfully interweaving personal history, politics, and Amhara fables . . . [Mezlekia] has produced the most riveting book about Ethiopia since Kapuscinski's literary allegory The Emperor and the most distinguished African literary memoir since Soyinka's Ake appeared 20 years ago.” —The NY Times Book Review

(Group read suggestion from Mia DeGiovine Chaveco, book club co-founder.)

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The 1989 Coup d'Étát in Paraguay

The year 1989 was crucial for Paraguay. After a long period of 35 years of dictatorship, General Alfredo Stroessner was finally overthrown by a violent coup d’état. In a sort of prophetic way, he once said …”I came to power by arms and I will only leave by arms” and that came true on 2 February of that year.

The 1989 Coup d’état in Paraguay discusses Stroessner’s climb to power during a coup of 1954, fraudulent elections that got him re-elected seven times, and the ways Stroessner kept himself afloat through cooperation with the armed forces, a right-wing political party, and the USA. Arguably, longing to maintain his popularity, the dictator launched a large number of major development projects, including construction of roads, water and sewage facilities, three big hydro-electrical power stations, and a build-up of an airline. At the same time, abuse of human rights and oppression of any kind of political opposition became a norm: dozens of political prisoners were tortured and even executed, and thousands driven into exile.

As could be expected from a dictator with a military background, Stroessner prompted a major expansion and a build-up of the armed forces and the police, too. Nevertheless, it was the armed forces of Paraguay that brought about his demise: the coup that finally ended Stroessner’s rule was planned by General Andres Rodriguez, the Commander of the I Army Corps—and then with full support of large segments of the Army, Air Force, and the Navy of Paraguay.

A description of the coup in question, and how Stroessner was driven into exile in Brazil, is the centrepiece of this narrative. Containing over 100 photographs, colour profiles, maps and extensive tables, ‘The 1989 Coup d’etat in Paraguay’ is a unique study and a source of reference about an important episode in Latin American history.

(Group read suggestion from Ivor Watkins, book club moderator.)

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Portrait with Keys

This dazzling portrait of Johannesburg is one of the most haunting, poetic pieces of reportage about a metropolis since Suketu Mehta’s Maximum City. Through precisely crafted snapshots, Ivan Vladislavic observes the unpredictable, day-today transformation of his embattled city: the homeless using manholes as cupboards, a public statue slowly cannibalized for scrap. Most poignantly he charts the small, devastating changes along the postapartheid streets: walls grow higher, neighborhoods are gated off, the keys multiply. Security—insecurity?—is the growth industry.

Vladislavic, described as “one of the most imaginative minds at work in South African literature today” (André Brink), delivers “one of the best things ever written about a great, if schizophrenic, city, and an utterly true picture of the new South Africa” (Christopher Hope).

“Surely one of the most ingenious love letters—full of violence, fear, humour, and cunning—ever addressed to a city.” —Geoff Dyer, multi award-winning author

(A special thank you to book club member, Jennifer Koen for the suggestion.)

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Murder in Amsterdam

“Fascinating . . . Characteristically vivid and astute.” - The NY Review of Books

”A work of philosophical and narrative tension, strikingly sharp and brooding, frank and openly curious.” - San Francisco Chronicle

”Shrewd, subtly argued.” - The NY Times Book Review

“Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam is a masterpiece of investigative journalism, a book with the intimacy and narrative control of a crime novel and the analytical brilliance for which Buruma is renowned. On a cold November day in Amsterdam in 2004, the celebrated and controversial Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot and killed by an Islamic extremist for making a movie that ‘insulted the prophet Mohammed.’ The murder sent shock waves across Europe and around the world. Shortly thereafter, Ian Buruma returned to his native land to investigate the event and its larger meaning as part of the great dilemma of our time.”

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Amsterdam

“A strong sense of irony and a lively prose style make Amsterdam one of the most unusual and engaging 'city books' I have read this year.” - Sunday Times

“Mak's brief is . . . to bring Amsterdam into the modern age. This he does with wit and style. But his real achievement . . . is to make accessible unfussily—and unsentimentally—one of Europe's most astonishing urban success stories.” - Financial Times

“A magnet for trade and travelers from all over the world, stylish, cosmopolitan Amsterdam is a city of dreams and nightmares, of grand civic architecture and legendary beauty, but also of civil wars, bloody religious purges, and the tragedy of Anne Frank.

In this fascinating examination of the city's soul, part history, part travel guide, Geert Mak imaginatively recreates the lives of the early Amsterdammers, and traces Amsterdam's progress from waterlogged settlement to a major financial centre and thriving modern metropolis.”

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The Crossing

International winner of the PEN Pinter Prize

“An eloquent, gripping and harrowing account of the country’s decline into barbarism by an incredibly brave Syrian.” - Irish Times

“Samar Yazbek's searing new book about her Syrian homeland is a testament to the indomitable spirit of her countrymen in their struggle against the Assad regime. . . shocking, searing, and beautiful.” - Daily Beast

“Journalist Samar Yazbek was forced into exile by Assad's regime. When the uprising in Syria turned to bloodshed, she was determined to take action and secretly returned several times. The Crossing is her rare, powerful and courageous testament to what she found inside the borders of her homeland.

From the first peaceful protests for democracy to the arrival of ISIS, she bears witness to those struggling to survive, to the humanity that can flower amidst annihilation, and why so many are now desperate to flee.”

“One of the first political classics of the 21st century.” - Observer

“Extraordinarily powerful, poignant, and affecting. I was greatly moved.” - Michael Palin

(Group read suggestion from Beth McCrea, book club co-founder.)

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The Art of War

“2,500 years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought. Since then, all levels of the military around the world have continued to use the teachings of Sun Tzu. Much of the text notes how to outsmart one's opponent—fighting and winning wars without actually having to do battle.

In recent years, this text has become the essential strategy guide for use in business, politics, law, and everyday life. The Art of War is a book which should be used to gain advantage of opponents in the boardroom and battlefield alike.”

Note: We recommend this translation by Gagliardi. It’s not only a multi-award winner, but a complete version with what appears to be more accurate (& readable) translation.

Don’t think the translation makes that much of a difference?

Here’s a good example we compiled which compares the same 3 lines:

Gagliardi translation—the version we recommend
Do not entice the enemy when their ranks are orderly.
You must not attack when their formations are solid.
This is how you master adaptation.

Ames translation
Do not intercept an enemy that is perfectly uniform in its array of banners;
do not launch the attack on an enemy that is full and disciplined in its formations. This is the way to manage changing conditions.

Clavell/Giles translation
To refrain from intercepting an enemy whose banners are in perfect order,
to refrain from attacking an army drawn up in calm and confident array—
this is the art of studying circumstances.

Cleary translation
Avoiding confrontation with orderly ranks
and not attacking great formations
is mastering adaptation.

Griffith translation
They do not engage an enemy that is advancing with well-ordered banners,
nor whose formations are in impressive army.
This is control of the factor of changing circumstances.

Kaufman translation
Never attack if you see the enemy in prime condition
and his appearance is strong and steady.
His organization may be stronger than yours and you will need to replan your strategy. Note: This version seems to be incomplete skipping over & leaving out many lines!

Sawyer translation
Do not intercept well-ordered flags;
do not attack well-ordered formations.
This is the way to control changes.

What a huge difference & you can clearly see why we recommend the Gagliardi translation!

(A special thank you to book club member, Sena Karataşlı for the group read suggestion.)

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Countrymen

“Amid the dark, ghastly history of WW II, the literally extraordinary story, never before fully researched by a historian, of how the Danish people banded together to save their fellow Jews from the Nazis—told through the remarkable unpublished diaries and documents of families forced to run for safety, leaving their homes and possessions behind, and of those who courageously came to their aid.


In 1943, with its king and administration weakened but intact during the Nazi occupation, Denmark did something that no other country in Western Europe even attempted. Anticipating that the German occupying powers would soon issue the long-feared order to round up the entire population of Jews for deportation to concentration camps, the Danish people stood up in defiance and resisted. The king, politicians, and ordinary civilians were united in their response—these threatened people were not simply Jews but fellow Danes who happened to be Jewish, and no one would help in rounding them up for confinement and deportation.  

While diplomats used their limited but very real power to maneuver and impede matters in both Copenhagen and Berlin, the warning that the crisis was at hand quickly spread through the Jewish community. Over 14 harrowing days, as they were helped, hidden, and protected by ordinary people who spontaneously rushed to save their fellow citizens, an incredible 7,742 out of 8,200 Jewish refugees were smuggled out all along the coast—on ships, schooners, fishing boats, anything that floated—to Sweden.

While the bare facts of this exodus have been known for decades, astonishingly no full history of it has been written. Unfolding on a day-to-day basis, Countrymen brings together accounts written by individuals and officials as events happened, offering a comprehensive overview that underlines occupied Denmark’s historical importance to Hitler as a prop for the model Nazi state and revealing the savage conflict among top Nazi brass for control of the country. This is a story of ordinary glory, of simple courage and moral fortitude that shines out in the midst of the terrible history of the twentieth century and demonstrates how it was possible for a small and fragile democracy to stand against the Third Reich.”

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Natural Rebels

Although we are learning a lot from historians about the lives of slaves in the United States, we still know little about slavery in the Caribbean. Hilary Beckles's book on the social, economic, and labor history of slave women in Barbados, from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-19th century, is a major addition to this literature.

Drawing on contemporary documents and records, newspapers, and personal correspondence, Beckles reveals how slave women were central to the plantation economy of Barbados. They had two kinds of value for sugar planters: they could work just as hard as men, and they could literally reproduce the slave class.

Beckles details the daily lives of slave women in conditions of extreme exploitation. They suffered from harsh conditions, cruel punishments, malnutrition, disease, high mortality, and fear of abandonment when they were too old to work. He described the various categories and responsibilities of slaves, and the roles of children in the slave economy. Beckles looks at family structures and the complexities of interracial unions. He also shows how female slaves regularly resisted slavery, using both violent and nonviolent means. They never accommodated themselves to the system; as natural rebels, they fought in any way they could for survival.

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Westminster's Jewel

“Westminster’s Jewel is a rare exposé on the history and evolution of Barbadian society that will captivate both Barbadians and citizens of the UK unfamiliar with the history of British colonialism in the Caribbean. The book is an interesting mix of narrative and poetry, done in the author’s own elegant—and at times caustic—style.

It presents the Barbados story in an easy, non-academic fashion—from the arrival of the British in 1627 to the present; and offers critical—sometimes biting—commentary on current social norms.

Westminster’s Jewel is one of the few books that combines local history (in easy reading style) with critical commentary and poetry to tell the story of Barbados from the inception to the present. The Barbadian will discover things about his society he hadn’t noticed before; the non-Barbadian will learn about the sordid history of enslavement and colonialism and its legacy on the island.

From a ‘jewel’ in the imperial crown, Barbados, today, is a struggling economy, dependent on tourism and an ever-declining sugar industry. The jewel has lost its sparkle, even as the sun has set on the Empire. The ravages of slavery and colonialism are never far from the eye. But the history of slavery and colonialism has not only left an economic legacy, it has also left a major psychological legacy as well: a people with a woeful lack of self-confidence—who live in the shadows of those who once dominated their lives. Westminster’s Jewel seeks to tell that story—the story of Barbados from settlement by the British in 1627 up to the present.”

(Group read suggestion from Mia DeGiovine Chaveco, book club co-founder.)

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Harem

“This is a serious history, yet an immensely readable one—informative, gossipy, and grand fun.” - The NY Times

“A fascinating illustrated history of one of the strangest, and cruelest, cultural institutions ever devised. A worldwide best seller, translated into 25 languages.

’I was born in a konak (old house), which once was the harem of a pasha,’ writes Alev Lytle Croutier. ‘People around me often whispered things about harems; my own grandmother and her sister had been brought up in one.’

Drawing on a host of firsthand accounts and memoirs, as well as her own family history, Croutier explores life in the world’s harems, from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century, focusing on the fabled Seraglio of Topkapi Palace as a paradigm for them all. We enter the slave markets and the lavish boudoirs of the sultanas; we witness the daily routines of the odalisques, and of the eunuchs who guarded the harem. Here, too, we learn of the labyrinthine political scheming among the sultan’s wives, his favorites, and the valide sultana—the sultan’s mother—whose power could eclipse that of the sultan himself.

There were the harems of the sultans and the pashas, but there were also ‘middle-class’ harems, the households in which ordinary men and women lived out ordinary—albeit polygamous—lives. Croutier reveals their marital customs, child-rearing practices, and superstitions. Juxtaposing a rich array of illustrations—Western paintings, Turkish and Persian miniatures, family photographs, and even film stills—Croutier demystifies the Western erotic fantasy of ‘the world behind the veil.’”

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Sophie's World

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world.

One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: “Who are you?” and “Where does the world come from?” From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

“First, think a beginner's guide to philosophy . . . Next, imagine a fantasy novel--something like a modern-day version of Through the Looking Glass. Meld these disparate genres, and what do you get? Well, what you get is an improbable international bestseller . . . [A] tour de force.” —Time

(A special thank you to book club member, Julie Jacobs for the suggestion.)

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Midnight's Furies

"Named one of the best books of 2015 by NPR, Amazon, Seattle Times, and Shelf Awareness.

A  few bloody months in South Asia during the summer of 1947 explain the world that troubles us today.

Nobody expected the liberation of India and birth of Pakistan to be so bloody — it was supposed to be an answer to the dreams of Muslims and Hindus who had been ruled by the British for centuries. Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi’s protégé and the political leader of India, believed Indians were an inherently nonviolent, peaceful people. Pakistan’s founder, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, was a secular lawyer, not a firebrand.  But in August 1946, exactly a year before Independence, Calcutta erupted in street-gang fighting. A cycle of riots — targeting Hindus, then Muslims, then Sikhs — spiraled out of control. As the summer of 1947 approached, all three groups were heavily armed and on edge, and the British rushed to leave. Hell let loose. Trains carried Muslims west and Hindus east to their slaughter. Some of the most brutal and widespread ethnic cleansing in modern history erupted on both sides of the new border, searing a divide between India and Pakistan that remains a root cause of many evils. From jihadi terrorism to nuclear proliferation, the searing tale told in Midnight’s Furies explains all too many of the headlines we read today."

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44 Months in Jasenovac

"An eyewitness account of a prisoner in Jasenovac, a concentration camp in the former Yugoslavia [now Croatia] during WWII. 

For every 100,000 people in the Jasenovac camp during its horrifying four-year existence, there was only one—literally one—who survived. Those were the odds in the balance of life and death: 100,000 dead and one alive.

And there is a witness who found the strength to reminisce, to go back to the place of his torture, to break the psychological barriers, and to lead us step by step through his nightmare, through waves of terror that exceed every notion of horror. From the beginning of his time at Jasenovac to the end, Egon Berger was witness—and victim—to a rampage without limit. Of those who survived, he is the only one who told the story.

Berger does not bring us a literary masterpiece—he brings us only the experience, a story about 44 months of his life in a camp, told simply. The story is enough—a story that calls images to mind and makes us tremble with the thought, 'Are such things possible?'"

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Escaping the Fire

During the height of the Guatemalan civil war, Tomás Guzaro, a Mayan evangelical pastor, led more than two hundred fellow Mayas out of guerrilla-controlled Ixil territory and into the relative safety of the government army's hands. This exodus was one of the factors that caused the guerrillas to lose their grip on the Ixil, thus hastening the return of peace to the area.

In Escaping the Fire, Guzaro relates the hardships common to most Mayas and the resulting unrest that opened the door to civil war. He details the Guatemalan army's atrocities while also describing the Guerrilla Army of the Poor's rise to power in Ixil country, which resulted in limited religious freedom, murdered church leaders, and threatened congregations.

His story climaxes with the harrowing vision that induced him to guide his people out of their war-torn homeland. Guzaro also provides an intimate look at his spiritual pilgrimage through all three of Guatemala's main religions. The son of a Mayan priest, formerly a leader in the Catholic Church, and finally a convert to Protestantism, Guzaro—in detailing his religious life—offers insight into the widespread shift toward Protestantism in Latin America over the past four decades. Riveting and highly personal, Escaping the Fire ultimately provides a counterpoint to the usual interpretation of indigenous agency during the Guatemalan civil war by documenting the little-studied experiences of Protestants living in guerrilla-held territory.

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Modernity on Endless Trial

"Leszek Kolakowski delves into some of the most intellectually vigorous questions of our time in this remarkable collection of essays garnished with his characteristic wit. Ten of the essays have never appeared before in English.

'Exemplary. . . . It should be celebrated.' —Arthur C. Danto, New York Times Book Review

A Notable Books of the Year 1991 selection, New York Times Book Review—a Noted with Pleasure selection, New York Times Book Review—a Summer Reading 1991 selection, New York Times Book Review—a Books of the Year selection, The Times."

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