July 2023 MBR The Political Science Shelf

The Political Science Shelf

The Age of Insurrection
David Neiwert
Melville House
46 John Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
https://www.mhpbooks.com
9781685890360, $39.99, HC, 544pp

https://www.amazon.com/Age-Insurrection-Radical-American-Democracy/dp/1685890369

Synopsis: From a smattering of ominous right-wing compounds in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s, to the shocking January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, America has seen the culmination of a long-building war on democracy being waged by a fundamentally violent and antidemocratic far-right movement that unironically calls itself the "Patriot" movement.

So how did we get here?

With the publication of "The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right's Assault on American Democracy", award-winning journalist David Neiwert (who been following the rise of these extremist groups since the late 1970s, when he was a young reporter in Idaho) explores how the movement was built over decades, how it was set aflame by Donald Trump and his cohorts, and how it will continue to attack American democracy for the foreseeable future.

Neiwert especially studies how the Pacific Northwest has long been a breeding ground of extremist violence, from the time when neo-nazis migrated to the area from southern California in the 1970s, through the great battles in Portland and Seattle and neighboring towns over the last decade.

Laying out how these groups organize their terroristic violence and attacks on democratic institutions at every level (including local, state, and federal targets) Neiwert details what their strategies and plans look like for the foreseeable future.

Critique: A timely and invaluable contribution to our currently on-going national discussions on the rise of an American fascism that is currently identified by governmental authorities in the FBI and other security agencies to be the greatest current threat to American democracy and our political voting systems, "The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right's Assault on American Democracy" is a compelling (and chilling) read. While also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $17.99) for students, academia, government officials and legislators, political activists, and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that "The Age of Insurrection: The Radical Right's Assault on American Democracy" is a vitally important and unreservedly recommended addition to personal, professional, community, college, and university library White Nationalism Christian Nationalism, Fascism, and Domestic Terrorism collections and supplemental Contemporary Political Science curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: David Neiwert (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Neiwert) is an award-winning investigative journalist and the author of several books, including Red Pill, Blue Pill: How to Counteract the Conspiracy Theories that are Killing Us (Prometheus 2020), Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump (Verso 2017), Of Orcas and Men: What Killer Whales Can Teach Us (Overlook 2016), and And Hell Followed With Her: Crossing the Dark Side of the American Border (Nation Books 2013).

Class War: A Literary History
Mark Steven
Verso
20 Jay Street, 10th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201-8346
www.versobooks.com
9781839760693, $29.95, PB, 304pp

https://www.amazon.com/Class-War-Literary-Mark-Steven/dp/1839760699

Synopsis: In political science, the term class conflict (also class struggle, class warfare, capital-labour conflict) identifies the political tension and economic antagonism that exist among the social classes of society, because of socioeconomic competition for resources among the social classes, between the rich and the poor. In the political and economic philosophies of Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin, class struggle is a central tenet and a practical means for effecting radical sociopolitical changes for the social majority, the working class. (Wikipedia)

A thrilling and vivid work of history, with the publication of "Class War", Mark Steven deftly weaves together literature and politics to chart the making and unmaking of social class through revolutionary combat. In a narrative that spans the globe and more than two centuries of history, Steven ably traces the history of class war from the Haitian Revolution to Black Lives Matter movement.

Surveying the literature of revolution, from the poetry of Shelley and Byron to the novels of Emile Zola and Jack London, exploring the writings of Frantz Fanon, Che Guevara, and Assata Shakur, "Class War" reveals the interplay between military action and the politics of class, showing how solidarity flourishes in times of conflict.

Written with verve and ranging across diverse historical settings, "Class War" traverses industrial battles, guerrilla insurgencies, and anti-colonial resistance, as well as large-scale combat operations waged against capitalism's regimes and its interstate system.

In our age of economic crisis, ecological catastrophe, and planetary unrest, "Class War" tells the stories of those whose actions will help guide future militants toward a revolutionary horizon.

Critique: "Class War" is a seminal, iconoclastic, and ground-breaking literary history of global class war. This new study by Mark Steven is an inherently fascinating, informative, thoughtful and thought-provoking study that is informatively enhanced for the reader with the inclusion of an Introduction (Class War Now), a Postscript (No War But Class War), twenty-six pages of Notes, and a fifteen page Index. While also available for personal reading lists in a digital book format (Kindle, $7.99), "Class War" is an especially and unreservedly recommended addition to community, college, and university library Political Science & History collections, and supplemental Social Theory/Social Class curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note: Mark Steven (https://english.exeter.ac.uk/staff/steven) is Senior Lecturer in Twentieth- and Twenty-first Century Literature at the University of Exeter, UK. He is the author of Red Modernism: American Poetry and the Spirit of Communism (2017) and Splatter Capital (2017).

Neutering the CIA
John A. Gentry
Armin Lear Press Inc.
www.arminlear.com
9781956450699, $35.95 Hardcover, $24.95 Paper, $9.99 ebook

https://www.amazon.com/Neutering-CIA-Intelligence-Long-Term-Consequences/dp/1956450696

Neutering the CIA: Why US Intelligence Versus Trump Has Long-Term Consequences is a scholarly analysis that holds the rare ability to attract general-interest readers concerned about intelligence history and America's CIA in particular. It probes the political bias that both dictates operations and too often undermines the agency, considering how this bias affects intelligence operations and efficiency as a whole.

While the key example presented in this study is the impact of such bias on the interaction between the CIA and the Trump Administration, to consider Neutering the CIA a history of Trump's involvement alone would be to do the book an injustice. It holds far wider-ranging realizations and information that affect the overall operations, driving force, and perceptions of CIA and intelligence operations as a whole. Neutering the CIA ideally should be consulted not just by political science students, but anyone actively involved in U.S. intelligence operations and ideals.

John A. Gentry opens his treatise with a preface that explains his background in the CIA as an intelligence analyst and his personal experience of its "politicization" by fellow professionals who overlaid the operations of the agency with an agenda that represented their personal and political sentiments. From the start, his revelations are eye-opening and controversial: "After following the German Democratic Republic for several years, I was under no illusions about the many negative and few good aspects of the country's communist regime ... Yet in 1986 my division chief, Steve K., began to insist that his analysts make the countries we followed look worse than they were, mainly by adding pejorative adjectives in our analytic papers."

This misdirection of information, framed by simple choices in presentation and representation, was mild; but in hindsight it began a dangerous trend that continues to this day. Thankfully, this experience also led to Gentry's newfound awareness of and ongoing interest in the intersection of politics and intelligence work -- and he was in the perfect place and position to observe these changes in action.

Scholarly readers will appreciate Gentry's attention to detail as he delves into such varied topics as diversity politics, other presidential campaigns that reflected the growth of special influences and interests, and the changing approaches of the intelligence community as politicization became a new norm rather than the exception. His attention to exploring moral and ethical dilemmas, his expose of facts (such as the leaking of intelligence information by intelligence officers themselves), and his heavily footnoted references that support many of his contentions with articles, interviews, and research create an authority that goes beyond personal familiarity to reflect the information-based work Gentry was trained to produce.

Having Neutering the CIA at this point in time is key to understanding the influences upon and progress of democracy itself. Far more than an analysis of the inner sanctum of the American intelligence community, Neutering the CIA draws both damning and thought-provoking connections between special interests, personal ambition, and political influence that dictates the focus and direction of intelligence operations in this nation.

Gentry's discussions of anti- and pro-Trump elements within the organization and his notes on the CIA's evolving culture and strengths invite classroom dialogue and discussion that also should spill into general interest circles despite the scholarly nature of this book, which should not be limited to classroom study alone. General-interest as well as scholarly or college-level library collections should see widespread attraction to Neutering the CIA because its history, analysis, and insider information hold great impact for revising perceptions of the democratic process in America as well as its evolving intelligence community.

Suitable for book club discussion, political and social issues debates, and classroom reading alike, Neutering the CIA is an important examination of linguistics, ideology, and purpose of intelligence operations. It holds the ability to reach a wide audience with its insights on how modern America really works, both up front and behind the scenes, and is very highly recommended for its special in-depth examination.

Hollow Gods
Davidson Loehr
Atmosphere Press
www.atmospherepress.com
9781639888221, $25.99 Hardcover, $17.95 Paper

https://www.amazon.com/Hollow-Gods-Davidson-Loehr/dp/1639888225

Hollow Gods: Why Liberalism Became a Destructive Religion is especially appropriate reading for modern times because it embraces the ideas and sentiments connecting religion to political choices - and also because it comes from a liberal forced to reconsider his faith and political connections.

This is not a condemnation of liberals or religion, but operates in the milieu intersecting belief systems that considers the long-time presence of two cultures whose clashes have resulted in a form of arrogance. This has unwittingly created the very monsters and messages liberals accuse others of fostering. Every reader who considers himself liberal should digest these contentions, which are presented with footnoted references reinforcing statistics and contentions throughout.

The treatise closely analyzes the liberal platform "...that I and millions of others have had, and the serious, devastating, possibly permanent harm they have done and are doing to individuals, two generations of college students, our country, its politics, liberal religion, racism, sexism..." Extensive footnotes aside, this survey is not written like an academic paper, but is lively enough that general-interest audiences can easily access its contentions and, hopefully, debate and consider them in group and book club reading circles.

From how views are represented by the media, distorted, and manipulated to the left-wing bias of the media as a whole and its impact on divisions and freedom, chapters offer thought-provoking blends of historical, philosophical, and political reflection that should particularly interest media studies and social issues students.

Hollow Gods will make readers uncomfortable -- especially liberal readers who have long held their contentions close to their hearts (often, so close that they have remained immune to deep inspection).

Libraries and readers that choose Hollow Gods for its hard-hitting examination of belief systems, social activism, media involvements, and clashing cultures will find its words embrace difficult subjects and truths, thus broadening the opportunity for revision and revelation: "Affirmative action doesn't address or solve any of these problems. It is done to treat black people like our token victims, letting liberals feel virtuous for speaking up for them -- while doing virtually nothing to help them. These liberal ideas aren't just stupid. They're also destructive and ungrounded. They're good examples of why these un-realistic Second Culture misunderstandings, like the Scare-crow's Delusion, do so much harm, and why the gatekeepers must come from people in the First Culture who, like Antaeus, have their feet on the ground in the real world.

The problem isn't limited to liberals. The problem is that, for the reasons already shown, we have mostly lost the ability to center ourselves or our culture around healthy ontological values and have degraded ourselves and our world into merely ideological squawkers."

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