Book Review

One was embraced as a flowering democracy, the other remains a pariah state, but both governments remain paranoid and oppressive.

Justin Mitchell's new book is dirty, witty and deeply personal.

Dr. Yvonne Spielmann presents a dynamic Indonesian art scene but is ultimately overwhelmed by her subject.

Thomas S. Mullaney’ argues that the creation of a Chinese typewriter therefore became a civilizational trial for a country that feared functioning in slow motion in the face of global acceleration.

In 'How China Escaped the Poverty Trap,' Yuen Yuen Ang turns conventional thinking on its head, exploding myths as to how developing nations can catapult themselves out of poverty.

Readers of this book cannot fail to reflect on today’s accounts of refugees forced from their homelands by repression and civil war.

'Dear Hong Kong: An Elegy for a City' spans five decades, two husbands, a dozen other lovers, a handover to the Motherland, the dementia of the author's mother and the death of her father.

Conflict in Myanmar: War, Politics, Religion is a useful ensemble of works that can inform readers and enrich other studies of Myanmar. It

Joe Henley talks to Keith Menconi about his new book, 'Bu San Bu Si: A Taiwan Punk Tale.'

In Fact and Fiction in Global Energy Policy: 15 Contentious Questions, Benjamin J. Sovacool, Marilyn A. Brown and Scott V. Valentine provide an essential guide to the international debate on how to create a more sustainable energy system by probing into some of the key areas of contention. Dr. Robert Falkner highly recommends this volume as a tour de force that will be of utility to students, researchers and practitioners seeking to better understand global energy policy.

What makes a small state succeed? In Singapore and Switzerland: Secrets to Small State Success, editors Yvonne Guo and Jun Jie Woo explore this question through two cases that have shown similar economic performance by balancing international forces and domestic demands.

In 'Capital Without Borders: Wealth Managers and the One Percent,' Brooke Harrington offers an in-depth look into the work of wealth management professionals who ensure that the ‘one percent’ keep getting richer. Drawing on interviews and Harrington’s own experiences of a wealth management training program, Sin Yee Koh finds this a well-researched and clearly written ethnographic study that focuses attention on a key industry behind the continuation of global inequality.

In '1996 and The End of History,' journalist and author David Stubbs examines a year — 1996 — that marked the pinnacle of a decade, not just in politics but across music, entertainment and sport. Tying together the political and cultural landscapes of mid 90s Britain, this is a valuable addition to the current critical reassessment of a period that seemed to promise sunnier times ahead. But, asks Stephen Lee Naish, could it ever last?

BOOK REVIEW: Joshua Kurlantzick's 'A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA' (New York, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017), reviewed by Hunter Marston.

In 'The Edge: The War Against Cheating and Corruption in the Cutthroat World of Elite Sports,' the goal, however, is not to provide answers. The objective is to open a door to a fascinating topic so you can think about sport in new ways. Sports needs more thinking, more debate, and more out-in-the-open discussion.

While Hesham Shafick questions the limitations of the book’s overarching emphasis on western-centric conflict resolution literature, this is nonetheless a seminal reference text for students looking at the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

If corporate backing for Pride events is one example of queer subcultures becoming increasingly commercialized, does this threaten the capacity to resist or might capitalism be progressive for queer subjects? In 'Sex, Needs and Queer Culture: From Liberation to the Post-Gay' David Alderson draws upon the work of Herbert Marcuse and Raymond Williams to examine processes of assimilation and resistance as well as the distinctions between countercultural and subcultural movements. Although she questions the particular focus on gay male culture, Sofia Ropek Hewson welcomes this rich and absorbing text for probing into the present relationship between capitalism, queer culture and political resistance.

Salim Lamrani aims to explains some of the essential background to the U.S. economic sanctions against Cuba: their origins, their provisions, how they contravene international law, and how they affect the lives of Cubans. Although not detailed enough for an academic audience, this book does offer a short chronicle and discussion of some of the key events and consequences of more than 50 years of American economic sanctions against Cuba, writes Paul Wingrove.