Month: July 2013

Author: Simone Cinotto Publisher: New York University Press – 267 pages Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram In relating to us the story of winemaking ventures by Italian immigrants in California, Simone Cinotto points out that one of the key ingredients to their astounding success was their close family ties, and not as much their financial means or their experience in growing and creating wine. California’s wine production from more than 1,200 vineyards, accounts for 90 percent of all American wine, even though all U.S. states produce it. California’s land area is about three quarters the size of France. Over...

Editors: Diana Rhoten and Craig Calhoun Publisher: Columbia University Press – 539 pages Book Review by: Deekay Daulat In China and Africa there is “massive expansion” of universities. In Latin America “they are growing in ways central to economic development.” But in the United States, “universities are experiencing budget cuts.” And in Europe “universities built as state institutions are being told to raise money from private sources…” These are the stark economic contrasts the editors of this book point out with regards to universities in some parts of the developing world versus those in the developed regions, particularly in...

Author: Sophal Ear Publisher: Columbia University Press – 185 pages Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram Some 1.7 million Cambodians were killed during the murderous Pol Pot’s dictatorial rule through the Communist-inspired Khmer Rouge movement in the 1970s, writes Sophal Ear in this book. Among those killed was his father. He points out at the beginning of his work that his parents lived in a three-story villa near Phnom Penh airport. His father was an army captain who also owned a drug store. His father “was precisely the type of bourgeois the revolution intended to cull from the Cambodian population...

Editors: Philip H.J. Davies and Kristian C. Gustafson Publisher: Georgetown University Press – 313 pages Book Review by: Deekay Daulat Intelligence gathering is done not just in the United States, China and the Soviet Union that we get usually news of thru the media of mass communication. It also takes place in European countries and a lot of other places that most of us are probably not aware of. And we do not know where else, what information is gathered, in what forms, through what means, of what kind, and in what volumes and frequencies. This book answers those...

Author: Charles T. Call Publisher: Georgetown University Press – 315 pages Book Review by: Paiso Jamakar This book presents research studies and data on numerous civil wars that have occurred around the world for the past over six decades from 1944 to 2007, and examines the reasons why many of them they did not end in lasting peace but recurred later. Why is it necessary to study why peace fails? The author cites four important reasons (we quote his own words so you’ll know exactly why civil wars recur and why it is so important to achieve lasting peace):...