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Review of ‘Reporting the Siege of Sarajevo’
Book: Reporting the Siege of Sarajevo: Kenneth Morrison: Bloomsbury Academic by Kenneth Morrison, Paul Lowe (2021) Review by Gordana Knezevic: Gordana Knezevic was the deputy editor-in-chief of Sarajevo daily newspaper ‘Oslobodjenje’ during the siege of Sarajevo (1992-1995). Following the war, she relocated to Toronto, Canada, where she worked for Reuters (1999-2007), and later Radio Free Europe (2007-2018) in Prague, where she was Balkan Service director. The First Draft of History In 1987, as I prepared to take up the post of Middle East correspondent for my newspaper, ‘Oslobodjenje’, I knew that I was headed for a ‘troubled’ part of the world. Although based in Cairo, I would occasionally be called upon…
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New Book: Syria in Perspective
By Dr Pablo Sapag Visit the website The book considers the propagandistic and military dimensions of the crisis, suggesting how Syria might evolve. At the heart of this analysis is a key element of Syrian society: its ingrained interconfessional character deriving from the historical presence on its soil of various religious faiths. Powerful minorities have, however, repeatedly applied political and military pressure to force the state to abandon its non-religious and non-discriminatory character. The author’s review of scholarly texts is combined with research in Syria and other countries. He has conducted interviews with religious leaders, NGO personnel, combatants, displaced people and other victims. Among those interviewed is the Syrian President,…
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Cold War II Hollywood’s Renewed Obsession with Russia
Essays that critique America’s superiority complex and movies and TV shows that reignite the Cold War Edited by Tatiana Prorokova-Konrad Click here for publishers page Description Contributions by Thomas J. Cobb, Donna A. Gessell, Helena Goscilo, Cyndy Hendershot, Christian Jimenez, David LaRocca, Lori Maguire, Tatiana Prorokova-Konrad, Ian Scott, Vesta Silva, Lucian Tion, Dan Ward, and Jon Wiebel In recent years, Hollywood cinema has forwarded a growing number of images of the Cold War and entertained a return to memories of conflicts between the USSR and the US, Russians and Americans, and communism and capitalism. Cold War II: Hollywood’s Renewed Obsession with Russia explores the reasons for this sudden reestablished interest in the Cold…
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Killing for Show
Photography, War, and the Media in Vietnam and Iraq New book by Julian Stallabrass Rowman & Littlefield Publishers In the autumn of 2014, the Royal Air Force released blurry video of a missile blowing up a pick-up truck which may have had a weapon attached to its flatbed. This was a lethal form of gesture politics: to send a £9-million bomber from Cyprus to Iraq and back, burning £35,000 an hour in fuel, to launch a smart missile costing £100,000 to destroy a truck or, rather, to create a video that shows it being destroyed. Some lives are ended—it is impossible to tell whose—so that the government can pretend that…
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New Book: On Commemoration
Global Reflections upon Remembering War Edited By Catherine Gilbert, Kate McLoughlin and Niall Munro Peter Lang Publishing How, in the twenty-first century, can we do commemoration better? In particular, how can commemoration contribute to post-war reconciliation and reconstruction? In this book, a global roster of distinguished writers, artists, musicians, religious leaders, military veterans and scholars debate these questions and ponder the future of commemoration. They include the world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz, the award-winning novelists Aminatta Forna and Rachel Seiffert, and the human rights lawyer and Gifford Baillie Prize-winner Philippe Sands. Polemics and reflections together with poetry and creative prose movingly illuminate a subject that…
