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At a time when the turmoil and conflict in the Middle East dominates world news, students need to develop an understanding of the people and culture of this region. This five-volume set, part of the Discovering World Cultures series, examines geographical, historical, economic, and cultural issues in 16 Middle Eastern countries. For each nation, information about people groups, natural resources and geography, economy, and religion is included. A section on everyday life considers education, leisure activities, dress, holidays, the arts, and food, including sample recipes. Tables, charts, illustrations, timelines, and fact sheets provide visual references to support the written material.

Volume 1: Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt

Volume 2: Iran, Iraq, Israel

Volume 3: Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman

Volume 4: Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria

Volume 5: Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yemen

Grades 6-8

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This digital document is an article from Arena Magazine, published by Thomson Gale on February 1, 2003. The length of the article is 3437 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: War of the worlds: popular culture has long prepared Americans for an `alien' aggressor. (on the eve of war).(Iraq war. )
Author: Jeremy Salt
Publication: Arena Magazine (Magazine/Journal)
Date: February 1, 2003
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: 8(4)

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Rampton and Stauber can now reveal in detail how public relations experts in the Bush administration acted deliberately to distort the news, to suppress the facts and to push an America still shocked by the attacks of 9/11 into war on Iraq. Worse, they build a damning case against the mainstream media, and its failure to challenge the White House over its most blatant lies and evasions. From the outset, the invasion of Iraq was branded and packaged like a commercial product. When asked why the build-up to the war began in September 2002, the White House Chief of Staff had this to say, "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (54)

Concise, Readable, Powerful
Authors Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber provide a concise but powerful expose of the Bush White House and its attempts to "sell" the 2003 invasion of Iraq.Readers see how Bush, Cheney and Company used a questionable propaganda campaign to pave the way, including using (or rather misusing) the 911 terrorist attacks as justification.Bush and company were aided by right-wing talking heads, Fox News, and other media deceivers.They were also were unshy about branding skeptics as unpatriotic - a ploy that often works, particularly given that few have the courage to withstand such corrosive accusations.Of course, it helps that a poorly-informed public depends on cable-TV news soundbites instead of serious media and serious reading.How interesting that the better informed a person was, the less likely they were to support this invasion (even among Republicans).As many students of history know, truth is often the first casualty in war, and such was at least partly the case here.The authors make nice use of footnotes, provide readable prose, and are worth listening to.Sadly, they or the publisher chose a comic-style cover that belies their seriousness.This book was published in 2003, before subsequent events better demonstrated the highly questionable nature of Bush, his regime, and his policies.

Essential Resource
This book is an short, entertaining but very sophisticated overview not only of how Bush and Co. sold the war, but how propaganda works in this country and in all other free-press countries.I used it as a research source for my novel, The Army of the RepublicThe Army of the Republic: A Novel and it makes an excellent companion piece to Neal Postman's enlightening analysis of modern media culture, Amusing Ourselves to Death Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business

Can't recommend this book highly enough.A big THANKS to the authors for writing it.

facts revealed
One of the best excerpts from this book is Rumsfeld being confronted by a journalist about his visit to Iraq, denying it and then shown a videotape from the CNN archives. This is a good book to read to get away from the Bush spin of things and see things a little clearer.

Madison Avenue waged war on Iraq---and our troops
When factual evidence did not reveal that Saddam Hussein had "Weapons of Mass Destruction" the Bush administration simply hired the country's best media consultants to engineer support for the war: anybody who was thus questioning the administration found themselves labeled as contributing to the terrorist threat. Because reality did not give them what they wanted, the White House fabricated data.

This book, written by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton is not one of the reccent anti-Iraq war books, but it lays out the opposition to this policy in basic bare-bones langue. As such, this book is a good read for people who are not neccessarily policy wonks, but want the truth in an America of lies.

It is convienient that one of the loudest internal anti-Saddam groups in Iraq, the Iraqi National Congress, had ties to the American Pentagon. If something like that arrangement were to happen to our country, we would be screaming bloody murder. But, because Bush had convinced the public we needed to stop 'the terrorists' wherever they were, we did not ask critical questions about the opposition sources origin and their own motives.

Likewise, the same profession which once had helped to expose Watergate and FBI abuses against new left activists turned into the official White House parrot. Reporters who allegedly knew much better stopped asking critical questions about the Bush administration's official policy. Very little has publically been made of the glaring contradictions between Bush's infamous 'mission accomplished' aircraft carrier landing and our continued presence in Iraq---ironically with no formal end to the 'mission' in sight.

Why were we going to war with Iraq? What information prompted this decision? Who collected this information? If Saddam really was such a threat to international security, why weren't the other nations (especially his neighbors) who mourned with us over 9/11 agreeing with our plans?

Consequently, the American people had no idea of what they were really supporting. We were only told that dissent against the country was unpatriotic and that we needed to support whatever this president did in Iraq.

Compounding that problem, the administration went into Iraq with a distinctly western mindset. Not only did/and is still preventing Americans from being taken seriously, but it breeds terrorists who point to the 'provisional government'...etc as evidence that America only had wanted to colonize Iraq for it's own material benefit. The people working for the White House thought they were good, but they also forgot that the Iraqis and the Arab world needed to be sold on this policy to (ironically) avoid generating terrorists.

Because the authors are pre-disposed to disagree with President Bush on other issues, this book might not have a wider audience when compared with the growing number of titles of people who were neutral or even previously supportive of the administration's Iraq policy. If Iraq really does turn into another Vietnam however, I am willing to bet that this book will suddenly find a larger audience alongside the more reccently published works.

Review 5/2/2005
The book "Weapons of Mass Deception, the Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq," written by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber generally deals with the United States' current conflict in Iraq.However, it does not deal with the strategic side of the conflict itself but rather the steps taken to get there.This text focuses primarily on the supposed false information that President Bush and his administration provided the American public in order to gain their support.Rampton and Stauber deal with the psychological aspects that come with preparing a nations people for war.
Rampton and Stauber set out to make a contribution to their field by expressing their points of view in this particular text. The fundamental point that both authors set out to make is that the war in Iraq is a battle that is being fought unnecessarily, based on false pretenses. President Bush blatantly lied to a nation in order to better serve his own needs while asking thousands of men and women to give their lives in the process.Both authors make it their business to make clear the fraudulent steps that President Bush and his administration took in an effort to coerce a nation into believing that going to war with Iraq was the right thing to do.Furthermore, it is Rampton and Stauber's goal that after reading their work, American citizens will analyze carefully and be more skeptical of the different types of media that they come into contact with.
There are several areas covered in this text regarding the war in Iraq and the deceptive measures employed by President Bush while doing so.In fact, Rampton and Stauber claim that Bush was involved with the invasion of Iraq even before he was elected into office. Bush's key officials advocated the invasion all along but opted to wait until September 2002 to inform the public, through what the White House expressed as a product launch.This is simply the Bush administrations attempt at selling the war in Iraq to the American public through a well thought out public relations operation.The White House representatives apparently used propaganda along the lines of misinformation and constant replication in order to create the false notion that Iraq was behind the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States.Additionally, there were allegedly forged documents which fabricate the claim that Iraq possessed vast supplies of destructive weapons.Apparently, Bush's public relations firm facilitated an opposition group known as the Iraqi National Congress, which contributed largely to the decision to go to war.While these lies were taking place, the American news media was entirely occupied with the propaganda being provided and continuously kept repeating White House communications.
"Weapons of Mass Deception, the Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq" is put together by authors Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber.Both men work for the Center for Media and Democracy; this is a non-profit association that Stauber himself founded in 1993 in an effort to observe and expose deceptive public relations campaigns and other assorted propaganda distributed by corporations and governments.John Stauber is a longtime activist who has worked in the field of public interest, consumer, family farm, environmental and community organizations at the local, state, and national levels.Co-author Sheldon Rampton is a graduate of Princeton University and has worked as a newspaper reporter, activist, and author.Rampton and Stauber are both clearly opposed to the work that the Bush administration has done while in office.In fact, based on the work that they have done with this text as well as past work, both men appear to be against any type of governmental or public relations group that misinforms the public on any issue.Rampton and Stauber present a strong argument throughout their book, supporting their points of view with documented facts.In addition, both authors remain true to their feelings and points of view in an uncompromising fashion; perhaps this is the most concrete element to their text.The only flaw, if any present in this book is that both men are partially biased because of their dislike for President Bush.It is likely that a supporter of President Bush would not be so critical of the tactics he has used in recent years.
This text seems to be quite useful and a positive addition to work in its field.It offers readers and consumers an alternative source of information that is able to rival the media.In addition, to it being an alternative source of information, it is written by well educated and experienced men who support their adamant views with concretely documented facts.Therefore, this text is not merely two liberal men running their mouths about issues they are not well versed in, but a brilliantly put together political argument.Lastly and perhaps most importantly, Rampton and Stauber attempt to relay an important message to the public; that they should never settle and accept information that the media and government give to them.There is always the right to question the government and related associations when the public is being misinformed. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Children's Bookwatch, published by Midwest Book Review on April 1, 2005. The length of the article is 476 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Crabtree Books.(Nations Of The Eastern Great Lakes)(Life Of The Powhatan)(Life Of The California Coast Nations)(Life In Ancient Egypt)(Life In Ancient China)(Life In Ancient Mesoamerica)(Life In Ancient Greece)(Life In Ancient Mesopotamia)(Life In A Medieval Monastery)(Medieval Towns, Trade And Travel)(Life On A Medieval Manor)(Science And Technology)(Food And Feasts In The Middle Ages)(Children And Games In The Middle Ages)(Arts And Literature)(Iraq: The Culture)(The People)(Book Review)
Publication: Children's Bookwatch (Magazine/Journal)
Date: April 1, 2005
Publisher: Midwest Book Review
Page: NA

Article Type: Book Review

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Beer, Bacon and Bullets: Culture in Coalition Warfare from Gallipoli toIraq by Gal Luft examines how culture can impact the relations betweenWestern militaries and their non-Western allies. Military forces ofdissimilar cultures working together are committed to a similar endgoal, but their cooperation could be marred by tension related to theirdifferent cultural backgrounds. Luft investigates five case studies ofmilitary cooperation, describing the squabbles between German advisorsand their Ottoman counterparts in WWI, the difficult relations betweenAmerican and Chinese generals during WWII, how American generalsin20Saudi Arabia bent over backwards to curry favor with their hosts,and how the Israelis' misunderstanding of their Lebanese allies shapedtoday's Middle East. Provocative and original, Luft's book suggeststhat by understanding other military cultures, we could also improvethe performance of America's military abroad. ... Read more

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Discusses the history, social order, customs, religion, and accomplishments of the area known as the "cradle of civilization." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The rise of the first cultures in Mesopotamia
The Mesopotamia volume of the Cultures of the Past series, unlike those devoted to the Ancient Egyptians or Spain in the Age of Exploration, looks at a series of ancient cultures that flourished in the Fertile Crescent at what is essentially the beginning of recorded history.Pamela F. Service has to touch on the kingdoms of Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria, all of which held sway over the rich land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers ("Mesopomatmia" means "land between the rivers").In doing so, Service is also telling young readers the story of how the first civilization was created when human beings made the revolutionary change around 10,000 B.C.E. that they could plant seeds, grow their own crops, and manage herds of animals for eating.Agriculture required group effort and groups required organization under religious precepts and political guidelines.The next thing you know human beings are walking on the moon.

Service's first chapter on The Cradle of Civilization traces these beginnings and looks at the History of the cultures that flourished in this area from Sumer, the first civilization, to the last glories of Babylon.Other chapters are devoted to the Cultural History of those who lived between the rivers, their Belief System in terms of the gods and demons they worshipped and feared, the relationship between Beliefs and Society in living out the life decreed by the gods, and the Legacy of the Mesopotamians in terms of the creation of literature, early technological developments such as the pottery wheel, metalworking, cloth making, and the arch.Scattered throughout the volume are informative sidebars on topics ranging from the historical hero Gilgamesh to the laws of Hammurabi.The format of these volumes allows Service to get into more detail than the standard elementary school World History textbook.

Consequently, while young readers might have trouble keeping the Assyrians distinct from the Babylonians, they will have an understanding of the key things these various ancient cultures had in common.Certainly there is not as much diversity among these particular cultures as you would find in Europe throughout most of its history.The book is illustrated with color photographs of ancient artifacts and archeological ruins.The back contains a chronology of events in Mesopotamia from the dog becoming the first domestic animal (which happened about a thousand years before farming began in the mountains north of Mesopotamia) to the capture of Babylon by Cyrus of Persia (which leads you to the volume on the Persian Empire), as well as a glossary, bibliography, and index.The Cultures of the Past series covers not only the standard topics such as the Ancient Greek and Ancient Romans, but also looks at the Ancient African Kingdom of Kush, the Ancient Maya, China's Tang Dynasty, and the Vikings.This look at Mesopotamia comes back farther than any other volume, but the series does come up to the time of Elizabethan England and the Aztec Empire. ... Read more

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This dazzling little book explores the role of US media in foreign policy, not only at the present moment, but with an eye to the future.

• Written by a veteran Hollywood film executive and an internationally known columnist in foreign affairs
• Explains how American movies, TV shows, and pop music provide the images of America to the rest of the world, and the rest of the world to Americans
• Includes discussions of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed Danish daily newspapers, Tibetan monks censored out of Chinese TV news reports only to show up on You Tube, and the Vatican's assault on the Da Vinci Code movie
• Argues that Hollywood is a key player in the 'deep coalition' required to support a 'smart power' foreign policy and build a global cultural infrastructure that will make the world safe for interdependence

Customer Reviews (2)

The premise is interesting...
America does need to understand better how "soft" power could be working for them internationally and regarding foreign affairs, rather than the easy-to-resort-to "hard" power, currently their primary PR game plan. And Hollywood's role, which is the premise of this book, does play an influential position here on how America, its culture, values and policies, is viewed by other countries. I just don't know if what they had to say actually needed a "book" to say it, its more like a short report. I would have liked to have seen more regarding soft power and how it could be implemented, perhaps I need to read Professor Nye's book for that (he wrote the foreward). When I read what Greg Mortenson has managed to accomplish in Pakistan and Afghanistan in Three Cups of Tea, for so little, why isn't America doing more of this. It is amazing the good will, the soft power that America has lost over the past few years. Perhaps this book will at least get the powers of Hollywood enlightened, I would think this was the writer's primary intended reader, in the first place.

New Review of American Idol After Iraq
A clear and thorough examination of US Media as a "soft power" that can influence
how the world perceives the USA.

Recommended for all media professionals, journalists, CNN junkies, history buffs, diplomats,
and anyone interested in how stories can change the world

Ken Lee, Vice President, Michael Wiese Productions ... Read more

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Having gained ascendancy over the Palestinian center of Judaism, the Geonim who headed the ancient talmudic academies of Babylonia came to be recognized by most of the world`s Jews as the leading religious and spiritual authorities from the late sixth to mid-eleventh centuries. This book-the only survey in English of the crucial Geonic period-focuses on the cultural and historical milieu of the Geonim as well as their intellectual and literary creativity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

For serious students only
Professor Brody's book is not for the faint hearted. It is written for the serious student of Jewish history and civilisation - academics, scholars and committed non-professionals. But staying with it is well worth the effort. Brody's compehensive knowledge of the period shines through and his insights into the daily life of the geonim are fascinating and very believable. Necessarily Brody has had to pick examples to prove his thesis and some scholars might question whether these were carefully chosen to support a pre-formed theory. However this book is still a major contribution to our understanding of the yeshivot and rabbinical leadership of the geonic period and well worth the read. The cover price is very high so hopefully it will find a wide circulation amongst university and Jewish community libraries. ... Read more

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Today, women in all U.S. military services are involved in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They serve as pilots and crewmen of assault helicopters, bombers, fighters, and transport planes, and are frequently engaged in firefights with enemy insurgents while guarding convoys, traveling in hostile territory. They perform pat down searches of Arab women at checkpoints, carry out military police duties, and serve aboard Navy and U.S. Coast Guard ships at sea. Like their male counterparts, they carry out their missions with determination and great courage. The advent of the insurgency war, which has no rear or front lines, has made the debate regarding women in combat irrelevant. In such a war zone anyone can be killed or injured at any moment.

The stories of these courageous women are told here by James E. Wise and Scott Baron, who use a format similar to the one employed with such success in the book Stars in Blue. The profiles of some thirty women and their photographs are included.

To record their stories, the authors conducted numerous personal interviews, and utilized numerous oral history interviews conducted by staff at The Women’s Memorial, located in Arlington, Virginia.In every case Wise and Baron were struck by the women’s extraordinary display of dedication to their mission and to the soldiers and sailors with whom they served. Because the service of women in the military has been under reported to date, most of the women profiled here will be unknown to readers and reveal another dimension to the service of women in the desert and the vital role they play in the armed forces. While the book’s focus is on today’s women in combat, it also reaches back to Vietnam, Korea, and World War II to offer selected stories of inspiring women who served at the "cusp of the spear" as they fought and died for their country. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Other views
These courageous women amaze me. If you were interested in this book you should read Women as Weapons of War: Iraq, Sex and the MediaThis book is eye opening.It made me see connections between the treatment of women soldiers in the U.S. military and women suicide bombers in the Middle East.And, the criticisms of the media coverage of the war is very interesting and persuasive.

The tale of true heroes
In "Women at War: Iraq, Afghanistan, and other Conflicts", James Wise and Scott Baron record the individual stories of 30 women who are representative of the more than 2.5 million American women who have chosen the Profession of Arms.

"Women at War" focuses on the contributions of women from World War II through the ongoing operations in Southwest Asia (up to 2006).For the modern operations, the vignettes are the transcripts of personal interviews.However, for the fallen warriors due to both age and combat, we learn their tales as told through personal letters, award citations, or previous publications.Whatever the source, you can't help but be moved by their stories.

You will read the letter of the proud mother who sends her child to boot camp, only to hear her child's life came to a violent end due to an improvised explosive device attack.Conversely, you also read the personal recollections of the platoon leader who must be stoic to the Marines left behind after one of their comrades is killed in a separate bombing incident. There are also the tales of a Coast Guard skipper who prevented the mining of rivers in Iraq, and of the soldier who ran into a burning building to save Vietnamese children.The gender of these heroes is irrelevant - they are incredible stories that will be treasured by America's Next Greatest Generation.

After 17 years of continuous low- and high-intensity combat operations in Southwest Asia, it's surprising that not a single Airman or Sailor who served in the desert is featured in the book. The epilogue apologizes for intending to interview Lt Col Martha McSally who was the first female fighter squadron commander in combat.Unfortunately, the book went to print before the interviews were complete.

Compared to "Hell hath no Fury" by Rosalind Miles, this book is filled with more richly-detailed, personal accounts of the heroines.Also, this book focuses strictly on American women since World War II, and does not highlight any of the women's organizations featured in "Hell hath no Fury".Miles' book also spans a few centuries, vice the last 50 years in "Women at War".While this books is relatively narrow in focus, it certainly gives you a more intimate look at the contributions these women made to history.

As a complement to this book, I would also recommend two books from Air University Press documenting the personal histories of Airmen who executed Operations DESERT STORM and NOBLE ANVIL:"From the line in the Sand" and "A-10's over Kosovo".

This book is a page-turner.It is well-researched and features many photographs.Hopefully, Wise and Baron will publish a second edition to keep the tales of the female Airmen and Sailors alive too.

Authors did a wonderful job!
Scott Baron and James E Wise, Jr. have put together a wonderful book profiling some of the women who have served our country. This 2006 Naval Institute Press book is well worth the read. They interviewed and covered women who served during World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq from all branches of the military.

Statistics were provided such as during the Gulf War more than forty thousand women were deployed, fifteen killed and two became POWs. Some of these women received medals, some were wounded, some were POWs, some were deceased and yet the authors collected information from family, friends and military records about them.

One woman told the authors how the military treated her after she emerged from a coma. The military wanted her to sign discharge papers even while knowing she had a long road ahead of her filled with surgeries and rehabilitation.

Another woman spoke out about the subject of women in combat. She made sure to point out that women are indeed in combat and on the same roads as the men are. And yet another woman told about what it was like as a female to be boarding ships and looking for people, equipment, etc in a field where it is usually only men on the open seas.

A portion of this book covered the women who served during WW II especially those who were POWs during that war. Since so few people know that so many women were prisoners of the Japanese and one was captured by the Germans I was glad to see these women covered as well.

As a person who appreciates reading and learning more about our brave women who have served our country I truly liked this book. The authors did a wonderful job getting these women to open up and talk about their experiences. Everyone should read this book!

Women At War
A very interesting book on womens role in our latest war with individual chapters devoted to individual women. I would put this book at recommended reading for most adults. It relates my experiences with the military to the women. It goes into how these women handle the experience of war and to cope with it. It also shows their relationships with fellow male soldiers and how they cope with a war time situation. The book covers how these women dealt the casualties in war. ... Read more