The Best Books of 2003
By Steven Martinovich
web posted December 22, 2003
A Long Short War
The Postponed Liberation of Iraq
By Christopher Hitchens
Plume
PB, 104 pg.
Christopher Hitchens is an unlikely hero for those who supported the coalition
invasion of Iraq earlier this year. Hitchens, a former Trotskyite, had opposed
the 1991 Gulf War of George H.W. Bush because he believed the war was conducted
for the wrong moral reasons. It came as a surprise to many then when he came
out in support of the younger Bush's proposed invasion and provided potent
intellectual justification for it. It also drew fire from a constituency
that Hitchens has long enjoyed the unflagging support of but has lately abandoned
him – and he it.
- Read the rest of our review here
Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight
By Paul Hoffman
Hyperion
HC, 369 pg.
Mention the name Alberto Santos-Dumont in Brazil and there's a good chance
you'll be greeted with a smile and the argument that it was he, and not the
Wright brothers, who was the first person to fly an airplane. The large number
of streets and buildings named after Santos-Dumont bares testament to the
fact that Brazilians believe as fervently as Santos-Dumont did himself that
he had been robbed of his glory of being the first man to conquer the sky
in a heavier than air machine. - Read the rest of our review here
The Malady of Islam
By Abdelwahab Meddeb
Basic Books
HC, 241 pg.
Since September 11, 2001 a veritable industry has sprang up devoted to exploring
the problems of Islam, or perhaps more accurately the problems that some
interpretations of Islam have created. Many commentators have opined that
before the Islamic world is able to join the Western world in shaping the
world's future it must undergo a process that Christianity was forced into
centuries ago. They argue that Islam must become more moderate and allow
secular forces to play a predominant role in societies where they co-exist.
- Read the rest of our review here
Terrorism and Tyranny
Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil
By James Bovard
Palgrave Macmillan
HC, 440 pg.
In the war against terrorism the most important metric for Americans
may be the number of terrorist attacks that have occurred on American soil
since
September 11, 2001. If you rely on that as your sole criterion then you'll
likely be satisfied with the performance of George W. Bush. Adopting such
a narrow definition of success, however, can blind a person to some of the
issues that the war itself has raised -- issues that carry long term ramifications
for the American people and the world. - Read the rest of our review here
How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life
By Peter Robinson
Regan Books
HC, 263 pg.
The assertion that Peter Robinson is a lucky man is something that he likely
wouldn't argue. Born and raised in a small town in New York, Robinson attended
Dartmouth and Oxford before landing a job at the age of 25 writing speeches
in the Reagan White House, first for Vice President George H.W. Bush and
eventually for the president himself. Robinson was witness to some of the
most remarkable events in American history and served one of the most highly
regarded men to ever serve the highest office in the land.
- Read the rest of our review here
An Imperfect God
George Washington, His Slaves and the Creation of America
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
HC, 404 pg.
The Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings controversy of a few years
ago forced many Americans to acknowledge an uncomfortable fact that they,
and history,
had long ignored in favor of simple hero worship. America's founding fathers,
the very men who spoke so eloquently for and acted in the cause of freedom,
were slave owners with all the evil of the institution that entails. How
was it that such men were able to reconcile human bondage with the noble
goals of the American Revolution? For many of them, including Jefferson,
there was no dichotomy between slavery for some and freedom for others. -
Read the rest of our review here
The Burma Road
The Epic Story of the China-Burma-India Theatre in World War II
By Donovan Webster
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
HC, 370 pg.
In many ways the Second World War's China-Burma-India (CBI) theatre is the
forgotten child of military history. During the war it was last on the long
list of priorities for the Allies and after saw relatively few books and
movies chronicling its people and events. While The Burma Road: The Epic
Story of the China-Burma-India Theatre in World War II isn't the first
treatment of the subject, Donovan Webster manages the near impossible task
of allowing
the reader to imagine on some level what it was like to campaign in the mud
and leech-ridden jungles of Burma. -
Read the rest of our review here
The Bookseller of Kabul
By Åsne Seierstad
Little, Brown
HC, 288 pg.
In many ways Sultan Khan could be considered a hero of Afghanistan.
He is liberal and moderate in a nation where those labels are rarely used.
For
decades he has operated several bookstores in Kabul that offer books on every
conceivable subject and from every political and religious perspective and
has managed that feat during some very unfriendly times. As he states, "First
the Communists burnt my books, then the Mujahedeen looted and pillaged, finally
the Taliban burnt them all over again." Khan is an urbane man who is
in love with books and the knowledge they offer. -
Read the rest of our review here
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Other related articles: (open in a new window)
- The Best Books of 2002 by Steven Martinovich (January 6, 2003)
Steve Martinovich picks the books he thought were the best of 2002