Another lengthy excerpt from Horne's A Savage War of Peace on the effectiveness of torture. Linked references and bracketed material added:

How effective was torture?

There remains the vital question, with much relevance to today: what did torture achieve in the Battle of Algiers? Putting aside any consideration of morality, was it even ( Read more... )

Lately, I have been reading A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962, by Alistair Horne. My paperback's cover says that it's "On the reading lists of President Bush and the US military."
With the focus on counter-insurgency operations lately, military men and analysts are dusting off books on Algeria to see what lessons might be learned from ( Read more... )

I'm trying hard not to think about my exam results. So, among other distractions, I've picked up Lo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three KingdomsFor those of you not down with ancient Chinese literature, this is a historical novel written sometime in the 15th century about the fall of the Han Dynasty around the year AD 200, or thereabouts. It's 120 ( Read more... )

So I didn't buy Braudel's Mediterranean & The Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II at Second Story today. I saw two of three volumes, and, somewhat dismayed, I exclaimed, to no one in particular:

"But where's volume THREE?!"

"Shit, dude, we've got volumes 1 and 2--" said the guy behind the tables of used books. I don't think I've met ( Read more... )

Amusing. FedEx recently returned the penguins to New Orleans' aquarium.

I wonder how to send them some feedback, though; on their "unusal shipments" page, they brag about having delivered The eight-ton statue of Filipino war hero Dr. Jose P. Rizal, who inspired the 1896 revolution against Spanish domination. . . shipped via FedEx from the ( Read more... )

Today we celebrate the heroics of the Mexican Army, which routed the French armies of Napoleon III at the Battle of Puebla--a stunning defeat of the last European attempt to impose its will on the New World by force. Indeed, supporters of the strong Federal government in the United States have great cause to remember this victory--had France been ( Read more... )

Second Story Books may have an ugly website, but they are rapidly becoming my go-to used bookseller. They're right around the corner from where I work here in Dupont Circle, and when the weather is good, they sell books for very cheap on the sidewalk.

Today's find: Fernand Braudel's The Structures of Everyday Life, the first volume of his ( Read more... )

My call for captions for the Nixon/ Chou meeting photo has been answered.

Intriguingly, all the female respondents independently came up with the same answer:

Nixon: I swear it's this big

Points for creative thinking go to Petey:

Disatisfied with his meager helping of popcorn, President Richard Nixon threatens to tickle Premier En-Lai ( Read more... )

( Read more... )