As the Spring 2004 season gets under way, prepare for an onslaught of titles debating our country's merits and shortcomings in this election year. The Bush administration is under attack on many fronts, starting with its foreign policy. Political scribe Walter Russell Mead examines the uproar at home and abroad in Power, Terror, Peace, and War (Knopf); while Bush League Diplomacy (Prometheus) by Craig Eisendrath and Melvin Goodman claims that this administration is putting the entire world at risk. In The Politics of Truth (Carroll & Graf), former U.S. ambassador to Niger Joseph Wilson documents the falsification of intelligence that led to the Iraqi war; Mark Crispin Miller's Cruel and Unusual (Norton) identifies our government's contempt for the democratic process and reckless militarism. Several titles examine America's growing imperial-state status: The Choice (Basic) by Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor under Jimmy Carter, assesses the issues facing the U.S. as a superpower; the ubiquitous Anonymous (identified only as a U.S. intelligence officer) claims in Imperial Hubris (Brassey's) that America's errant path will create increasingly powerful enemies; America's Inadvertent Empire (Yale Univ. Press) by William E. Odom and Robert Dujarric examines the country's unprecedented power within the international arena; and Colossus (Penguin) draws on author Niall Ferguson's historical and economic expertise to reckon with possible consequences of America's might.
Oily to Rise
Many titles reflect the growing concern over the world's oil supply, over-consumption and profiteering in the petroleum industry. In Blood and Oil (Metropolitan), Michael Klare cautions against acquiring oil from unstable, often anti-American sources, while Paul Roberts's The End of Oil (Houghton) speculates on what might happen if the oil supply does run out. Both Oilmen and Other Scoundrels by James Day (Barricade) and Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America's Superstate by Robert Bryce (Public Affairs) identify those who control this vital natural resource, while Dan Briody's The Halliburton Agenda (Wiley) exposes decades of aggressive activity by the powerful petroleum company.
D-Day Dedications
Watch for a myriad of titles commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Normandy invasion. We counted nine titles in our listing that likely represent only the beginning of a longer roster later in the year. Most recapture eye-witness accounts (some include audio CDs), others chronicle the movements of the complex invasion in text, atlas or encyclopedic form. Also, the son of a WWII hero writes about his life-changing journey to Normandy. See History and War & Military listings.
TV Then and Now
Old enough to recall the DuMont network? In 1946, entrepreneur Allen B. DuMont blazed a trail in the fledgling medium of television long before ABC or CBS began broadcasting. Temple University Press's The Forgotten Network by David Weinstein recounts the rise and fall in 1955 of the business that helped spawn network TV. Where DuMont failed, Fox TV has soared to profitable acclaim, as chronicled by Daniel Kimmel in The Fourth Network (Ivan R. Dee). This lively account tells how Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller and others retooled prime time, changing the way the industry operated.
Fiction Favorites
Fans will be happy to hear that a number of much-anticipated installments will be found on bookstore shelves this spring. For followers of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, the penultimate volume, Song of Susannah (Scribner), defines Roland's life quest. Neal Stephenson picks up where Quicksilver ended with The Confusion (Morrow), part of his three-volume Baroque Cycle; and Plainsong author Ken Haruf's Eventide (Knopf) resumes with the McPherson brothers in Holt, Colo. Other noted returnees include Jimmy Buffet, whose A Salty Piece of Land (Little, Brown) involves a Caribbean lighthouse, a mystery, weird folks and lots of tequila; Edwidge Danticat, who tells of The Dew Breaker (Knopf), a former Haitian torturer now living in America; Peter Mayle, who returns to Provence in novel fashion in A Good Year (Knopf); and E.L. Doctorow, who serves up Sweetland Stories (Random House) that portray the very heart of modern American life.
Readers might want to mark their ballots now and stay tuned for the various victory speeches still to come.
The vignettes on the following pages were coordinated by Daisy Maryles, Laurele Riippa and Dick Donahue; the writers were Robert Dahlin, Dick Donahue, Charles Hix, Suzanne Mantell and Judith Rosen.
Go to the Spring 2004 Announcements...
