false 6970 33690 0312424930 9780312424930 66 <![CDATA[Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455632m/33690.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455632s/33690.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33690.Balkan_Ghosts_A_Journey_Through_History 3.89 457 This enthralling and often chilling political travelogue fully deciphers the Balkans' ancient passions and intractable hatreds for outsiders. For as Kaplan travels among the vibrantly-adorned churches and soul-destroying slums of the former Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, he allows us to see the region's history as a time warp in which Slobodan Milosevic becomes the reincarnation of a fourteenth-century Serbian martyr; Nicolae Ceaucescu is called "Drac," or "the Devil"; and the one-time Soviet Union turns out to be a continuation of the Ottoman Empire.

]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 1993 10662 0679751238 9780679751236 32 <![CDATA[The Ends of the Earth: A Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy: From Togo to Turkmenistan, from Iran to Cambodia]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166254518m/10662.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166254518s/10662.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10662.The_Ends_of_the_Earth_A_Journey_to_the_Frontiers_of_Anarchy_From_Togo_to_Turkmenistan_from_Iran_to_Cambodia 4.08 249 6970 3.87 1943 279 1996 33687 0375705767 9780375705762 17 <![CDATA[Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455630m/33687.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455630s/33687.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33687.Eastward_to_Tartary_Travels_in_the_Balkans_the_Middle_East_and_the_Caucasus 4.01 188 Balkan Ghosts and The Ends of the Earth are at once influential and pessimistic.

Eastward to Tartary is a fascinating exploration of places Kaplan has not written about in depth before: "Third World Europe" (Romania and Bulgaria), Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and the confusing conglomeration of countries and peoples in the Caucasus. Smart observations leap off almost every page. "In every Arab city I have ever visited, people were polite and honest, running after you to return a loose coin you have left at a soft-drinks stand," he writes. So why hasn't democracy taken hold in the Islamic world? "The very perfection of the Islamic belief system begot a naive absolutism that made the compromises of normal political life impossible." In an aside on ancient Assyria, Kaplan notes, "The theme is always the same: Highly militarized and centralized states and empires, so indomitable in one decade or generation, hack themselves to pieces or are themselves conquered in another." Then he reminds readers that Assyria once bestrode present-day Iraq and Syria--a "hauntingly appropriate" coincidence. And surprising facts abound: "Turkey represents the most stable governmental dynasty in world history, with the Turkish soldiery able to trace the roots of its power to the Roman emperors." Fans of Kaplan's previous books won't want to miss this one, and neither will new readers interested in this part of the world. --John J. Miller

]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 2000 33689 1400034574 9781400034574 40 <![CDATA[Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455631m/33689.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455631s/33689.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33689.Imperial_Grunts_On_the_Ground_with_the_American_Military_from_Mongolia_to_the_Philippines_to_Iraq_and_Beyond 3.89 170 Imperial Grunts. The U.S. has quietly--with little public debate--forged an empire that is "ready to flood the most obscure areas of it with troops at a moment's notice," writes Kaplan, a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly magazine who has written 10 earlier books on foreign affairs and travel, including the acclaimed Balkan Ghosts. Imperial Grunts is Kaplan's account of his travels to the frontiers of the U.S. imperium. From the dustbowl of northern Yemen to the coca fields of Colombia and the insurgent hotbed of Fallujah, Kaplan takes readers to the war-torn edges of the U.S. empire and visits with front-line grunts who guard it and try to expand its reach.

"Welcome to Injun Country," is the catchphrase Kaplan hears from all the U.S. soldiers, marines, airmen, and sailors we meet. In the view of American troops, they are taming an "unruly" frontier in the tradition of General George Custer. We all know what happened to Custer and, later, to the Native Americans whom the 7th Cavalry was sent out to pacify. But far from criticizing that mission or finding in the analogy any cautionary lesson, Kaplan is an enthusiastic cheerleader for what he baldly calls "American imperialism." He sees it as "humanitarian" and "righteous" and seems to never meet a Green Beret or marine he does not idolize. To Kaplan, U.S. imperialism is unquestionably selfless and heroic, trying only to bring a little taste of freedom to the huddled masses of the world. Imperial Grunts works well as a travelogue but fails to provide deeper insights--or opposing views--about the complex and fascinating places he explores. --Alex Roslin

]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 2005 33691 037570759X 9780375707599 19 <![CDATA[The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post Cold War]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455633m/33691.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455633s/33691.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33691.The_Coming_Anarchy_Shattering_the_Dreams_of_the_Post_Cold_War 3.73 188 Balkan Ghosts, The Ends of the Earth). For those unacquainted with Kaplan, however, The Coming Anarchy is a fine introduction to one of the most important voices on the future of society and international relations. Kaplan mixes the intense reportage of a travel writer with the sharp wisdom of a foreign-policy expert to deliver what he calls "an unrelenting record of uncomfortable truths, of the kind that many of us implicitly acknowledge but will not publicly accept." The Coming Anarchy is also a disturbing book: Kaplan's vision of the future is a bleak one, full of ethnic conflict as the world falls away from a cold war that at least provided a kind of stability in even the shakiest of countries. That's gone now, of course, and Kaplan's descriptions of life and politics in Sierra Leone, Russia, India, and elsewhere are keenly troubling. Much of the book--but not all of it--has already seen print, mainly on the pages of The Atlantic Monthly and The Wall Street Journal. It is brief in length but not in importance. --John J. Miller ]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 2000 33688 0375726276 9780375726279 21 <![CDATA[Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455631m/33688.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455631s/33688.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33688.Warrior_Politics_Why_Leadership_Demands_a_Pagan_Ethos 3.61 155 Warrior Politics is an extended, willfully provocative essay arguing that the bedrock of sound foreign policy should be "comprehensive pragmatism" rather than "utopian hopes." Kaplan calls for a reestablishment of American (primarily) realpolitik, one distanced from Judeo-Christian (or private) virtue and closer to a "pagan" (public) one. He aligns himself with America's Founding Fathers, who, he says, believed good government emerged only from a "sly understanding of men's passions." His book is a mix of aphoristic pronouncements, brief contemporary political analyses, rapid-fire parallels between conflicts ancient and current, and copious quotes from historians and thinkers through the ages (Livy, Thucydides, Sun-Tzu, Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes among them). Though its historical gleanings are often too summary and suspiciously convenient, Warrior Politics promises to generate controversy among students of global politics--just as it was designed to do. --H. O'Billovitch ]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 2002 335217 0679776877 9780679776871 7 <![CDATA[An Empire Wilderness: Travels into America's Future]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173842564m/335217.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173842564s/335217.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/335217.An_Empire_Wilderness_Travels_into_America_s_Future 3.86 96 Chicago Tribune

"[Kaplan is] tireless, curious, and smart. . . . I cannot imagine anyone will concoct a more convincing scenario for the American future." --Thurston Clarke, The New York Times

With the same prescience and eye for telling detail that distinguished his bestselling Balkan Ghosts, Robert Kaplan now explores his native country, the United States of America. His starting point: the conviction that America is a country not in decline but in transition, slowly but inexorably shedding its identity as a monolithic nation-state and assuming a radically new one.
        Everywhere Kaplan travels--from St. Louis, Missouri, to Portland, Oregon, from the forty-ninth parallel to the banks of the Rio Grande--he finds an America ever more fragmented along lines of race, class, education, and geography. An America whose wealthy communities become wealthier and more fortress-like as they become more closely linked to the world's business capitals than to the desolate ghettoes next door. An America where the political boundaries between the states--and between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico--are becoming increasingly blurred, betokening a vast open zone for trade, commerce, and cultural interaction, the nexus of tomorrow's transnational world. Never nostalgic or falsely optimistic, bracingly unafraid of change and its consequences, Kaplan paints a startling portrait of post-Cold War America--a great nation entering the final, most uncertain phase of its history. Here is travel writing with the force of prophecy.

"Lively . . . Kaplan has a sharp eye for social truth, and his encounters with a chorus of eloquent citizens of the West keeps the narrative humming." --Outside]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 1998 290834 1400030250 9781400030255 12 <![CDATA[Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173455833m/290834.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173455833s/290834.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/290834.Soldiers_of_God_With_Islamic_Warriors_in_Afghanistan_and_Pakistan 3.81 85
World affairs expert and intrepid travel journalist Robert D. Kaplan braved the dangers of war-ravaged Afghanistan in the 1980s, living among the mujahidin—the “soldiers of god”—whose unwavering devotion to Islam fueled their mission to oust the formidable Soviet invaders. In Soldiers of God we follow Kaplan’s extraordinary journey and learn how the thwarted Soviet invasion gave rise to the ruthless Taliban and the defining international conflagration of the twenty-first century.

Kaplan returns a decade later and brings to life a lawless frontier. What he reveals is astonishing: teeming refugee camps on the deeply contentious Pakistan-Afghanistan border; a war front that combines primitive fighters with the most technologically advanced weapons known to man; rigorous Islamic indoctrination academies; a land of minefields plagued by drought, fierce tribalism, insurmountable ethnic and religious divisions, an abysmal literacy rate, and legions of war orphans who seek stability in military brotherhood. Traveling alongside Islamic guerrilla fighters, sharing their food, observing their piety in the face of deprivation, and witnessing their determination, Kaplan offers a unique opportunity to increase our understanding of a people and a country that are at the center of world events.]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 1990 33685 1400034523 9781400034529 16 <![CDATA[Surrender or Starve: Travels in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455629m/33685.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455629s/33685.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33685.Surrender_or_Starve_Travels_in_Ethiopia_Sudan_Somalia_and_Eritrea 3.55 74 Surrender or Starve, Kaplan illuminates the fault lines in the Horn of Africa, which is emerging as a crucial region for America’s ongoing war on terrorism.

Reporting from Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Eritrea, Kaplan examines the factors behind the famine that ravaged the region in the 1980s, exploring the ethnic, religious, and class conflicts that are crucial for understanding the region today. He offers a new foreword and afterword that show how the nations have developed since the famine, and why this region will only grow more important to the United States. Wielding his trademark ability to blend on-the-ground reporting and cogent analysis, Robert D. Kaplan introduces us to a fascinating part of the world, one that it would behoove all of us to know more about.]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 1988 411907 0028740238 9780028740232 11 <![CDATA[Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223664813m/411907.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223664813s/411907.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/411907.Arabists_The_Romance_of_an_American_Elite 3.86 64 6970 3.87 1943 279 1993 583866 1400061334 9781400061334 9 <![CDATA[Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts: The American Military in the Air, at Sea, and on the Ground]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176010520m/583866.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176010520s/583866.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/583866.Hog_Pilots_Blue_Water_Grunts_The_American_Military_in_the_Air_at_Sea_and_on_the_Ground 3.80 45
Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts provides not only a riveting ground-level portrait of the Global War on Terrorism on several continents, but also a gritty firsthand account of how U.S. soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen are protecting sea-lanes, providing disaster relief, contending with the military rise of China, fighting the war in Iraq, and crafting contingency plans for war with North Korea and Iran.

Expanding on Kaplan’s acclaimed Imperial Grunts, the first volume of his exploration of the American military, which “offers the reader an enlightened way to understand what is happening in the world” (San Francisco Chronicle), Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts shifts focus to the Pacific, where emerging Asian powers present vexing diplomatic and strategic challenges to U.S. influence. In this volume, Kaplan completes his analysis of army Special Forces and the marines, while also taking readers into the heart of the myriad tribal cultures of the air force, surface and subsurface navies, and the regular army’s Stryker
brigades. Kaplan goes deep into their highly technical and exotic worlds, and he tells this story through the words and perspectives of the enlisted personnel and junior officers themselves–men and women who, as he writes, have “had their national identities as Americans engraved in sharp bas-relief.”

This provocative and illuminating book, like Imperial Grunts before it, not only conveys the vast scope of America’s military commitments, which rarely make it into the news, but also shows us astonishing and vital operations right as they unfold–from the point of view of the troops themselves.]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 2007 33686 0375714332 9780375714337 7 <![CDATA[Mediterranean Winter: The Pleasures of History and Landscape in Tunisia, Sicily, Dalmatia, and the Peloponnese]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455629m/33686.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1168455629s/33686.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33686.Mediterranean_Winter_The_Pleasures_of_History_and_Landscape_in_Tunisia_Sicily_Dalmatia_and_the_Peloponnese 4.03 34 — Bob Hoover, Pittsburg Post-Gazette

“[Kaplan] helps the distant past resonate today. . . . [He] teaches lessons that are informative and concise.” –The Washington Post Book World

“A writer of extraordinary intellect and passion . . . with a wonderfully lucid way of relating history as a living thing.” –San Francisco Chronicle

“Erudite and intrepid. . . . [Kaplan] is a deft guide to wherever he chooses to lead you.” –The New York Times]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 2004 401363 1569245681 9781569245682 8 <![CDATA[Inside Islam: The Faith, the People and the Conflicts of the World's Fastest Growing Reliigion]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174445009m/401363.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174445009s/401363.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/401363.Inside_Islam_The_Faith_the_People_and_the_Conflicts_of_the_World_s_Fastest_Growing_Reliigion 3.63 19 6169 3.81 319 61 237472 3.63 27 10 6970 3.87 1943 279 940746 3.83 2884 532 2637 3.84 7466 1338 12314 3.58 1349 209 211268 3.81 28778 6914 1658 3.88 2006 527 168320 3.59 88 17 6734 4.05 1393 216 15327 3.86 5715 510 197886 3.94 67 20 52247 3.56 78 23 6255 4.20 2750 471 3989 3.62 5934 738 83369 3.73 70 16 2002 6337122 0434013870 9780434013876 0 <![CDATA[Mediterranean Winter: A Journey Through History]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6337122-mediterranean-winter 5.00 1 6970 3.87 1943 279 2005 1727390 0738202908 9780738202907 0 <![CDATA[The Orangutans]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1187458945m/1727390.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1187458945s/1727390.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1727390.The_Orangutans 5.00 1 The Orangutans shows that our Asian cousins seem much more human. That look has been thoughtfully provided by Australian primatologists Gisela Kaplan and Lesley J. Rogers of the University of New England in New South Wales. Their book, based on their work in Sumatra and Borneo, the last wild habitats of the orangutan, is captivating, and it provides new insight into the past, present, and clouded future of orangutans. With sections on evolutionary speculation, behavioral observation, and a plea for assistance for their continued survival, the book makes a compelling case for our interest, based in both scientific and humanitarian concerns. Profuse illustrations show these apes at all ages and splendidly demonstrate their diversity; unlike most other animals, not all orangutans look alike to us. The writing is tight and at times urgent, with the burden of near-extinction always close to the surface of the authors' concern for the apes. Vivid expression of such emotions as depression and curiosity, coupled with a sometimes disturbing facial resemblance to us, makes orangutans difficult to ignore. Unfortunately, the rapid destruction of their rain-forest home may squeeze them out of existence before we can act to save them. Whether the 20,000 or so left will be enough to breed into the next century is still a mystery; we must hope that The Orangutans will never have to stand in for more direct knowledge. --Rob Lightner ]]> 73081 5.00 2 0 6970 3.87 1943 279 262005 4.00 7 0 2000 6660299 0 <![CDATA[Soldiers of God: With Islamic Warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6660299-soldiers-of-god 0.0 0
World affairs expert and intrepid travel journalist Robert D. Kaplan braved the dangers of war-ravaged Afghanistan in the 1980s, living among the mujahidin—the “soldiers of god”—whose unwavering devotion to Islam fueled their mission to oust the formidable Soviet invaders. In Soldiers of God we follow Kaplan’s extraordinary journey and learn how the thwarted Soviet invasion gave rise to the ruthless Taliban and the defining international conflagration of the twenty-first century.

Kaplan returns a decade later and brings to life a lawless frontier. What he reveals is astonishing: teeming refugee camps on the deeply contentious Pakistan-Afghanistan border; a war front that combines primitive fighters with the most technologically advanced weapons known to man; rigorous Islamic indoctrination academies; a land of minefields plagued by drought, fierce tribalism, insurmountable ethnic and religious divisions, an abysmal literacy rate, and legions of war orphans who seek stability in military brotherhood. Traveling alongside Islamic guerrilla fighters, sharing their food, observing their piety in the face of deprivation, and witnessing their determination, Kaplan offers a unique opportunity to increase our understanding of a people and a country that are at the center of world events.


From the Trade Paperback edition.]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 2008 6653132 0 <![CDATA[Imperial Grunts: On the Ground with the American Military, from Mongolia to the Philippines to Iraq and Beyond]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6653132-imperial-grunts 0.0 0
Given unprecedented access, Kaplan takes us from the jungles of the southern Philippines to the glacial dust bowls of Mongolia, from the forts of Afghanistan to the forests of South America–not to mention Iraq–to show us Army Special Forces, Marines, and other uniformed Americans carrying out the many facets of U.S. foreign policy: negotiating with tribal factions, storming terrorist redoubts, performing humanitarian missions and training foreign soldiers.

In Imperial Grunts, Kaplan provides an unforgettable insider’s account not only of our current involvement in world affairs, but also of where America, including the culture of its officers and enlisted men, is headed. This is the rare book that has the potential to change the way readers view the men and women of the military, war, and the global reach of American imperialism today.

As Kaplan writes, the only way to understand America’s military is “on foot, or in a Humvee, with the troops themselves, for even as elites in New York and Washington debated imperialism in grand, historical terms, individual marines, soldiers, airmen, and sailors–all the cultural repositories of America’s unique experience with freedom–were interpreting policy on their own, on the ground, in dozens upon dozens of countries every week, oblivious to such faraway discussions. . . . It was their stories I wanted to tell: from the ground up, at the point of contact.”

Never before has America’s overarching military strategy been parsed so incisively and evocatively. Kaplan introduces us to lone American servicemen whose presence in obscure countries is largely unknown, and concludes with a heart-stopping portrait of marines in the first battle in Fallujah. Extraordinary in its scope, beautifully written, Imperial Grunts, the first of two volumes, combines first-rate reporting with the sensitivity and insights of an acclaimed writer steeped in history, literature, and philosophy, to deliver a masterly account of America’s global role in the twenty-first century.

• Imperial Grunts paints a vivid picture of how defense policy is implemented at the grassroots level.

• Kaplan travels throughout the world where U.S. forces are located. This is not just a book about Iraq or Afghanistan.

• Rather than debate imperialism, Kaplan relies on a keen understanding of history, philosophy, and in-the-field reporting to show how it actually works on the ground.

• Imperial Grunts escapes Washington and shows us what it’s like to live with the grunts day to day.

Praise for Imperial Grunts

“One of the most important books of the last several years. Robert Kaplan uses his prodigious energy and matchless reporting skills to takes us on to the front lines with the new warrior-diplomats who use weapons, imagination, and personal passion to protect and advance the interests of the United States. This is a generation every American should come to know.”
–Tom Brokaw

“Robert Kaplan has brilliantly captured the story of today’s U.S. military operating in far-flung places on strange missions. Imperial Grunts is the most insightful and superbly written account of soldiering in the New World Disorder to date. It is a must read for all Americans.”
–General Anthony C. Zinni, United States Marine Corps (Ret.)

“Kaplan infuses us with a sense of hope about the future. Through astonishing observations, truths, and stories, Imperial Grunts introduces a brand-new way of thinking about the...]]> 6970 3.87 1943 279 2006 5649047 0971737207 9780971737204 0 <![CDATA[Marking Our Past: West Virginia's Historical Highway Markers]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5649047.Marking_Our_Past_West_Virginia_s_Historical_Highway_Markers 0.0 0 6970 3.87 1943 279 2002 2332895 9652200239 9789652200235 0 <![CDATA[Carta's guide to Israel and Jordan]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2332895.Carta_s_guide_to_Israel_and_Jordan 0.0 0 6970 3.87 1943 279 1980