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Book Review The history of American Empire contains many secrets. As John S. Friedman writes, "secret histories usually reveal an unknown element of a completed event. Investigative journalism usually focuses on ongoing events. Obviously they can overlap. (Friedman) The Secret Histories: Hidden Truths That Challenged the Past and Changed the World written by John S. Friedman, Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq written by Stephen Kinzer and Chalmers Johnson's The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic reveal the most exciting mysteries and secrets about America, examine the present extent of what is considered the U.
S. empire and militarism, and find disturbing accounts of much of the underside of the United States history. These three books are both similar and at the same time very different from each other. The authors managed to tell the existing story about the dark sides of the Xxx century, about the violations of human rights, terrorist activities and many other events, sometimes forgotten and sometimes intentionally left in secret. While reading the books, the reader is grasped by the most valuable collections of historical and political stories that completely change the way the readers look at the world.
Stephen Kinzer in his Overthrow explores the most direct form of the United States intervention, the overthrow of foreign governments, and tries to answer the question "Why does a strong nation strike against a weaker one?" by exploring Americas attempts to increase its power, to impose ideology and to gain control on valuable resources belonging to other cultures. While reading Kinzer's Overthrow the reader gets an idea about the three epochs of the United States' regime, namely, the imperial era (under which Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Cuba, Honduras and Nicaragua were brought under the U. S. sway) (Kinzer), the cold war (during which the United States held a cold war against Guatemala, South Vietnam, Iran, and Chile), and, finally, the invasion period, during which the United States government sent troops to Panama, Grenada, Iraq and Afghanistan. The Secret Histories: Hidden Truths That Challenged the Past and Changed the World written by John S. Friedman is yet another interesting book worthwhile reading.
John S. Friedman is a filmmaker and a journalist; in this book he speaks about familiar and unknown events in the United States history, such as the role IBM plated in Germany's roundup of the Jews, the plutonium experiments made by the U. S. government, and Pinochet and his terrorist activities in Chile, to mention a few.
The Secret Histories is a rich collection of exposure and deception; it written with healthy skepticism and questions everything you know. It makes the reader think, ask questions and find answers. John S. Friedman tells the stories that have shaped the way how we understand the world, revealing the secrets and the hidden sides of the Vietnam War, discussing the report on the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin Incident, the Massacre at My Lai and Vietnamese Archive from The Pentagon Papers.
He introduces facts and guesses about the C. I. A. in Iran, speaks about the Pinochet File and The Genocide Fax. Along with these things, the authors tells the gloomy stories of the abuses of power, such as the Nixon White House tapes, Watergate, Florida Ethnic Cleansing of the Voter Rolls, Torture at Abu Ghraib and many other things the United States government would obviously preferred to keep in secret. The last in our list, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic, written by Chalmers Johnson, is another exciting story of the United States political and military adventures.
The author tells about the Bush administration and, as far as he considers the last three decades as the years of piece and friendly democracy, Johnson thinks that the years of Bush administration may have potentially destructive and negative influence on the U. S. constitutional republic because of Bush's idea to expand our power and influence overseas. Throughout the book the author forces the reader think about Kosovo, Masirah Island, Uzbekistan, about the American Empire and the U.
S. troops and military personnel based in 120 world countries. Yet, the book is not about dark sides of our history alone. Johnson wants to show that our history has many sides and many colors. He brings insight into the events of our historical past and explains that our nation is the one that can be blamed for and accused in the acts of exploitation and imperial domination, but also the country that liberated Europe from the Nazi, the government that can be called a force for good with its Peace Corps, the ideals of democracy and peace. Chalmers Johnson inspires the idea that America is a "single sustainable model for national success, " the one that is "right and true for every person in every society, " (Johnson) the country that "must defend liberty and justice because these principles are right and true for all people everywhere, (Johnson) making the book an exciting and interesting reading for everyone who wants to find out the hidden truths that challenged the past and changed the world.
In conclusion it may be said that although these books are written by different authors, all of them are valuable and necessary contributions to the study of the United States history. The Secret Histories, Overthrow, and The Sorrows of Empire are must read" for the wide circle of readers, of all ages and all cultures. These books, rich in political histories and overwhelming secrets are those that one begins reading and finds almost impossible to put aside and forget. These books remind people of some dark and gloomy events in the United States history, the things that our nation would, probably, preferred to forget. Yet, these interesting excursions in the American past teach valuable lessons we should always keep in our memories. Works Cited Friedman, John S.
The Secret Histories: Hidden Truths That Challenged the Past and Changed the World. Picador USA, 2005. Johnson, Chalmers. The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic. Metropolitan Books, 2004. Kinzer, Stephen.
Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Times Books, 2006.
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