Non-Fiction Books
John Pilger, journalist's, chronological account of the last 48 hours of American presence in Vietnam as it was overrun by the North.
"A Secret Country" examines controversial issues that need adressing in not only Australia but most of the world: genocide, public amnesia, the worth of capitalism, political corruption, unemployment, media manipulation by not only governments but private enterprise, and most importantly, man's inhumanity to man. Pilger's intention for writing this book is clear: to explode the myths Australia adopted, and by doing so, drag the Australian psyche through a kind of confrontational therapy. Australian's finding their "true identitiy" through the examination of her past is the only way for the country, "To break free from our imperial past; and for us, like everyone else, breaking free is our only future." Two of the most powerful chapters examines the savage genocide of the true Australian's, the Aboriginals, is a fact that most white Australians are aware of but refuse to think or talk about, and continue to turn a blind eye. The most controversial issue of white oppression is Aboriginal "deaths in custody," Pilger writes, "Black Australians continue to die in custody on an average of about one death every fourteen days." A Royal Commision was formed which made 339 recomendations, but after the fog cleared, so to speak, the bottom line, Pilger writes, "There was no call for criminal charges and not a single conclusion of foul play in cases that went back nine years." There is certainly "something rotten in Denmark." (From Hamlet) There are many other issue raised in this text and anyone interested, will find this book both fascinating and terribly disturbing.
Gathers interviews with nine influential individuals, including writers, a film director, playwright, journalist, and the founder of Amnesty International
John Pilger's classic work of literary journalism, now with a new introduction by the author.
Details the role of the United States and Great Britain in struggles for justice worldwide and shows how news gets buried as the author refutes the notion of a "global village"
John Pilger’s television film The New Rulers of the World was, among much else, a debunking of the myth of globalization. Reporting from Indonesia, he revealed how General Suharto’s bloody seizure of power in the 1960s was part of a western design that was just the beginning of the imposition of a ‘global economy’ upon Asia. Now, he has collected both original work and expanded versions of his recent essays on power, its secrets and illusions in a book that illuminates the nature of modern imperialism. He discloses how up to a million Indonesians dies as the price for being the World Bank’s ‘model pupil’, and the price paid by the people of Iraq for the West’s decade-long embargo on that country. He returns to his homeland, Australia, to look behind the hype that led to the Millennium Olympics in Sydney and to reflect on Australia’s continuing subjugation of its Aboriginal people. And, following the September 11 attacks on America and the bombing of Afghanistan, he describes the new thrust of American power and its goal of ‘world order’, as well as the propaganda that justifies and drives it.
Prison scandals, terrorism, corporate fraud, election rigging—most likely you have heard something of the sort in the last ten minutes. But what is truth and what is part of the great "washout" of biased reporting? A celebration of lucid investigative reporting, selected by titan of the craft John Pilger, could come at no better moment. Pilger's book travels through contemporary history, from war correspondent Martha Gelhorn's wrenching 1945 account of the liberation of Dachau to Edward R. Murrow's groundbreaking excavation of McCarthyism to recent coverage of the war in Iraq. This homage to brave, often unsettling coverage features a range of great writing, from Seymour Hersh's Vietnam-era muckraking to Eric Schlosser's exposé of the fast-food industry to preeminent theorist Edward Said's writing on Islam and terrorism. Unrepentant in its mission to expose the truth behind the messages that politicians, warmongers, and corporate-run media inculcate, Tell Me No Lies is essential for anyone who wants to understand the world around them objectively and intelligently. It's not just a collection of high-quality reporting, but a call-to-arms to all who believe in honesty and justice for humanity.
World-renowned journalist John Pilger looks at five nations (Palestine, Diego Garcia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and South Africa) that have undergone long and painful struggles for freedom, yet are still waiting for its realization.