Overthrow, by Stephen Kinzer

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

Has anyone read this book? I've heard good things and was thinking of buying it as a book to read over the Holidays. Any thoughts from DU'ers would be welcome.

Here's the link on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Overthrow-Americas-Century-Regime-Change/dp/0805078614

[1932]

1. I read it. Parts of it were very interesting.

However, the part about the US invasion of Panama, of Grenada, and Afghanistan (the last third of the book) took a tone that was very different from the first 2/3rds. The first two-thirds of the book established a great case for why imperialism never works. In the last third, the tone ALMOST (but not quite) shifted to, "but sometimes, it works out."

I've read a few other books about Panama, including Graham Greene's book about Noriega's mentor, and Noriega's biography written with a reporter whose name slips my mind, and the case for the US invasion appears much much more ambiguous in those books than the case Kinzer states in Overthrow (and some of the facts Kinzer cites are contradicted by evidence presented in the Noriega book).

Now, a much much more interesting book is Kinzer's book about the US involvement in Iran. It's the book-length argument of the single chapter on Iran in Overthrow, and you learn more interesting and broader lessons about US Imperialism in the narrower, more detailed book about Iran than you learn in Overthrow, which is a survey of all the US interventions beginning with Hawaii and ending with Iraq.

[MikeDuffy]

3. What about his earlier "Bitter Fruit" book about Guatemala?

I valued his "All the Shah's Men" also, and am considering buying "Overthrow" or "Bitter Fruit". He was interviewed about the former book (available on Robert McChesney's Media Matters archives) which probably gives a good overview of it.

In his CSPAN talk about "Overthrow" he was asked about what he thought of John Perkin's "Confessions of an Economic Hitman", but he unfortunately did not respond (he had not included that book in his book's bibliography).

[pnorman]

5. "Confessions of an Economic Hitman".

That book had come under discussion here on DU about a year ago. Accordingly, I ordered it, but in Audible.com format rather than as a book. Frankly, I was dissatisfied --- it came across largely as self-promotion, without much info I could really use --- so I quit listening. I may have quit too soon, and failed to give him a fair hearing. I "might" give it another listen.

pnorman

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. I recommend that you consider the deal they are giving on

the two together, Overthrow and All the Shah's Men. Thanks for the link, didn't know he was back with another eye opener.

[pnorman]

4. I have it as a sound file from Audible.com

Likewise with "All The Shah's Men". That's not the best format for such books, and relistening a few months later is frequently required to fully grasp them. I also have a few such spoken word books in text files for my PDA/computer, and it's so much easier to pick out key-words for search engines (an absolute necessity for me).

So now that you guys reminded me, I'll re-listen to both. (I can load them into my cell-phone!)

pnorman