Liberal Grace Reading Room

The granddaddy of partitions

2006-10-09T22:47:00.000-07:00

In the coming months you'll be hearing more and more about partitioning Iraq.

Peter Galbraith has been the leading proponent of this and the cosnervatives swiftboated him as a "cut and runner" for it.

Rumors are that Bush is going to adopt the partition proposal in the next year.

Partitions have always sounded better in theory than in messy reality. I can think of cases where countries were divided up and there has been has been horrific blood letting: Israel out of Palestine; Bosnia out of Yugoslavia; Eritrea out of Etheopia.

But the granddaddy of them all was Pakistan out of India. I strongly recommend that anyone who is enthusiastic about Iraq's partition, read about India's partition.

I suggest Freedom at Midnight for the average person because it reads like a novel. The sections on the violence of partition are vivid and chilling. I've read this book a couple of times.

Probably even better is Liberty or Death - India's Journey to Independence and Division by Patrick French. If you like history written like history, rather than a novel, this is the better book. I've had both Indian and Pakistan friends recommend this book which is a good testimony to its balance.

JR Norton - Saving General Washington

2006-06-12T01:23:00.000-07:00

If you've ever listened to the conservative media, you've heard it... They are calling America back to her roots. The conservatives are the originalists. The liberals have cut-loose America loose from her moorings and steered her far away from the vision of the founding fathers.

Whether you believe this premise or not, I'll guess you haven't spent five minutes researching it!
J.R.. Norton's book Saving General Washington is a great place to start.

Even as a liberal, I let this conservative claim fly by me about a hundred times before saying to myself, "Wait a minute! That's can't be true!"

Enlightenment; rigorous-but-honest debate; tolerance of dissent; skepticism of authority; protection of personal rights; etc -- which dies this better describe: neo-Conservatives or modern progressives?

Buy the book from Amazon.com and support LiberalGrace!

J.R. Norton is senior producer for the Al Franken Show. From 2002 to 2004 he was Middle East Editor for The Christian Science Monitor.

In June he released Saving General Washington.

Visit his blog for the book.

blogmaster's note: As a longtime fan of the Christian Science Monitor, Norton's credentials as Middle East editor are enough to make me interested in whatever he writes!

Glenn Greenwald - How Would a Patriot Act?

2006-05-20T23:36:00.000-07:00

I actually haven't gotten my hands on this book yet but I've read experpts of it. It's on my "must read" list, so I'll post it here.

If you do read the book, please submit a guest review!

Click through, buy from Amazon and support LiberalGrace.com