2005-2015

A collection of columns by journalist Gwynne Dyer. Gwynne Dyer is cheering up. Sure, the past decade has had more than its share of stupid wars, obsessions about terrorism, denial about climate change, rapacious turbo-capitalism, and lies, lies, lies. But signs of progress actually do abound. While the world is far from perfect as we embark on a fresh decade, Dyer believes that the "sense of sliding out of control towards ten different kinds of disaster has gone." When things go wrong it?s always easy to pin blame ? but singling out the forces that lead to positive change can be trickier. In this illuminating collection of columns from the last five years, Gwynne Dyer ferrets out the signs of hope ? without overlooking the issues that remain seemingly intractable. Mining the events of recent history, Dyer contextualizes the recent past and anticipates what the future might have in store. This journalist?s beat is global: from Africa to South America, from Europe to the Middle East, and any other region with a political pulse. Acerbic and iconoclastic, Dyer has never been afraid to call ?em like he sees ?em ? and we are all the better for his trademark candour and the breadth of his knowledge and expertise. For anyone seeking to understand the larger forces that shape our society and our world. Random House.com.

Drawing on two decades of experience as a war correspondent and based on his numerous columns for Truthdig, Chris Hedges presents The World As It Is, a panorama of the American empire at home and abroad, from the coarsening effect of America's War on Terror to the front lines in the Middle East and South Asia and the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Underlying his reportage is a constant struggle with the nature of war and its impact on human civilization. "War is always about betrayal," Hedges notes. "It is about betrayal of the young by the old, of cynics by idealists, and of soldiers and Marines by politicians. Society's institutions, including our religious institutions, which mold us into compliant citizens, are unmasked.

A collection of fifteen essays that debate whether a cold war is beginning in twenty-first-century Afghanistan, and discusses Russia's influence, the impact of a cold war on the United States and other countries, and related topics.