Books

Westerners tend to mythologize Tibetan people and their storied homeland. Too often Tibet is viewed simply as a quaint, isolated, peaceful outpost that has been victimized by powers in Beijing. Sam van Schaik's history of Tibet dispels many Western notions of Tibetans and their history, and illuminates the complicated history of a fascinating land. John Schellhase reviews.

In 2008, writer-philosopher David Foster Wallace took his own life. In his wake, he left the makings of a second epic novel. The pile of notes and chapters (finished and unfinished) were published as The Pale King. The writer Sandro Veronesi likened reading this novel to glimpsing the foot of a "huge statue, of an immense monument to boredom." Cæmeron Crain reviews the enigmatic author and his last novel. 

What does culture, and contestations of it, have to do with ethnic conflicts? They are, to be short, inextricable. In Cultural Contestations in Ethnic Conflict, Marc Howard Ross examines the intersection between culture and ethnic conflict in nine "hot spots" around the world and identifies culture as either an inhibitor or a catalyst for the escalation of violence. In his review, Antony Adolf says Ross' work sets a nice foundation for future studies.

War—what is it good for? Writing. The same can't necessarily be said of war's opposite, peace. Antony Adolf seeks to correct a largely overlooked historical phenomenon—that of peace and peaceful coexistence amongst humanity. Rob Grace reviews this ambitious attempt at setting the record straight.

In Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? Thomas Geoghegan makes the case to Americans that there are economic systems that do a better job of providing for the well-being of its citizens, especially the German model. Ed Hancox dissects the arguments between free-market, two-party cheerleading in the United States and its more social-democratic counterpart on the European continent.

What, exactly, is the difference between a free market and state-run capitalism? How does the economy in Norway differ from the economy of Brazil or China? Ian Bremmer's The End of the Free Market is a nice primer on the global economy, and provides keen insight into the current financial crisis. But when it comes to specific remedies to heal an ailing free market system, Bremmer comes up short. Dan May reviews.

In 1971, Xiaoda Xiao was arrested in China and labeled a "counterrevolutionary." He spent five years in prison, and then two more in a labor camp. The Cave Man is a novel inspired by Xiao's experiences, as well as those of his friends. Shaun Randol reviews the haunting journey of a man trying to find himself after being released from a living hell.

In Higher Education? the teacher-writer duo of Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus wade into the conversation on the decline of the American university system.  It is fitting, then, that Mary Refling, a professor steeped in the knowledge of the debate, takes on this latest academic salvo.

Muslims of Metropolis traces the experiences of three Muslim immigrant experiences in the West: a Turk in Germany, a Palestinian in England, and a Bangladeshi in the United States. They may share the same religion, but the experiences in their new countries are hardly the same. M. Junaid Levesque-Alam reviews the intimate portraits sketched by Kavitha Rajagopalan.

For Cape Town, South Africa, the World Cup may have come and gone, but some things never change. Fears of a resurgence in violence surfaced as soon as the Spaniards went home with their winning trophy. In that light, regular contributor Grace Kim revisits Patricia Schonstein Pinnock's novel Skyline, which tackles a persistent issue in South Africa: xenophobia.