Customer Reviews

A Not-so-distant Horror: Mass Violence In East Timor

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This beautifully written book tells the painful and inspiring story of East Timor's struggle for freedom and justice, while powerfully and convincingly situating it in the larger international context. In doing so, Nevins bridges the perceived distance between East Timor's suffering and places like Washington, Canberra, and London. He thus exposes the ugly underside of Western governments' foreign policies abroad and teaches us much about the workings of international relations, international legal mechanisms, and empire. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in matters of human rights, international relations, mass violence, and global justice.

Though written by an academic in his 30s, this book is refreshingly free of the jargon that tends to drag down the style, or lack thereof, of so many books from university presses these days. Perhaps this is partly because the author spent a fair amount of time in East Timor throughout the 1990s (including a stint as a UN-accredited monitor of the ballot process that led to the Aug.30, 1999 vote for independence from the US-backed Indonesian military occupation) and is therefore not at a lofty, dispassionate remove from his subject. But Nevins is extremely thorough and did much research to put together this history of the lead up to and aftermath of the 1999 scorched earth campaign in East Timor.

I found this book to be a fascinating study of US and other "great power' machinations. As an activist who focuses more on US foreign policy in the Middle East, I'm also less familiar with the region of the world this book covers, so I learned quite a bit reading it. I will be recommending it to colleagues who volunteer with United for Peace and Justice and American Friends Service Committee, in fact I hope to get my progressive book discussion group to take it up.

Nevins does a masterful job of weaving together telling details that add up to paint a damning picture of the West's collusion with Indonesian military atrocities, and he gets to the heart of central questions that should concern anyone who would like to see US foreign policy come a bit closer to living up to its professed ideals of embracing freedom and democracy, by actually supporting accountability and justice.

This is a follow-up to some other books written by Joseph Nevins on East Timor. I found this book to be even better than his previously-written books, and a bit of an easier read. In it, he talks about the complicity of many of the world powers in helping to create East Timor's sad recent history. Nevins also talks about what has been happening in East Timor since its new-found independence. I would highly recommend this book to anybody interested in world politics/history, or people looking to expand their horizons and learn about a little-known country.

This is a great book. It tells an important story, and powerfully combines facts and analysis. It does NOT read like a "travelogue" or an "anthology" as "alrightnik" claims. (The comments of "alrightnik" are so off base it makes me wonder if he actually read the book.) Yes, there are some personal anecdotes, but they're beautifully woven into the larger fabric of Nevins' compelling narrative. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone interested in U.S. foreign policy, SE Asia, human rights, international law, and global justice.

THIS BOOK IS EXTENSIVELY A SORT OF TRAVELOGUE-DIARY, WITH A GREAT DEAL OF PERSONAL ACCOUNTS. IT READS LIKE A RECORD OF VOYAGES, WHICH IT IS. ANTHOLOGY IS A BETTER DESCRIPTION. THE AUTHOR KNOWS A GREAT DEAL BUT THERE ARE NO NEW REVELATIONS HERE. A BETTER ORDERED SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT WOULD HAVE BEEN PREFERABLE.

A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.