A grim, disheartening read that rips aside the mask of benevolence and morality that the USA has disguised its blood-drenched empire as. The book is a roughly chronological account of America's overt and covert interventions in nations that dared to exhibit independence in thinking and societal organization. Utilizing an extensive host of period documentation, Blum catalogues the uninterrupted violence America has repeatedly unleashed across the world in pursuit of undisputed domination. Blum points to America's nigh pathological obsession with the utter elimination of any different or viable alternative to unfettered "free" market capitalism, ie. socialism or communism in any form specifically. But after the fall of the Soviet Union, Uncle Sam found no respite and couldn't waste an opportunity to find new enemies and exploitable populations just recently liberated from the shadow of the evil empire.
Blum has a long-winded, but flowing style that is easily read. His vocabulary isn't too scholarly and only necessitated looking up a couple of words throughout the volume. My complaint with his style is his absence of emotive resonance, he writes about atrocities with a cool, distant calculation. I wanted more human connection in these summaries, I wanted to be pushed to outrage, to toss the book against the wall and scream in sheer dismay, but I was never pushed to that impulse. Another thing lacking is photographs of the main individuals involved and a map of where some of these countries are/were located. Otherwise, it's an authoritative journalistic work that well worth the exploration.
Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II--Updated Through 2003 2nd Updated ed. Edition
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William Blum
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William Blum
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ISBN-13:
978-1567512526
ISBN-10:
1567512526
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About the Author
William Blum's latest book is "Freeing the World To Death: Essays on the American Empire." He lives in Washington, DC.
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Product details
- Publisher : Common Courage Press; 2nd Updated ed. edition (October 1, 2008)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 500 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1567512526
- ISBN-13 : 978-1567512526
- Item Weight : 1.7 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.2 x 8.9 inches
-
Best Sellers Rank:
#317,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #125 in Canadian Politics
- #270 in Military History (Books)
- #273 in Government
- Customer Reviews:
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4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
104 global ratings
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4.0 out of 5 stars
empire is a brutal, ignoble occupation, built on lies, and exorbitantly expensive
Reviewed in the United States on April 12, 2020Verified Purchase
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2018
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If you want to know why so many people hate America read this book. This book exposes the U.S government's amoral foreign policies and true motivations for foreign intervention.
16 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2013
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A devastating attack on America's actual foreign policies, as opposed to the propaganda fed to children in school and to adults from the government and mainstream media. We all want to believe that our country stands for freedom and human rights, but sadly the record doesn't support that idea.
As New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison said in 1967: "...our Government is the CIA and the Pentagon, with Congress reduced to a debating society...We won't build Dachaus and Auschwitzes; the clever manipulation of the mass media is creating a concentration camp of the mind that promises to be far more effective in keeping the populace in line...I've learned enough about the machinations of the CIA in the past year to know that this is no longer the dream world America I once believed in...Huey Long once said, 'Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism.' I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
Blum points out how useless popular encyclopedias (Americana, Britannica, Colliers, etc) are when it comes to documenting the history of US interventions abroad. The mainstream media doesn't need marching orders from the government, "for the simple truth is that these individuals would not have reached the positions they occupy if they themselves had not all been guided through the same tunnel of camouflaged history and emerged with the same selective memory and conventional wisdom."
As New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison said in 1967: "...our Government is the CIA and the Pentagon, with Congress reduced to a debating society...We won't build Dachaus and Auschwitzes; the clever manipulation of the mass media is creating a concentration camp of the mind that promises to be far more effective in keeping the populace in line...I've learned enough about the machinations of the CIA in the past year to know that this is no longer the dream world America I once believed in...Huey Long once said, 'Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism.' I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
Blum points out how useless popular encyclopedias (Americana, Britannica, Colliers, etc) are when it comes to documenting the history of US interventions abroad. The mainstream media doesn't need marching orders from the government, "for the simple truth is that these individuals would not have reached the positions they occupy if they themselves had not all been guided through the same tunnel of camouflaged history and emerged with the same selective memory and conventional wisdom."
23 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2014
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This book is a very valuable exposition of military and covert operations waged around the world by the American "National Security State," post WWII. I have found none better in recent history. It also reminds one of the immensely dangerous atmosphere in cities like Dallas during the height of the Cold War and lunatic nuclear "one-upmanship" days. No wonder JFK was summarily removed from the chessboard by the "Powers that Be" fifty years ago, in view of his having changed direction in several important ways (and having fired the three top "Langley" figures, after the Bay of Pigs fiasco), as documented in "JFK and the Unspeakable" by Douglass, "Brothers" by Talbot, "Deep Politics and the Death of JFK" (Scott), "High Treason" (Livingstone and Groden), the five volume "tour de force" by Douglas Horne (military liaison to the ARRB), and a number of other volumes, such as "Murder in Dealey Plaza" and "Assassination Science").
Please keep your eyes peeled for crazy Single Bullet Theory hairbrained stupidity. They are like members of an oddball cult, and cannot be reasoned with.
Please keep your eyes peeled for crazy Single Bullet Theory hairbrained stupidity. They are like members of an oddball cult, and cannot be reasoned with.
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2015
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This what you will understand after reading this book - America hates it when working people start to stand up for themselves. America will go after a country any way possible in order to stop the workers from running things or having a say. The world is waking up and the business/ wealth class is turning the evil inward. Look out American people, this country will have no mercy on its labor.
13 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2013
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I have not found a more comprehensive book about the many actions of the CIA around the world. I have been interested in the topic for many years and have done a lot of my own research to learn about it but this book had many details that I had never heard. The chapter on Operation Gladio in Italy was particularly dense and well written. If understanding the nuts and bolts of foreign policy is something you are interested in, this is a great place to start or to supplement what you already know.
12 people found this helpful
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Look out, here come the "Good guys".
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2020Verified Purchase
Mr Blum brings into highlight, or should I say confirmes, the gross hypocrisy of those who hold real power in this sad world: pseudo Democrat mass murderers who will stand no challenge, or display of alternative, to their dominance.
Things have got even "better" for the "Good guys" since Killing Hope came to the book-shelves, but if your psychopathy is extremely low and you are not averse to being a bit outrahed, Killing Hope.... is well worth the read.
Things have got even "better" for the "Good guys" since Killing Hope came to the book-shelves, but if your psychopathy is extremely low and you are not averse to being a bit outrahed, Killing Hope.... is well worth the read.
Mr R Dinsley
5.0 out of 5 stars
riveting read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 3, 2015Verified Purchase
This is an interesting book which presents a damning view of US/CIA policy since WWII. Working chronologically through the last 60+ years of political history the lens used to view US interventionism presents a harrowing picture of deceit, denial and amoral manipulation to secure what? The industrial-military-political equilibrium?
6 people found this helpful
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Charles Neal Hyde Moore
5.0 out of 5 stars
Seminal Work
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2019Verified Purchase
It's the goto for an overview of every US intervention since the Second World War. Some of them are quite surprising. All of them are appalling. After reading this book it is very difficult to stomach current US outrage at alleged Russian interference in Trump's election.
Lena Thane-Clarke
5.0 out of 5 stars
both excellent and depressing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2014Verified Purchase
A very clear overview of both overt and covert military intervention by the US, with the motivation and methods both exposed. Unflinching.
2 people found this helpful
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Andres Pope
5.0 out of 5 stars
Killing Hope GREAT
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 6, 2014Verified Purchase
Very informative & the kind of book you just cant put down, read the real history of the out of control C.I.A
2 people found this helpful
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