A disturbing account of fundamentalism’s lethal power.
A gritty account of the terrorist siege on a Russian elementary school in 2004.
First-time author Phillips traveled to the former Soviet Union to study the events of that fateful September day, when a small group of Chechen nationalists and Islamic extremists attacked School No. 1 in the small Russian town of Beslan. During a traditional service entitled the “Ceremony of the First Bell”—in which first year students, proud parents and grandparents and returning pupils gathered in the school courtyard to perform songs and dances—gunfire erupted as balloons were released into the air. A group of terrorists led by Ruslan Khuchbarov stormed the courtyard, gunning down anyone attempting to flee before herding the men, women and children into a small gymnasium. Interviews from survivors recount in graphic detail the events that followed during the next three days as more than 1,200 people were held captive. As a bumbling police force assembled outside the school with rounds of blanks instead of real bullets, female suicide bombers detonated their bombs in an attempt to kill the men and eliminate any chance of a resistance. Meanwhile, the terrorists threatened to shoot any child who attempted to drink water from the bathroom taps, and all the while the negotiating had yet to even begin. Using a hostage to write their demands on a piece of paper and deliver it to the police, the terrorists called for several high-ranking individuals to be brought in, with the hopes of pressuring the unwavering Russian government to pull its troops from Chechnya and declare it a free and independent nation. Phillips provides a thorough history of the sectarian divide that has gripped the region over the past century and details the events that led to the siege. The author navigates between past and present, offering the reader a reflective look at the event in question. But the constant shift between the crisis and its historical buildup dissipates the sense of urgency and tension as the situation becomes increasingly dire.
A disturbing account of fundamentalism’s lethal power.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-86207-927-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granta UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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