Mao's great famine : the history of China's most devastating catastrophe, 1958-1962

 by Frank D. Kotter. From 1958 to 1962, Mao Zedong oversaw a massive collectivization, announced to the world as his "Great Leap Forward," an attempt to push China, both agriculturally and industrially, into the 20th century. Instead Mao destroyed the lives of millions of Chinese, forcing them to work under inhuman conditions on "the people's" farms. A devastating famine that killed approximately 30 million resulted from poor planning, execution, and widespread corruption. When even Mao's closest colleagues began to point out this folly, Mao consolidated his power and continued down this road of devastation with the "Great Cultural Revolution" (1966-76). Dikotter (Sch. of Oriental & African Studies, Univ. of London; The Discourse of Race in Modern China) writes a compelling account of the Great Leap Forward. Verdict Aided by newly released historical documents detailing the savage infighting and backstabbing of those in power and the extent of the nationwide damage, Dikotter has produced one of the best single-volume resources on the topic. Although a scholarly, heavily footnoted work, its flowing narrative-effectively a cautionary tale on the destructive powers of misguided ambition and blind hubris-reads well. Recommended for specialists as well as interested general readers. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Let the swords encircle me : Iran - a journey behind the headlines

 by Scott Peterson. Few nations contain such stark, violent, and dangerous contradictions as the Iran depicted in this revelatory panorama. Christian Science Monitor correspondent Peterson (Me Against My Brother) presents a country at war with itself: a puritanical, xenophobic theocracy lording over a hedonistic, Western-oriented youth culture; an impoverished economy awash with an oil-rich elite; a quasi-democracy where free-wheeling election debates coexist with a lawless police state and torture chambers. (His narrative culminates with a gripping account of the bloody government crackdown on demonstrators protesting the 2009 presidential election.) Drawing on years of in-country reporting, Peterson pieces together a mosaic of discordant scenes, taking the reader to an American flag-burning rally that embarrasses many of its attendees, a museum dedicated to the country's history of torturing dissidents, and a ski resort where young couples court arrest by kissing in public. He sketches a colorful gallery of Iranians, including mullahs and politicians, heavy-metal rockers, avant-garde artists, dour war veterans steeped in a cult of martyrdom, and callow lotharios. Incisive, humane, and full of vivid reportage, Peterson's sprawling study is perhaps the best account we have of Iran's complex, embattled reality. --Booklist (Check Catalog)

Cradle of gold : the story of Hiram Bingham, a real-life Indiana Jones, and the search for Machu Picchu

 by Christopher Heaney.  On an archaeological trip to Peru on July 24, 1911, Hiram Bingham, an American explorer and history professor at Yale, happened upon the ruins of the Inca city of Machu Picchu. Although the site was already known to the local native people, Bingham made the Machu Picchu ruins famous and received acclaim as their "discoverer." Heaney presents a well-researched and very readable biography of Bingham from his childhood in Hawaii as the son of missionaries, through his education and careers as historian, educator, explorer, and finally politician. He probes the depths of Bingham's work and character, examining setbacks, scandals, and achievements and skillfully unraveling Bingham's role in the controversy that still exists today between the government of Peru and Yale University over the ownership of the Machu Picchu burials and artifacts. Heaney shows Bingham as a complex and ambitious man inculcated with the racial attitudes of his time, but he also convincingly shows that despite his shortcomings, Bingham made a significant contribution to the study of South American archaeology and Inca history. The book's title is something of a misnomer, as Bingham found no gold at Machu Picchu, and the name "cradle of gold" is used in the text to refer to a different Incan archaeological site that Bingham visited. VERDICT Recommended for history and archaeology enthusiasts interested in a detailed account of the life of an archaeological icon. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)