Individuals at Risk

With the humidity here in DC reaching brain-frying highs and midsummer lethargy sapping us of any and all initiative, there's no better time to hide in the shade with a good book.

My totally smart and sophisticated fellow intern Bien has some good suggestions this week, so take your pick and crack one open!

And yes, I know Saturday is the biggest day, like, ever for all you Harry Potter nerds out there (and in here — I'm counting the hours), but you'll need something to take the edge off when you finally finish the last chapter in the saga of everyone's favorite Chosen One. So welcome to Part III of the Human Rights Summer Reading Series!

I, Rigoberta Menchu (1983), Rigoberta Menchu and Elizabeth Burgos-Debray — Almost a decade before she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in support of indigenous rights in Guatemala, Menchu dictated this memoir of oppression and activism to Burgos-Debray, who preserved the narrative stream-of-consciousness sensibility in the published book. I, Rigoberta Menchu details both the everyday life of members of the Guatemalan Quiche tribe and Menchu's journey towards becoming an activist, including the brutal torture of her father. A 1999 book by anthropologist David Stoll claimed that some of Menchu's story was fabricated, and she later admitted she made certain falsifications, but the book remains both a compelling story and an important piece of human-rights history.

Orientalism (1978), Edward Said — As Bien concisely puts it, this book is a classic examination of colonial structures, and its influence throughout literary and cultural history has been enormous. Using representations of the Middle and Far East in art and literature, Said argues that the Orient as percieved by Westerners is defined by its opposition to the cultural norms of the Occident. Orientalism's invaluable insights into the relationship between East and West jumpstarted the poscolonial theoretical movement, and his conclusions about the relationship between the Western and Arab worlds remain especially prescient remains even 30 years after the book's publication.

The Colonial Present (2004), Derek Gregory — Gregory picks up the colonialist critique where Said left off, in a tome about the handling of the war on terror that focuses on Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. He uses the history of the Middle East and the stories of everyday people in the area to construct a geopolitical profile of the current conflict, arguing that United States involvement in Muslim countries is part of a long pattern of colonial domination. As a geographer, Gregory focuses on the geographical history of the region, supporting his rhetoric with well-researched empirical facts.

The Wretched of the Earth (1961), Frantz Fanon — According to Bien, this classic book is "an examination of colonialism and a deconstruction of colonial structures both physical and psychological." Published during the Algerian independence movement, Fanon uses Marxism as a framework to discuss his experiences in Algeria's war against France and evaluate the role violence plays in decolonization. His psychological insights about the long-term impacts of colonization and oppression, and about the dangers of intertribal and interfaith rivalries in decolonized peoples, provide profound revelations about the long-lasting aftershocks of imperialist rule.

The New Imperialism (2003), David Harvey — In this scholarly but accessible book, Harvey argues that the war on Iraq has been orchestrated as a diversion from domestic issues, and that the war on terror is just one more part of a long pattern of United States' imperialist ambitions. Using a combination of geopolitical and economic history, Harvey finds connections between Wall Street, the U.S. Treasury and the International Monetary Fund and asserts that neoconservative in the U.S. are using the current political climate to push a hegemonic agenda.

That's it for this week, but thank Bien for her thoughtful suggestions!