|
Baghdad Bulletin: Dispatches on the American Occupation | 
| Author: David Enders Publisher: University of Michigan Press Category: Book
List Price: $15.95 Buy New: $6.35 You Save: $9.60 (60%)
New (6) Used (7) from $3.95
Avg. Customer Rating: 4 reviews Sales Rank: 1903114
Media: Paperback Number Of Items: 1 Pages: 200 Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7 Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 0472031694 Dewey Decimal Number: 956 EAN: 9780472031696 ASIN: 0472031694
Publication Date: March 10, 2006 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Shipping: Expedited shipping available Shipping: International shipping available Condition: New - Has remainder mark. Fast shipping from trusted wholesaler with many exclusive publisher contracts.
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"David Enders has a stunning independent streak and the courage to trust his own perceptions as he reports from outside the bubble Americans have created for themselves in Iraq." ---Joe Sacco, author of Safe Area Gorazde
"Baghdad Bulletin takes us where mainstream news accounts do not go. Disrupting the easy cliches that dominate U.S. journalism, Enders blows away the media fog of war. The result is a book that challenges Americans to see through double speak and reconsider the warfare being conducted in their names." ---Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
"Journalism at its finest and on a shoestring to boot. David Enders shows that courage and honesty can outshine big-budget mainstream media. Wry but self-critical, Baghdad Bulletin tells a story that a few of us experienced but every journalist, nay every citizen, should read." ---Pratap Chatterjee, Managing Editor and Project Director, CorpWatch
"Young and tenacious, Dave Enders went, saw, and wrote it down. Here it is-a well-informed and detailed tale of Iraq's decline under American rule. Baghdad Bulletin offers tragic politics, wacky people, and keen insights about what really matters on the ground in Iraq." ---Christian Parenti
"I wrote my first piece for Baghdad Bulletin after visiting the mass graves at Al-Hilla in 2003. The Baghdad Bulletin was essential reading in the first few months after the end of the war. I handed that particular copy to Prime Minister Tony Blair. I am only sorry that I cannot read it anymore. David Enders and his team were brave, enterprising, and idealistic." ---Rt. Hon. Ann Clwyd, member of the British Parliament
Baghdad Bulletin is a street-level account of the war and turbulent postwar period as seen through the eyes of the young independent journalist David Enders. The book recounts Enders's story of his decision to go to Iraq, where he opened the only English-language newspaper completely written, printed, and distributed there during the war.
Young, courageous, and anti-authoritarian, Enders is the first reporter to cover the war as experienced by ordinary Iraqis. Deprived of the press credentials that gave his embedded colleagues access to press conferences and officially sanitized information, Enders tells the story of a different war, outside the Green Zone. It is a story in which the struggle of everyday life is interspersed with moments of sheer terror and bizarre absurdity: wired American troops train their guns on terrified civilians; Iraqi musicians prepare a recital for Coalition officials who never show; traveling clowns wreak havoc in a Baghdad police station.
Orphans and intellectuals, activists and insurgents: Baghdad Bulletin depicts the unseen complexity of Iraqi society and gives us a powerful glimpse of a new kind of warfare, one that coexists with-and sometimes tragically veers into-the everyday rhythms of life.
(01/11/2005)
|
| Customer Reviews:
Brilliant Journaling August 20, 2005 2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Baghdad Bulletin is a fantastic collection of entries of one journalist's experiences. It provides enlightening insight into current political and military struggles.
David Enders Has A Vital Independent Streak June 20, 2005 7 out of 11 found this review helpful
Who are the insurgents? There are radicals, mercenaries, bank looters, conservatives, old government leaders and more. Kurdistan is safer and is already a defacto independent country. Portions of southern Iraq have also set up some beginnings of independence. Most of the turmoil is in central Iraq. The author has written a vital independent book covering the war and insurgency in Iraq. If you want to really know what is going on there, this book is a big plus.
Gutsy and honest June 15, 2005 8 out of 13 found this review helpful
The author of this book is our only published source of info. from this angle of the Iraq war, which is so crucial. I appreciate the fact that he is not pretentious like most journalists who try to be erudite human thesauruses, but uses his true, raw but articulate voice to give us a glimpse of what the situation was like. We need more of these insider views of Iraq, especially from those who had the guts to step outside the rope instead of only going where they have to in order to get a basic, vague story. Thanks for putting yourself in the line of fire so the world could understand what it's like.
Couragous yes, accurate... I doubt it May 4, 2005 38 out of 64 found this review helpful
The title of this book is deceiving. The words "Real Story" implies that the writer at least provides an accurate account about the unfolding events, which he doesn't. The words "the War in Iraq" give the impression that David was there during the last days of the regime when America launched its Operation Iraqi Freedom. He wasn't. David Enders, a college student in his senior year, went to Beirut to finish his BA but then interrupted his semester to go to Baghdad a month after its liberation and the downfall of the Saddam Hussain regime on April 9, 2003. Deciding to embark on a journalistic project, the little-experienced English Major graduate of the University of Michigan and a group of like-minded, young and in-experienced friends decided to start a publication, the Baghdad Bulletin. David was its editor. Meeting him in Baghdad at the time, it took me no time to discover that David's background about the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular was minimal. His Arabic was even worse, a fact which made him, like most other foreign reporters in Iraq, depend on native translators with their less-than-average English, in order to get a feel of things. True David was courageous enough to tour different parts of the country, but at the time when he was able to do that, all other foreign and American journalists where also able to do it. In order to avoid anachronism, we have to keep in mind that violence in Iraq - in its current form of an anti-American insurgency - erupted at least six months after liberation. This makes of the first period of David's stay in Baghdad relatively calm, but not safe of the insecurity due mainly to post April 9 organized crime and looting. David's lack of background and language made him report on Iraqi events from the perspective of a complete stranger, often copyediting pieces that he published in his magazine rather than editing them for content verification. David's weakness is evident in his book, Baghdad Buletin, which is more of a reporter's diary, with the exception that the background information provided is often erroneous. A good example is his confusion between Mohammed Baker Al-Sadr, the founder of the Islamic Daawa Party, who the Baathists killed in 1980 and Mohammed Sadeq Al-Sadr, the father of today's famous young cleric Muqtada. David's style, however, is attractive. If you are into supporting the career of a young, ambitious and adventurous writer, buy this book. If you want a reliable source or a record of the events of that period, don't.
|
|
| Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |