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“Powerfully and persuasively . . . Gibson tells us why we were in Vietnam . . . a work of daring brilliance—an eye-opening chronicle of waste and self-delusion.” —Robert Olen Butler In this groundbreaking book, James William Gibson shatters the misled assumptions behind both liberal and conservative explanations for America’s failure in Vietnam. Gibson shows how American government and military officials developed a disturbingly limited concept of war—what he calls “technowar”—in which all efforts were focused on maximizing the enemy’s body count, regardless of the means. Consumed by a blind faith in the technology of destruction, American leaders failed to take into acco...
Vietnam signaled the end of America's long history of martial victories. In Warrior Dreams, James William Gibson argues that the shame of defeat by a technologically inferior enemy, compounded by challenges to the status quo from feminism and minority groups, created a profound crisis in American identity - particularly for the white American male - and gave birth to a disturbing and reactionary new war culture designed to make America well again. Armed with a journalist's curiosity and a critic's precision, Gibson sets out to map this new American war zone. He plays paintball with Los Angeles's weekend warriors, learns to shoot like a pro at Arizona's elite Gunsite Ranch, and parties with soldiers of fortune at their annual convention in Las Vegas. Gibson surveys the combat magazines and weapons advertisements, films and novels that fuel the sexual, violent fantasies of millions of would-be warriors across the country. And he shows how this mythology, far from harmless consumer entertainment, has indeed started a new war with real warriors - Aryan Nation, contract killers, mercenaries in Central America - and with dangerous consequences for our democracy.
A surprising and enlightening investigation of how modern society is making nature sacred once again For more than two centuries, Western cultures, as they became ever more industrialized, increasingly regarded the natural world as little more than a collection of useful raw resources. The folklore of powerful forest spirits and mountain demons was displaced by the practicalities of logging and strip-mining; the traditional rituals of hunting ceremonies gave way to the indiscriminate butchering of animals for meat markets. In the famous lament of Max Weber, our surroundings became "disenchanted," with nature's magic swept away by secularization and rationalization. But now, as acclaimed soci...
Should appeal to ecological and environmental psychologists inclduing APA Div 34 and subscribers of ECO.
Drawing upon government papers and personal accounts from soldiers, this book documents the failure of technowar in Vietnam and argues that the lessons learned have been ignored by the political and military establishments that continue to espouse it toda
Former rock singer Hollis Henry has lost a lot of money in the crash, which means she can't turn down the offer of a job from Hubertus Bigend, sinister Belgian proprietor of mysterious ad agency Blue Ant. Milgrim is working for Bigend too. Bigend admires the ex-addict's linguistic skills and street knowledge so much that he's even paid for his costly rehab. So together Hollis and Milgrim are at the front line of Bigend's attempts to get a slice of the military budget, and they gradually realize he has some very dangerous competitors. Which is not a great thought when you don't much trust your boss either. Gibson's new novel, set largely in London, spookily captures the paranoia and fear of our post-Crash times.
Argues that America's defeat in Vietnam and challenges to the status quo have created a crisis in American identity, and have given birth to a reactionary new war culture
Discover the cult classic behind the major new TV adaption from the creators of Westworld, starring Chloe Grace Moretz. ----- 'Big-screen, popcorn-chewing thrills' Guardian Flynne Fisher lives in the rural American South, working at the local 3D printing shop, while earning much needed extra money playing VR games for rich people. One night she dons a headset and finds herself in futuristic London-a sleek and mysterious world, alluringly different from her own hardscrabble existence. But this isn't like any game she's ever played before: Flynne begins to realize it isn't virtual reality... it's real. Someone in London, seventy years in the future, has found a way to open a door to Flynne's w...
It's only called paranoia if you can't prove it. Cayce is in London to work. Her pathological sensitivity to brands makes her the perfect divining rod for an ad agency that wants to east a new logo. But when she is co-opted into the search for the creator of a strangely addictive on-line film, Cayce wonders if she has done the right - or indeed, safe - thing. And that's before violence, Japanese computer crazies and Russian Mafia men are in the mix. But she wants to discover the source of the film too, and the truth of her father's disappearance in New York, two years ago. And from the way people are trying to stop her, it looks like she's getting close . . .
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING NOVEL FROM WILLIAM GIBSON, THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF NEUROMANCER ----- San Francisco, 2017. Clinton's in the White House, Brexit never happened - and Verity Jane's got herself a new job. They call Verity 'the app-whisperer,' and she's just been hired to evaluate a pair-of-glasses-cum-digital-assistant called Eunice... Only Eunice has other ideas. Pretty soon, Verity realises that Eunice is smarter than anyone she's ever met. Which is just as well since suddenly some very bad people are after Verity. Meanwhile, in a post-apocalyptic London a century from now, PR fixer Wilf Netherton is tasked with interfering in the alternative past in which Verity...