Book Review

Articles

• Review of Bennett, M. Todd, Neither Confirm nor Deny: How the Glomar Mission Shielded the CIA from Transparency | Chuck Steele
  11 August 2024

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  Neither Confirm nor Deny: How the Glomar Mission Shielded the CIA from Transparency
  by M. Todd Bennett
  Columbia University Press 2023. 384 pp ISBN 978-0-231-19347-4 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-231-19346-7
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  Reviewed by Chuck Steele
  Despite the centrality of the ocean research vessel Glomar Explorer to this fascinating story, this is not a book intended for an audience of environmental historians. It is, however, a first-rate (…)

• Iran Stands at a Dangerous Crossroad | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  1 March 2025, by M R Narayan Swamy

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  Iran

• Rishi Sunak: The Success Story of a Minority in Britain | M.R. Narayan Swamy
  25 February 2023, by M R Narayan Swamy

  BOOK REVIEW
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  Rishi Sunak: The Rise
  by Michael Ashcroft
  Hachette India; Pages: 357; Price: Rs 699
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  If Britain was engulfed by a majoritarian ideology, Rishi Sunak would have never become the Prime Minister.
  It goes to the credit of Britain’s democracy that a young man born to Indian immigrants (a Hindu at that) defeated veterans in an overwhelmingly white constituency and finally moved into 10 Downing Street. All that mattered to the Conservatives and British voters (…)

• Chandrashekhar Azad - latest biography of an iconic revolutionary | Chaman Lal
  26 July 2024, by Chaman Lal

  To mark 23rd July birth anniversary of Azad
  Two names are most evocative names among Indian revolutionaries of freedom struggle. Both were comrade in arms. Chandershekhar Azad was the Commander-in-chief of Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA), who was named as Balraj in Bhagat Singh handwritten posters on the assassination of Lahore ASP, J P Saunders. Another significant document-Philosophy of the Bomb. Authored mainly by Bhagwati Charan Vohra but improvised with Azad (…)

• Review of Breyfogle & Brown eds., Hydraulic Societies: Water, Power, and Control in East and Central Asian History | Jenia Mukherjee
  7 December 2024

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  Hydraulic Societies: Water, Power, and Control in East and Central Asian History
  by Nicholas B. Breyfogle, Philip C. Brown (Editors)
  Oregon State University Press
  2023. x + 249 pp
  (paper) ISBN 978-0-87071-237-1
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  Reviewed by Jenia Mukherjee
  What is water? Is it H2O or bottled profit

• Review: Thakuria on Marriott’s edited volume, India through Hindu Categories
  7 January 2023

  Review by Trishna Mani Thakuria __0__
  India through Hindu Categories
  by McKim Marriott (ed.)
  New Delhi: Sage
  1990. Xvi+209 pp. Plates, Maps, References, Errata, Index. Rs. 450 (hardback)
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  This book is an ambitious attempt in the form of collective effort of academic intellectuals to understand social behaviour of people from cultural categories, splitting out from the bias of general social science which analyses social behaviour and configuration under certain fixed (…)

• Prakash Singh and the Future of Police Reforms in Independent India | KS Subramanian
  11 March 2023, by K S Subramanian

  BOOK REVIEW
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  The Struggle For Police Reforms in India : Ruler’s Police to People’s Police by Prakash Singh
  Rupa Publications India May 2022 Paperback ‏ : ‎ 432 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9355202474 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9355202475
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  Prakash Singh is a leading former IPS officers of India. He belongs to the Uttar Pradesh cadre of the IPS and was the state’s Director General of Police. He was also DG of the Border Security Force, a Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) such as the CRPF (…)

• Review of India’s National Security Challenges Edited by NN Vohra
  16 December 2023, by K S Subramanian

  Reviewed by KS Subramanian IPS (retd)
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  India’s National Security Challenges Edited by NN Vohra India International Centre, New Delhi Primus Books
  2023 HB ISBN : 978-93-5852-037-8
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  This is a collection of articles on India’s national security, edited by N N Vohra former J& K Governor (2008-18) and Life Trustee of the India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi, devoted to promotion of discussion on national security and similar issues.
  The Covid 19 pandemic had (…)

• Review: Dreeze on Revising the Revolution by Larry E. Holmes
  22 July 2022

  Reviewed by Jonathon Dreeze (Cornell College) __0__ Revising the Revolution: The Unmaking of Russia’s Official History of 1917
  by Larry E. Holmes
  Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2021. 220 pp. (paper) ISBN 978-0-253-05479-1; $27.99 (e-book), ISBN 978-0-253-05482-1.
  Historians pride themselves on the ability to study the past objectively and produce quality academic research. However, as political developments continue in the United States, with local and state governments (…)

• Review of Panter-Brick’s Gandhi and the Middle East | Vedh P. Siv
  12 July 2025

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  Gandhi and the Middle East
  Jews, Arabs and Imperial Interests
  by Simone Panter-Brick
  I.B. Tauris
  First Edition, Jan 2015
  ISBN 9781784530228
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  02 May 2025
  Introduction
  When India attained its independence in 1947, the nation was principled on two ideas --- peace and non-violence, for both, the nation and its people. These ideas were inspired from Mahatma Gandhi, one among the greatest freedom fighters and the Father (…)