Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2
Book reviews for "Churchill,_Ward" sorted by average review score:

The Cointelpro Papers: Documents from the Fbi's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States (South End Press Classics Series, Volume, 8)
Published in Paperback by South End Press (2002)
Authors: Ward Churchill, Jim Vander Wall, and John Trudell
Amazon base price: $15.40
List price: $22.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $13.76
Buy one from zShops for: $14.37
Average review score:

Sometimes Desert Is Better Than the Meal
Ward Churchil and Jim Vander Wall have done an outstanding and meticulous job in assembling and explaining the FBI's secret war on dissent in America, no wonder America is plagued with criminals, the supposed "good guys" are all out on black bag jobs committing their own crimes!!

Since it is a well known historical fact that J. Edgar Hoover, America's semen stained supercop, was blackmailed by the mafia into silence, it stands to reason that he would need a new enemy to focus the attention of the American people. What better enemy than home grown political dissenters who would destroy the genteel American order--white men first.

The book focuses upon the FBI's most notorious episodes--the COINTELPRO efforts against the Communist Party USA, Socialist Workers Party, the New Left, the American Indian Movement and the Black Panthers as demonstrative proof of the Bureau's efforts to undermine and destroy the constitutional rights of all Americans.

It is, for me, the concluding chapter that ties everything together and offers some real life solutions to the peristent cancer that is the FBI. From 1956 to the "offical end" of COINTELPRO in 1971, the FBI committed:

* 2,218 separate actions.

*2,305 admitted warrantless telephone taps.

*697 "bugs against domestic political targets."

*57,486 CIA mail intercepts.

"During the various Congressional committee investigations, the Bureau carefully hid the facts of its involvement in the 1969 Hampton-Clark assassinations. Simultaneously, it was covering up its criminal witholding of exculpatory evidence in the murder trial of LA Panther leader Geronimo Pratt." page 303.

At the end, the authors offer the inescapable conclusion that priority number one is for the left to develop a strategy to come to grips with the FBI and the escalating power of "law enforcement" as well as the implications and consequences of the merging of the U.S. military and the domestic law enforcement appartus.

Churchill and Vander Wall have written an excellent book which recounts history and warns us of the impending scenario we face by ignoring the increased power of the FBI, the US military and law enforcement in general.

If history repeats itself we are all in trouble
For readers who may have forgoten what can happen when government intelligence agencies are given free rein, legally or not, to investigate and harass American citizens who question governmental policies, this is the primary source for a reminder.Tracing the long history of political repression in this country from the 1950s through the Vietnam era and the Civil Rights movement and examining recent FBI activities, this book belongs on any reader's shelf that values political freedom.
It is not a question of which political party you belong to or whether you are considered left or right on the political spectrum. If you are anxious about the future of civil liberties given the unprecedented power given to the government as the result of the Patriot Act and other recent legislation, this book should be required reading. It is indeed a fine balance between civil liberties and national security and this book will give the reader an idea of what is at stake and what unrestrained government is capable of doing.


From a Native Son: Selected Essays in Indigenism, 1985-1995
Published in Paperback by South End Press (1996)
Authors: Ward Churchill and Howard Zinn
Amazon base price: $15.40
List price: $22.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $10.78
Collectible price: $10.00
Buy one from zShops for: $14.50
Average review score:

America will never look the same after this [4 1/2 stars]
This is perhaps the finest work of many by a leading American Indian scholar-activist of his generation. Its superiority is partly because of its comprehensive length, incorporating many of his best essays. Churchill's forte, here & elsewhere, is the power of his dununciation of injustices & genocidal practices against the Native Americans both past & present---the crimes continue even today, as do indigenous peoples' courageous resistance. I assigned parts of this work for a class in American environmental history, & it genuinely shook up the students, who were seeing our history from a radically different perspective. Sadly, those who really need to read Churchill most likely never will.

Why 4 1/2 stars? Since many of Churchill's titles reprint essays published elsewhere, there is considerable overlap with the contents of other books. Thus someone who owns, say, 4 of his works (including this one) may actually possess only 3 full books of original material. Churchill's writings are thoroughly documented, but in contrast to Vine Deloria Jr., to whom he is often compared, Churchill's style is decidedly humorless. But Deloria's sensibility is exceptional under any circumstances, & ultimately, what Churchill discusses simply isn't amusing at all---it's tragic & outrageous.

An Extraordinary Effort!
Here is a book that everyone, Indian or non-Indian, should read by tomorrow at the very latest. Ward Churchill is an extraordinarily gifted Indian (a term he prefers over "Native American" or "Aboriginal") activist whose prose cuts like a curve-bladed scalpal. Churchill doesn't want to memorialize what American society likes to think of as ancient (and therefore, best forgotten) wrongs; he wants to talk about how white society destroyed and keeps on destroying the Original People of the New World. And he isn't going to do it with quaint tales and stories. He wants you to understand that his people are dying. Right now. This very second.

This book, a collection of essays collected over the years, isn't full of the latest spiritual word from Indian Country; don't read this if you want to learn how to construct a sweat lodge "like the real Indians did." Read this book in order to learn how to be a member of the Wannabe Tribe and you will experience deep spiritual anguish as Churchill's words tear you a new exhust pipe. He doesn't care about your spiritual development; he wants you to understand that genocide is being committed even as you read these words.

Get this book. It will hurt a lot to read it, but its better than shutting your eyes to over five centuries of genocide.


Struggle for Land: Native North American Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide & Colonization
Published in Paperback by Arbeiter Ring Publishing (1994)
Author: Ward Churchill
Amazon base price: $25.95
Used price: $11.97
Average review score:

A highly recommended collection of fiery essays
Long out of print, this new edition of Ward Churchill's Struggle For The Land: Native North American Resistance To Genocide, Ecocide And Colonization is an impressive and very highly recommended collection of fiery essays that will give the contemporary reader pause concerning the American government's systematic exploitation of the land and elimination of the Native American peoples who have inhabited it, and the bittersweet results of the Native American attempts to defend the land from defoliation, strip-mining, and other destructive depredation of the 19th and 20th centuries. An extensive detailed collection of essays chronicling such events as the Lakota struggle for the Black Hills, an acute perspective on the Navajo-Hopi land dispute, a stringent presentation of the American Indian diaspora, and more, make Struggle For The Land a core addition to community and academic Native American Studies collections.


Struggle for the Land: Indigenous Resistance to Genocide, Ecocide, and Expropriation in Contemporary North America
Published in Paperback by Common Courage Press (1992)
Author: Ward Churchill
Amazon base price: $17.95
Used price: $3.10
Average review score:

Compels rethinking the whole of US history [4 1/2 stars]
Too bad that the bottom-line economics of publishing have let this searing account of Indigenous struggles over land and ecology go out of print. Because of its concentration on environmental and land-use issues, this is one of the author's most focused works, though they are all worthwhile. The documentation is thorough; the presentation is relentlessly didactic but always readable. No country that treats its indigenous people as the US always has can claim moral superiority over others. Cf. also Alvin Josephy, "Now That the Buffalo's Gone," a slightly older but still valuable book on many of the same issues.
N.B. Many of Churchill's books reprint essays published elsewhere, so beware of overlap with the contents of several other titles by this committed scholar-activist.


Cointelpro Papers: Documents from the Fbi's Secret Wars Against Domestic Dissent
Published in Paperback by South End Press (1990)
Authors: Ward Churchill, Jim Vander Wall, Brian Glick, and James Vander Wall
Amazon base price: $22.00
Used price: $13.20
Buy one from zShops for: $18.00
Average review score:

With friends like these. . .
This is an excellent and well-written book. It is accessible and well documented. Some of the facts are stunning, which makes for a good reminder: if you aren't angry then you aren't paying attention. I highly encourage you to give it a read; it isn't a waste of time since it is such a fast page-turner and b/c it is riddled with information. You might as well take a look at what we are subsidizing.

A great book for anybody interested in human rights.
I feel this book is an excellent resource in realizing the history our government has being prejudice. This book details the ideals of the COINTELPRO (COunter INTELligence PROgram), the progam that was created by the FBI in order to stop the progress that blacks, hispanics, and women had been making in the 60's and 70's. I feel it is a necessity to have and/or read if you are currently studying the history of political rights. A real quick shout-out to Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine for helping me discover this book by using a piece of it in his song 'Wake Up'.

An absolutely indespensible resource.
The more times I use this book as a reference, the more I find. To call it a wealth of information is to wildly understate the case. It is more like a bottomless pit...

At first glance, the book's most impressive attribute is the large number of documents which are reproduced (a picture's worth a thousand words, I guess). But then one find's one's self getting caught up in the explanatory narrative, and the documents shift into their proper background or ullustrational focus. And then there's the notes, hundreds of them, each brimming with detailed explanations of particular points, citations, suggested readings.

There's just no end to it. If one were to be allowed only one book on the FBI, this would definitiely be it!

Any chance the authors will be updating it any time soon?


A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the Americas, 1492 to the Present
Published in Hardcover by City Lights Books (1998)
Author: Ward Churchill
Amazon base price: $26.25
List price: $37.50 (that's 30% off!)
Average review score:

An awe-inspiring effort
Though several chapters of the book are recycled writings of Churchill, taken as a whole, I believe this book will take its place with the greatest efforts ever devoted to the subject of just what happened to the natives that populated the New World. I am writing my own book that covers this subject matter, among others, and reading Churchill has been an awesome experience. I have also studied this area of history at some length, though I cannot pretend to tie Churchill's shoes in native studies. But we have trod much of the same material and sources, and his analysis and synthesis of such a dauntingly broad range of material is little short of incredible. Oh yes, he has made mistakes here and there, expected in a work with over a thousand footnotes, but I would stack Churchill up against any historian in the business on the issue of the native experience at the hands of the white man. Unfortunately, the establishment cannot afford to have too many of the brainwashed masses hear voices like Churchill's, so it will likely have an obscure fate...until we wake up as a people. I salute Churchill's tireless efforts on behalf of justice and truth.

A Thorough and Intelligent Coverage of the Subject
Churchill covers the subject of the North American genocide in detail. The argument over capitilizing the 'holocaust' phenomena is thought provoking, but the best of the book is in its scholarly coverage of a subject that is uncomfortable for many.

Questions of Churchill's pedigree are pointless--this book is a powerful account. Well written and well argued. So tightly reasoned that critics attack his credibility through unfair attacks.

You can judge an idea by the enemies it generates and the wide array of enemies this book provokes testifies to its truthfulness and incise reasoning.

An important read for people who have bought the American history sold in American schools without thinking.

A far reaching matter
Ward Churchill has written an important and expansive overview on genocide and how it relates to, especially, the "settler's" policy on native peoples. He covers a board range of subject matter in a collection of essays: Genocide denial in various forms, the American holocaust, internal colonialism and defining genocide in solid terms. All this is done with extensive research and detailed footnotes (the footnotes alone could be organized into a seperate book). Some people may find some of his views radical (something the author deals with in several footnotes), but Mr. Churchill comes across as extremely well-versed in specific subjects, as well as the material as a whole.
The main bulk of the text refers to the European invasion of the Americas. This book does a good job of presenting the full expanse of the suffering of Native American peoples from the time Columbus first set foot on this land. I was generally familiar with the more infamous acts (i.e. Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, forced marches), but this books presents a multitude of lesser known atrocities, and the chilling details of the acts themselves, in a well-ordered overview. Reading the material one gets a sense of a truly organized dirge, as the various European nations sought to clear these peoples from the earth; this pratice, as the author notes, still continues to this day. The effect is emotionally overwhelming.
The more controversial aspects of the the book, such as the health warnings linked with smoking being a cover-up for radiation poisoning, are covered with the same extensive sourcing as the rest of the book. While very possible in and of themselves (see any respectable book on CIA black ops, etc.), I tend to believe that the ineptitude of the government as a collective body tends to work against such long standing conspiracy (see again the CIA, Bay of Pigs, for a few larger examples). He does create "a shadow of a doubt" in these cases and I would be interested in following up on the sources that he cites. These minor instances should not impact the importance of the work as a whole however.
All in all, this is an invaluable reference source and includes a wealth of material. It functions more as a textbook, lacking in humor and editorial comments, but when dealing with this type of material it's a little hard to crack jokes. This is not a lazy Sunday afternoon read, in which case the latest firefighters-in-love epic of the week would do nicely.


Complex Variables and Applications
Published in Hardcover by McGraw-Hill Science/Engineering/Math (01 October, 1995)
Authors: James Ward Brown and Ruel V. Churchill
Amazon base price: $80.31
Used price: $39.00
Buy one from zShops for: $38.40
Average review score:

Excellent intro text.
This text was used in an introductory grad course on complex variables I took a while back and I must say it is one of the best mathematical texts I've seen. The presentation of the material in the first few chapters is flawless, with the problem sets at the end of each perfectly supported by the material previously presented. So much so, that one is able to complete most of the problems without any assistance what so ever from anyone, including the more difficult ones that test a students mathematical maturity with regard to proofs. The later chapters provide some excellent coverage of some simple applications, although the professor only covered a handful of these in the course. Overall it's a superb intro to the subject of complex variables and in my opinion an excellent text both for class use or self study.

An Excellent Book !
This book is one of the best books in math I've ever seen. This book is excellent for people who are currently studying "Complex Analysis" in the university, as well as for people who are studying the subject by themeselves (and this thing is very rare in math books !). The book gives excellent proves, and gives lots of examples and exercises. I'm sure that if you buy the book, you will agree with me !

Clear and concise
I am a Ph.D. student in physics and used this book for an undergraduate course in mathematical methods for physics majors. This book is an excellent introduction to complex variables for physics and mathematics students. It is clear, concise and well-written. The proofs are easy to follow (but that also reflects the subject-matter). The problems are very good too and the answers are provided right in the text, which is very helpful for independent study.


Marxism and Native Americans
Published in Paperback by South End Press (1992)
Authors: Ward Churchill and Winona LaDuke
Amazon base price: $16.00
Used price: $10.29
Buy one from zShops for: $15.68
Average review score:

Class Project Book Review
We chose to read this book for a group project in a class on Marxism. It's definitely worth reading if you're into Marxism, Native American issues, or radical politics. The book is set up as a collection of essays, with some critiquing previous input from other authors. Whether you end up agreeing with anything the authors say its definitely food for thought, particularly the notion raised that while Marxism does attempt to solve problems of inequity and oppression, it ultimately will do nothing for the plight of native peoples or to conserve the earth's resources. Russell Means (whose cred is very questionable)makes the claim that industrialization is the enemy more so then class conflict, which Marxism does not address. He states that Marxism will continue to see the earth and its resources as something to be exploited, with the only difference being that the wealth is distributed more equitablly. So basically the earth will continue on its downward spiral wrought on by human beings, but at least we'll all have our little piece, at least in theory.

The book doesn't get a 5 only because most of its contributors engage in the typical intellectual abstracts that "activists" with PHd's love to engage in, in order to show how down they are with revolution and radical change. But in the meantime, while another PHd sits at his computer and comes up with the newest scholarly academic interpretation of what Marx means today, the top 5% of the people in this nation own more then the bottom 95%, 30 million Americans live in complete poverty, millions more hover just barely above it but can't do anything to change it because we don't have a liveable wage, 40 million Americans are without health care, we're spending another 350 billion a year on the military, and on the verge of another imperialistic war.

PHd's, students, and activists: GET OFF THE INTERNET AND DESTROY THE RIGHT WING.

A must read... a real eye-opener.
An enlightening foray into the concerns of Native Americans heretofore unknown and/or unrecognized by white Americans. Masterfully edited by Churchill, the book discusses Marxist ideology and the Native Americans' place within it. Particularly powerful is Russell Means' piece on the "European mentality". Truly an eye-opener.

Don't wait another 20 years to read this
I really enjoy this little gem. It met all of my criteria for valuable reading: It made me think, it increased my understanding of concepts, issues and ideas that interest me, it serves as a valuable resource that I will be able to refer to later, and I wouldn't hesitate to buy copies for friends.

The overall strength of this book undoubtedly rests in the way it exposes the cultural blinders with which so many "Europeans", with a special emphasis here on marxists, regard indigenous cultures, essentially any non-European peoples. Grounded in an unapologetic Native American skepticism of marxist ideology and intent, the book consists of a series of essays, alternating between American Indian and marxist contributors, where the onus is placed on the latter to "respond to critique by defining its (marxism's) utility and potential to Indians." Although there are a lot of brilliant and thought-provoking opinions and statements generated throughout, the most insightful analyses remain on the part of the Native American contributors and the editor, Ward Churchill. Debunking the claim that marxism represents the epitome of original and superior analytical insight into the "humanization of society", essays by Russell Means, Vine Deloria Jr., Frank Black Elk, Dora-Lee Larson and Churchill offer very lucid observations and suggestions while providing a fascinating evaluation of what is probably the most influential European ideology from a non-euro perspective. Nowhere is this more evident than in the discrepancy between world views, pitting an all-encompassing integration with nature and its importance for human survival against the European stress on production and control over nature.The writings of the marxist contributors provide some astute summations of, primarily orthodox, marxism and how it might apply to socio-cultural problems in non-euro societies, though in the end they do a better job of revealing an underlying cultural chauvinism, illustrating once again how easily doctrine leads to dogma. This is most evident in the insignificant contribution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, interesting only in that it verifies how ideology inevitably encourages ignorance and arrogance on the part of its fanatics, and certainly dispelling even the notion that communism should be seen as the culmination of progessive socialization.

Another major strength of this book is its readability. Though it covers some heady ground, it is presented and always written in a very accessible manner, never floating off into verbose, over-intellectualized abstractions. A background in marxist theory is not necessarily required, as the essays themselves do a great job of covering the core framework and concepts, while the main themes addressed are done so in a manner that anyone should automatically be able to relate to. Credit much of this clarity to the cogency of the Native American mind. Churchill ends the book with a characteristically direct and wise summary of how marxists can benefit from this type of critique, which is not unique, by the way, to the American Indian perspective, and how everyone benefits from working as allies. To close, Churchill outlines a " rudimentary crash course" for acquainting oneself with the Indian experience in America, with a useful bibliography and a call to action for those who understand that the future of the Native American determines the future of everyone on this planet. A powerful message of utmost exigency, as relevant now as when originally published.


Agents of Repression: The Fbi's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement
Published in Paperback by South End Press (1988)
Authors: Ward Churchill, James Vanderwall, and Jim Vander Wall
Amazon base price: $22.00
Used price: $6.88
Collectible price: $21.18
Buy one from zShops for: $20.00
Average review score:

Extremely well researched and well documented
If you ever thought ALL "conspiracy theorists" were nutso (and most are), then you'd better read this book.

If you're naive enough to believe that the only governments who commit human rights atrocities against their people are in places like China or Burma or Turkey or Chile or Nigeria or Guatemala, then you'd better read this book.

While recent events have brought the FBI's abuses and corruption to public attention (e.g., former FBI lab sceintist Fred Whitehurst blowing the whistle on the FBI intentionally biasing lab test results and misrepresenting findings in court to convict defendents; the document-shredding coverup attempt by FBI officials in the Ruby Ridge incident; the scathing Bromwich Report from the Justice Department), none of these recent abuses compare to the Gestapo-like tactics employed against political activist groups in the 60's and 70's, as documented in this book.

Although I agree with the recommendation of the closely-related "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" by the first reviewer (because it is a much more entertaining read, stylistically), I think this book is more important, due to its fastidious documentation of facts beyond what Matthiessen included, and due to the breadth of "Agents" coverage, which includes other movements targeted besides AIM (though AIM is definitely the primary focus here). Granted, this author has been involved in a silly feud with important leaders in the American Indian Movement, and I agree the Bellcourts definitely merit his respect; nevertheless, I think it's silly to bring in that outside spat as an excuse to pan such a detailed, hard-hitting, well researched book.

If you enjoyed this book, you can find a great historical survey of political repression in America (with the FBI frequently showing up) in Bud & Ruth Schultz' "It Did Happen Here".

A First Rate Piece Of Scholarship On A Crucial Issue
In the introduction, Churchill and Vander Wall trace the founding of the FBI in the mid-20's by J. Edgar Hoover, as he emerged from helping carry out the Justice department's anti-leftist terror campaigns during and in the years following World War One, to its official authorization by Franklin Roosevelt in the mid-30's as a full-fledged sophisticated political police with virtual impunity. They note that the FBI was grossly incompetent and unwilling at fighting serious criminals like the Mafia, prefering to go after the petty criminals of the Dillinger variety, car thieves, and so on to gain cheap publicity for the bureau and its director and that their chief function was and is to protect the economic and political status quo from threats by organized leftists and others. They note the immense propaganda machine constructed by the bureau to portray Hoover as a great crimefighting genius and hero, though he was nothing more than a crazed, reactionary and very cunning bureaucrat, and the effective techniques of making "friends of the bureau" in certain media outlets who would tell the public what the bureau wanted them to know and the techniques of intimidation against those media outlets or ex-bureau agents who wanted to come out with the truth about the FBI.

They move on to discuss Cointelpro, the greatly successful attempts at infiltration, disruption and weakening of dissident groups, extended from the usual Communist and Socialist party targets, to various leftist groups, people like Martin Luther King, but especially the Black Panther Party in the late 60's. Making massive use of declassified FBI documents and other sources, the authors note the FBI attempt to split the BPP, provoke violence between members or factions or with other militant black groups, to spread media disinformation about them and to drain their resources and mental stability by subjecting its leading members to repeated arrests on spurious charges. These objectives were accomplished by fabricating anonymous letters to particular prominent individuals within the party alleging that other party members or factions were plotting against or even planning to murder them, the use of infiltrators/provacateurs to further egg on the factional strife (e.g. the split between Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton) and encourage violence between members (e.g. the murder of Fred Bennet by member Jimmie Carr who suspected Bennett of being a police informant, after being led to this impression by police informant Thomas Mosher; Carr himself was later murdered by two Panther members who suspected him of being a government agent) or between the BPP and the Ron Karenga's organization(e.g. the murder of BPP leaders Alprentice Carter and Jon Huggins), the use of "bad-jacketing" through infiltrators to spread the false idea that certain members of the party were government agents (e.g. which resulted in the murders of Huggins, Carter and Carr and which led to Stokely Carmichael's expulsion from the party by Huey Newton), the spreading of media disinformation about alleged financial impropriety and other crimes among certain party members to encourage mistrust and suspiscion within the party, and so on. Two particular cases examined are the murder by the Chicago police of Chicago Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in December 1969, using a detailed floor plan of Hampton's appartment that had been provided by FBI infiltrator and Hampton's bodygaurd William O'neal (for which the survivors of the attack and families of the victim were awared 1.8 million dollars by an arbitrator in 1983). They move on to analyze the spurious (mostly through the use of FBI informer Julius Butler and the efforts of infiltrator Melvin Cotton Smith) robbery/murder conviction of Los Angelas leader Geronimo Pratt in 1971, who had been subjected to much harrassment and arrests on spurious charges by the LA police before the 1969 murder of Caroline Olsen, and according to police infiltrator Louis Tackwood (who helped the FBI murder George Jackson) and "Cotton" smith, had specifically been designated to be "neutralized" the LAPD.

The bulk of the book is centered on the particularly severe Cointelpro operations (using many of the same operations as against the BPP, using such infiltrators as Douglass Durham and even possibly being involved in murder, as in the case of Ana Marie Aquash) directed against the American Indian Movement (AIM), particularly at the hub of its activity, on Pine Ridge reservation, Sioux territory, South Dakota, the center of great natural resources eagerly eyed by corporations, throughout the 1970's and beyond. The AIM had risen as a particularly effective organization to fight government violations of Indian treaty and civil rights (what little of those remained). The AIM organized "the trail of Broken Treaties" in 1972, a caravan of veichles that led thousands of Indians to Washington D.C. to hold protests. The authors document a patern of government lies and duplicty with regard to accomodating the protestors and other promises which led to the provoking of the AIM (along with the Bureau of Indian Affairs head in solidarity which got him fired afterward) taking over the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington. The government blithely broke promises of non-prosecution of the BIA building incident, after the building had been released. On Pine Ridge, the government had been pouring funds into Dick Wilson's machine, who won the 1972 tribal presidency with considerable fraud, and proceeded to set up with FBI and Bureau of Indian affairs funds a paramilitary organization with the appropriate acronym of GOONS, who used terror against the inhabitants of Pine Ridge where AIM had widespread support. The next incident was the infamous "Siege of Wounded Knee," March-May 1973, the site where the army had massacred hundreds of Indian women and children in 1890, and where AIM leaders had gone to stage a press conference, only to find the Wounded Knee territory surrounded by FBI and Bureau of Indian Police, which AIM decided not to countenance, and they held down fort within Wounded Knee, gaining widespread international support and aid, with the FBI escalating the situation with its advanced weapons and other illegal Pentagon aid, with Dick Wilson's GOONS setting up illegal roadblocks and engaging in great violence with FBI support (but opposed by the U.S. Marshalls in this instance). After Wounded Knee, Dick Wilson's terrorists escalated their campaign, including murder, against AIM, with AIM members and traditional Indians filing innumerable complaints with the Justice Department and the FBI, which pleaded "lack of manpower" to deal with the situation, though their numbers continued to increase on the Pine Ridge reservation (in support of the Dick Wilson and theGOONS). Next came the "Oglala incident" near Pine Ridge in June 1975, with highly provocative FBI activity near the "Jumping Bull" compound in Oglala near Pine Ridge to "serve" a federal warrant for two youths who allegedly had gotten into a simple fist fight with a White boy shortly before. This resulted in a several day firefight with the Indians (most of whom carried weapons because of the climate of terror in the area) inside the "Jumping Bull" compound which resulted in the deaths of two FBI agents. The FBI proceeded to launch a reign of terror against Pine Ridge after the incident, looking for the murderers of the two agents, conducting innumerable warantless searches, ransacking houses, beating and threatening people. The authors examine the spurious charges brought against such AIM leaders as Richard Marshall (for murder and eventually released), Dennis Banks and Russel Means(both of whom suffered innumerable charges, including those for the incident at Wounded Knee, which judge Fred Nichol dismissed in 1975 on the grounds of gross FBI misconduct and fabrication), Bob Robideau and Dino Butler, and especially Leonard Peltier, who was alleged to have conducted the "execution" of the two FBI agents at the Oglala firefight. Peltier has become one of the international symbols of the American injustice system, promting widespread calls for his release and retrial, including from the Canadien government which originally extradited him back to the United States. For instance, a three judge panel in 1985, took note of the "improper conduct" of "some FBI agents" in Peltier's case, but ended their investigation there by saying that "we are reluctant to impute further improprieties to them."

The closing chapters deal with the FBI's increased attention on Cointelpro activities in Puerto Rico in the 1980's, including murder and burglary and harrassment. They continue with an account of large-scale burglary and harrassment operations against groups oppossing U.S. support for the Death squad regimes in Central America in the 1980's, particularly against the Committee in Solidarity with the people of El Salvador (CISPES). The FBI could never find any evidence that CISPES or

essential reading
In "Agents of Repression" authors Ward Churchill and James Vanderwall have demonstrated the true workings of American "democracy" in all its glory.

The "Agents of Repression" exposes how the FBI launched one of its major programs of repression (COINTELPRO) in order to disrupt lower-class solidarity by instigating violence in African-American ghettos, direct participation in the police assassination of a Black Panther organizer, burglaries and harassment of the Socialist Workers Party over many years, and other methods of defamation and disruption.

A tremendouly important book and essential reading for anyone living under the delusion that America stands for liberty, justice and fraternity.


Fantasies of the Master Race
Published in Paperback by Common Courage Press (1991)
Authors: Churchil, Ward Churchill, and M. Annette Jaimes
Amazon base price: $14.95
Used price: $3.75
Collectible price: $10.59
Average review score:

Fantasies are fiction
Ward Churchill has hit upon a very important and eye opening subject for those that believe everything their history teachers and the media dishes out to them about the American Indian. Mainstream America is still in the dark about the reality of the first peoples of this country. I was moved by many portions of this book and would love to see it made into a PBS series for public consumption. The only sad part is most of the people that need to be informed wouldn't think of reading this book or watching anything on PBS. It is a consise and important work.

Strong Analysis of American Writings
Great book that goes deeper in the analysis of popular books on native american cultures and "testimonials" written by pro-natives and anglo-saxons alike.

Great food-for-thought book.

Would also recommend Taos Pueblo and the battle for the blue lake, very sad yet great book.

ward churchill's second best, this time with improved prose
I would say this is worth 4 stars, but seeing how one reviewer is bent on giving it the worst possible to make a statement rather than a review, I decided to attempt to neutralize his rating.

Churchill's review on cultural myths and cinema tragecomedies that rewrite history to their liking are somewhat striking. One would expect that there is some bias, but to see it put under the microscope as churchill does is more than an eye-opener.

It's not another "white man steals again" books, but rather an intellectually secure book that makes claims outside the public spectrum of politics. And do I dare say, sometimes radical politics are right! Indigenous americans have been slandered. John Wayne has only secured the subtlely racist notions of indigenous savagery and such.

The truth will set you free


Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2

Reviews are from readers at Amazon.com. To add a review, follow the Amazon buy link above.