Parenti's critical review of the Rambo movies really made an impression on me. I used to like the Rambo movies, but now watch them mainly for laughs. Each subsequent Rambo release is, as Parenti describes it, worse than its predecessor. There was talk of reviving the Rambo character now that the U.S. is at war against terrorism. Let's hope it doesn't happen.

I'm not sure if working people are portrayed as negatively as Parenti has described it. If we only take Archie Bunker as an example, then yes, but filmmakers love to advance the theme of the powerless versus the powerful, because the opposite doesn't go well with audiences. Perhaps Parenti knows something I don't on this issue.

Parenti's favorable ratings of two films - JFK and Salvador - made me want to see them - over ten years after they had been released. I managed to see JFK, and it was great. I am still looking to see Salvador.

What I would like to see is an updated version of this book, since there has been more Hollywood propaganda released since the original version came out.

To hear newscasters avoid talk about class in America, you'd think the concept is as obsolete as the Soviet Union.Yet Michael Parenti continues to insist that class bias not only spreads out from the heart of society, but shapes it. Here he looks at TV's entertainment role in preserving social privilege. From popular stereotypes such as the Lone Ranger and his third-world flunky Tonto, to the invisible world of labor, to the well-meaning but misunderstood plutocrat, Parenti exposes capitalism's self-serving myths as portrayed on the little screen. Sure it's fun to kick around TV and a lot of people do it, but Parenti does it in a highly informative way that confronts our last remaining taboo - the role of wealth and power in American life.

Maybe the best chapter concerns profits and censorship. It's no news to point out that the networks and advertisers are in it for the money. But it is news to point out those instances when producers actually forego profits for the sake of respectability. Parenti details instances when industry has eaten losses rather than jeopardise the system of wealth and power it serves. For example, Procter & Gamble, TV's biggest advertiser, makes this allegiance clear by banning all content critical of Wall Street and the Pentagon from scripts it sponsors. In fact, most scripts - as Parenti shows - go through not 1, but 4 levels of censorship. No wonder, the public walks around in an ideological haze wondering why the world hates us -- and so much for the dollar sign's being more important than the system of which it is a part.

Another telling chapter concerns one of entertainment's most popular myths: "We only give 'em (the audience) what they want." Sounds good. But, as Parenti documents, despite this appeal to democratic ideals, the entertainment marketplace is anything but democratic. He sketches out control points or nerve centers that reduce real choice to pseudo choice, sort of like a multiple choice question whose options are narrowed to a desired range of outcome. All this is made sorrier by indications that American audiences respond to forbidden topics on those rare occasions when they seep through.

No book that debunks the FBI's screen role in the civil rights movement, or points out the class conditioning behind TV's version of Treasure Island, can afford to be overlooked. Whatever the book lacks in depth is more than made up for in focus. Despite his unperson status, Parenti remains a key figure among dissident academics banished to the book-selling fringes. Recommended to all those who understand TV viewing as anything but a passive pastime.

Propaganda is basically found in every modern society, so it should come as no surprise to find it in a movie like "Red Dawn," which Parenti refers to. He brings up such interesting facts as that all the TV networks have a department devoted to censorship, such as CBS's euphemistically named "Standards and Practices Department"; that companies like Procter & Gamble often have inordinate veto power over broadcast content considered subversive; and that PBS, which is actually anything but a "public" organization, has been dubbed the "Petroleum Broadcast Service" due to the large influence of the oil companies that help fund it. He who pays the piper..., you might say. I highly recommend this book.

Clear, documented, factual. Parenti has produced a magnificent gem. As relevant today as when it was first written.

Some will say this book is too out of date (which it is) and that Chomsky, Zinn, Brecher, and so forth give more descriptive analysis of what this book speaks of, and they do, in a much more "dry" manner. The magic of this book is that with a little bit of curiosity, a 16 year old could ingest the information quite easily. Parenti effectively provides the reader with a description of how capitalism works, why America has imperialistic elements, why corporate predators feed off of the third world, how clandestine operations work in conjunction with big business, and the outcome derived by multi-national corporations in the third world. The second portion of the book gives a conclusive summary of what the myths are of the then-Cold War, and what the intentions of the Arms race really are. A great book for the novice-leftist who wants to get a good start on what the truth really is and what myths our good friends at the top of the hierarchy provide us.

Contrary to a previous reviewer, this is not an objective book, in part, because "objectivity" does not exist; but also because Parenti clearly and honestly presents a point of view. However, the book is an excellent examination of the interrelationship between U.S. economic and military policy, specifically within the mythology of the Cold War. It is this Cold War focus which now dates the book. While its underlying premises are as valid today as in 1988, they should be placed within the context of Post Cold War economic globalism.

Each time I go back and read one of Stephen's poems I am reminded of the joy, wonder, love and hope that surrounds us every day. This young man was truly a gift of pure love. For every family who has a special needs child, I recommend this book. For every family that would like to help their children understand the person inside "the package" and see the heart, mind and soul of a special needs child, I recommend this book. For every person who has known that physical limitations cannot measure the depth of a soul, I recommend this book. For every person who has doubted and questioned if a mind, heart and soul exists inside a body wracked with physical limitations, I recommend this book. Read this book in conjunction with his mother's "Eagle Doctor: Stories of Stephen, My Child With Special Needs" to understand their path together and the miracle of their lives.

The beautiful poetry of Stephen Michael Nelson will capture your heart and enrich your faith. His words reflect a young man's dreams and aspirations unaffected by his lifelong contest against the physical ailments of cerebral palsy, epilepsy, asthma, and heart disease. Stephen reaches out to all of us with an offering of love, and a never ending amount of energy to fulfill life's dreams. It is obvious that he had no obstacles or limitations, and that we should not either. This book is a must read... as it is a glorious celebration of life and love.

It's wonderful to know that there are more opportunities and forums to encourage new poets of all ages to be published and heard. In our super-sonic paced society so few of us take time out to read poetry anymore or even listen to each others words....New words, new thoughts, new ideas...new ways to understand each other. Our ever changing world has changed again, just when we were getting comfortable. We face many uncertainties, war, unemployment,....art, music,poetry can be a tonic for some of this confusion. New books celebrating new poets, afford us the chance to listen to those who may share our thoughts and through the dialoge of poetry help us find our own inner balance in this unbalanced world we all share.

I had never heard of the United States Information Agency until I read this book. Among other public diplomacy (read: propaganda) duties, the USIA is responsible for Radio Marti, the pro-US propaganda beamed in to Cuba and the Fullbright scholar program. The reason those of us living in the US don't know too much about the USIA's mission is that they are not allowed to use their propaganda skills on US citizens, even though their predecessor organization, the Committee on Public Information (CPI) was created during the Wilson administration specifically to convince the people of the US that fighting the Germans in World War I was critical to the security of the American homeland.

Post cold-war and especially during the Clinton administration, the USIA became the mouthpiece of NAFTA and the evangelization of people in other countries of the benefits of accepting American-style economies. This very brief book outlines much of this history and the author Nancy Snow makes it clear that any positive aspects of the program like the Fullbright program have been long buried under the pro-business propaganda machine of the Clinton and Bush the Younger administrations. The Fullbright program in particular became a tool to influence thought on market economics in Mexico and Canada, whose citizens were ambivalent about the promises of economic development promised by NAFTA.

Today, much of the USIA's work has been rolled into the State Department, headed by former advertising executive Charlotte Beers, who is charged with "rebranding America to the world" like the Uncle Ben's Rice she used to work on. The USIA is one of the vehicles of US economic and cultural hegemony, especially in countries that we can't go to war with. Snow's history and analysis ends with an action plan that is wider reaching than simply what to do with the USIA. It is really a series of concrete ideas for reforming the very government of our country.

This book is the most intelligent written in ages. It tells the truth about how men and women are being brainwashed in our country...right along with people in foreign countries. Nancy Snow covers this brilliantly. You'll never see America the same way...

This small book tells the story of the USIA (the US Information Agency), a government unit.
This institution was created with very good intentions (increase mutual understanding between people), but was diverted from its original goal and streamlined as a propaganda machine to promote the US economic system and business interests.

The author rightly stigmatizes harshly the democratic deficit in the US: a media monopoly, a political duopoly ruled by big business and big money, and a plutocracy which dominates without control public welfare, public lands, public airwaves and the pension trusts.
Prof. Snow proposes a seven point plan to restore true democracy, but the implementation will be extremely difficult, if not impossible.

This book should be read as a classic example of how particular interest groups take control of a public institution and turn it into a pro-private interests mouthpiece.

Not to be missed.

Mr. Parenti presents a compelling case as to what may have caused the attacks on 11 September 2001. To be sure, the actions of the American government as well as American based corporations had an influence on the overall situation leading up to the attacks. I found it curious that he did not link O. North's testimony to Congress about his security system that indicated that he (Lt. Col. North) was afraid of Osama Bin Laden (read the transcripts) in the package of reasons.

The book begins to fail when the author starts linking to the "general conspiracy theory" that an unidentifed group of individuals/corporations are actually ruling the world. In my opinon this devalues the text in that these theories of conspiratorial efforts have been in effect for generations. The problem is that they are attributed to varried groups that, more often than not, are violently opposed to each other.

Read this book for a background on how the actions of our businesses and government have set the stage for radicals to plan and execute an attack on America.

Michael Parenti's comments on the September 11 catastrophe are to the point: it was a horrendous shock for everybody and certainly for Main Street, chloroformed by the media's rosy picture of the state of the Union.

In a small book like this one, the author could not develop the deeper reasons, which, he beliefs, are behind this horrible attack and why the US is so hated in certain parts of the world: the US military interventions and the military aid to protect the various ruling oligarchs and multinational corporate investors, to destroy reformist movements, labour unions, peasant organizations, democratically elected reformist governments.
In a nutshell: the imperialist goals of the US to create a global hegemony (a world of client states).

Although his analyses are globally right, he should have paid more attention to the fact that the attacks were carried out by Muslim fundamentalists, who were partially (the Taliban) financed by the US.

Like Gore Vidal, he fulminates rightly against the massive US defence budget, the biased media, monopolistic free trade, big money corporate capitalism, religion laced with violence and intolerance and environmental damage.

This is a harsh, but much needed, pamphlet, because it lays bare some undeniable facts, which are crucial for world politics.
Not to be missed.

I have all his books and many of his tapes. His work is well-researched and documented. He and Chomsky and others do a great job providing Americans with information that is not available in the mass media. However, most Americans do not go beyond Time Magazine and Dan Rather for their information and so they will likely be disturbed by the contents of this and other publications. It will indeed shake up your belief system but that's what truth does; it makes one uncomfortable and demands change.

Michael Parenti poses the right question: cui bono?
In the US for the wealthy few, not the many. The many are besieged in their own country by the few.
The few control the democratic process via a political duopoly and a near media monopoly. This monopoly brings another one in mainstream media ideology.
Michael Parenti is deadly right: democracy is based on distrust, not on yes-men who preach the same gospel.
The many are also besieged through the US budget, where a very big chunk goes to massive defence spending with juicy contracts and fat margins.

This book contains for me some extremely surprising facts. So is the First Amendment protection not valid for private-sector employees. They can be fired for their political views. Also, foreigners can be denied a visit to the US for ideological reasons.
On another level: Bill Clinton, like Jimmy Carter, is a member of the Bilderberg group.

I have nevertheless reservations for some extreme viewpoints of the author.
I agree with him that the market is not free, but more or less rigged by oligopolies. But I don't agree with him on his totally anti-market stance. Only, the oligopolies should be broken.
I am equally not against transnational companies. On the contrary, I agree with Susan Strange that these companies are one of the major sources of higher living standards in the world, through their delocations, investments and technology transfers. I agree that this is (was) in their own interest, but the effect is the same (Adam Smith revisited).
I am also not against GATT. It should be changed from within. We need more open markets for all countries and all players.

As other writers (Domhoff, Vidal) stated: it will be very difficult to change the actual situation. Therefore we need Michael Parenti's voice for more democracy.

This book deals with essential problems and has the same high standard as the vitriolic books of Gore Vidal. Not to be missed.

Michael Parenti's America Besieged is a wonderful book. It is a political science type book that tells what's really going on in America. Parenti focuses on America and what is really going on behind closed doors. He reminds us of how democracy really works in the USA. This book is organized in five parts. It doesn't go easy to hard stuff, but from how politics work to how things are really run. Parenti dives into how well we are protected from certain problems that might occur at certain times. He also tells about those things, that we really aren't supposed to know about. Raids on certain protect organizations in the US in the 1960s and 1970s, and the reasons for the raids. Parenti also gives examples of how certain ethnic groups in Europe, and in the Middle East aren't allowed into America because of political ideology. How certain security agencies in the US have files on numerous people who don't believe in American beliefs.

Parenti looks at all branches of government, and what they really do for Americans. He tells the real job of the President, and how the economy really runs. Parenti goes on to remind us that the rich are the ones that are in a Democracy, not the lower class Americans. He ties this in with the media and how they shift things to make a certain group look better, instead of telling it without bias. How they always do this no matter what the cause or problem is. Overall, this book is wonderful. I think anyone that really wants to know about America's secrets should read this. The insight that Michael Parenti gives is immeasurable.

Great book!

Michael Parenti did it, a great well-organized book which step-by-step examines everything revolving around our life, from the media to the economy, to the politics, and relates it to how all these three strangleholds on society are manipulated and/or owned by capital and corporations. Parenti also confronts capitalism as an "system without a soul or humanity" which reduces every human activity to market profitablity. This book really does go to the core of America and emphasizes that democracy has not been achieved, that democracy is only for the rich and the owning class, from the two-party system where both parties are pro-corporation, which supresses left wing ideology by various ways in history, as well as tactics still being practiced today. Overall, this book is a summary of all the problems that are happening in the US that most of the rich do not know or want to admit are happening. I recomend this book as a vivid overview of the supressed problems in todays society to any open minded reader.

I give this book three stars not because of the questions that it brings up, but because of the level it's on. Parenti is the master of rewriting areas covered by Chomsky, Zinn, and company on a less rigorous level. This book is no exception. If you don't read much history then this book is ok but it doesn't pass muster as an academic book, as anothe reviewer described it . The reviewer in Kirkus was wrong though. Whatever you think of Parenti's book or his style he raises questions that really need to be addressed. And if you think that pointing out that Columbus was terrible to the Indians, just like we were, is being full of leftwing ideology and is browbeating it into the reader you really need to check your history. Same thing with the comment on Parenti's analyses of textbooks. Just like the record with Columbus you can actually check out the books that get read in public schools and really detect bias. It isn't a matter of conservative versus liberal it's a matter of the real historical record versus one that's been distorted every generation to agree with the current prejudices and biases. A pretty radical statement until you remeber that people were routinely taught in school and in Church that slavery was natural and justified and that all Union members were foreigners and commies ought to destroy the country and that now the orthodox opinion is that free trade is the new saviour for the world.

Michael Parenti is indeed one of America's more progressive thinkers. History as Mystery is a good introduction to how "history" is made, and how abysmally informed Americans are about the issues of history. I was amazed at the Booklist review, which is a shocking diatribe that should make any reader sit back in dismay, and wonder what was behind that kind of professional review being published. It read more like a tabloid headline than an actual book review. It is true that Parenti's work is not as rigorous as Zinn's or Chomsky's (like no indexes in his books), but that does not mean he has not done his homework. His chapter on the death of Zachary Taylor deserves a much wider readership. Though definitely written with an activist perspective, Parenti's book is well worth reading as an antidote to the establishment fabrications that pass for history texts in America.

Michael Parenti's History as Mystery was a wonderful discovery. As a fan of all things historical, it is always a pleasure to discover a writer who looks at history from a different angle from most mainstream authors. Parenti has a viewpoint and shouts it loudly and proudly. Since all history writers have a bias of some kind, it is nice to read a book that wears its bias on its sleeve. He is far left. That could pose a problem for some readers who are so firmly entrenched to the right but for others it is a delight to travel with Parenti as he examines the ways history is manipulated by the ruling elite for their own benefit. This book, whether you agree with it or not, will make you question other historians as you read them. That is a very good thing. This book opened my mind a little (and along with the History on Trial, as a companion piece) allowed me to examine with insight the history that I have been spoon fed in the past and the history books I will enter into in the future. An entertaining read from an angry (with every reason to be so) book.

In "Land of Idols: Political Mythology in America" Michael Parenti demolishes a number of more insidious and invidious tales of the state (see Tales of the State, Schramm and Neisser, 1997), tales that have been told from the ancients as they have sought to reserve power to themselves. Clearly, concisely, he shows how our contemporary lives are organized according to the whims of one slice of the population: the 2% who own 90% of the wealth, and exploit 98% of the people. Here's one common tale and its antidote: the economic pie will get bigger if only liberal government will get out of the way and let the free market do it's job. In fact, when the economic pie has grown larger, the bigger piece has always gone to the rich, leaving the working class with a smaller piece each time. A supplementary tale says that because they assume so much more risk than the working man does, capitalists deserve much bigger rewards. Tell that to an Enron employee, or someone who was downsized, who receive all the risks, none of the rewards, and don't have billions to fall back on.

He notes that any kind of Marxist perspective, even the use of the word "class" will not be tolerated in the media any longer. When Marxism is mentioned, it is excoriated as a failed system, and the notion of "class" is reviled along with this characterization. He points out that Marxist predictions have been more right than wrong, however. The creation of a worker's paradise through the withering away of the state never materialized, but his observations about business cycles and recessions were correct, as is his prediction of capital concentration, the growth of the proletariat and the increasing misery of the working class, the need for capital to chase around the world looking for new peoples and materials to exploit.

He suggests that the capitalists have made a monopoly culture in their own image through the funding of the arts, universities, the promulgation of legalistic views of the lifeworld, control of the media, medicine and healthcare. He destroys the "tales" that we have either pluralism or "democratic capitalism" as promoted by "free markets." He notes that rich live at such a remove in terms of social distance that they might as well be living on another planet and thus cannot hope to promote such ideals. And yet, the ruling class promulgates the tale that worthy members of the working class may some day attain this same lofty perch through hard work and pluck, when if fact there is very little movement between economic segments (or classes, as they used to be known before mainstream sociologists changed the terminology to make it more "neutral"). All proof to the contrary, this canard of the "rugged individualist" still enjoys the support of the media, and many Americans.

But is this a conspiracy? Here's a little known but appropriate quote from Abraham Lincoln (circa 1837) that speaks to this, as quoted by Parenti: "These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people..." For those who would point out that 20th century capitalism and early 19th century capitalism are incommensurable, he quotes a critical study of David Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission as a way of demonstrating how 20th century "conspiracies" work: "A conspiracy on the part of certain members of the international ruling class is not being suggested here, but rather that many of these people, who have a great deal of influence, are consciously making efforts to guide and control the direction of the world's political and socioeconomic system in their class interest." A de facto conspiracy, in other words.

Parenti sometimes goes a bit far in his acceptance of some conspiracy theories (multiple assassins of both Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the incompetent investigation of Malcolm X, for instance), but, given that it is the paranoid right who are historically much more likely to create and promulgate such theories -- liberal media, communists in the State Department, the hazards of fluoride, homosexual teachers perverting their students -- Parenti's occasional paranoia is relatively benign.

There was a political party in New York State in the early 1830s called the Anti-Masonry party, whose conspircist theories about the Freemasons served as the foundation for the Working Man's party, an anti-Albany Regency party which succeeded in driving Freemasons underground, and nearly out of existence. A similar anti-elitist party with a compelling conspiracy theory is what lefties need now!

This is Micheal Parenti at his best where he analyzes every aspect of American society and pluralism and destroy's all the myths that accompany it. A must have for those interested in reality of American society and for those interested in constructive change.

Parenti is a lesser known figure on the American Left (as opposed to Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky or Ralph Nader). Yet his work has gained enough popularity to be cited by progressives almost as much as those three.

That's unfortunate since none of Parenti's books are very convincing. Like "Democracy for the Few" (which I have also reviewed), "Dirty Truths" makes a great deal of bold assertions with scanty and questionable evidence to back them up.

However, there are some interesting and valuable chapters in this book. Parenti's discussion of the JFK's assassination is informative and I was pleased to see him take on Chomsky and Alexander Cockburn (the one leftist writer who I consider even worse than Parenti). His concluding narrative about the collapse of his father's bakery is a moving piece that reminds one of the unpleasant byproducts of American capitalism. In fact, that story probably does more to motivate progressives than the rest of the book.

One thing that worries me is that leftists/progressives seem too eager to accept uncritically anything that supports their ideology. I am very much on the left politically (member of YPSL, vote Green). I am not "chronically indoctrinated" (ref. to "Curtis_K's" angry rebuttal to my other Parenti review) by either the mainstream or the progressive press. And I am not willing to look the other way when an author makes questionable and unsupported claims, even if I'm sympathetic to them. Parenti does this an awful lot.

As with "Democracy for the Few", I don't think this book is worth buying. But it is worth reading in its entirety (since its short and not masquerading as a scholarly work like "Democracy...") for a radical critique of the often mediocre mainstream media.

The work is vintage Parenti. I would have liked to see more documentation on sources, but the lack of it doesn't take much away from this book. The chapters on the JFK assassination were extremely chilling. If the U.S. Government can do that to its president, then it can do it to anyone in the world.

Sometimes I wonder why so many people are turned off by conspiracy theories. Do they think that conspiracies don't happen in the U.S.? Sorry, non-believers. Conspiracies are real, and they can happen anywhere.

This is a wide-ranging book, covering topics as diverse as false consciousness, creating the poor, fascism in pinstripes, the strange death of Walter Reuther, personal reminiscence, with a defense of Oliver Stone's film "JFK" added to the mix. All are provocatively positioned to challenge assumptions of liberal and conservative alike. Unlike that ruling duopoly, Parenti is no friend of America's far-flung empire, disguised to the public as the "free world". His debunking commentary on this central myth constitutes the dirty truths of the title, and uncomfortable truths they are. He even has the guts to trace the current rollback of environmental and social reforms to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the free hand this has given the big money class to maximize profits regardless of human or ecological consequences.

Perhaps the book's most informative chapter is "Hidden Holocaust, USA", a compilation of negative social statistics drawn from the US Census Bureau. There the author makes a strong case against conventional claims that the US is a happy nation. The negative numbers paint a far grimmer picture, giving the lie to those Repubocrat politicians who loudly claim to love the country, at the same time they pursue profits over people.

Despite the author's scholarly background, this is not a scholarly work. There is very little foot-noting. Most of the chapters read like op-ed pieces; ones, however, that are never found in corporate news outlets, which is the real value of an informed work like this. For so long as the powers-that-be tolerate a fringe press, the public will have at least some access to the dirty truths filtered out of the mainstream. It is to Parenti's credit that he delivers the goods.