Archives de catégorie : Politics

UNDAUNTED de John Brennan

A powerful and revelatory memoir from former CIA director John Brennan, spanning his more than thirty years in government.

UNDAUNTED:
My Fight Against America’s Enemies, At Home and Abroad
by John Brennan
Celadon/Macmillan, October 2020

Friday, January 6, 2017: On that day, as always, John Brennan’s alarm clock was set to go off at 4:15 a.m. But nothing else about that day would be routine. That day marked his first and only security briefing with President-elect Donald Trump. And it was also the day John Brennan said his final farewell to Owen Brennan, his father, the man who had taught him the lessons of goodness, integrity, and honor that had shaped the course of an unparalleled career serving his country from within the intelligence community.
In this brutally honest memoir, Brennan describes the life that took him from being a young CIA recruit enamored with the mystique of spy work and invigorated by his travels in the Middle East to being the most powerful individual in American intelligence. He details his experiences with very different presidents and what it’s been like to bear responsibility for some of the nation’s most crucial and polarizing national security decisions. He pulls back the curtain on the inner workings of the Agency, describing the selfless, patriotic, and invisible work of the women and men involved in national security. He also examines the insularity, arrogance, and myopia that have, at times, undermined its reputation in the eyes of the American people and of members of other branches of government. Through topics ranging from George W. Bush’s intervention in Iraq to his thoughts on the CIA’s controversial use of enhanced interrogation techniques to his eye-opening account of the planning of the raid that resulted in Bin Ladin’s death to his realization that Russia had interfered with the 2016 election, Brennan brings the reader behind the scenes of some of the most crucial moments in recent U.S. history. He also candidly discusses the times he has failed to live up to his own high standards and the very public fallouts that have resulted.
UNDAUNTED offers a rare and insightful look at the often-obscured world of national security, the intelligence profession, and Washington’s chaotic political environment. But more than that, it is a portrait of a man striving for integrity; for himself, for the CIA, and for his country.

John O. Brennan was one of President Obama’s most trusted national security advisors during all eight years of the Obama Administration, first as assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism and then as director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Brennan had previously worked in the CIA from 1980 to 2005, where he specialized in Middle Eastern affairs and counterterrorism and served as President Clinton’s daily intelligence briefer. Mr. Brennan received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Fordham University in 1977 and a master’s degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin in 1980.

RACE MATTERS de Cornel West

With a new introduction, the groundbreaking classic RACE MATTERS affirms its position as the bestselling, most influential, and most original articulation of the urgent issues in America’s ongoing racial debate.

RACE MATTERS
by Cornel West
Beacon Press, 2001

Cornel West is at the forefront of thinking about race. First published in 1993, on the one-year anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, RACE MATTERS became a national best seller that has gone on to sell more than half a million copies. West addresses a range of issues, from the crisis in black leadership and the myths surrounding black sexuality to affirmative action, the new black conservatism, and the strained relations between Jews and African Americans. He never hesitates to confront the prejudices of all his readers or wavers in his insistence that they share a common destiny. Bold in its thought and written with a redemptive passion grounded in the tradition of the African-American church, RACE MATTERS is a book that is at once challenging and deeply healing.

« [A] compelling blend of philosphy, sociology and political commentary…It directly takes on some of the most volatile issues facing American society today…One can only applaud the ferocious moral vision and astute intellect on display in these pages. »  ̶̶ The New York Times

Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in three years and obtained his MA and PhD in philosophy at Princeton University. He has taught at Union Theological Seminary, Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Paris. He has written twenty books and edited thirteen, including including Keeping Faith, Prophetic Fragments, and, with bell hooks, Breaking Bread. He has been Professor of Religion and Director of Afro-American Studies at Princeton University since 1988, and was recently appointed Professor of Afro-American Studies and the Philosophy of Religion at Harvard University.

Un documentaire Netflix inspiré de l’autobiographie de Michelle Obama

Le documentaire Devenir (Becoming) réalisé par Nadia Hallgren, adapté de l’autobiographie de l’ancienne Première Dame des États-Unis, vient de sortir le 6 mai dernier sur Netflix. Il retrace « mon histoire, de mon enfance dans les quartiers sud de Chicago à ma vie aujourd’hui, et il célèbre aussi les histoires puissantes des gens que j’ai rencontrés en chemin » explique t-elle sur Twitter. « Les liens que j’ai tissés avec des gens de toute l’Amérique et du monde entier me rappellent que l’empathie peut vraiment être une bouée de sauvetage.  Et son pouvoir est pleinement mis en évidence dans le film de Nadia » a-t-elle ajouté en évoquant la tournée promotionnelle internationale de son autobiographie.

Devenir est paru chez Fayard en 2018, ainsi que Devenir, le journal, invitation à méditer et à découvrir ou redécouvrir notre histoire grâce à une série de questions accompagnées de citations tirées de ses Mémoires.

FIRE DRILL FRIDAYS de Jane Fonda

Jane Fonda’s next book focuses on the climate crisis and her Fire Drill Friday weekly demonstrations in Washington D.C.

FIRE DRILL FRIDAYS:
Bold Moves for a Burning Planet
by Jane Fonda
Penguin Press, July 2021

Since October 11th, Jane Fonda has been leading weekly Friday protests in Washington D.C. in her now iconic red coat, heeding the urgent call of young activists like Greta Thunberg to take fighting climate change to the streets. She and the Friday actions have gotten so much media attention, in part because of Jane’s unyielding commitment in the form of civil disobedience, in which other celebrities and growing crowds of activists have been inspired to participate.

In the book, she writes of her awakening from an environmentally responsible lifestyle to an urgent need to engage in global activism as she hikes in Big Sur. With urgency as well as her signature humanity and humor, Jane will take readers with her as she leaves her comfort zone, bonds with activists young and old, experiences each week’s actions, is arrested and spends time in jail. In addition, she will write about how she learns from experts before the events—activists and scientists—about everything from stopping fossil fuel production to the impact on health and women. As she says, so many of us feel overwhelmed; we need to connect the dots to better understand what needs to be done.

THE WHITE HOUSE PLUMBERS, une série sur le Watergate bientôt sur HBO

Une mini-série HBO en cinq épisodes, adaptée de l’autobiographie d’Egil Krogh sur l’affaire du Watergate, INTEGRITY, vient d’être officiellement annoncée !

Egil Krogh, ancien membre de l’administration Nixon, offre dans INTEGRITY le récit époustouflant de l’enquête secrète menée au sein de la Maison-Blanche par une équipe surnommée « The Plumbers » ayant pour but d’étouffer le scandale du Watergate. La série sera centrée sur deux figures majeures de l’affaire, E. Howard Hunt (interprété par Woody Harrelson) et G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux), les organisateurs du cambriolage du Watergate qui a eu pour conséquence de faire tomber le président Richard Nixon au lieu de le protéger.

INTEGRITY est paru chez PublicAffairs / Perseus Books en août 2007. Une nouvelle édition tie-in paraîtra sous le titre THE WHITE HOUSE PLUMBERS au printemps 2021. Les droits de langue française sont toujours disponibles.