more books to read

Chalmers Johnson, international relations professor, a former CIA consultant, and author of the "Blowback" trilogy, has a new volume coming out shortly. Like the "Blowback" series, it's published by the American Empire Project, the brain child of radical columnist Tom Engelhardt.

"Dismantling the Empire: America's Last Best Hope" will be available at Amazon and elsewhere on August 17.

I enjoyed all three titles in the trilogy ("Blowback," "The Sorrows of Empire," and "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic"), but found them somewhat redundant. If a person was to just read one of the three, I'd suggest "Sorrows."

I like Noam Chomsky, but find him hard to read. He sometimes goes off on tangents, and tends to be all over the map. Johnson's geopolitical orientation is similar to Chomsky's, but he's a better writer. His style is formal, very old school, and classically organized, moving methodically from one outlined point to next.

I hope the new book is a how-to manual, with detailed instructions and pictures. I'm usually pretty good at following instructions, especially if I have a diagram to work from.

Photo: Chalmers Johnson (r.) and friend.