An Indigenous People's History of North America - Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

A brilliant overview of United States colonial history with all the parts that are normally left out.  Like the fact that the first settlers survived because they stole the food of Native villages, and forced them to hunt and grow food to supply the white settlement.  It all starts right at the beginning of the history.  The whole american dream built on theft and exploitation right from the start.
For me, her main accomplishment is how she places the whole process in the context of colonialism and colonialist structures as carried out by Europe in Africa and the Far East, and also the U.S. in more recent history in relation to South and Central America as well as smaller Pacific Islands.  (Reading Varoufakis at the same time - I wonder if the whole post Bretton-Woods economic structure could be interpreted as a form of global colonialism?)
The usual american narrative avoids this colonial perspective by refusing to see the Native groups as nations with distinct and valid political structures and culture.  Yet at the same time, the U.S. treaty history refers to Native groups as nations or political powers.
The book also raises the issue of how this extremely exploitative colonialism enriched the U.S. so lavishly that it created the base of wealth for them to be able to project their power and economic colonialism globally in the following decades and century.

At the beginning there is also a reference to colonial exploitation as a result of the nature of capitalism itself.  I would like to read more about this idea to grasp it more fully.  You can see a similar structure at work in England during the late 17th century is the early stages of capitalism - the Enclosures period, when small farmers and landholders were chased off their traditional land and traditional commons land was seized by the moneyed aristocracy to practice an early form of industrial farming.  It is interesting to contrast this view of capitalism with the facts presented at the beginning of the recent book, Utopia for Realists, which highlights the rapid improvement in living conditions in the modern era due to the efficiency of capitalism as a system.  Is it a questions of some advancing so far so fast at the expense of exploited others?  How do you rebalance all this?  If it is possible?

The book is a long litany of lies, broken promises, cruelty and absolute disregard for human life.

When you place this murderous colonial exploitation alongside the institution of slavery, you are left wondering how Americans can possibly see their country as the greatest nation on earth, and a beacon of civilization, progress and freedom.  Tells you how deeply white privilege and superiority run in their culture...

Bosnian Chronicle - Ivo Andric

A novel set in Travnik during the late revolution Napoleonic period.  It chronicles the life of the French Consul in a small town in Bosnia during the time period when the Ottomans were allied with the French and attempting to modernize their antiquated army and administrative structure.

It basically looks at the enormous gulf in world views between the locals and the Western European mentality as represented by the Austrian Consuls and French Consul.  There is even a huge gulf between the Ottoman administrators and the local population, including the very conservative Muslims.

Some insights that he offers:
- the folding back into your religious community as a form of resistance and cultural survival strategy
- backwardness, self-imposed isolation and conservatism as a form of passive resistance to occupation
- the fragmented identities divided by religion as the main challenge to building a modern Bosnia as a country, even then; the need for a Bosnian identity that transcends religious identity or tribe - here he even predicts the violence and conflict that in fact arose after the "super identity" of Yugoslavia collapsed

For me, a bit of a slow read.  Too much internal dissection and monologue of the characters' thoughts and feelings.  Very 19th C in style.

Time to Start Thinking - Edward Luce

A very clear, sharp analysis of the many challenges America is facing as it slowly slips into decline.  A chapter on each of several issues - middle class decline, poor education system, dubious value of free trade, outdated ideologies, rise of other dynamic and innovative economic centres, bureaucracy, political dishonesty, entrenched special interest groups.
Luce is only moderately optimistic that the situation can be turned around.
Very well-done.  Doesn't seem too biased in any particular direction.

War's End - Joe Sacco

Safe Area Gorzade - Joe Sacco

Le Pont sur la Drina - Ivo Andric

Un classique d'un auteur de la Bosnie-Herzégovine.  Il raconte l'histoire de Visegrad, une ville sur la Drina, à travers les siècles de l'occupation Ottomane jusqu'au début de la première guerre, tout centré sur ce pont qui semble indestructible.  La première partie est très intéressante parce qu'il donne un aperçu, un goût de la vie de l'époque.  Quand il arrive à l'époque moderne, c'est moins intéressant parce qu'il se perd dans les discussions idéologiques autour de l'indépendance et la politique.
Le livre se termine avec la destruction d'une partie du pont au debut de la guerre.

Il aurait été horrifié par les événements sur ce pont au cours de la chute de l'ex-Yougoslavie...

Bosnia-Herzegovina in Pictures - Mary Englar

A brief book about Bosnia-Herzegovina - really a book intended for high school use.  Because of this brevity, though, you get a good overview of history and culture without getting bogged down in the more contentious aspects of the history and politics.  Good starting point, with some references.

I Wouldn't Start from Here - Andrew Mueller

A collection of pieces by a former rock journalist who travels to conflict and disaster areas to report on them.  The pieces are short; you can dip in and out.
His approach is a common-sense approach.  Sometimes it can be refreshingly candid and highlight the absurdity or plain human stupidity of certain social and armed conflicts (ie.  the societies themselves inflict their own wounds but can't see their way to change...)  At other times, the lack of an historical perspective leaves his commentary seeming naive at best, willfully ignorant and western-centric at best.
Worth exploring.

The Fixer - Joe Sacco

A graphic novel by Joe Sacco that looks at the Sarajevo siege.  Mostly made up of narrated bits from the siege as told by Joe's "fixer".   It is mostly a look at how the "militias" slowly slide towards a kind of mafia operating in the areas they were holding.  The relationship between these kinds of wars and criminals, gangs and psychotic individuals within the society.  They are useful, but in the end, they do more damage than "good".