07/26/2005

A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis. David Rieff. New York: Simon & Shuster, 2002. 367 pages.

David Rieff examines the development of humanitarian organizations from their beginnings as organizations devoted to the alleviation of suffering to their current, more partisan state. Rieff provides a starting point for the discussion of humanitarianism’s role today.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of Boy Soldier Ishmael Beah. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. 240 pages.

Ishmael Beah tells the gripping story of how, as a child soldier, he was forced to commit truly terrible acts by the government army. Since being removed from the fighting by UNICEF, Beah has struggled to complete the arduous process of forgiving himself and learning to live a normal life again.

Darfur: A Short History of a Long War. Julie Flint & Alex de Waal. London: Zed Books Ltd, 2006. 176 pages.

This book details the history of Darfur, its conflicts, and the designs on the region by the governments in Khartoum and Tripoli. It investigates the identity of the infamous “Janjawiid” militia and the nature of the insurrection, charts the unfolding crisis and the international response, and concludes by asking what the future holds in store.

Deliver Us from Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a World of Endless Conflict. William Shawcross. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. 445 pages.

Shawcross reports on the crises faced by the international community and its workers, who risk their lives to keep the peace and alleviate suffering. He examines the efforts of the international community and the consequences of its interventions.

The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for our Time. Jeffrey D. Sachs. New York: The Penguin Press, 2005. 396 pages.

As the Special Adviser to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, economist Jeff Sachs is helping to shape the UN’s effort to cut extreme poverty and starvation in half by 2015. This important, readable book explains why many countries, particularly in Africa, are poor and what can be done to lift them out of poverty.

Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees. Caroline Moorehead. New York: Henry Holt & Co. 2005. 330 pages.

A chilling, well told story of the indignities that refugees and asylum seekers face. It illustrates Kofi Annan’s assertion that the growing hostility to refugees and immigrants, particularly in the West, is a “silent human rights crisis.”

Masses in Flight: The Global Crisis of Internal Displacement. Roberta Cohen and Francis M. Deng. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1998. 436 pages.

This book scrutinizes the causes, consequences, and impacts of internal displacement, an often ignored problem, both inside and outside affected countries’ borders. Cohen and Deng provide helpful strategies for preventing displacement and an insight into the root of the problem.

One Day the Soldiers Came: Voices of Children in War. Charles London. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. 265 pages.

Charles London started his research on children displaced by war as a Research Associate for Refugees International. Set to be released in October of 2007, his book will explore how conflict has affected the children of Congo, Burma, Kosovo, Sudan and Rwanda. As a tribute to his roots, London will donate a portion of the proceeds made by the book to Refugees International.

“A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide. Samantha Power. New York: Basic Books, 2002. 610 pages.

Samantha Power tracks the history of genocide, beginning in the early 20th century through World War II and today. Through this must-read historical account, she explores why American leaders have repeatedly failed to effectively respond to genocide and how they have looked away from mass murder time after time.

The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity. Michael Maren. New York: The Free Press, 1997. 302 pages.

This book dissects the system of aid and charity, examining it impact on the societies it serves. Michael Maren has over nineteen years of experiences with aid organizations throughout Africa.

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda. Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire with Major Brent Beardsley. Canada: Random House Canada, 2003. 562 pages.

Lieutenant-General Romeo Dallaire served as force commander of the UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda. This book offers an eyewitness account of the failure to stop the genocide. Shake Hands with the Devil, as Lieutenant-General Dallaire writes, provides “A public account of my actions and reactions during that most terrible year may be the crucial missing link to understanding this tragedy both intellectually and in our hearts.”

The Turbulent Decade: Confronting the Refugee Crises of the 1990s. Sadako Ogata. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2005. 402 pages.

Ogata was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees during a period that saw huge refugee flows from Iraq, the Balkans, Rwanda and Afghanistan. In this book she describes what worked and what didn’t work, as well has how humanitarian agencies dealt with new challenges, such as closer work with the military and a rapid growth in the population of internally displaced people.

We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda. Philip Gourevitch. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux,1999. 368 pages.

Philip Gourevitch tells the story of how, in the Spring of 1994, the Rwandan government called on the Hutu majority to kill everyone in the Tutsi minority. Gourevitch uses his own experiences and those of the people he interviewed to piece together the tale of a genocide that killed more than 800,000 in just 100 days.

A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City—A Diary. Anonymous, Translated by Philip Boehm. New York: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt & Company, LLC, 2005. 300 pages.

Anonymous, then a 34-year-old journalist, started this eight-week diary in April 1945, when the Russians were invading Berlin and the city's mostly female population was heading to its cellars to wait out the bombing. Soon the Russians were everywhere; raping women indiscriminately. Her story illustrates the horror war brings to the lives of women when the battles are waged near a home front (rather than a traditional battlefield). The author, who died in 2001, has a fierce, uncompromising voice, and her book should become a classic of war literature. First published in 1954, it was probably too dark for postwar readers, German or Allied. Now, after witnessing Bosnia and Darfur, maybe we are finally ready.