AGE of REVOLUTIONS: PROGRESS and BACKLASH from 1600 to the PRESENT (audiobook) by Fareed Zakaria

Published by Simon and Schuster Audio in 2024.

Read by the author, Fareed Zakaria
Duration: 13 hours, 2 minutes.
Unabridged.

Fareed Zakaria's Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present is exactly what the title says it is.

Zakaria writes about the beginnings of capitalism, multi-cultural societies, globalism, democracy, the industrial revolution, the French Revolution, the Russian Revolution, Fascism, the failed Arab Spring, LGBTQ+ rights, and the rise illiberal democracy and the return on authoritarianism and the forces that pushed back (or overturned) them.

The author

Zakaria has clearly done his research and writes in such a way that it flows from one topic to another almost as if they entire book was just one big story (which it is, if you look at it as the story of humanity, especially The West.)

If you find yourself wondering how we got here, this is a good place to start. Zakaria breaks down complex movements and ideas and makes them understandable.

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present by Fareed Zakaria. 

ANNE FRANK'S DIARY: THE GRAPHIC ADAPTATION (graphic novel) by Anne Frank (author), Ari Folman, and David Polonsky (illustrator)

 

Originally published as a book in 1947.
Graphic novel e-book edition published in 2018 by Pantheon.

Adapted into a graphic novel by Ari Folman.

The Diary of Anne Frank is certainly one of the most famous pieces of literature published in the last 100 years. The book the true diary of a young teen Jewish girl that was written as her family lived in a hidden apartment with two other families in an attempt to hide from the Nazi genocide. Before the war ended someone betrayed the families and Anne and almost everyone else in the apartment died in concentration camps shortly before the Nazi surrender.

A page where Anne compares herself
unfavorably to her sister.

Ari Folman adapted the diary into a graphic novel. In the afterword he notes that this was harder than one might expect. This graphic novel is 160 pages, but if he had simply illustrated the entire text of the diary it would have ended up being more than 3,000 pages! The challenge was to maintain the spirit of the print book while editing it down.

I think the book is beautifully illustrated. The moods, emotions, and simple displays of teen attitude come through loud and clear - and make her come to life.

The graphic novel is excellent, which is why it is too bad that it is on a lot of banned book lists. In Florida, Moms for Liberty asked for the book to be banned because of two scenes described like this by Katie Couric in an article: it features two “sexually explicit” scenes. In the first, Frank walks along a series of nude statues, and in another, she asks a friend if they want to show each other their breasts." The Moms argue that the book does not accurately teach about the Holocaust because of these pages - as if Nazi hatred were only aimed at Jews.

Anne Frank's diary has always been edited to make the story flow better, but it also was edited to take out some embarrassing details about the family. Those edits included Anne Frank's passing thoughts about possibly being interested in women as well as men. In the 1950s this might have been a deal breaker with potential publishers so it was left out. This is ironic considering that gays and lesbians were sent to the camps by the Nazis with just as much enthusiasm as Jews - but, that was the politics of the day.

It turns out that it also the politics of now. A teacher in Texas was fired because those pages were read aloud in her class. 

It must be noted that even if Anne Frank were not Jewish, she would have been sent to the camps for being bisexual.

I rate this graphic novel 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: ANNE FRANK'S DIARY: THE GRAPHIC ADAPTATION (graphic novel) by Anne Frank (author), Ari Folman, and David Polonsky (illustrator).

Marked for Death: Islam's War Against the West and Me by Geert Wilders

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Published in May of 2012 by Regnery Publishing

Geert Wilders is a member of the Dutch Parliament and the the leader of the third largest political party in the Netherlands, but he is forced to live his life under protection. Since 2004 he has to have armed protection every day, everywhere he goes because of multiple death threats from extremist Muslims. His crime? He dared to take the threats to Western freedom seriously when, in 2004, Muslims killed Theo Van Gogh (a filmmaker whose film Submission criticized the treatment of Muslim women. Van Gogh was stabbed multiple times and a note was stuck to his body with a knife explaining why Van Gogh was murdered) Muslims rioted over the famed Muhammad cartoons in 2005, when they threatened to kill politicians who question why there are "no-go" zones that have basically been ceded to Muslims.

Wilders believes that Islam is more than a religion, it is a totalitarian political ideology that has no tolerance of dissent and is more than willing to use the West's multicultural/pluralistic ways to infiltrate European countries, gain control of the instruments of government and then use those tools to silence critics of Islam.

Wilders tells his personal story and how he arrived at his conclusions. He is especially afraid of a "Trojan Horse" plan to spread Islam - the very plan that Muhammad used in the city of Medina. Move in as friendly immigrants and then, over time, take control of the government and enforce your vision on everyone else.

Geert Wilders

Marked for Death is an extremely well-written book - as a foreign language teacher I was impressed by Wilders' knowledge of English and his repertoire of quotes from English language speakers to make his arguments. Quotes abound from Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan - all making the point that a struggle with Islam has not been a recent thing and, more importantly, free speech is not something you give up because someone might be offended.

In the end, that is Wilders' most important point - free speech is the basis of all of our other rights and it cannot be limited by political correctness or by genuine outrage. Marked for Death was written to be a poke in the eye to those who have forced him to live under constant protection and as a warning. As he writes on page 3:

"For asserting our rights to say what we really think...we have been hounded by Muslims seeking to make an example of us. Offend us, they are saying to the world, and you will end up in hiding like Wilders, attacked like Westergaard, or dead like Van Gogh."

No matter whether you agree with Wilders or not (and I do not on some things), the man should certainly be free to speak his mind without fear - otherwise what's the point, really?

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Marked for Death: Islam's War Against the West and Me by Geert Wilders.

Reviewed on June 8, 2012.