Beacon Press

Big-box swindle; the true cost of mega-retailers and the fight for America's independent businesses.

The economic structure that mega-retailers are propagating represents a modern variation on the old European colonial system, says Mitchell, which was designed not to build economically viable and self-reliant communities but to extract their wealth and resources. A consultant to communities on retail development and independent business based in Maine, she first sets out the impacts such as fading prosperity, blighted landscapes, and monopolized consumers. Then she looks at the legal and political support for the giants, and reports on successful efforts to think — and act — outside the box. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The iron cage; the story of the Palestinian struggle for statehood.

Khalidi (Arab studies, Columbia U.) seeks to explain why the Palestinians failed to achieve independence prior to 1948, the date of the establishment of Israel. Rather than "compare the incomparable" — the Palestinians and the Zionist movement — he provides thematically comparisons of the Palestinians to other Arab societies at analogous stages of development. His major themes include the failure of the Palestinians to successfully challenge the legal structure of the mandatory regime, which was consciously designed to prevent Palestinian self-government; the role of British-created religious structures in co-opting Palestinian elites; and the structural failures of the revolt of 1936-39. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)