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I recommend this to those who love science fiction, fighting for freedom, fighting for love, space fights, escapes, danger and a very happy ending. Nov 23, Don Bradshaw rated it liked it Shelves: Reviewed on Hearts On Fire It is much the same war that mankind has been fighting for over a thousand years with culture and religion at its center. On one side we have the Moral League, a fairly well funded group determined to set up a theocracy as the world government and bring man's thinking back into the dark ages.

The challenger is the Freedom Alliance, a loosely held together group of countries who want to move man past the conservative ideals and into a future where the world government is open minded and liberal in its thinking. Sam is a young man rejected by his family for being gay who joins the Alliance Space Force. He is stationed on the Northampton, the fleet's flag ship because of his outstanding flying ability and is soon placed on a flight team.

He soon meets Major Tom, the ship's crew officer and neither man's life is ever the same again. I found this story to be a study in extremes from the Alliance and the League to the military's regulations and our two lovers to the by the book Tom and the rebellious Sam who follows his own ideals. There is quite a bit of tension and conflict throughout the story because of the my way or no way type of thinking.

The only real centrist in the story is the very outspoken and wonderful character, Gracie. She has the ability to cut through the conflicts and bring everyone from the admiral to Sam out of their own set way of thinking and to finding a compromise. Unfortunately, Gracie cannot do this in her own life and becomes an abuse victim. Ms Zagar did a wonderful job of weaving so many of today's social problems through this character driven story. I liked the characters Sam, Tom and Gracie who the story really revolved around. There was a good amount of angst between Tom and Sam which held the story together when the story line got thin in some places.

I found the Admiral to be very stuffy and close minded to be the leader of the Alliance forces but perhaps he had to be that stiff as a military man. The ending was resolved a little to quickly in my opinion by bringing in the Teeresi forces but there had to be a HEA.

This was another good sci-fi story built around human rights and how far we have yet to go. Dec 31, Sydney Cooper rated it it was amazing. I am very happy that I picked up this particular book. This story follows two men, Tom and Sam, members of a space faring military force in a conflict over political issues of equality and acceptance which we face in our real world today. I enjoyed getting to know both of these characters, and appreciated the sci-fi setting in which it was carried out. Emotions ran high throughout the book, and the author did a good job of investing the reader in the fate of the characters.

The editing was well done except for the occasional spelling or grammatical error; it was overall a very "clean" and well-paced read.

Feb 07, S. Bhattacharjee rated it it was amazing. Set in a future that seems both bleak and uncompromising, this book shows that love truly does conquer all things. Far from just another romance-in-space, though, Written In The Stars really took me on a journey: I felt a part of the world in Zagar's words, felt the tension of the ongoing war, shared in the sorrow and loss of the characters.

Unlike so many books of this genre, the love and passion was handled in a mature, honest, and plausible way. The fact that the love story has a happy conclus Set in a future that seems both bleak and uncompromising, this book shows that love truly does conquer all things. The fact that the love story has a happy conclusion in no way takes away from the serious underlying themes of the book - war is coming and, if we're not careful, sooner than even this book predicts.

Nov 29, Amy rated it really liked it Shelves: Nov 16, Dilandu Albato rated it it was ok. Not excellent, but rather good in compairson with many, many other gay-themed fiction. Of course, nearly all heroes acted incredibly stupidly even those who are non-involved into the sexual affairs of main two , and half of the whole drama is formed directly of their meaningless actions The whole "space war" part is basically a mess.

Not only the space combat scenes Well, basically The whole background of "culture wars" are, frankly, laughable. Basically, it looks like that citizens of Earth woke up some morning, and thought at once: Oh, I knew how to make things exiting, let's start a world war over some civil rights! The "military" part aren't good either. Author clearly have little understanding of any kind of military matters, like the need for strict discipline, or chain of command, or obeying direct orders, for example.

Or even about fighting the war as whole. As opposed to the current climate of gotcha journalism on tv and partisan essays in print that only divide Americans, this book equips the reader with the tools to engage in the intelligent discussions that our country needs to progress.

This should be the goal of every American and world citizen. This is a very good book, for what it covers. I thought Hartman did an especially good job of articulating the origins and positions of the rise of the neoconservatives in the early 70s. But the biggest shortcoming of the book is that it largely stops in the mids. Why, given that the book was published in , is that 20 year span when these clashes become most intense not covered? Furthermore, the Trump election and the deep polarization of the country strikes most observers as the ugly culmination of these wars. A post-Trump edition would be a most welcome addition..

A History of the Culture Wars" offers a detailed, nuanced view of the leftist movements of 's and the conservative backlash that followed. Hartman elucidates the Zeitgiest of the late twentieth with century clarity, and wit. Even if you do not agree with his conclusion or views, the book successfully narrates a critical time in American history.

A brilliantly written, and most importantly, informed read. His review of race and the culture wars is excellent, and is his best chapter better than his very good chapter on gender.

The book is, overall, his reading of the major arguments, and he does the job of synthesis. He provides an even handed reading of the American culture wars, but inevitably reveals the superiority and thoughtfulness of a liberal perspective of most situations compared to the right-wing approach which suffers more from unthinking dogma at times. Despite this, he remains an "objective" scholar.

My friend and colleague Andrew Hartman has done it again, with a wonderful book digging down past the weeds into the intellectual and political underpinnings of the so-called Culture Wars of the late-twentieth century. I would write more, but I want to take my time to give it the full-blown positive review that A War for the Soul of America deserves.

I would say this, though. Anyone interested in how a simple change in a US history curriculum could lead to rabid responses from established conservative in and should read this book to trace the of such anti-education and intellectual origins back at least to the Cold War, and especially the s and the Red Scare. Any history student interested in post US intellectual history that isn't just about the rise of liberalism should read this book.

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And anyone who wants to understand the contradictions within the thinking of the various intellectual components of the culture wars from a conservative -- or rather, neoconservative -- perspective should pick up Professor Hartman's book and read it. It refreshed my memory about many of the issues we all lived through in the 60s through the 90s.

Hartman discusses many areas of controversy from these times: The writing is good and the factual detail he presents is prolific.


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The main flaw of the book--and it is a big one--is that the leftist bias of the author comes through in too many places. This of course makes one wonder if one is getting a fair look at all of the topics he covers in the book. For instance, in the one area I know something about--whether or not the bombing of Hiroshima was necessary--Hartman only presents revisionist historical arguments.

He does not quote any of the many experts who present evidence showing that the bombing was absolutely necessary to save hundreds of thousands of American lives and millions of Japanese lives. So given this one area of distortion that I can verify, I have to wonder how distorted his presentation of other topics is. Almost any reader whose politics are to the left of center will enjoy this book. More conservative-minded individuals will have to read the book with many grains of salt--and still will come away feeling that the presentation was biased and thus not convincing.

Henry Lerner, Newton, MA. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Slightly biased to the left but very honest and insightful. See all 23 reviews. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Previously, the influence of the Cold War could be seen in many, if not all, genres of American film. By the s, spy films were effectively a "weapon of confrontation between the two world systems. Film depicted the enemy in a way that caused both sides to increase general suspicion of foreign and domestic threat.

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Between —54, the Soviet Union mimicked the US adoption of cinema as a weapon. Under Stalin 's rule, movies could only be made within strict confines. Cinema and government were, as it stood, inextricably linked. Many films were banned for being insufficiently patriotic. Nonetheless, the Soviet Union produced a plethora of movies with the aim to blatantly function as negative propaganda.

In the same fashion as the United States, the Soviets were eager to depict their enemy in the most unflattering light possible. Between and , Attacks made by the United States against the U. R were simply used as material by Soviet filmmakers for their own attacks on the US. Soviet cinema during this time took its liberty with history: In Soviet cinema, the opposite was true in [The Meeting on the Elbe]. Despite efforts made to elevate the status of cinema, such as changing the Committee of Cinema Affairs to the Ministry of Cinematography, cinema did not seem to work as invigorating propaganda as was planned.

The Culture (series)

Although the Anti-American films were notably popular with audiences, the Ministry did not feel the message had reached the general public, perhaps due to the fact that the majority of moviegoers seeing the films produced were, perhaps, the Soviets most likely to admire American culture. After Stalin's death, a Main Administration of Cinema Affairs replaced the Ministry, allowing the filmmakers more freedom due to the lack of direct government control. Many of the films released throughout the late s and s focused on spreading a positive image of Soviet life, intent to prove that Soviet life was indeed better than American life.

Russian science fiction emerged from a prolonged period of censorship in , opened up by de-Stalinization and real Soviet achievements in the space race, typified by Ivan Efremov's galactic epic, Andromeda Official Communist science fiction transposed the laws of historical materialism to the future, scorning Western nihilistic writings and predicting a peaceful transition to universal communism. Scientocratic visions of the future nevertheless implicitly critiqued the bureaucratically developed socialism of the present.

Dissident science fiction writers emerged, such as the Strugatski brothers, Boris and Arkadi, with their "social fantasies," problematizing the role of intervention in the historical process, or Stanislaw Lem's tongue-in-cheek exposures of man's cognitive limitations. In addition to fears of a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union, during the Cold War, there were also fears of a direct, large scale conventional conflict between the two superpowers.

Wendy's Hamburger Chain ran a television commercial showing a supposed "Soviet Fashion Show", which featured the same large, unattractive woman wearing the same dowdy outfit in a variety of situations, the only difference being the accessory she carried for example, a flashlight for 'nightwear' or a beach ball for 'swimwear'. This was supposedly a lampoon on how the Soviet society is characterised with uniformity and standardisation, in contrast to the U.

Apple Computer 's " " ad, despite paying homage to George Orwell's novel of the same name, follows a more serious yet ambitious take on the freedom vs. Daisy was the most famous campaign commercial of the Cold War. Johnson 's defeat of Barry Goldwater in the presidential election. The contents of the commercial were controversial, and their emotional impact was searing.

The commercial opens with a very young girl standing in a meadow with chirping birds, slowly counting the petals of a daisy as she picks them one by one. Her sweet innocence, along with mistakes in her counting, endear her to the viewer. When she reaches "9", an ominous-sounding male voice is suddenly heard intoning the countdown of a rocket launch. As the girl's eyes turn toward something she sees in the sky, the camera zooms in until one of her pupils fills the screen, blacking it out.

The countdown reaches zero, and the blackness is instantly replaced by a simultaneous bright flash and thunderous sound which is then followed by footage of a nuclear explosion , an explosion similar in appearance to the near surface burst Trinity test of , followed by another cut to footage of a billowing mushroom cloud.

The Culture (series) - Wikipedia

As the fireball ascends, an edit cut is made, this time to a close-up section of incandescence in the mushroom cloud, over which a voiceover from Johnson is played, which states emphatically, "These are the stakes! To make a world in which all of God's children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die. The stakes are too high for you to stay home. Bear in the woods was a campaign advertisement endorsing Ronald Reagan for President. This campaign ad depicted a brown bear wandering through the woods likely implying the Soviet Union and suggested that Reagan was more capable of dealing with the Soviets than his opponent, in spite of the fact that the ad never explicitly mentioned the Soviet Union, the Cold War or Walter Mondale.

The " We begin bombing in five minutes " incident is an example of cold war dark humor.