Review by Choice Review
Caldwell's book deserves a wide audience, but a familiarity with some basic sociological and feminist academic theories would be helpful. The US Army charged some nine so-called "rotten apples" with various offenses involving alleged prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. The author focuses primarily on two of the female defendants serving with the military police at the prison--Specialist Sabrina Harman and Pfc. Lynndie England--who were convicted of "... taking and posing in photographs, under the direction of male superiors." The book's wider and more interesting focus, however, involves a full-blown analysis of how the theories of Talcott Parsons, Simone de Beauvoir, Philip Zimbardo, Jean Baudrillard, and Stanley Milgram, among others, tease out the latent rationales for the predicament that Harman and England found themselves in while assigned to duty at Abu Ghraib. Caldwell (Soka Univ. of America) "... found it fascinating that a huge institution such as the US military could blame the events of Abu Ghraib on seven low-ranking soldiers ... and claim no responsibility, no knowledge of these happenings going on whatsoever." The book highlights the pervasive misuse of gender by an overbearing, male-dominated institution and the social science research that validates it. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Most levels/libraries. J. C. Watkins Jr. emeritus, University of Alabama
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
