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Book Reviews of Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy

Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy
Backstabbing for Beginners My Crash Course in International Diplomacy
Author: Michael Soussan
ISBN-13: 9781568584416
ISBN-10: 1568584415
Publication Date: 6/1/2010
Pages: 352
Edition: First Trade Paper Ed
Rating:
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0 stars, based on 0 rating
Publisher: Nation Books
Book Type: Paperback
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reviewed Backstabbing for Beginners: My Crash Course in International Diplomacy on + 4 more book reviews
The clever title of this book immediately caught my attention as I was browsing in the new arrivals section of a local new/used book store. I definitely wasn't disappointed.

This true story about the United Nations Oil for Food Program in Iraq reads like a novel. At first I laughed; then in the later chapters, I realized I wasn't laughing anymore. One reviewer aptly calls Mr. Soussan's situation in the huge U.N. bureaucracy "Kafkaesque."

Even though I work for a much smaller bureaucracy (a local city government), there are just certain qualities that I believe are present in any government entity. This book gives such a spot-on description of individual human nature and of how we as humans behave in the organizations we create.

I'll end with another quote from the book jacket, by Nicholas Von Hoffman, who says, "The funniest, saddest, most heart wrenching, and most infuriating book on a topic that usually puts people to sleep."