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    Friday, August 3, 2007

    American cover for The New Cold War (and Publishers Weekly review)




    So my American publishers, Carroll & Graf, have chosen to go with a dramatically different cover for The New Cold War than the Canadian edition (shown on the top right-hand side of the blog), which was published by Random House.

    Any opinions on the new cover? Anyone want to take a stab about the differences in what publishers believe will grab an eye in the U.S. as opposed to Canada says about the differences in the two markets?

    While I'm self-promoting, here's what Publishers Weekly recently had to say about the book:

    MacKinnon, a former Moscow bureau chief for Toronto’s Globe and Mail, explores the theory and practice of “managed democracy” in this well-researched and engrossing investigation into post-Soviet politics. While Putin cements power in Russia by co-opting now independent neighboring countries, pro-democracy advocates—including the likes of George Soros, as well as familiar organizations like Freedom House—work with the American government to support Western-oriented movements and political parties in the region. Focusing on the Commonwealth of Independent States and other formerly Soviet-influenced states such as Serbia and Slovakia, MacKinnon chastises both democrats and authoritarians for their actions. While officially nonpartisan, Western organizations make no secret of their allegiances and goals, he shows. For example, the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, which received extensive support from U.S. taxpayer-funded USAID during the Orange Revolution of 2004, is run by the wife of Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko. In a recent Ukrainian election, he notes, a number of foreign (mostly Canadian) poll watchers “had to be asked to remove orange Yushchenko scarves so as to at least maintain the appearance of neutrality.” MacKinnon’s provocative book will interest anyone concerned about the possibilities and shortcomings of democratic change and popular revolution.


    The release date for the American edition is Sept. 22, and soon afterwards I'll be doing a tour of Toronto, Boston, New York and Washington.

    The Canadian edition, of course, is already on bookshelves in Canada, and is also available at places like Amazon and Chapters.ca.

    4 comments:

    Jacques P. said...

    Hmmm, Mark, I like the U.S. cover better. It's bolder, somehow. Even though it's obviously tailored to the U.S. market, there's a concept behind it ... the Canadian edition looks like what happens when the designer can't really think of one image to sum up everything. (Interesting use of the hammer and sickle ... I guess someone calculated the average Barnes & Noble browser wouldn't know what that two-headed eagle represents.) But really, you'd thing someone would have sprung for a nice agency photo of orange banners in Kiev or something.
    Best of luck with it.

    Anonymous said...

    Those mentioned Canadian poll watchers constituted a good number of individuals with roots in western Ukraine.

    For decades, that Ukrainian regional grouping has dominated the "Ukrainian view" in North America.

    There was plenty of circumspect voting manner on the Orange side during the last two Ukrainain presidential elections back in late '04. Besides CIS monitors, the British Helsinki Human Rights Group and an Israeli based org. which included NY based attorney Rachel Ehrenfeld observed these Orange transgressions.

    In the early 19 eighties, Viktor Yushchenko's wife headed an anti-Russian extremist organization called the Captive Nations Committee.

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    Anonymous said...

    I agree with Jacques, and disagree with Anonymous.