Haiti: Land of Inequality ¦ Kurdistan: Region under Siege ¦ Tibet: Disputed Land ¦ Sudan: North against South ¦ Rwanda: Country Torn Apart

These books form part of a series on political flashpoints around the world (other titles deal with East Timor, Northern Ireland, Quebec, Sri Lanka and South Africa). Each book provides an historical background to the location, an account of recent troubles, and a section on the prospects for the future. In their presentation of archival material, contemporary photographs, eye-witness accounts and references for further reading, they cover much of the same ground as the excellent 'New Perspectives' series from Wayland, but the format is denser. Information is arranged across three columns and the pages have a more crowded feel.

The books originate in America so they obviously view the issues from that perspective. Efforts are made to be even-handed in attributing responsibility for the deeply depressing states of affairs described here. The authors are unafraid to represent the countries in question not just as victims but as agents of their own history. For example, the much lauded Toussaint-Louverture is depicted not just as the usual hero of the Haitian struggle for independence, but as a fallible dictator who re-established virtual slavery under the fermage system.

On the other hand, the role of prosperous nations in initiating and perpetuating much of the misery is given due prominence. Bodnarchuk, for example, in the book on Rwanda, provides a useful counterpoise to simplistic arguments about tribalism by pointing out that relationships between groups in colonial African were often corrupted by the colonisers' commitment to the pseudo science of eugenics.

There are, of course, some questionable emphases and omissions. In the foreword that appears in all of the volumes, Andrew Bell-Fialkoff, while making a sound point about the role of the media in glamorising conflict, states that 'For every Palestinian who has killed an Israeli, there are hundreds of Kashmiris, Tamils and Bosnians eager to shoot at their enemies'. Given the relative numbers of Palestinian and Israeli dead in the intifada, and the conduct of the Israeli army towards Palestinian civilians, the implicit positioning of culprit and victim in this statement is objectionable.

Turning to omissions, I found that the Rwanda book lets the west off too lightly. Second only to the massacres themselves in obscenity was the response of Western governments, and in particular of Clinton and Albright, who not only refused to intervene, but also actively sabotaged international efforts to stop the genocide (see reports on www.alternet.org). The only hint we have of this is a note on page 69 to the effect that Clinton later apologised.

A more general issue is whether or not it is advisable to depict whole countries and cultures in terms of their biggest, and usually externally inflicted, problems. The taglines following each country's names represent this issue clearly: they imply that the problem is the most important thing about the country (though each of the tags could apply to America itself at the moment). With this reservation in mind, these books do provide useful sources of information about some of the conflicts currently dividing the world.