Review: The Tenth Parallel

The Tenth Parallel by Eliza Griswold
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eliza finds reports from the front line on the The Clash of Civilizations where cultural and religious identities of Muslims and Christians are the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War, globalized world. The cruel persecutions and open conflicts outlined in Sudan (this book is predates the landlocked Republic of South Sudan gaining its independence from Sudan in 2011), the Philipines, and Malaysia are stark and foreboding. It recalls to me how WWII, often perceived as largely an event of the 40s, was a grim and lethal period of the 30s for peoples from Iberia to Manchuria. The tenth parallel of northern latitude has a present and historical context for a dividing line between Islamic and Christian cultures from northern Africa to southeast Asia and as an investigative journalist, the author reports on warlords and victims from this vast, unstable region in conflicts and emergent issues rarely covered specifically in mainstream media.

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