Recommend Political Books You Think Everybody Should Read Here

**Mott the Hoople** · 08-14-2011, 07:10 AM

I tried reading "Memoirs" by Nixon. I couldn't get past the first chapter before I about stroked out. What a self serving repugnant ego maniac. A brilliant geopolitical thinker? Yes. An extraordinarily flawed individual lacking in both character and morals who grossly abused power? With out a doubt.

**Jarlaxle** · 08-14-2011, 04:04 PM

Trying that again...

Unintended Consequences by John Ross.

***Damocles*** · 08-14-2011, 04:21 PM

that worked.

**Jarlaxle** · 08-14-2011, 06:30 PM

Thank you for flushing the one that didn't!

**brazenhussy** · 08-18-2011, 12:09 PM

At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle McGuire. A difficult but very important read if you are an American. Especially if you are a woman of any race.

**midcan5** · 08-23-2011, 07:02 PM

**Lowaicue** · 08-23-2011, 08:28 PM

Originally Posted by midcan5

Sellar and Yeatnan's '1066 and All That' comprising all the history you can remember in 52 chapters, and for those too unfortunate to have a history, Bill Nye's 'History of the United States'.
Politics should be more humourous. Of course there are those who consider it already the funniest invention since the sinking of the Ark with the loss of all hands.

**ironhead** · 05-23-2012, 05:58 PM

Anarchy and the Law, edited by Edward Stringham. It served as my final "conversion" from minarchist to voluntaryist.

http://www.amazon.com/Anarchy-Law-Po.../dp/1412805791

**CanceledB** · 05-23-2012, 06:25 PM

The Shock Doctrine - by Naomi Klein
Griftopia - by Matt Taibbi
Fiasco - by Thomas Ricks
Armed Madhouse - by Greg Palast
Crimes Against Nature - by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Confessions of an Economic Hitman - by John Perkins

....a few of my favorites.

**Minister of Truth** · 05-23-2012, 07:07 PM

Originally Posted by Lowaicue

Sellar and Yeatnan's '1066 and All That' comprising all the history you can remember in 52 chapters, and for those too unfortunate to have a history, Bill Nye's 'History of the United States'.
Politics should be more humourous. Of course there are those who consider it already the funniest invention since the sinking of the Ark with the loss of all hands.

Aside from English, Roman, and Greek histories, I really don't find any others to be as fiscinating as US History, brief as it may be.

**CanceledB** · 05-24-2012, 12:35 PM

History:

A People's History of the United States - by Howard Zinn
Lies My Teacher Told Me - by James Loewen
Open Veins of Latin America - by Eduardo Galeano

**DamnYankee** · 05-24-2012, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by Bijou

History:

A People's History of the United States - by Howard Zinn
...

**midcan5** · 07-14-2012, 04:53 AM

I originally posted here August, 2011 post#81 which is linked below, but rather than provide links, here are some authors and books that are worth your time and challenge your mind.

The Culture of Contentment' John Kenneth Galbraith - anything he wrote is worth a read.
'The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972' William Manchester - best narrative history I have read
'Political Liberalism' John Rawls
'The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy' Albert O. Hirschman - understand the roots of conservatism
'The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin' Corey Robin - recent and very good
"The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20Th Century' Peter Watson - ideas see his other work
'Ill Fares the Land' Tony Judt - excellent excellent
'The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener' Martin Gardner - essays worth a thought
'Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan' Kim Phillips-Fein - reading
'What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics' Andras Szanto, Editor
'The Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas and Their History' Isaiah Berlin (check his other work too)
'Liberal Rights: Collected Papers 1981-1991' Jeremy Waldron - good stuff
'The Harm in Hate Speech' Jeremy Waldron -- check out his other work too
'The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States' Gordon S. Wood
'The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan' Michael Hastings
'Race Matters' Cornell West
'The Culture of Make Believe' Derrick Jensen

And while Howard Zinn's history is anathema to conservatives as it tells a bit of history's truth, check it out too. The names near the top are all thinkers worth your time.

'Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing' James Waller
Science and Human Values, Jacob Bronowski
Derek Parfit ethics

These look promising but I have not read, yet.

'The Swerve: How the World Became Modern' Stephen Greenblatt
'The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution' Francis Fukuyama
'The Making of the Modern Self: Identity and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England' Dror Wahrman
'The American Mind: An Interpretation of American Thought and Character Since the 1880's' Henry Steele Commage

http://www.justplainpolitics.com/sho...668#post857668

Other political writers some of whom I have read bits of or have a book to read.

A. L. Macfie
Amartya Sen
Charles R. Beitz
David Harvey
Jon Elster
Jonathan Wolff
Joshua Cohen
Knud Haakonssen
Martha C. Nussbaum
Michael J. Sandel
Robert Nozick
Slavoj Zizek
Will Kymlicka

"What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley wrote in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny "failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions." In 1984 Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us...This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right." Neil Postman 'Amusing Ourselves to Death'

**apple0154** · 07-14-2012, 07:51 AM

After a quick perusal of the posts I noticed no one mentioned The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum.

Excerpt from a review "First, she (the witch) sends her 40 great wolves to kill them. Tin Woodman manages to kill them all. Then the Wicked Witch of the West sends her 40 crows to peck their eyes out. Scarecrow manages to kill them by grabbing them and breaking their necks. Then the Wicked Witch summons a swarm of bees to sting them to death. Using the Scarecrow's extra straw, the others hide underneath them while the bees try to sting Tin Woodman. Then the Wicked Witch of the West uses her Winkie soldiers to attack them. They were scared off by the Cowardly Lion.........

Baum explores the theme of self-contradiction in The Wizard of Oz. He created characters who—like humans—have complex, contradictory natures. The Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion all lack self-confidence. The Scarecrow believes that he has no brains, though he comes up with clever solutions to several problems that they encounter on their journey. The Tin Woodman believes that he lacks a heart, but is moved to tears when misfortune befalls the various creatures they meet. The Cowardly Lion believes that he has no courage even though he is consistently brave through their journey. Carl L. Bankston III of Salem Press noted that "These three characters embody the classical human virtues of intelligence, caring, and courage, but their self-doubts keep them from being reduced to mere symbols of these qualities." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz

Working together, support from others, realizing everyone possesses noble values within....those are the qualities that build a great nation. The opposite is prejudice, racism, not caring about others....those are the things that ultimately doom a nation.

Sometimes just doing the right thing has enormous benefits for many.