Book recommendations please

[zoidberg]

I'm headed to my good ol' local library after work for some non fiction and would like some ideas on what to pick up. I try to read across the political spectrum (I got Free to Choose and The Affluent Society last time) so I'd be interested in anything that you think is worth reading.

[proud patriot]

1. Well I'm not sure what you've read before , but I'll suggest

Shrub

People's History of The United States

The Greatest Sedition is Silence

Betrayal of America

Manufacturing Consent

[midnitemoleman]

6. Rush is a big fat idiot.``` Lieing liers and the lies they tell

When you ride with Bin Ladan, you ride alone11

[quispquake]

14. I just started reading that one!

I like Bill Maher quite a lot...his commentary in "When You Ride With Bin Laden" is quite good!
pp23

[BushNixon04]

7. a few good ones

"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" Greg Palast

"Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace" and "Dreaming War" by Gore Vidal

"Propaganda and the Public Mind" by Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian

...and all the others listed in this thread, especially Howard Zinn.

[JHB]

2. For starters:

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond

[zoidberg]

9. I love Jared Diamond

I've read that book as well as The Third Chimpanzee. Both are very fresh and interesting.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

3. The Iron Trianglle..by Dan Briody

inside the secert world of the Carlyle Group...about the Military industrial Complex that Ike warned us about when he left the Presidency...very enlighting and reads like a john grishom novel

[Character Assassin]

4. Well, I suppose politics are part of history

If you can find a copy, my highest recommendation for "The Roosevelt Myth", by John T. Flynn

This one is new, but also gets top billing: "The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea", John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge

Also:

"The Road to Serfdom", by F. A. Hayek
"Hitlers pope", John Cornwell

[demnan]

5. If you haven't read . .

"The Hunting of the President" by Conason and Lyons its a great read. I also recommend "The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk" by Susan McDougall.

[MrBenchley]

8. Anything by Bill Bryson

His new one "A short history of everything" is great...

"In A Sunburned Country" and "A Walk in the Woods" are also terrific. I don't think you can go wrong with him.

[deutsey]

10. The Long Detour

I don't know if this is in libraries yet, but I highly recommend looking for it:

http://www.thelongdetour.com

The author is a really good guy, too.

[jeffrey_X]

11. Race by Studs Terkel

The book was published in 1992 and deals with different perspectives on race from both sides.

[tom_paine]

12. Farenheit 451 by Bradbury, Animal Farm by Orwell

They will help you understand the Empire in which you live.

[nostamj]

13. What Liberal Media? by Eric Alterman

just a great great read.

many good suggestions above too.

(skip Hillary though unless you just want to buy one to boost her sales... it's a snoozer.)

[HootieMcBoob]

15. how bout...

What Liberal Media by Eric Alterman

The Emerging Democratic Majority by John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira

[CBHagman]

16. Eric Schlosser

Try "Fast Food Nation," but be warned: you won't want to go out for hamburgers for a while, unless you've got a mom and pop operation you go to locally.

I haven't read Schlosser's latest, which is on marijuana laws, farm laborers, and the porno industry, but it's been getting excellent reviews.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

19. Schlosser's latest rocks!!!!!!!!!!!

n/t

[sirshack]

17. The following are good ones....

Six Crises, by Dick Nixon
The Lost Continet, by Bill Bryson

[Dissenting_Prole]

18. The Party's Over

The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies.

"Without oil, what would you do?"

http://www.helpfulreviews.com/info/0865714827.html

[fertilizeonarbusto]

20. Anything by Gore Vidal or Molly Ivins

bonus is they are both wickledly funny.

[AntiLempa]

21. My suggestions

I'd recommend the Uses of Haiti by Paul Farmer, Something to Teach Me by Matt Cyr, and Eyes of the Heart by Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Paul Farmer is a doctor that spend a significant number of years practicing in rural Haiti. You can read excerpts from the book at http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Haiti/Uses_of_Haiti.html

Eyes of the Heart was written by populist priest Jean Bertrand Aristide who was also Haiti's first democratically elected president. Yuo can read excerpts here http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Aristide/Eyes_Heart_Aristide.html.

omething to Teach Me proves that the life we are born into isn't always the life we are meant to lead. Over the course of his first year in Haiti, Matt Cyr's journal entries chronicle his evolution from an American living temporarily in Haiti to a Haitian who just happened to be born into the body of a middle-class white American. Witnessing that evolution gives the reader an understanding of a culture that has much to teach us all and challenges us to find our own path in life. (More http://www.everythinghaitian.com/EvhBookDetail.asp?BookId=1010)

[bicentennial_baby]

22. Fortunate Son

Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President by J.H. Hatfield

[sangh0]

23. Wealth and Democracy by Kevin Phillips

Written by a Republican economist, it does a great deal to explain our current economic circumstances and how it affects politics.

I also recommend "The Clinton Wars" by Sidney Blumenthal, and "Blinded By The Right" by David Brock, both of which help explain the methods of the right-wing fringe

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

24. I'll second that along with POLITICAL FICTIONS

by Joan Didion for a different take on why so many voters are estranged from the voting process. It isn't disinterest.

[davekriss]

25. Old stuff but worth reading

Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital
Parenti, Power and the Powerless
Ewen, Captains of Consciousness
Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent

hey, and just for something different,

Norman O. Brown, Life against Death

(For something newer try Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States)