Recommend your favorite political books

[auburngrad82]

My favorites-

Had Enough by James Carville
What Liberal Media by Eric Alterman
Blinded by the Right by David Brock
Shrub by Molly Ivins

Just finished Clinton's autobiography. Was actually more interesting than I expected it to be from an historical perspective.

[underpants]

1. Big Lies by Joe Conason

I would highly recommend that one.

[yorgatron]

2. What's the matter with Kansas

by Thomas Franks

[genius]

15. I thought that was a Republican book

[Spiffarino]

32. I heard it was excellent

That it's a true insight into the RW philosophy and why it resonates with so many in middle America. From what the reviews say, it is required reading for anyone who wants to beat the 'pubs at their own game.

Thanks for adding the author's name. That will make it easier to find.

[Zan_of_Texas]

55. The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson

What's the Matter with Kansas is good. It's a pretty easy read, and you can substitute a number of states for Kansas and get about the same result.

Thomas Frank has written about popular culture too. He's younger than a lot of our usual suspects who write about politics, so it's a different kind of read.

My favorite so far, though, is The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson. He is a scholar of Asia. But, he really puts it together -- the militarization of our culture, the global aspirations to empire, the 725 bases around the world -- he takes the stuff we're breathing in every day and gives it a few names, and all of a sudden, it gets REAL clear what's going on.

[CrispyQ]

3. Oh yeah! Big Lies was good.

Just started Who Let the Dogs In by Molly Ivins.

Others I liked:
American Dynasty by Kevin Phillips
The Great Unraveling by Paul Krugman
Bush Dyslexicon by Mark Crispin Miller (got his new one, Cruel & Unusual on hold at the library)

[PA Democrat]

11. I second the nomination for Big Lies

I also liked Paul O'Neill's book, The Price of Loyalty.

[1gobluedem]

22. Me too!

I just finished reading it and it's fantastic. It's very well written.

[CBHagman]

4. Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants by James Wolcott.

I haven't heard other DUers mention it, but I hope many of you will become acquainted with it, because it is scathing and hilarious. Yes, the usual suspects are profiled here -- David Brooks, Alan Keyes, etc.

Also check out:

*Fat Man Fed Up by Jack Germond

*Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush by Lou Dubose and Molly Ivins.

*Pretty much anything by Molly Ivins, including Nothing but Good Times Ahead.

*We're Right, They're Wrong by James Carville

[Richardo]

34. I've been recommending "Attack Poodles" to everyone in earshot...

IF you highlighted all the great lines the book would be solid yellow. One of the funniest most scathing polemics of the year - and there have been MANY. :thumbsup:

Plus it's now a Staff Rec at the B&N in NW Houston. Desfortunadamente we no longer discount Staff Recs :grr: :(

[billkurtmeyer]

5. My two from this summer

Ariana Huffington's "Fool and Fanatics" (I was surprised) and
Robert Reich "Reason" Both book do an excellent job of laying out the progressive agenda and both make an excellent case that WE SHOULD be winning the public debate hands-down because we have the best case to make!

[klook]

6. Here are a few

• A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn (If I could have only one, this would be it)
  
• War is a Racket by Smedley Butler
  
• Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace by Gore Vidal
  
• Big Lies by Joe Conason
  
• Dude, Where's My Country? by Michael Moore
  
• Fanatics and Fools by Arianna Huffington
  

Oh yeah, I forgot Millie's Book, as dictated to Barbara Bush!

[On the Road]

7. You Must Read "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: 1972"

by Hunter S Thompson. It's his coverage of the Democratic primaries and the McGovern/Nixon for Rolling Stone. Absolutely dead-on while being completely hallucinatory and out of control.

And apparently, HST had something to do with knocking Muskie out of the primaries in the "wandering boohoo" incident.

[bossfish]

38. I was about to mention that one...

...from an historical perspective. Just read it again a couple of years ago.

And, if you can find a copy of HST's Obit of Richard Nixon, it is classic.

(looks like it is on the Atlantic online, but I'm not a subscriber)

http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/graffiti/crook.htm

Other good ones from the past few years...

Big Lies

Jews for Buchanan

Hunting of the President

I started the Spinsanity book about the White House on the airplane the other day...it looks pretty good.

[Just Me]

8. "Worse Than Watergate" and "Big Lies". n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Political in a broader sense.

"War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steibeck

Non-fiction

"I Shall Bear Witness" by Victor Klemperer
"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond
"Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris" by Ian Kershaw
"Hitler 1936-1945: Nemesis" by Ian Kershaw
"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn

and, many more.

If you don't understand history, you're pissing in the wind trying to understand the present.

[Ms. Clio]

31. Guns, Germs, and Steel--a great book

Thanks for the Hitler titles, I was looking for something along those lines.

[bossfish]

40. Guns, Germs and Steel was the best book...

...I've read in the last 10-20 years

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

43. By far the most detailed.

2 large volumes, but very readable.

I would really encourage you to read "I Will Bear Witness" in conjunction with the Hitler books. It's also two volumes of a diary kept by a German Jew professor of French literature who was married to an Aryan. None of the usual gas chamber, ovens, torture. But, in it's way, far more chilling as it shows, on a daily basis, the descent of Germany into barbarism. The absolute best book I've read about the holocaust, or for that matter about the Nazis. Besides that, it is extremely hard to put down.

[Ms. Clio]

46. I actually have read parts of that for a class

And agree with you that it is fascinating and horrifying.

[Metatron]

10. Hunter S. Thompson's

Better than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie

It covers the '92 election. I highly recommend it; it's brilliant and hysterical!

[Chovexani]

12. I'm finally reading Al Franken's Lying Liars right now

Great book so far. And it makes a good gift! :evilgrin:

[phylny]

52. I, too, loved "Lies

and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" as well as "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot."

Both were my "introductions" into political thought. Very easy reads, and I could "hear" Al Franken while reading :)

[el_gato]

13. Right now I'm reading

On the Justice of Roosting Chickens by Ward Churchill
http://www.akpress.org/dosearch.php?itemid=4320

Hideous Dream by Stan Goff
http://www.softskull.com/detailedbook.php?isbn=1-887128-63-8

Late Victorian Holocausts by Mike Davis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/famine/story/0,12128,737405,00.html

The Colonizers Model of The World by James Blaut
http://www.sciencesbookreview.com/The_Colonizers_Model_of_the_World_Geographical_Diffusionism_and_Eurocentric_History_0898623480.html

and I just finished

A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East by David Fromkin
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805068848/qid=1094155645/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-1033290-7856619


I've already read Blinded by Brock and The Best Democracy by Palast.

I've also read a whole bunch of those type of books (Jim Hightower, Molly, etc.) but I think they are political candy compared to the books I listed above. I'm not bashing them (in fact I just mailed two of Jim's books to friends) but I am most concerned with root causes to the state of the world in which we are living and most of the "political" books really just focus on minutae.

[Ms. Clio]

33. Late Victorian Holocausts is another excellent book

A jeremiad that totally pissed off the conservative grad students when we read it.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

36. I finished H Dream a few weeks ago.

I think you're really going to like it.

[genius]

14. Must Reads: "Worse Than Watergate" and "Citizen You"

WTW is by John Dean and very readable. CY is by the writers of Onion and it provides great political satire.

Of course, if you haven't read "Dude, Where's My Country" by now, there may be no hope for you.

[nyhuskyfan]

16. Fraud (Paul Waldman) and Great Unraveling (Paul Krugman)

Both were very good. Krugman's book was a collection of columns -- his paperback has 100 more pages from the last year. Fraud was very good, but isn't as well known as some others.

[genius]

17. I trust everyone here has read "1984."

It's Bush's Bible.

[markses]

18. Excellent new book: Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire

by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt

The follow-up to their best-seller, "Empire."

[Ms. Clio]

35. Another new(ish) book, just reviewed on H-Net is American Empire

by Andrew J. Bacevich. From the review:

At first glance, Andrew J. Bacevich's American Empire makes what
today seems to be a commonly accepted argument--that the United
States is in fact an empire, an unequaled global power that is
intent on dominating and controlling other countries by organizing
the world system in its image. While this is a somewhat
unremarkable thesis, Bacevich's work is worthwhile for a number of
reasons. First and most importantly, he goes beyond the simple
evidence of contemporary empire to show a deeper underlying pattern
in American foreign policy. Second, he ably demonstrates how
well-accepted policies of globalization and openness enable and
promote this policy of empire. Third, he provides insightful
commentary about contemporary military policy and its ultimate
purpose. Lastly, Bacevich's analysis is powerful enough to provoke
the reader more carefully to assess the long-term effects and
impacts of empire and American foreign policies that reinforce the
empire. All of this is done in a book that is accessible even to
non-specialists and will be of interest to anyone concerned with
contemporary American foreign policy and its implications.

Bacevich's most provocative thesis is that American foreign policy
makers have long sought to establish an American empire. Correcting
those who have said that the U.S. has not had a "grand strategy"
since the end of the Cold War, Bacevich shows that, in fact, the
grand strategy now is not only the same as it was during the Cold
War, but also the same as it was in World War II and I, and for at
least the last century of American politics. As he says, "
ultimate objective is the creation of an open and integrated
international order based on the principles of democratic
capitalism, with the United States as the ultimate guarantor of
order and enforcer of norms" (p. 3). One of the most interesting
ways he demonstrates the continuity in approach is by the quotes he
uses to open each chapter of the book. Despite being garnered from a
variety of sources and spanning just over the last century of
American policy, if the quotes were not credited the reader might
easily believe that the same person had uttered all of those remarks
because of their amazingly similar attitude--the attitude of
American righteousness and manifest destiny.

(spelling edit)

[dissention]

19. Democracy For the Few

by Parenti. Utterly fabulous. ;)

[Beware the Beast Man]

20. "Bushwacked!" by Molly Ivins and Lou DuBose

And for the newbie (like I was 6 months ago), "The Bush-Hater's Handbook."

[strategery blunder]

21. House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger

Hard-hitting about how bu$h*co got in bed with the Saudis, who had to shovel protection money to terrorists to avoid a rebellion.

[RichardRay]

23. Ones I liked...

_The Great Unraveling, Losing Our Way in the New Century_; Paul Krugman

_The Wretched of the Earth_; Franz Fanon

_Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies_;Ian Buruma, Avishai Margalit

and simultaneously

_Orientalism_ ;Edward Said

[truebrit71]

24. Homegrown Democrat-Garrison Keilor (sp?)

John Dean's "Worse then Watergate"

Carville's "Had enough?" absolutely hits the nail on the head...

Anything by Molly Ivins....

[RandomKoolzip]

25. "The Republican Noise Machine" by David Brock.

I cannot overstate the importance of this book. It spells out exactly how the right came to dominate public discourse with ideas that thirty years ago would have been dismissed as dangerous and almost fascist.

[K-W]

39. seconded! an absolute must read

[11 Bravo]

26. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72,

by the savagely funny AND prescient Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.

[chefgirl]

27. A Few

Moral Politics by George Lakoff>>
a brilliant book detailing how the RW has been able to co-opt the language of political debate with disingenuous catch phrases, etc...

The Great Unraveling by Paul Krugman>>
a collection of his columns from NYTimes

Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot by Al Franken
both are great for some comic relief and prescient analysis of all things right wing


Im also going to recommend:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (audiobook) A Citizens Guide to Democracy Inaction


Just got it two days ago and haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, and I'm not sure it's available in print form, but I couldn't wait till it was. I have a feeling its gonna rock!

-chef-

[bain_sidhe]

28. Wealth and Democracy, Sore Winners & The Book On Bush

probably the top three I've read recently

**edited for cut/paste/rewording errors**

Even though Wealth and Democracy is older (pub 2002) and it's more of an analysis of the subject. Given the depth with which it examines the subject, it's a surprisingly easy read. Yes, there are some dry spots, but it's remarkable how understandable Kevin Phillips makes the central thesis - that the trajectory of the U.S. economy and culture over the last 20-30 years almost exactly matches the decline of the previous two "world powers" - England in the late 1800s, and Holland in the late 1600s/early 1700s. The first three chapters examine the three great "waves" of American wealth, showing similarities to wealth explosions in those previous powers. But it's in the last seven chapters that the parallels really become striking. In each of seven general themes or topic areas, he clearly shows how America is taking the same path to faded glory that those powers did.

Sore Winners is a new book by John Powers, a deputy editor of L.A. Weekly and media/culture columnist. It isn't your usual "anti-Bush" book, although Powers clearly opposes bush*. It's more a look at the culture created and/or influenced by "bushworld" - a place from which he (and most of us here) desperately want to escape.

The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America, by Eric Alterman and Mark Green, covers most of the same material that other anti-bush books from the same time (Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell them, Worse Than Watergate, Big Lies) do, but does so (in my opinion) more comprehensively, and with a greater attention to examining the common ideology that ties the various outrages of the bush* administration into a synergistic wholesale assault on "the common good" - meaning things that might benefit people who aren't rich, white, male and christian.

Of course, I've not yet read some of the books out there, so my "top three" might change when I do. My "most wanted" books are "American Dynasty" (Kevin Phillips, again), What Liberal Media (Eric Alterman - the updated paperback edition), Running on Empty (Peter Peterson), Fanatics and Fools (Arianna Huffington), The Bush-Hater's Handbook (Jack Huberman), and Unequal Protection (Thom Hartmann). Tehre are a lot more that I *want* to read, but I suspect one or more of those have the best chance of making it into my "top three" list.

[RandomKoolzip]

44. I found "Sore Winners" to be somewhat disingenuous.

In fact, I've been thinking about writing a full-length article outlining the multiple times Powers contradicts himself in the text. For instance, he excoriates Chomsky for placing the 9/11 tragedy in the context of a broader history of terror attacks on foreign soil, then a few pages later excoriates the American people for NOT placing the 9/11 tragedy in the context of a broader history of terrorist attacks on foreign soil.

He seemes to want to appear objective by admitting to "admiring" Rush Limbaugh, Coiln Powell, etc. at the same time detailing the Bush administration's many failings. And no matter what charges he lobs against the powers that be, he refuses to see that the Bush Administration used 9/11 to their benefit. In the end, I believe his pretense to magnanimity does him in.

And he cares WAY too much about "American Idol" to be trusted.

But apart from those many caveats, it was an interesting read.

[bain_sidhe]

49. Yeah, that's a point...

He was a bit inconsistent, and some of his stuff was too cute by half. (And I, too, shuddered at his apparent American Idol fixation.) It made my list because it was a fresh angle on the "problem" of Bush's America, and one that seems more ... oh, accessible to the part of the population who are more indifferent to Bush than I am. Made it relevant to everyday life, as opposed to the more policy-oriented critiques most of the other anti-bush* books offer.

But, as with all subjective evaluations, YMMV! :D

[Ms. Clio]

29. One Market Under God, another great book by Thomas Frank

One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy.

[Spiffarino]

30. A few...

Bushwhacked
Lies and Lying Liars
Shrub
Dynasty
Trail Fever (followed the many Repubs who ran against the Clenis in '96)

[LanternWaste]

37. A few...

The Great Divide and Working, by Studs Terkel (both have some great stuff about that strange, weird animal- rarely seen anymore- known as the Reagan Democrat)

Media Monopoly, Ben Bagdikian (author was written off as a quack by conventional wisdom when the book was published in the 80's. Only took 10-15 years for his hypothesis to be proven)

The Jungle, Upton Sinclair (the book only devotes app. 10 ppg. to the slaughterhouse stuff, the real indictments made re: the "Boss" system of governments... why people only remember it for meat, I'll never know)

[bossfish]

41. Some more...

American Dynasty - Kevin Phillips - chronicle of the Bush family

Nothing But Good Times Ahead - Molly Ivins - about the 1992 prez election

Any Al Franken book - "Why Not Me" is a funny book about Al running for president in 2000.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

42. "the clothes have no emperor"

by paul slansky

"the arms of krupp" william manchester

"plausible denial" mark lane

"secret agenda" watergate, deep throat, and the cia jim hougan

"silent coup" the removal of a president len colodny and robert getlin

"way out there in the blue" reagan, star wars and the end of the cold war frances fitzgerald

"the seven sisters" the great oil companies and the world they made
anthony sampson

"the guns of august" barbara tuchman

[Commendatori]

45. What Liberal Media? by Eric Alterman

It's helped me out a lot in arguments with my Repug chain of command.

[stavka]

47. Scott Coll "Shadow Wars"

[cosmicvortex20]

48. Atlas Shrugged...

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

50. Up From Conservatism..Michael Lind...&....

Emerging Republican Majority, by Kevin Phillips.

[Jokinomx]

51. "Stupid White Men" .by Micheal Moore

Only M.M. could write a book about something that was so serious and make it so funny. I was mad and laughing at the same time....

:kick:

[donheld]

53. some of you really would enjoy

"The Exception to the Rulers" by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman. it's really very good also try

House Of Bush House Of Saud - Craig Unger
Against All Enemies - Richard Clarke
Plan Of Attack - Bob Woodward
WAR is a Force That Gives Us Meaning - Chris Hedges


:bounce:

[Djinn]

54. Surprised no-one's mentioned these yet

Necesary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies and Manufacturing Consent by Chomsky.

I was pretty young when I read NI and it's stayed with me since - the myth of "left wing" opinion in the media and the reality that we basically only see two slightly different shaded views of the same argument in relation to any one issue is a relevant today (if not more so) than when published.

[TahitiNut]

56. For Goddess's sake, read John Rawls!

This is required reading for anyone that claims to even know what "liberal" means.



http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0674005422.01._PE_PIdp-schmoo2,TopRight,7,-26_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[GimmeDANEger]

57. where to start?

"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn
"What Liberal Media?" by Eric Alterman
"Weapons of Mass Deception" by Sheldon Rampton, John Stauber
"The Bush Dyslexicon" by Mark Crispin Miller
"Critical Views of September 11: Analysis from Around the World"
"The Greatest Sedition Is Silence : Four Years in America" by William Rivers Pitt
"Bushwacked" by Molly Ivins
"Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta" by Gore Vidal
"Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers" by Alissa Quart

and so many more....



Also, if anyone has any suggestions similar to these, fire away!