# Reading that opens the mind - Books



## midcan5

Someone asked recently which writer influenced you most, and I list three, Albert Camus, Thomas Wolfe, and Feodor Dostoevsky. For Camus it was all his writings, Wolfe's 'You can't go home,' and D's 'Devils' and 'Brothers Karamazov.' 

So I complied a more modern list of reading that challenges and will surely make you think. And raise your IQ as well. Four asterisks are excellent first reads. Most is nonfiction, I will add fiction writers at end. 

What We Leave Behind By Derrick Jensen
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/What-Leave-Behind-Derrick-Jensen/dp/1583228675/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: What We Leave Behind (9781583228678): Derrick Jensen, Aric McBay: Books[/ame]

Media / Hate / Ecology ****
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Make-Believe-Derrick-Jensen/dp/1931498571/ref=pd_sim_b_10]Amazon.com: The Culture of Make Believe (9781931498579): Derrick Jensen: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Manufacturing-Consent-Political-Economy-Media/dp/0375714499/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249125348&sr=1-2]Amazon.com: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (9780375714498): Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky: Books[/ame]

Burning All Illusions : A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom by David Edwards
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Burning-All-Illusions-Personal-Political/dp/0896085317/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_3]Amazon.com: Burning All Illusions : A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom (9780896085312): David Edwards: Books[/ame]

Politics - rhetorical thought - excellent ****
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Rhetoric-Reaction-Perversity-Futility-Jeopardy/dp/067476868X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246553514&sr=1-3]Amazon.com: The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy (9780674768680): Albert O. Hirschman: Books[/ame]

Deer hunting with Jesus ****- excellent picture from a hick on hicks - said with respect.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Deer-Hunting-Jesus-Dispatches-Americas/dp/0307339378/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books]Amazon.com: Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War (9780307339379): Joe Bageant: Books[/ame]

Two excellent introductions to political thinking
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Political-Philosophy-Beginners-Students-Politicians/dp/0745635326/ref=pd_sim_b_1]Amazon.com: Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians (9780745635323): Adam Swift: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Political-Philosophy-Jonathan-Wolff/dp/019929609X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: An Introduction to Political Philosophy (9780199296095): Jonathan Wolff: Books[/ame]

Great Depression and Bubbles
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Great-Depression-New-Deal-Introductions/dp/0195326342/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1230302046&sr=1-8]Amazon.com: The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780195326345): Eric Rauchway: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Financial-Euphoria-Whittle/dp/0140238565/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230302117&sr=1-2]Amazon.com: A Short History of Financial Euphoria (Penguin business) (9780140238563): John Kenneth Galbraith: Books[/ame]

Poverty Global Issues
Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Common-Wealth-Economics-Crowded-Planet/dp/0143114875/ref=ed_oe_p]Amazon.com: Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (9780143114871): Jeffrey D. Sachs: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/End-Poverty-Economic-Possibilities-Time/dp/0143036580/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_c]Amazon.com: The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (9780143036586): Jeffrey Sachs: Books[/ame]

Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Globalization-Its-Discontents-Joseph-Stiglitz/dp/0393324397/ref=pd_cp_b_2]Amazon.com: Globalization and Its Discontents (9780393324396): Joseph E. Stiglitz: Books[/ame]

Economics
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/How-West-Grew-Rich-Transformation/dp/0465031099/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books]Amazon.com: How The West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation Of The Industrial World (9780465031092): Nathan Rosenberg, L.E. Birdzell Jr.: Books[/ame]
Great Depression
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Hands-Businessmens-Crusade-Against/dp/0393337669/ref=ed_oe_p]Amazon.com: Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal (9780393337662): Kim Phillips-Fein: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Propensity-Self-Subversion-Albert-O-Hirschman/dp/0674715586/ref=sid_dp_dp]Amazon.com: A Propensity to Self-Subversion (9780674715585): Albert O. Hirschman: Books[/ame]

Liberal thought - Waldron is excellent
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/God-Locke-Equality-Christian-Foundations/dp/0521890578/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought (9780521890571): Jeremy Waldron: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Justice-Fairness-Restatement-John-Rawls/dp/0674005112/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (9780674005112): John Rawls, Erin Kelly: Books[/ame]

Serious fun, thought provoking.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/What-Have-Changed-Your-About/dp/0061686549/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything (9780061686542): John Brockman: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/What-Believe-but-Cannot-Prove/dp/0060841818/ref=pd_sim_b_3]Amazon.com: What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty (9780060841812): John Brockman: Books[/ame]
EDGE

History
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Age-Extremes-History-World-1914-1991/dp/0679730052/ref=ed_oe_p]Amazon.com: The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 (9780679730057): Eric Hobsbawm: Books[/ame]

Evil - understanding a topic that confuses all.
Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing by James Waller 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Evil-Ordinary-Genocide-Killing/dp/0195189493/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (9780195189490): James Waller: Books[/ame]

Ideas - a survey from fire to ....
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Ideas-History-Thought-Invention-Freud/dp/0060935642/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books]Amazon.com: Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud (9780060935641): Peter Watson: Books[/ame]

Ethics - profound and deep
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Reasons-Persons-Oxford-Paperbacks-Parfit/dp/019824908X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Reasons and Persons (Oxford Paperbacks) (9780198249085): Derek Parfit: Books[/ame]

Other stuff to challenge you.

"Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate" By Ronald Dworkin

"The Morality of Freedom" By Joseph Raz. 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Morality-Freedom-Clarendon-Paperbacks/dp/0198248075/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1248087360&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: The Morality of Freedom (Clarendon Paperbacks) (9780198248156): Joseph Raz: Books[/ame]

Liberal Rights" Jeremy Waldron  See Chapter 2 Page 35 
Liberal rights: collected papers ... - Google Books

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Ideology-Very-Short-Introduction-Introductions/dp/019280281X/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239196362&sr=1-3]Amazon.com: Ideology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780192802811): Michael Freeden: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Liberty-before-Liberalism-Quentin-Skinner/dp/0521638763/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247953101&sr=8-4]Amazon.com: Liberty before Liberalism (9780521638760): Quentin Skinner: Books[/ame]

Modern writers worth reading William Vollman, Richard Powers, and the books below are all excellent. 


* Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance By Robert Pirsig
Darkness At Noon By Arthur Koestler
Angle Of Repose By Wallace Stegner
Go Tell It On The Mountain By James Baldwin
Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison
Man's Fate, André Malraux
Sophie's Choice By William Styron
The Fall, The Plague, Albert Camus
An American Tragedy By Theodore Dreiser
The Heart Of The Matter By Graham Greene
The Sound And The Fury By William Faulkner
To The Lighthouse By Virginia Woolf


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## KittenKoder

What are these ... books? Some sort of ancient tablets?


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## Fatality

KittenKoder said:


> What are these ... books? Some sort of ancient tablets?



yeah, you know thoses things about which you and your comrade said people who quote from books are ignorant.


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## KittenKoder

Fatality said:


> KittenKoder said:
> 
> 
> 
> What are these ... books? Some sort of ancient tablets?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> yeah, you know thoses things about which you and your comrade said people who quote from books are ignorant.
Click to expand...


Really? I said that? ... yeah ... you pay attention well.


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## midcan5

LOL  - read some of the excerpts on Amazon.  Check out the Culture of Make Believe by Jensen. Edward's book along the same topic is interesting too.


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## American Horse

Thanks for the thread MC.  Quite a list &#8211; lots of choices.  One author which you &#8211; and I &#8211; quote a lot not on your list is Eric Hoffer.  I often go to one of his first three books The _Ordeal of Change_ to find inspiration for clear thinking. On the other hand, I do not go much to Dostoevsky; but that's just me.

Here is how Hoffer&#8217;s emergence as an author/philosopher/social commentator was summarized in the Editor's Preface of _The True Believer_ when it was re-published in the _Time Reading Program for the Special Edition_ in 1963:

&#8220;In 1951, when "Believer" first appeared, eager eyes had long been peeled for the emergence of a proletarian philosopher.  A genuine one emerged at last &#8211; with a philosophical cast very different from what a proletarian was supposed to think.  The literary shock could hardly have been greater.  For Hoffer&#8217;s hero is &#8220;the autonomous man,&#8221; the confident man at peace with himself, engaged in the present.  In Hoffer&#8217;s book, this hero, nourished by free societies, is set off against &#8220;the true believer,&#8221; who begins as a frustrated man driven by guilt, failure and self-disgust to bury his own identity in a cause oriented to some future goal.&#8221;

In his small (second) book The Passionate State of Mind, Hoffer goes further in describing the human characteristics of the autonomous man versus the true believer. He does this in 280 aphorisms on 141 pages, ranging in size from just less than a page at the beginning to as little as 6 words as the book progresses. He separates them by  abundant blank space to give the reader time to absorb the last before moving on to the next.

These three aphorisms give the gist of what he has to say; a long one in the beginning, one of medium length in the middle, and a very short one at the end:

*Aphorism 30:*
_&#8220;WE ACQUIRE a sense of worth either by realizing our talents, or by keeping busy, or by identifying ourselves with something apart from us &#8211; be it a cause, a leader, a group, possessions and the like.  Of the three, the path of self-realization is the most difficult.  It is taken only when other avenues to a sense of worth are more or less blocked.  Men of talent have to be encouraged and goaded to engage in creative work.  Their groans and laments echo through the ages.

Action is a high-road to self-confidence and esteem. Where it is open, all energies flow toward it.  It comes readily to most people, and its rewards are tangible.  The tendency toward it is rarely spontaneous.  Where the opportunities for action are many, cultural creativeness is likely to be neglected. The cultural flowering of New England came to an almost abrupt end with the opening of the West.  The relative cultural sterility of the Romans might perhaps be explained by their empire rather than by an innate lack of genius. The best talents were attracted by the rewards of administrative posts just as the best talents in American are attracted by the rewards of a business career.&#8221;_

*Aphorism 170:*
_&#8220;IN AMERICA not only are class lines indistinct but there is something at work which equalizes people irrespective of their education, possessions, occupations and their mental and physical attributes. The differences are relatively slight between the educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, soldiers and civilians, old and young, men and women, business leaders and labor leaders, the sane and the insane, and (considering the quantities of patent medicines consumed by all) the healthy and the sick.&#8221;_

*Aphorism 255:*
_&#8220;FEAR and freedom are mutually exclusive.&#8221;_

Here is a link to his bio in Wikkipedia and a list of books he&#8217;s written.
Eric Hoffer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## midcan5

American Horse said:


> Thanks for the thread MC.  Quite a list &#8211; lots of choices.  One author which you &#8211; and I &#8211; quote a lot not on your list is Eric Hoffer.  I often go to one of his first three books The _Ordeal of Change_ to find inspiration for clear thinking. On the other hand, I do not go much to Dostoevsky; but that's just me....



I agree but I think too that times change and writers react to their times. 

Saw this list in a Newsweek and thought it interesting and worth sharing. 

I have been back reading Derek Parfit and now a Richard Powers novel, the echo maker. Both challenge.

*'What to Read Now. And Why'*


"We know it's insane. We know people will ask why on earth we think that an 1875 British satirical novel is the book you need to read right now&#8212;or, for that matter, why it even made the cut. The fact is, no one needs another best-of list telling you how great The Great Gatsby is. What we do need, in a world with precious little time to read (and think), is to know which books&#8212;new or old, fiction or nonfiction&#8212;open a window on the times we live in, whether they deal directly with the issues of today or simply help us see ourselves in new and surprising ways. Which is why we'd like you to sit down with Anthony Trollope, and these 49 other remarkably trenchant voices."

Fifty Books for Our Times | Newsweek Books | Newsweek.com


"If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences." Eric Hoffer


AH,   I was going to use that quote and Hoffer in my avatar after the election, but since Obama bugs others I had to keep him. lol


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## American Horse

midcan5 said:


> "If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences." Eric Hoffer
> 
> 
> AH,   I was going to use that quote and Hoffer in my avatar after the election, but since Obama bugs others I had to keep him. lol



Actually I like your Av and hope you keep it. The Obama family looks so "ideal" in it and that's the image you want to project.  It's honest of you _from your point of view._  Maybe you could change around a little, but nothing could be more revealing than the family photo.


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## Harry Dresden

American Horse said:


> midcan5 said:
> 
> 
> 
> "If anybody asks me what I have accomplished, I will say all I have accomplished is that I have written a few good sentences." Eric Hoffer
> 
> 
> AH,   I was going to use that quote and Hoffer in my avatar after the election, but since Obama bugs others I had to keep him. lol
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Actually I like your Av and hope you keep it. The Obama family looks so "ideal" in it and that's the image you want to project.  It's honest of you _from your point of view._  Maybe you could change around a little, but nothing could be more revealing than the family photo.
Click to expand...


yea you have any tissue....im getting a tear in my eye....


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## hjmick

Louis L'Amour.


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## midcan5

Came across this list looking for histories of ideas, a personal favorite subject. Since he liked Richard Powers, I checked his list and saw 'The Ascent of Man' by Jacob Bronowski mentioned. Few here probably saw it on TV, but it astounds me to think how good television can be and yet how bad it is. Anyway his list includes so many topics debated on USMB I thought I'd share it. 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/A1N5YAOQJ6T8RD/ref=cm_cr_dp_auth_rev?ie=UTF8&sort%5Fby=MostRecentReview]Amazon.com: Profile For Jay C. Smith: Reviews[/ame]


And - this book on medieval history is so well done and readable, I bought a used copy of his 'The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972.' Summer read as it is a thick one. 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/World-Lit-Only-Fire-Renaissance/dp/0316545562/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257368057&sr=1-4]Amazon.com: A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age (9780316545563): William Manchester: Books[/ame]

Also check out, pulled this off the shelf after the discussion on religion and morality in another thread. See Chapter 3, book is available online. 

Online Library of Liberty - The Liberal Mind

"Moral knowledge is sometimes a thing we seek; more often it is something we have forced upon us. A Nazi bureaucrat receiving orders to arrest and execute a Jewish friend, has, in the classic textbook sense, a moral problem. Does he obey the State, to which he owes allegiance? Does he resign? Does he help his friend to get out of the country to safety? He may formulate his question as: what ought I to do? He may rank the various appropriate rules (help friends, obey the law, keep promises, etc.). He may calculate the utils of pain involved for everybody concerned. He may ask what Christ or Luther would have done. He is in fact unlikely to do any of these things with much resolution. It is far more likely that a set of incidents&#8212;watching his children, the remark of a superior, or an obsessive memory&#8212;will give him some vision of things in which his decision will emerge. But whatever he does, his choice will be evidence about his character. It may indicate weakness or strength, vanity, self-sacrifice, honesty or self-deception. The conflict may be seen in quite other terms than &#8220;what ought he to do?&#8221; as, for example, whether he is a loyal friend or an obedient supporter of the régime. If our Nazi functionary were singlemindedly dedicated to the régime, he would not be aware of a moral dilemma at all. He would simply do his &#8220;duty.&#8221; And if, later, after executing his Jewish friend, he began to suffer remorse, he would be criticizing not only his act or choice; he would be implicitly criticizing the narrowly obedient way of life which, unchosen, had led up to the decision."


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## midcan5

More stuff

Just finished this, worth a read.
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Being-Certain-Believing-Right-Youre/dp/031254152X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262742280&sr=1-1http://www.amazon.com/Being-Certain-Believing-Right-Youre/dp/031254152X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not (9780312541521): Robert Burton: Books[/ame]

reading now, mixed review so far
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Geography-Thought-Asians-Westerners-Differently/dp/0743255356/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262742402&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently...and Why (9780743255356): Richard Nisbett: Books[/ame]

and this:
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Wider-Than-Sky-Phenomenal-Consciousness/dp/0300107617/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262742486&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Wider Than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness (9780300107616): Gerald M. Edelman: Books[/ame]


capitalism from a hitman's viewpoint
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Hoodwinked-Economic-Reveals-Financial-Imploded/dp/0307589927/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262741822&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Hoodwinked: An Economic Hit Man Reveals Why the World Financial Markets Imploded--and What We Need to Do to Remake Them (9780307589927): John Perkins: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Economic-Hit-John-Perkins/dp/0452287081/ref=pd_sim_b_2]Amazon.com: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (9780452287082): John Perkins: Books[/ame]


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## jillian

Some interesting books there. 

I loved Deer Hunting with Jesus.


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## midcan5

I recently picked this up after many years and thought jeez this should be required reading for liberals and conservatives and libertarians and communists and .... you can get a sense of the book in look inside on Amazon or the Google Book previews. Read 'Why I am not a Marxist' and 'Why I am not a Smithian' (Adam Smith/Friedman). 

The religious will love this book too. 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Whys-Philosophical-Scrivener-Martin-Gardner/dp/0312206828/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener (9780312206826): Martin Gardner: Books[/ame]

The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener - Google Books

If you really want to understand Communism and not only use it as a stick.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/reader/0061138797?_encoding=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Rise and Fall of Communism (9780061138799): Archie Brown: Books[/ame]


Finally found a book that touches on a piece of human consciousness that seemed to be missing from other books I have read. Just started this but excellent so far. 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Crucible-Consciousness-Integrated-Theory-Brain/dp/026251284X/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Crucible of Consciousness: An Integrated Theory of Mind and Brain (9780262512848): Zoltan Torey, Daniel C. Dennett: Books[/ame]


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## midcan5

Darn, I was too late edit above and add this, but this guy was on cspan today and had what I consider a correct understanding of where our economy is today and why.


"The Obama administration has promised more aggressive enforcement on antitrust issues, but Lynn argues that they are missing the forest for the trees. For decades, the federal government has encouraged companies to buy one another up, outsource all their production, and make their profits by leveraging their market share. It will take more than a lawsuit or two to overthrow Americas corporatist oligarchy and restore a model of capitalism that protects our rights as property holders and citizens."


[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Cornered-Monopoly-Capitalism-Economics-Destruction/dp/0470186380/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266160040&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction (9780470186381): Barry Lynn: Books[/ame]


Video in here as well.

Cornered | NewAmerica.net

Barry C. Lynn | NewAmerica.net


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## American Horse

This perhaps is not the type cerebral choice mentioned in the OP, but for an historical perspective of politics in our seminal republican model I suggest &#8220;IMPERIUM&#8221; by Robert Harris, a historical novel.  Maybe it opens the mind to read and view from the vantage point of 2-millenia, a view of which is seen embodied many of the worse abuses of our present system, as if in prelude. 

Besides being a great read, you get a close-up of the blood sport of politics in ancient Rome, where it could be very dangerous to seek the highest offices, as well as to practice of law.   Imperium is a fictional biography of one of the most well known and often quoted &#8220;statesmen&#8221; of ancient times, as written down by his secretary &#8220;Tiro&#8221;, a slave who was with him his adult entire life; Marcus Tullius Cicero 

Whatever historical errors or liberties Harris takes in IMPERIUM, are inconsequential.

A description of an election; first for Consul &#8211; the chief executive officers:

From Imperium: 





> This was the old republic in action, the men all voting in their allotted centuries, just as they had in _ancient_ times, when as soldiers they elected their commander. ...it is hard to convey how moving a spectacle it was....It embodied something marvelous&#8211;some impulse toward the light of dignity and freedom, and away from the darkness of brute subservience....  Still it was freedom as it had been practiced for hundreds of years, and no man on the _Field of Mars_ that day would have dreamed that he might live to see it taken away...[he walked] with his fellows into the roped-off enclosure and ...  then they formed themselves into a line and filed by the table at which sat the clerks, who checked their names and handed them their voting counters.  If there was to be intimidation, this was generally the place where it occurred; for the partisans of each candidate could get up close to the voters and whisper their threats or promises... he disappeared behind the boards to cast his vote.
> 
> The poorer men must have known they could not affect the outcome, but such was the dignity conveyed by the franchise that they stood all afternoon in the heat, waiting their turn to collect their ballots and shuffle over the bridge.&#8221;



A description of the second day of supplementary elections:



> At dawn the following day we made the two-mile walk back to the field of Mars for the second round of elections.  Although these did not carry the same prestige as those for the consul-ship and the praetorship, they always had the advantage of being much more exciting.  Thirty-four men had to be elected (twenty senators, ten tribunes, and four aediles), which meant there were simply too many candidates for the poll to be easily controlled: when an aristocrat&#8217;s vote carried no more weight than a pauper&#8217;s, anything could happen.&#8221;



This book is fascinating, if only  in how law was practiced; how an attorney like Cicero would take on minor cases for free - which was how legal help was dispensed - to show his worth in trial and make a name for himself.  Then, if successful, he would be awarded much more important cases, in a litigious society perhaps second only to our modern day U.S. 
In the story Cicero defended a private citizen of Sicily by charging the former Roman governor of Sicily with malfeasance while in office. The same former governor was running for the highest (executive) office in Rome, and if cleared of the crime and if elected would have had immense power to wreak revenge, and elections could be won by bribery. 

A Review of &#8220;IMPERIUM&#8221; by Chris Heaton of UNRV History
Imperium

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Imperium-Novel-Ancient-Robert-Harris/dp/074326603X]Amazon.com: Imperium: A Novel of Ancient Rome (9780743266031): Robert Harris: Books[/ame]


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## germanguy

As I have discovered, that this book is available in English: read it !

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Discovery-Slowness-Sten-Nadolny/dp/1589880242/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267653229&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: The Discovery of Slowness (9781589880245): Sten Nadolny, Ralph Freedman: Books[/ame]

(hope the link works)

Hm...what is this book ?

I would call it a fictional biography of John Franklin, the polar explorer.
But this book uses only the raw biographical data to unfold an adventure story of several expeditions to the North, of the war at sea against Napoleon, Trafalgar and so on.
It is also a compelling story about the problems of leadership and, most important, about the speed of modern times and what it means to man.

The language is flawless (the translation to english) is superb and after a few pages you will start to find yourself deep in love with the character, but only because he is developed lively and interesting.

Get yourself a rainy sunday afternoon and this book and it will leave you touched and motivated.

regards 
ze germanguy


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## midcan5

If you read only one book this year read Tony Judt's book noted below.

The Year in Reading ? Arts ? Utne Reader

Best New Books 2010 - The Privileges Review - Esquire

*'Ill Fares the Land'* by Tony Judt - check remainders if hard cover price is too steep. 

"Judt, who died this year from Lou Gehrig's disease, leaves behind this inspiring final volume. If you're looking for bipartisan bullshit, look elsewhere. If you're looking for the anti-Glenn Beck, it's here."


----------



## editec

KittenKoder said:


> What are these ... books? Some sort of ancient tablets?


 
I vaguely recall something called books.

I think this is an example of one, isn't it?


----------



## Douger

GLOBALPOLITAN


----------



## Mr. Sauerkraut

these were mindbreaking experiences to me:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Robert-PIRSIG/dp/B000KRRAII/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1294143802&sr=8-2-catcorr]Amazon.com: Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: Robert M. PIRSIG: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Memnoch-Devil-Anne-Rice/dp/B001E3J6CA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1294143855&sr=1-1]Amazon.com: Memnoch the Devil: Anne Rice: Books[/ame]


----------



## Mr. Sauerkraut

my deepest sorry

the best book i´ve ever read:







mindbreaking in every way. actual than ever. that´s what i call a heart-hurtener


----------



## midcan5

This was an interesting find as it is similar to Judt's book noted in quote, it seems maybe that cold hearted greed is wearing on people and they are finally beginning to see we are all on this spaceship together.  Now can someone get that message to the republican party? 

The little red book that swept France - Europe, World - The Independent

"In a New Year message Mr Hessel, who survived Nazi concentration camps to become a French diplomat, said he was "profoundly touched" by the success of his book. Just as he "cried out" against Nazism in the 1940s, he said, young people today should "cry out against the complicity between politicians and economic and financial powers" and "defend our democratic rights acquired over two centuries"."




midcan5 said:


> If you read only one book this year read Tony Judt's book noted below.
> 
> The Year in Reading ? Arts ? Utne Reader
> 
> Best New Books 2010 - The Privileges Review - Esquire
> 
> *'Ill Fares the Land'* by Tony Judt - check remainders if hard cover price is too steep.
> 
> "Judt, who died this year from Lou Gehrig's disease, leaves behind this inspiring final volume. If you're looking for bipartisan bullshit, look elsewhere. If you're looking for the anti-Glenn Beck, it's here."


----------



## midcan5

I've read 26 of these and have attempted to read about 8 others without luck. I agree with many, but a few seem frivolous and too ideological or science fictional for my taste or patience. I was glad to see my favorite, and the best book of all time on the list. But where is Sam?

Information is Beautiful on the books everyone must read | Books | guardian.co.uk

btw Recently reading Kripke and am thinking about starting Zeitoun. 

neat site:  Information Is Beautiful | Ideas, issues, knowledge, data - visualized!


----------



## midcan5

*Wingnut Alert:  Please Read.

The information below contains ideas that may be hazardous to your ideological perspective. Please read no further if complex ideas cause unnecessary mental turmoil.*

reading now

This is one of those rare books that can alter the way you see and make up your world. "Ironically, contemporary philosophy almost never asks the philosophical questions that matter most deeply to our everyday lives. In fact those meaning of life questions have been deliberately avoided. Now, Owen Flanagan brings his trademark clarity, breadth of scientific knowledge, and wit to bear on questions that have seemed too big for analytic philosophy -- what is the relation between religion and science, and what can we do to lead fulfilling and meaningful lives in a material world defined by scientific inquiry? He includes an exceptionally well-informed and thoughtful account of the Buddhist tradition, and empirical findings from 'positive psychology', as well as philosophical arguments. This book is a distinctive and compelling combination of skeptical rationality and gentle affirmation of the enchantment of the everyday." Alison Gopnik, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Really-Hard-Problem-Material-Bradford/dp/0262512483/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World (Bradford Books) (9780262512480): Owen Flanagan: Books[/ame]


These look excellent - but not read - for early American history buffs

Pauline Maier was on cspan's in-depth recently and the interview and discussion was fascinating stuff. See cspan link, I usually dvr these shows as they are three hours but comparable to a good seminar.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/American-Scripture-Making-Declaration-Independence/dp/0679779086/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (9780679779087): Pauline Maier: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Ratification-Americans-Debate-Constitution-1787-1788/dp/B004Q7E0UY/ref=pd_sim_b_1]Amazon.com: Ratification: Americans Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788: Pauline Maier: Books[/ame]
In Depth with Pauline Maier - C-SPAN Video Library


*Must reads - if you want some excellent (mind altering) summer NF reading* - just a few links, check em out if interested. 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Glory-Dream-Narrative-History-1932-1972/dp/0553345893/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972 (9780553345896): William Manchester: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Mind-Intellectual-History-Century/dp/0060084383/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century (9780060084387): Peter Watson: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Rhetoric-Reaction-Perversity-Futility-Jeopardy/dp/067476868X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy (9780674768680): Albert O. Hirschman: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Passions-Interests-Albert-Hirschman/dp/0691015988/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Passions and the Interests (9780691015989): Albert O. Hirschman: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Landscape-Science-Determine-Values/dp/1439171211/ref=pd_sim_b_10]Amazon.com: The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values (9781439171219): Sam Harris: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Consider-Lobster-Essays-Foster-Wallace/dp/0316013323/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Consider the Lobster and Other Essays (9780316013321): David Foster Wallace: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Whys-Philosophical-Scrivener-Martin-Gardner/dp/0312206828/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener (9780312206826): Martin Gardner: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Language-Older-Than-Words/dp/1931498555/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: A Language Older Than Words (9781931498555): Derrick Jensen: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Make-Believe-Derrick-Jensen/dp/1931498571/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Culture of Make Believe (9781931498579): Derrick Jensen: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/What-Orwell-Didnt-Know-Propaganda/dp/1586485601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics (9781586485603): Andras Szanto, Orville Schell: Books[/ame]


"The wise man reads both books and life itself." Lin Yutang 

"A book is a mirror: When a monkey looks in, no apostle can look out."  anon

"The book solves nothing, but may clear up the ideas of one or two people, a little." Sidgwick on a great book, his "Methods."


----------



## midcan5

I have been reading Derrick Jensen again this summer and lots of essays on history, politics, and philosophy. 

Here are a few books to shake the cobwebs from your minds. Beware these are not for the faint of heart.  Jensen is noted too for those who haven't read him yet. 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/American-Holocaust-Conquest-New-World/dp/0195085574/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World (9780195085570): David E. Stannard: Books[/ame]


[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Geography-Western-Against-Wilderness/dp/0813519098/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Beyond Geography: The Western Spirit Against the Wilderness, Revised (9780813519098): Frederick Turner: Books[/ame]


[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Doctors-Medical-Psychology-Genocide/dp/0465049052/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing And The Psychology Of Genocide (9780465049059): Robert Jay Lifton: Books[/ame]


Derrick Jensen 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Language-Older-Than-Words/dp/1931498555/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: A Language Older Than Words (9781931498555): Derrick Jensen: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Culture-Make-Believe-Derrick-Jensen/dp/1931498571/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Culture of Make Believe (9781931498579): Derrick Jensen: Books[/ame]


[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Politics-Experience-R-D-Laing/dp/039471475X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Politics of Experience (9780394714752): R.D. Laing: Books[/ame]
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Social-Construction-Reality-Sociology-Knowledge/dp/0385058985/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (9780385058988): Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckmann: Books[/ame]

.


----------



## California Girl

Me thinks someone is trying to impress people with their 'reading list'. 

I have just finished an indepth study of 'Green Eggs and Ham'. I found it to be race filled diatribe.


----------



## midcan5

California Girl said:


> Me thinks someone is trying to impress people with their 'reading list'.
> 
> I have just finished an indepth study of 'Green Eggs and Ham'. I found it to be race filled diatribe.



Methinks someone is using their personal intuitive faculty to view midcan's thread on books. Intuition is often right when it is simple stuff, but otherwise often personal and not relevant. Should anyone be interested in intuitive thinking see here: The Marvels And The Flaws Of Intuitive Thinking Edge*master Class 2011 | Conversation | Edge

As for Green Eggs and Ham, were you able to get through it without mommy's help this time? We can discuss its purpose another time. 

=======================

American Horse,

This book touches on a discussion we had long ago on the individual and the creation of the individual. I did not read it, life is too short and time too scarce. It was referenced in Peter Watson's "Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud," Watson claims the concept of the individual started in the 18th century with the transition from 'soul' to 'mind.'

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Making-Modern-Self-Identity-Eighteenth-Century/dp/0300121393/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Making of the Modern Self: Identity and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England (9780300121391): Professor Dror Wahrman: Books[/ame]


========================

More stuff for the interested. 

memory
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Moonwalking-Einstein-Science-Remembering-Everything/dp/159420229X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316112540&sr=8-1]Amazon.com: Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything (9781594202292): Joshua Foer: Books[/ame]

American mind
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/American-Mind-Interpretation-Thought-Character/dp/0300000464/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The American Mind: An Interpretation of American Thought and Character Since the 1880's (9780300000467): Henry Steele Commager: Books[/ame]

'The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States'
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Idea-America-Reflections-United-States/dp/1594202907/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1]Amazon.com: The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States (9781594202902): Gordon S. Wood: Books[/ame]

western atheism
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Western-Atheism-History-James-Thrower/dp/1573927562/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Western Atheism: A Short History (9781573927567): James Thrower: Books[/ame]

Religion
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Religion-Classical-Theories-James-Thrower/dp/0878407510/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Religion: The Classical Theories (9780878407514): James Thrower: Books[/ame]

=====================

*I often wonder what would fill eternity?  This list is a start.* The Greatest Great Books List Ever | Robert Lindsay


"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'


----------



## American Horse

midcan5 said:


> American Horse,
> 
> This book touches on a discussion we had long ago on the individual and the creation of the individual. I did not read it, life is too short and time too scarce. It was referenced in Peter Watson's "Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud," Watson claims the concept of the individual started in the 18th century with the transition from 'soul' to 'mind.'
> 
> Amazon.com: The Making of the Modern Self: Identity and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England (9780300121391): Professor Dror Wahrman: Books



Thanks for remembering and the mention; I just ordered it


----------



## midcan5

The right wing in America (actually everywhere the right exists) has always tried to censor ideas. 'Slaughterhouse-Five' was a recent victim. 'Human Events' once listed books that should be banned and included Darwin among others. Hard to imagine.

I have only purchased and read a bit of Stefan Collini's book so I cannot say if all these books are worth a read. Judge for yourself if a topic interests you. They are short like Oxford's short introductions but hopefully excellent information in a time when there is too much information, too little time, and too much BS. 

Book Series: Manifestos for the 21st Century


""Wherever they burn books," wrote Heinrich Heine in 1823, they will end up burning people. Predictably, Heine was one of the writers whose books were flung into the flames by the SA in Berlin a little over a century later, along with those by Marx, Freud, Maxim Gorky, Stefan Zweig and many others. As these four short books on censorship  of the word, the body, the moving image and sexuality  make clear, freedom of expression in all its forms has always been deeply threatening, not only to totalitarian regimes, but to society itself. But fashions change and it is precisely these constantly shifting and evolving forms of perceived threat that make this series, subtitled rather portentously Manifestos for the 21st Century, so fascinating."  Caroline Moorehead - Manifestos for the 21st Century | New Humanist

So It Goes: Mo. School District Reconsiders Vonnegut Book Ban « The Wall of Separation


Another interesting topic. Check out the mp3. 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Folly-Fools-Logic-Deceit-Self-Deception/dp/0465027555/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life (9780465027552): Robert Trivers: Books[/ame]


http://cdn.conversationsnetwork.org/ITC.PopTech2005-RobertTrivers-2005.10.22.mp3


----------



## J.E.D

The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

by David Simon and Ed Burns

The book covers a year in the life of an inner city drug market at Fayette & Monroe Streets in Baltimore. Simon and Burns spent over a year interviewing and following around the people who lived on the Fayette & Monroe corner. Although written like a novel, the book is nonfiction; it uses the real names of those people and recounts actual events. It centers mostly around the lives of Gary McCullough, a drug addict, his ex-wife Fran Boyd, also an addict, and their son DeAndre McCullough, a high school student who begins to sell drugs. The book is a look at the effects of drug addiction, the drug trade, and the war on drugs on an urban neighborhood, as well as being an examination of the sociological factors which underlie the modern drug trade.


----------



## midcan5

It is a measure of the accomplishments of FDR that the republicans are still fighting him and he has been dead a long time. The video below was on cspan's book TV recently and is an excellent review of our greatest and most accomplished modern president. 

"Michael Hiltzik presents a history of the New Deal.  The author examines the origins of Franklin D. Roosevelt's plans to confront the nation's economic depression and the President's relationships with his inner-circle of advisors, which ranged across the social spectrum."

U.S. History - "The New Deal: A Modern History" - Book TV

"The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits, Roosevelt continued. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and our fellow men."   Quote from link below

[ame]http://www.amazon.com/New-Deal-Modern-History/dp/1439154481/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8[/ame]


Must reads for the educated citizen:

'The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972' William Manchester
'The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy' by Albert O. Hirschman 
'Ill Fares the Land' by Tony Judt 
'The Culture of Contentment' by John Kenneth Galbraith 
'The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century' by Peter Watson 
'The Sense of Reality: Studies in Ideas and Their History' by Isaiah Berlin
'Conjectures and Refutations' by Karl R. Popper
'There's No Such Thing As Free Speech: And It's a Good Thing, Too" by Stanley Fish
'Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud' by Peter Watson


----------



## Ringel05

Do not take life too seriously; you'll never get out of it alive. - by Hubbard, Elbert.


----------



## midcan5

A few books I want to read in 2012. Amazing how many books there are in the world today and yet so little knowledge?  

'The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan' Michael Hastings 
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Operators-Terrifying-Inside-Americas-Afghanistan/dp/0399159886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8[/ame]

The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Idea-America-Reflections-United-States/dp/1594202907/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8[/ame]

Science and Human Values 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Science-Human-Values-Jacob-Bronowski/dp/0571241905/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Science and Human Values (9780571241903): Jacob Bronowski: Books[/ame]

The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes and Its Implications 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Fabric-Reality-Parallel-Universes-Implications/dp/014027541X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes and Its Implications (9780140275414): David Deutsch: Books[/ame]


Fiction, currently reading Vertigo, by W. G. Sebald but reading little fiction today mostly poetry which crosses the threshold. 


a few maybes, the good lord willing and the creek don't rise......

the creation of self and the middle class
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Making-Modern-Self-Identity-Eighteenth-Century/dp/0300121393/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Making of the Modern Self: Identity and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England (9780300121391): Professor Dror Wahrman: Books[/ame]

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/American-Mind-Interpretation-Thought-Character/dp/0300000464/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The American Mind: An Interpretation of American Thought and Character Since the 1880's (9780300000467): Henry Steele Commager: Books[/ame]


----------



## midcan5

Summer reading for the thoughtful, wingnuts need read no further corporate momma will give you your thoughts presently. 

As corporate propaganda on MSM and especially right wing conservative media such as Fox fail their duty as journalists, a few smart and concerned journalists do the real work. BP spill for real. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Black-Tide-Devastating-Impact-Spill/dp/0470943378/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill (9780470943373): Antonia Juhasz: Books[/ame]


"To understand these ideas, we have to understand that story. For that is what conservatism is: a meditation on - and theoretical rendition of - the felt experience of having power, seeing it threatened, and trying to win it back." [ame=http://www.amazon.com/The-Reactionary-Mind-Conservatism-Edmund/dp/0199793743/ref=sr_1_1?s=books]Amazon.com: The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin (9780199793747): Corey Robin: Books[/ame] and for the student of conservatism check out: [ame=http://www.amazon.com/The-Rhetoric-Reaction-Perversity-Futility/dp/067476868X/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy (9780674768680): Albert O. Hirschman: Books[/ame]


Brief science pieces that challenge some of our assumptions. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/This-Will-Make-You-Smarter/dp/0062109391/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF]Amazon.com: This Will Make You Smarter: New Scientific Concepts to Improve Your Thinking (9780062109392): John Brockman: Books[/ame]


Another excellent Tony Judt history. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Twentieth-Century-Tony-Judt/dp/1594203237/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2]Amazon.com: Thinking the Twentieth Century (9781594203237): Tony Judt, Timothy Snyder: Books[/ame]


"Bacevich's Conclusions: It simply makes no sense to pretend the U.S. is promoting a special message in pursuit of a special mission from God. We are merely attempting to cope, and need to admit such. It's time we stop instructing the Chinese, or anyone else, on how to manage their affairs, and it's also time to put away our homemade 'World's Sheriff' badge. The era of ideological fancy is over. It's time to live within reality and within our means." [ame=http://www.amazon.com/The-Short-American-Century-Postmortem/dp/0674064453/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Short American Century: A Postmortem (9780674064454): Andrew J. Bacevich, Jeffry A. Frieden, Akira Iriye, Emily S. Rosenberg, Nikhil Pal Singh, Walter LaFeber, T. J. Jackson Lears, Eugene McCarraher, David M. Kennedy: Books[/ame]


'The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan' Michael Hastings  [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Operators-Terrifying-Inside-Americas-Afghanistan/dp/0399159886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan (9780399159886): Michael Hastings: Books[/ame]


The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Idea-America-Reflections-United-States/dp/1594202907/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States (9781594202902): Gordon S. Wood: Books[/ame]


Science and Human Values. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Science-Human-Values-Jacob-Bronowski/dp/0571241905/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: Science and Human Values (9780571241903): Jacob Bronowski: Books[/ame]


The creation of the self and the middle class. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Making-Modern-Self-Identity-Eighteenth-Century/dp/0300121393/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Making of the Modern Self: Identity and Culture in Eighteenth-Century England (9780300121391): Professor Dror Wahrman: Books[/ame]


Another challenging book on morality and ethics from Derek Parfit. [ame=http://www.amazon.com/What-Matters-2-Set/dp/0199265925/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: On What Matters (2 Volume Set) (9780199265923): Derek Parfit: Books[/ame]



*"A book is a mirror: When a monkey looks in, no apostle can look out."  anon*
.


----------



## midcan5

Wingnut Warning: Read no further your formatted knowledge will come shortly from the right wing revisionist teleprompter implanted in your head. Short circuit warning beep beep beep....

What are you reading this summer?  I recently finished Ian McEwan's 'Enduring Love' and Jeremy Waldron on hate legislation. Starting 'Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan,' all worth your time. Saw the books below in various places and wondered if they are worth the time. 'The Swerve' looks interesting. 


The Swerve: How the World Became Modern' Stephen Greenblatt [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Swerve-How-World-Became-Modern/dp/0393064476/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (9780393064476): Stephen Greenblatt: Books[/ame]


'The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution' Francis Fukuyama  [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Political-Order-Prehuman-Revolution/dp/0374227349/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution (9780374227340): Francis Fukuyama: Books[/ame]


This too looks interesting?  [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Progress-Ronald-Wright/dp/0786715472/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: A Short History of Progress (9780786715473): Ronald Wright: Books[/ame]


Any readers of John Crowley?  "During a summer in the late 1960s I discovered an easy and certain method of predicting the future. Not my own future, the next turn of the card, or market conditions next month or next year, but the future of the world lying far ahead. It was quite simple. All that was needed was to take the reigning assumptions about what the future was likely to hold, and reverse them. Not modify, negate, or question, but reverse. It was self-evident that this was the right method, because so many of the guesses that the past had made about its then futurethat is, my own presenthad turned out to be not only wrong but the opposite of what came to be instead, the more so the further ahead they had been projected."  John Crowley, 'The Next Future'


"I read the relevant policy paperson health, education, debt, poverty, homeland security, climate change, the extinction of species, the wars of all against alland I notice that they tend toward a common awareness (dimly grasped but distinctly felt) that a global consumer society, if left to its own devices, must devour the earth. Not with malice aforethought, or as a matter of ideology, but because that is its métier  the scorpion that kills the frog on whose back it is crossing the river because it knows not what else to do." Lewis Lapham 'Ignorance of Things Past'


----------



## Mustang

midcan5 said:


> Wingnut Warning: Read no further your formatted knowledge will come shortly from the right wing revisionist teleprompter implanted in your head. Short circuit warning beep beep beep....
> 
> What are you reading this summer?  I recently finished Ian McEwan's 'Enduring Love' and Jeremy Waldron on hate legislation. Starting 'Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan,' all worth your time. Saw the books below in various places and wondered if they are worth the time. 'The Swerve' looks interesting.
> 
> 
> The Swerve: How the World Became Modern' Stephen Greenblatt Amazon.com: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (9780393064476): Stephen Greenblatt: Books
> 
> 
> 'The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution' Francis Fukuyama  Amazon.com: The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution (9780374227340): Francis Fukuyama: Books
> 
> 
> This too looks interesting?  Amazon.com: A Short History of Progress (9780786715473): Ronald Wright: Books
> 
> 
> Any readers of John Crowley?  "During a summer in the late 1960s I discovered an easy and certain method of predicting the future. Not my own future, the next turn of the card, or market conditions next month or next year, but the future of the world lying far ahead. It was quite simple. All that was needed was to take the reigning assumptions about what the future was likely to hold, and reverse them. Not modify, negate, or question, but reverse. It was self-evident that this was the right method, because so many of the guesses that the past had made about its then futurethat is, my own presenthad turned out to be not only wrong but the opposite of what came to be instead, the more so the further ahead they had been projected."  John Crowley, 'The Next Future'
> 
> 
> "I read the relevant policy paperson health, education, debt, poverty, homeland security, climate change, the extinction of species, the wars of all against alland I notice that they tend toward a common awareness (dimly grasped but distinctly felt) that a global consumer society, if left to its own devices, must devour the earth. Not with malice aforethought, or as a matter of ideology, but because that is its métier  the scorpion that kills the frog on whose back it is crossing the river because it knows not what else to do." Lewis Lapham 'Ignorance of Things Past'



I read "The Swerve."  It's the first time I read a nonfiction book BEFORE it won a Pulitzer Prize.  Good book.  I might review it here.


----------



## midcan5

Re:  election 2012 and the issue of race.

Finished "Invisible Hands"  read it read it read it......


*"There was a time, not so very long ago, when perfectly rational people ran the Republican Party. So how did the party of Lincoln become the party of lunatics? *That is what this book aims to answer. Fear not, the Dems come in for their share of tough talk  they are zombies, a party of the living dead."  Mike Lofgren 'The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted' (see down too) [ame=http://www.amazon.com/Party-Over-Republicans-Democrats-Useless/dp/0670026263/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Amazon.com: The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted (9780670026265): Mike Lofgren: Books[/ame]


As I read more of our political history I am amazed at the impact of the civil rights movement in the sixties. 

"Gerstle argues that the civil rights movement and Vietnam broke the liberal nation apart, and his analysis of this upheaval leads him to assess Reagan's and Clinton's attempts to resurrect nationalism. Can the United States ever live up to its civic creed? For anyone who views racism as an aberration from the liberal premises of the republic, this book is must reading."  [ame=http://www.amazon.com/American-Crucible-Nation-Twentieth-Century/dp/book-citations/0691102775]Amazon.com: American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century (9780691102771): Gary Gerstle: Books[/ame]


Barbara Stanwyck: "We're both rotten!" Fred MacMurray: "Yeah - only you're a little more rotten." -"Double Indemnity"

*"Those lines of dialogue from a classic film noir sum up the state of the two political parties in contemporary America. Both parties are rotten - how could they not be, given the complete infestation of the political system by corporate money on a scale that now requires a presidential candidate to raise upwards of a billion dollars to be competitive in the general election? Both parties are captives to corporate loot. The main reason the Democrats' health care bill will be a budget buster once it fully phases in is the Democrats' rank capitulation to corporate interests - no single-payer system, in order to mollify the insurers; and no negotiation of drug prices, a craven surrender to Big Pharma." *

Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult


----------



## midcan5

FYI for the politics wonks, the Fall Lapham's quarterly covers your favorite topic. Diverse material and always interesting. 

Lapham&#8217s Quarterly : Politics

Lapham&#8217s Quarterly


----------



## g5000

KittenKoder said:


> What are these ... books? Some sort of ancient tablets?



"Books" are non-volatile storage mediums.







Mr. Sauerkraut said:


> my deepest sorry
> 
> the best book i´ve ever read:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> mindbreaking in every way. actual than ever. that´s what i call a heart-hurtener




I prefer _Cannery Row_.   I am such a fan of that book, someone gave me a first edition as a Christmas gift.  

.


----------



## g5000

If you read one political science book in your lifetime, read _Democracy in America_ by Alexis de Tocqueville.

.


----------



## midcan5

g5000 said:


> If you read one political science book in your lifetime, read _Democracy in America_ by Alexis de Tocqueville..



I didn't read the entire book but many excerpts, seems he understood Americans then, and Americans today ain't much different.  

'In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.' 

*'As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?' *

'In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.' 

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.'

*'I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.' *

Alexis de Tocqueville quotes

-----------------------------------------

Just finished three Cormac McCarthy novels, like Faulkner only darker and more evil, but beautifully done if you love words and writing.  Thinking of attacking Vollmann's 'Rising up...' in the abridged edition. Even that is a bit of a monster read for the busy hard working liberal. 

'Rising Up and Rising Down : Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means' by William T. Vollmann


----------



## midcan5

Just bought George Saunders' latest book, anyone in for a good laugh check out his work. 'CivilWarLand' first.  

Read 36 of these with bits and pieces of others I could not finish or whatever. I still think Dostoevsky's 'Brothers Karamazov' the greatest novel of all time. Read Camus, Borges, Ellison, Faulkner, but where the heck are Golding, Greene, Malraux, Yeats, Shaw, Huxley, Stevens, Bellow, Steinbeck, Milton, T. Williams, Eliot, Maugham, etc in this list? Maybe I missed them? 

'The 100 best books of all time'  How many of these "100 best books of all time" have you read?

The 100 best books of all time - 'Things Fall Apart,' by Chinua Achebe - CSMonitor.com


&#8220;Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.&#8221;  Gore Vidal


----------



## Mustang

midcan5 said:


> Just bought George Saunders' latest book, anyone in for a good laugh check out his work. 'CivilWarLand' first.
> 
> Read 36 of these with bits and pieces of others I could not finish or whatever. I still think Dostoevsky's 'Brothers Karamazov' the greatest novel of all time. Read Camus, Borges, Ellison, Faulkner, but where the heck are Golding, Greene, Malraux, Yeats, Shaw, Huxley, Stevens, Bellow, Steinbeck, Milton, T. Williams, Eliot, Maugham, etc in this list? Maybe I missed them?
> 
> 'The 100 best books of all time'  How many of these "100 best books of all time" have you read?
> 
> The 100 best books of all time - 'Things Fall Apart,' by Chinua Achebe - CSMonitor.com
> 
> 
> Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.  Gore Vidal



I've got both "CivilWarLand in Bad Decline" and "Tenth of December" on hold at the library.  There's a waiting list for both.


----------



## Ringel05

* Reading that opens the mind - Books*


----------



## Michelle420

The Social Construction of Reality A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge 
 Society as a Human Product, Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann

The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois

When Affirmative Action Was White : Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America, Ira Katznelson

The Problem of the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century, Robert McChesney

Class and Power in the New Deal: Corporate Moderates, Southern Democrats, and the Liberal-Labor Coalition, G. William Domhoff

unequal protection the rise of corporate dominance and the theft of human rights, Thom Hartman


----------



## Wry Catcher

Too many books, too little time.  Fiction can many times offer greater insight into humanity (or inhumanity) with greater clarity than the most researched tomes of non fiction.

Fiction which influenced me and in no particular order:

"The Red Badge of Courage"
"The Ox Bow Incident"
"All Quiet on the Western Front"
"The Grapes of Wrath"
"Brave New World"
"Johnny Got his Gun"
"The Jungle"
"The Octopus"


----------



## midcan5

Just bought a slightly used copy of this book, it looks fascinating, check the index on Amazon, I'll put the link at bottom.

"A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government' by Garry Wills

This too looks fascinating, although I doubt I will read it someone else may find the topic interesting. Only so much time in this short life. 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Invention-Heterosexual-Culture-Louis-Georges-Tin/dp/0262017709/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8]The Invention of Heterosexual Culture: Louis-Georges Tin: 9780262017701: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]


Another odd but maybe interesting topic - Bombs.  

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/A-History-Bombing-Sven-Lindqvist/dp/1565848160/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8]A History of Bombing: Sven Lindqvist, Linda Haverty Rugg: 9781565848160: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]


A lawyer defends the sometimes indefensible. 

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EXECUTION | Twelve Books


[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Necessary-Evil-American-Distrust-Government/dp/0684870266/ref=sr_1_20?s=books&ie=UTF8]A Necessary Evil: A History of American Distrust of Government: Garry Wills: 9780684870267: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]


----------



## jasonnfree

A pretty good read is "War is a Racket" by General Butler.  After retirement he started thinking about his career and realized he had been nothing but a hit man for corporate america.   I'm not sure those were his exact words but basically he realized war is a business or racket and the very wealthy always make a bundle and of course they never put their lives on the line  by putting on a uniform. Nothing changes.  I bought the book but it can be found online free I think.


----------



## Unkotare

jasonnfree said:


> A pretty good read is "War is a Racket" by General Butler.  After retirement he started thinking about his career and realized he had been nothing but a hit man for corporate america.   I'm not sure those were his exact words but basically he realized war is a business or racket and the very wealthy always make a bundle and of course they never put their lives on the line  by putting on a uniform. Nothing changes.  I bought the book but it can be found online free I think.





Some people actually make money manufacturing surgical devices eek. This is clearly proof that surgery is just a racket some greedy sons-of-bitches came up with to line their pockets. I mean, these charlatans don't go under the knife or do the cutting themselves if they can possibly help it, do they? What a scam.


----------



## yidnar

midcan5 said:


> Someone asked recently which writer influenced you most, and I list three, Albert Camus, Thomas Wolfe, and Feodor Dostoevsky. For Camus it was all his writings, Wolfe's 'You can't go home,' and D's 'Devils' and 'Brothers Karamazov.'
> 
> So I complied a more modern list of reading that challenges and will surely make you think. And raise your IQ as well. Four asterisks are excellent first reads. Most is nonfiction, I will add fiction writers at end.
> 
> What We Leave Behind By Derrick Jensen
> Amazon.com: What We Leave Behind (9781583228678): Derrick Jensen, Aric McBay: Books
> 
> Media / Hate / Ecology ****
> Amazon.com: The Culture of Make Believe (9781931498579): Derrick Jensen: Books
> Amazon.com: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (9780375714498): Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky: Books
> 
> Burning All Illusions : A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom by David Edwards
> Amazon.com: Burning All Illusions : A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom (9780896085312): David Edwards: Books
> 
> Politics - rhetorical thought - excellent ****
> Amazon.com: The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy (9780674768680): Albert O. Hirschman: Books
> 
> Deer hunting with Jesus ****- excellent picture from a hick on hicks - said with respect.
> Amazon.com: Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War (9780307339379): Joe Bageant: Books
> 
> Two excellent introductions to political thinking
> Amazon.com: Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians (9780745635323): Adam Swift: Books
> Amazon.com: An Introduction to Political Philosophy (9780199296095): Jonathan Wolff: Books
> 
> Great Depression and Bubbles
> Amazon.com: The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780195326345): Eric Rauchway: Books
> Amazon.com: A Short History of Financial Euphoria (Penguin business) (9780140238563): John Kenneth Galbraith: Books
> 
> Poverty Global Issues
> Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs
> Amazon.com: Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (9780143114871): Jeffrey D. Sachs: Books
> Amazon.com: The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (9780143036586): Jeffrey Sachs: Books
> 
> Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz
> Amazon.com: Globalization and Its Discontents (9780393324396): Joseph E. Stiglitz: Books
> 
> Economics
> Amazon.com: How The West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation Of The Industrial World (9780465031092): Nathan Rosenberg, L.E. Birdzell Jr.: Books
> Great Depression
> Amazon.com: Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal (9780393337662): Kim Phillips-Fein: Books
> Amazon.com: A Propensity to Self-Subversion (9780674715585): Albert O. Hirschman: Books
> 
> Liberal thought - Waldron is excellent
> Amazon.com: God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought (9780521890571): Jeremy Waldron: Books
> Amazon.com: Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (9780674005112): John Rawls, Erin Kelly: Books
> 
> Serious fun, thought provoking.
> Amazon.com: What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything (9780061686542): John Brockman: Books
> Amazon.com: What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty (9780060841812): John Brockman: Books
> EDGE
> 
> History
> Amazon.com: The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 (9780679730057): Eric Hobsbawm: Books
> 
> Evil - understanding a topic that confuses all.
> Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing by James Waller
> Amazon.com: Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (9780195189490): James Waller: Books
> 
> Ideas - a survey from fire to ....
> Amazon.com: Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud (9780060935641): Peter Watson: Books
> 
> Ethics - profound and deep
> Amazon.com: Reasons and Persons (Oxford Paperbacks) (9780198249085): Derek Parfit: Books
> 
> Other stuff to challenge you.
> 
> "Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate" By Ronald Dworkin
> 
> "The Morality of Freedom" By Joseph Raz.
> Amazon.com: The Morality of Freedom (Clarendon Paperbacks) (9780198248156): Joseph Raz: Books
> 
> Liberal Rights" Jeremy Waldron  See Chapter 2 Page 35
> Liberal rights: collected papers ... - Google Books
> 
> Amazon.com: Ideology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780192802811): Michael Freeden: Books
> Amazon.com: Liberty before Liberalism (9780521638760): Quentin Skinner: Books
> 
> Modern writers worth reading William Vollman, Richard Powers, and the books below are all excellent.
> 
> 
> * Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance By Robert Pirsig
> Darkness At Noon By Arthur Koestler
> Angle Of Repose By Wallace Stegner
> Go Tell It On The Mountain By James Baldwin
> Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison
> Man's Fate, André Malraux
> Sophie's Choice By William Styron
> The Fall, The Plague, Albert Camus
> An American Tragedy By Theodore Dreiser
> The Heart Of The Matter By Graham Greene
> The Sound And The Fury By William Faulkner
> To The Lighthouse By Virginia Woolf


 you forgot to mention The Communist Manifesto By Karl Marx.


----------



## Wry Catcher

midcan5 said:


> Someone asked recently which writer influenced you most, and I list three, Albert Camus, Thomas Wolfe, and Feodor Dostoevsky. For Camus it was all his writings, Wolfe's 'You can't go home,' and D's 'Devils' and 'Brothers Karamazov.'
> 
> So I complied a more modern list of reading that challenges and will surely make you think. And raise your IQ as well. Four asterisks are excellent first reads. Most is nonfiction, I will add fiction writers at end.
> 
> What We Leave Behind By Derrick Jensen
> Amazon.com: What We Leave Behind (9781583228678): Derrick Jensen, Aric McBay: Books
> 
> Media / Hate / Ecology ****
> Amazon.com: The Culture of Make Believe (9781931498579): Derrick Jensen: Books
> Amazon.com: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (9780375714498): Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky: Books
> 
> Burning All Illusions : A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom by David Edwards
> Amazon.com: Burning All Illusions : A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom (9780896085312): David Edwards: Books
> 
> Politics - rhetorical thought - excellent ****
> Amazon.com: The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy (9780674768680): Albert O. Hirschman: Books
> 
> Deer hunting with Jesus ****- excellent picture from a hick on hicks - said with respect.
> Amazon.com: Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War (9780307339379): Joe Bageant: Books
> 
> Two excellent introductions to political thinking
> Amazon.com: Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians (9780745635323): Adam Swift: Books
> Amazon.com: An Introduction to Political Philosophy (9780199296095): Jonathan Wolff: Books
> 
> Great Depression and Bubbles
> Amazon.com: The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780195326345): Eric Rauchway: Books
> Amazon.com: A Short History of Financial Euphoria (Penguin business) (9780140238563): John Kenneth Galbraith: Books
> 
> Poverty Global Issues
> Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs
> Amazon.com: Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (9780143114871): Jeffrey D. Sachs: Books
> Amazon.com: The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (9780143036586): Jeffrey Sachs: Books
> 
> Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz
> Amazon.com: Globalization and Its Discontents (9780393324396): Joseph E. Stiglitz: Books
> 
> Economics
> Amazon.com: How The West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation Of The Industrial World (9780465031092): Nathan Rosenberg, L.E. Birdzell Jr.: Books
> Great Depression
> Amazon.com: Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal (9780393337662): Kim Phillips-Fein: Books
> Amazon.com: A Propensity to Self-Subversion (9780674715585): Albert O. Hirschman: Books
> 
> Liberal thought - Waldron is excellent
> Amazon.com: God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought (9780521890571): Jeremy Waldron: Books
> Amazon.com: Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (9780674005112): John Rawls, Erin Kelly: Books
> 
> Serious fun, thought provoking.
> Amazon.com: What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything (9780061686542): John Brockman: Books
> Amazon.com: What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty (9780060841812): John Brockman: Books
> EDGE
> 
> History
> Amazon.com: The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 (9780679730057): Eric Hobsbawm: Books
> 
> Evil - understanding a topic that confuses all.
> Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing by James Waller
> Amazon.com: Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (9780195189490): James Waller: Books
> 
> Ideas - a survey from fire to ....
> Amazon.com: Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud (9780060935641): Peter Watson: Books
> 
> Ethics - profound and deep
> Amazon.com: Reasons and Persons (Oxford Paperbacks) (9780198249085): Derek Parfit: Books
> 
> Other stuff to challenge you.
> 
> "Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate" By Ronald Dworkin
> 
> "The Morality of Freedom" By Joseph Raz.
> Amazon.com: The Morality of Freedom (Clarendon Paperbacks) (9780198248156): Joseph Raz: Books
> 
> Liberal Rights" Jeremy Waldron  See Chapter 2 Page 35
> Liberal rights: collected papers ... - Google Books
> 
> Amazon.com: Ideology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780192802811): Michael Freeden: Books
> Amazon.com: Liberty before Liberalism (9780521638760): Quentin Skinner: Books
> 
> Modern writers worth reading William Vollman, Richard Powers, and the books below are all excellent.
> 
> 
> * Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance By Robert Pirsig
> Darkness At Noon By Arthur Koestler
> Angle Of Repose By Wallace Stegner
> Go Tell It On The Mountain By James Baldwin
> Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison
> Man's Fate, André Malraux
> Sophie's Choice By William Styron
> The Fall, The Plague, Albert Camus
> An American Tragedy By Theodore Dreiser
> The Heart Of The Matter By Graham Greene
> The Sound And The Fury By William Faulkner
> To The Lighthouse By Virginia Woolf



Camus books still remain on my book shelf.  Every couple of years I 'try' to reread The Myth of Sisyphus and/or The Rebel.  The pages are yellowing with age and I doubt I will every fully understand his Philosophical standing.  Each paragraph of each essay is tightly structured and logically leads one down the path.  But many times each paragraph requires critical thinking, my mind wanders off topic in that effort, making the reading some of the most difficult I've every experienced.

Even Sisyphus remains clouded when he and his toils and 'happiness' are considered in terms of rebellion and suicide.

Do you know of any forums wherein his works are the sole topic of discussion?


----------



## Wry Catcher

midcan5 said:


> Someone asked recently which writer influenced you most, and I list three, Albert Camus, Thomas Wolfe, and Feodor Dostoevsky. For Camus it was all his writings, Wolfe's 'You can't go home,' and D's 'Devils' and 'Brothers Karamazov.'
> 
> So I complied a more modern list of reading that challenges and will surely make you think. And raise your IQ as well. Four asterisks are excellent first reads. Most is nonfiction, I will add fiction writers at end.
> 
> What We Leave Behind By Derrick Jensen
> Amazon.com: What We Leave Behind (9781583228678): Derrick Jensen, Aric McBay: Books
> 
> Media / Hate / Ecology ****
> Amazon.com: The Culture of Make Believe (9781931498579): Derrick Jensen: Books
> Amazon.com: Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media (9780375714498): Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky: Books
> 
> Burning All Illusions : A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom by David Edwards
> Amazon.com: Burning All Illusions : A Guide to Personal and Political Freedom (9780896085312): David Edwards: Books
> 
> Politics - rhetorical thought - excellent ****
> Amazon.com: The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy (9780674768680): Albert O. Hirschman: Books
> 
> Deer hunting with Jesus ****- excellent picture from a hick on hicks - said with respect.
> Amazon.com: Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War (9780307339379): Joe Bageant: Books
> 
> Two excellent introductions to political thinking
> Amazon.com: Political Philosophy: A Beginners' Guide for Students and Politicians (9780745635323): Adam Swift: Books
> Amazon.com: An Introduction to Political Philosophy (9780199296095): Jonathan Wolff: Books
> 
> Great Depression and Bubbles
> Amazon.com: The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780195326345): Eric Rauchway: Books
> Amazon.com: A Short History of Financial Euphoria (Penguin business) (9780140238563): John Kenneth Galbraith: Books
> 
> Poverty Global Issues
> Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet by Jeffrey D. Sachs
> Amazon.com: Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (9780143114871): Jeffrey D. Sachs: Books
> Amazon.com: The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time (9780143036586): Jeffrey Sachs: Books
> 
> Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz
> Amazon.com: Globalization and Its Discontents (9780393324396): Joseph E. Stiglitz: Books
> 
> Economics
> Amazon.com: How The West Grew Rich: The Economic Transformation Of The Industrial World (9780465031092): Nathan Rosenberg, L.E. Birdzell Jr.: Books
> Great Depression
> Amazon.com: Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal (9780393337662): Kim Phillips-Fein: Books
> Amazon.com: A Propensity to Self-Subversion (9780674715585): Albert O. Hirschman: Books
> 
> Liberal thought - Waldron is excellent
> Amazon.com: God, Locke, and Equality: Christian Foundations in Locke's Political Thought (9780521890571): Jeremy Waldron: Books
> Amazon.com: Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (9780674005112): John Rawls, Erin Kelly: Books
> 
> Serious fun, thought provoking.
> Amazon.com: What Have You Changed Your Mind About?: Today's Leading Minds Rethink Everything (9780061686542): John Brockman: Books
> Amazon.com: What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Today's Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Certainty (9780060841812): John Brockman: Books
> EDGE
> 
> History
> Amazon.com: The Age of Extremes: A History of the World, 1914-1991 (9780679730057): Eric Hobsbawm: Books
> 
> Evil - understanding a topic that confuses all.
> Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing by James Waller
> Amazon.com: Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (9780195189490): James Waller: Books
> 
> Ideas - a survey from fire to ....
> Amazon.com: Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud (9780060935641): Peter Watson: Books
> 
> Ethics - profound and deep
> Amazon.com: Reasons and Persons (Oxford Paperbacks) (9780198249085): Derek Parfit: Books
> 
> Other stuff to challenge you.
> 
> "Is Democracy Possible Here? Principles for a New Political Debate" By Ronald Dworkin
> 
> "The Morality of Freedom" By Joseph Raz.
> Amazon.com: The Morality of Freedom (Clarendon Paperbacks) (9780198248156): Joseph Raz: Books
> 
> Liberal Rights" Jeremy Waldron  See Chapter 2 Page 35
> Liberal rights: collected papers ... - Google Books
> 
> Amazon.com: Ideology: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) (9780192802811): Michael Freeden: Books
> Amazon.com: Liberty before Liberalism (9780521638760): Quentin Skinner: Books
> 
> Modern writers worth reading William Vollman, Richard Powers, and the books below are all excellent.
> 
> 
> * Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance By Robert Pirsig
> Darkness At Noon By Arthur Koestler
> Angle Of Repose By Wallace Stegner
> Go Tell It On The Mountain By James Baldwin
> Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison
> Man's Fate, André Malraux
> Sophie's Choice By William Styron
> The Fall, The Plague, Albert Camus
> An American Tragedy By Theodore Dreiser
> The Heart Of The Matter By Graham Greene
> The Sound And The Fury By William Faulkner
> To The Lighthouse By Virginia Woolf



Camus books still remain on my book shelf.  Every couple of years I 'try' to reread The Myth of Sisyphus and/or The Rebel.  The pages are yellowing with age and I doubt I will every fully understand his Philosophical standing.  Each paragraph of each essay is tightly structured and logically leads one down the path.  But many times each paragraph requires critical thinking, my mind wanders off topic in that effort, making the reading some of the most difficult I've every experienced.

Even Sisyphus remains clouded when he and his toils and 'happiness' are considered in terms of rebellion and suicide.

Do you know of any forums wherein his works are the sole topic of discussion?


----------



## midcan5

Wry Catcher said:


> Do you know of any forums wherein his works are the sole topic of discussion?



I re-read 'The Stranger' not long ago and wish there was a new translation of "The Fall.'  I found these two sites, check them out. 

Philosophy Now Forum ? View topic - Albert Camus
Albert Camus Critical Interpretation Homepage

===============================================

'Workin' on our night moves in the summertime 
In the sweet summertime...'  B.S.

Ah summer, time to sweat, swat mosquitoes, drink lots, burn in the sun, oh and hopefully read. A few suggestions. 

Read this if nothing else, American corporations and their marriage to congress. 

'The Betrayal of the American Dream'  Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Betrayal-American-Dream-Donald-Barlett/dp/1586489690/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]The Betrayal of the American Dream: Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele: 9781586489694: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]


I also read 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' by Muriel Barbery.  I wasn't sure I'd like this but both the writing even in translation and the story were well done. The idea of class contained in the plot is a bit odd for Americans. Americans like to think class doesn't exist here. 

These look interesting for the bibliophile of ideas.

'The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America' George Packer
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Unwinding-Inner-History-New-America/dp/0374102414/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America: George Packer: 9780374102418: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

'Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865' 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-National-Destruction-Slavery-1861-1865/dp/0393065316/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Freedom National: The Destruction of Slavery in the United States, 1861-1865: James Oakes: 9780393065312: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

'Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics' 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Chain-Reaction-Impact-American-Politics/dp/0393309037/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8]Chain Reaction: The Impact of Race, Rights, and Taxes on American Politics: Mary D. Edsall, Thomas Byrne Edsall: 9780393309034: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

'The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s' 
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Unraveling-America-History-Liberalism-1960s/dp/0820334057/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]The Unraveling of America: A History of Liberalism in the 1960s: Allen J. Matusow: 9780820334059: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]


I don't agree completely with this even though it is an important aspect of the current educational and economic situation in America. I do think there is a level of privilege that few recognize or even acknowledge. 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Race-between-Education-Technology/dp/0674035305/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]The Race between Education and Technology: Claudia Goldin, Lawrence F. Katz: 9780674035300: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

A few sites worth your time if your time is too short for books.  

The Browser - Writing worth reading
Exclusive Opinion, Commentary and Op-ed from today's Top Economists and Public Intellectuals - Project Syndicate
Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics
Crooked Timber ? Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made
Home | Boston Review
Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion


"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'


----------



## midcan5

How do we know we don't know? For my generation smoking was the issue that today would be a topic of the partisan divide. Odd huh. Most who have smoked, as I did young, know its consequences first hand, but there was so much doubt and so much corporate, and so called scientific counter argument, that many smoked just to prove something. Today global warming has enlisted the same corporate doubt machine and it works well as much of the debate demonstrates. I started reading 'Agnotology' and thought how easy it is to create ignorance and to make ignorance into knowledge. Worth a read for those willing to look into the telescope. 

"Sweeping and comprehensive&#8230; Oreskes and Conway do an excellent job of bringing to life a complex and important environmental battle&#8230; [a] darkly fascinating history&#8230; Merchants of Doubt is an important book. How important? If you read just one book on climate change this year, read Merchants of Doubt. And if you have time to read two, reread Merchants of Doubt." Grist.org

"Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance' by Robert Proctor (Editor) , Londa Schiebinger (Editor)
[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Agnotology-The-Making-Unmaking-Ignorance/dp/0804759014#]Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance: Robert Proctor, Londa Schiebinger: 9780804759014: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]


"Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming"
by Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. M. Conway 
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/dp/1608193942/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_sims_3[/ame]


*"There can be no science without doubt: brute dogma leaves no room for inquiry. But over the last half century, a tiny minority of scientists have wielded doubt as a political weapon to halt what they did not want said: that tobacco kills or that the climate is warming because of what we humans are doing. &#8216;Doubt is our product&#8217; read a tobacco memo--and indeed, millions of dollars have gone into creating the impression of scientific controversy where there has not been one. *This book about the politics of doubt by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway explores the long, connected, and intentional obfuscation of science by manufactured controversy. It is clear, scientifically responsible, and historically compelling&#8212;it is an essential and passionate book about our times." Peter Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University

http://www.usmessageboard.com/science-and-technology/299118-what-you-really-believe-that.html


----------



## midcan5

Here's a book that should be read by every thoughtful person. 

'Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West' by John Ralston Saul  

'Reason is a narrow system
swollen into an ideology. 

With time and power it has 
become a dogma, devoid of 
direction and disguised as 
disinterested inquiry. 

Like most religions. reason 
presents itself as the solution 
to the problems it has created.' from book

from Amazon review: 'The Western world is full of paradoxes. We talk endlessly of individual freedom, yet we&#8217;ve never been under more pressure to conform. Our business leaders describe themselves as capitalists, yet most are corporate employees and financial speculators. We call our governments democracies, yet few of us participate in politics. We complain about invasive government, yet our legal, educational, financial, social, cultural and legislative systems are deteriorating.'


----------



## Spiderman




----------



## Peterf

Wry Catcher said:


> Too many books, too little time.  Fiction can many times offer greater insight into humanity (or inhumanity) with greater clarity than the most researched tomes of non fiction.
> 
> Fiction which influenced me and in no particular order:
> 
> "The Red Badge of Courage"
> "The Ox Bow Incident"
> "All Quiet on the Western Front"
> "The Grapes of Wrath"
> "Brave New World"
> "Johnny Got his Gun"
> "The Jungle"
> "The Octopus"



Even at its best fiction is reality filtered through someone else's mind.    I read fiction sometimes but generally prefer  reality raw and unprocessed.


----------



## midcan5

'Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing'  Vaclav Smil  

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Made-USA-Retreat-American-Manufacturing/dp/0262019388/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8]Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing: Vaclav Smil: 9780262019385: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]

"... But, asks Smil, do we want a society that consists of a small population of workers doing high-value-added work and masses of unemployed? Smil assesses various suggestions for solving America's manufacturing crisis, including lowering corporate tax rates, promoting research and development, and improving public education." from review

"In every society, manufacturing builds the lower middle class. If you give up manufacturing, you end up with haves and have-nots and you get social polarization. The whole lower middle class sinks." Vaclav Smil 

This Is the Man Bill Gates Thinks You Absolutely Should Be Reading - Wired Science


----------



## midcan5

"Countrymen is a fascinating study in the ambiguity of virtue."

Denmark in the Holocaust: Bo Lidegaard's "Countrymen," Reviewed | New Republic

Also:

'The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives' Sasha Abramsky 
'The Betrayal of the American Dream Hardcover' Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele 
'To Serve God and Wal-Mart: The Making of Christian Free Enterprise' Bethany Moreton  
'Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal'  Kim Phillips-Fein  
'Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming' Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. M. Conway 
'The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy' Albert O. Hirschman 
'The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin' Corey Robin
'Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West' by John Ralston Saul 


"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."  Haruki Murakami


----------



## midcan5

I used to do a summer reading list, but forgot till now.

Finished 'Suttree,' Cormac McCarthy; 'Mortality,'  Christopher Hitchens; re-read 'The Fall,' Camus, and just finished 'Stoner,' by John Williams. If you read anything this summer read 'Stoner,' it covers human nature simply but profoundly. People living life. One of those books you can't put down. Suttree on the other hand can lose you in words. Even though we forget about death, it's always there. Hitchens was such a great voice. 

And this for the readers.

Does Reading Literature Make You More Moral? | Boston Review


"If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."  Haruki Murakami


----------



## Mustang

midcan5 said:


> I used to do a summer reading list, but forgot till now.
> 
> Finished 'Suttree,' Cormac McCarthy; 'Mortality,'  Christopher Hitchens; re-read 'The Fall,' Camus, and just finished 'Stoner,' by John Williams. If you read anything this summer read 'Stoner,' it covers human nature simply but profoundly. People living life. One of those books you can't put down. Suttree on the other hand can lose you in words. Even though we forget about death, it's always there. Hitchens was such a great voice.
> 
> And this for the readers.
> 
> Does Reading Literature Make You More Moral? | Boston Review
> 
> 
> "If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking."  Haruki Murakami



I read "Stoner" early last year. Absolutely a phenomenal book. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's only 278 pages, and it's well worth anyone's time.




 Stoner


----------



## midcan5

'What Book Changed Your Mind?'

For myself it was Dostoevsky's novels, Camus, Sartre, Thomas Wolfe, lots more, and in non-fiction, Albert Hirschman 'The Rhetoric of Reaction,' Peter Watson's Ideas,  Parfit, Reasons and Persons, Peter Singer, Martin Gardner, Wittgenstein and on and on.... Article linked below.

Sometimes book confirm your suspicions but they do so brilliantly.

'Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal' Kim Phillips-Fein
'Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming' Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. M. Conway  
'Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West' by John Ralston Saul

Read recently and worth your time.

'The Betrayal of the American Dream Hardcover' Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele
'A History of Civilizations' Fernand Braudel
'The Pony Fish's Glow: And Other Clues to Plan and Purpose in Nature' George C. Williams


A few look interesting and about topics that fascinate me.

What Book Changed Your Mind - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education

.


----------



## midcan5

"Books had instant replay long before televised sports." Bernard Williams

Summer reading for the informed reader. The ISIS book should have a diagram of connections, what a tangled web the ME is. I like Crawford's view of working with one's hands. Something I still love. The prophets are the new rich and just as off base as the old rich. James Wood's words are worth an afternoon. And fiction as James writes may be the nearest thing to life. Enjoy. 

'The New Prophets of Capital' by Nicole Aschoff

'ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror' by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassan

'The Nearest Thing to Life (The Mandel Lectures in the Humanities)' by James Wood  

'The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of Distraction' by Matthew B. Crawford

Fiction:  'Crow Fair: Stories' by Thomas McGuane and all of Cormac McCarthy

'My Struggle: Book 1' by Karl Ove Knausgaard and Don Bartlett ( odd but interesting too)

oldies but goodies

'The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy' Albert O. Hirschman
'Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal'  Kim Phillips-Fein
'Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West' by John Ralston Saul
'A History of Civilizations' Fernand Braudel
'The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'  Carl Sagan
'Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming' Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. M. Conway   
'The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin' Corey Robin


----------



## 2aguy

" The Law" by Friedrich Basitate

"The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich Hayek

"Destructive Generation" by David Horowitz

"Visions of the Anointed" By Thomas Sowell

"Who Stole Feminism" Christina Hoff Summers...

"The Black Book of Communism"

"Animal Farm" George Orwell

"Vindicating the Founders"


----------



## midcan5

'Wry Catcher'  As a Camus fan you may find this interesting. Reviewed in NYT today.

The Meursault Investigation' by Kamel Daoud (Author), John Cullen (Translator)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/b...ef=books&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=


----------



## Wry Catcher

midcan5 said:


> 'Wry Catcher'  As a Camus fan you may find this interesting. Reviewed in NYT today.
> 
> The Meursault Investigation' by Kamel Daoud (Author), John Cullen (Translator)
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/b...ef=books&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=



Thank you, an interesting read.  I read "The Stranger" first in a Freshman Humanities course and next in an upper division Philosophy course (Existentialism).  I've read both the Myth of Sisyphus and The Rebel (in parts) several times and each time another beam of light opens my eyes to the genius of Camus' intuition.


----------



## midcan5

I have often wondered how Jimmy Carter would have governed had he won the second time?  Reading 'Liberty Under Siege: American Politics, 1976-1988' by Walter Karp reminded me of how a president often has to fight his own party to accomplish anything. Oligarchy fights against change and Carter an outsider wasn't strong enough to fight power. This was the beginning of money controlling Congress through lobbying and election requirements.

One of the *best books* I've read this past year was how racism mutated into a tool used to cut off your nose.... or get elected....

At bottom is a book on mass murder I have not read it yet. This topic is interesting but so difficult to comprehend. Read 'Columbine' by Dave Cullen if the topic and all its complexity interests you.

*'Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class' *by Ian Haney López

'It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism' by Thomas E. Mann, Norman J. Ornstein

'What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat' by Louise Richardson

'Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free' by Charles P. Pierce 

'Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming' by Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. M. Conway

More history worth a look:
'American High: The Years of Confidence, 1945-1960' by William L. O'Neill
'A Bubble in Time: America During the Interwar Years, 1989-2001' by William L. O'Neill
Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960s' by William L. O'Neill

'One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway' By Asne Seierstad. Translated by Sarah Death.

In Fiction this looks interesting?  'The Door' By Magda Szabo. Translated by Len Rix.

"Books had instant replay long before televised sports." Bernard Williams

.


----------



## midcan5

I am rereading sections of Peter Watson's 'Modern Mind'. * This book should be required reading for everyone*.  Check it out. 

Amazon.com: The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century (9780060084387): Peter Watson: Books

I may include some quotes in a thread on history.


----------



## midcan5

Addendum for the readers, conservative and libertarian snowflakes beware, you may think and that would really confuse you.

"If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief." Franz Kafka

Understand America today:

The View From Flyover Country: Essays by Sarah Kendzior by Sarah Kendzior
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan by Kim Phillips-Fein
Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Mayer
Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right by Arlie Russell Hochschild
White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America by Nancy Isenberg
The Making of Donald Trump by David Cay Johnston
Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming by Naomi Oreskes
The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 Election by Malcolm Nance
The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy by Albert O. Hirschman

Psychology

House of cards : psychology and psychotherapy built on myth by Robyn M. Dawes
Rational Choice in an Uncertain World: The Psychology of Judgement and Decision Making by Reid Hastie

Racism

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol  Anderson
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class by Ian F. Haney-Lopez

"Only in America can you find so many angry people claiming to love their country, while hating almost anyone in it."  Don King

Interesting and Deep

'Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle' by Daniel L. Everett
'Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers'   by Robert M. Sapolsky
'Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis' by J. D. Vance
'One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway - and Its Aftermath' by Seierstad, Åsne and Sarah Death
'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century'  by Timothy Snyder


"The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading."  David Bailey
.


----------



## midcan5

Some suggestions for reading in the new year, please be aware should you accept the challenge of reading a few of the books listed below you will be changed. Proceed with caution. Great Holiday gifts too.  

“One must be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us.”  Cassandra Clare

Alpha order.  Various topics. 

'Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle' by Daniel L. Everett
'Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis' by J. D. Vance
'Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain'  David Eagleman
'Merchants of Doubt'  by Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. M. Conway 
'On Human Nature' by Edward O. Wilson 
'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century'  by Timothy Snyder
'One of Us: The Story of a Massacre in Norway - and Its Aftermath' by Seierstad, Åsne and Sarah Death
'Paul Farmer: Servant to the Poor'  by Jennie Weiss Block 
'Prehistory: The Making Of The Human Mind'  by Colin Renfrew
'The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark'  Carl Sagan
'The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century' by Peter Watson
'The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy'  Albert O. Hirschman 
'The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science'  by Will Storr
'Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West' John Ralston Saul
'World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech'  by Franklin Foer
'Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance' By Robert Pirsig

Check Goodreads for reviews, many of the books below are challenging and they will change you and change the way you see.   

"The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading."  David Bailey


----------



## Wry Catcher

In re Deer hunting with Jesus:  "“The four cornerstones of the American political psyche are 1) emotion substituted for thought, 2) fear, 3) ignorance and 4) propaganda” 

Seems to be taken from the threads and posts of the United States Message Board, generally.


----------



## whitehall

The key to a good reading experience is to ignore the critics and the alleged experts as well as the angry social scientists and arcane college professors and read what everyone else seems to enjoy on the best seller list.


----------



## longknife

whitehall said:


> The key to a good reading experience is to ignore the critics and the alleged experts as well as the angry social scientists and arcane college professors and read what everyone else seems to enjoy on the best seller list.



*I don't believe in bestseller lists and completely ignore critics. Most are paid and the lists are only for small, selected markets. The best way to find a book's popularity is checking the number on Amazon.com and the other booksellers.*


----------



## midcan5

For the serious person puzzled by human behavior see the books above on Human Nature by Wilson and the Prehistory book. And if you have ever wondered why you are who you are, see book and video below.  And get a DNA test, it is fascinating stuff. 

Anther book to read:  'Robert Plomin on Blueprint: how our DNA makes us who we are'


----------



## fncceo

Opened my mind ...


----------



## midcan5

LOL

One writer I missed in the list above is Robyn M. Dawes'  'House of cards : psychology and psychotherapy built on myth'.   Fascinating read on a topic that enters the lives of so many families.  House of cards : psychology and psychotherapy built on myth by Robyn M. Dawes

Also check out 'Rational Choice in an Uncertain World: The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making'  Reid Hasti / Robyn M. Dawes.  If that topic is of interest.  Rational Choice in an Uncertain World: The Psychology of Judgement and Decision Making by Reid Hastie

*And humor* is a must if we are to remain human. I liked George Saunders early stuff but later work seems strained.  Saw this today,  Sam Lipsyte, 'Hark' may check it out.  Kurt Vonnegut is still funny and readable too. 

I love books *on life and work different from ours*, may check this out, Doug Bock Clark, 'The Last Whalers'.

This site was inspiration for repost:  13 Books You Should Read This January

Happy another year.


----------



## midcan5

If you want a real challenge I have an author - I should have listed above not sure how I had missed him - for you all. William T. Vollmann. I have been re-reading 'Rising up, Rising Down'. The abridged edition. Vollmann will challenge you in a way you have never been challenged before. I've read several of his other books, but I'll leave it there for now.

Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means by William T. Vollmann

"Just for the hell of it, try to love someone as unlike you as possible." William T. Vollmann


People often mention Rand so I thought I'd add this review.

"Out of a lifetime of reading, I can recall no other book in which a tone of overriding arrogance was so implacably sustained. Its shrillness is without reprieve. Its dogmatism is without appeal. In addition, the mind which finds this tone natural to it shares other characteristics of its type. 1) It consistently mistakes raw force for strength, and the rawer the force, the more reverent the posture of the mind before it. 2) It supposes itself to be the bringer of a final revelation. Therefore, resistance to the Message cannot be tolerated because disagreement can never be merely honest, prudent, or just humanly fallible." Whittaker Chambers

Whittaker Chambers 1957 Review of Ayn Rand


----------



## fncceo

midcan5 said:


> "It supposes itself to be the bringer of a final revelation. Therefore, resistance to the Message cannot be tolerated because disagreement can never be merely honest, prudent, or just humanly fallible."



I agree...


----------



## Mindful

longknife said:


> whitehall said:
> 
> 
> 
> The key to a good reading experience is to ignore the critics and the alleged experts as well as the angry social scientists and arcane college professors and read what everyone else seems to enjoy on the best seller list.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> *I don't believe in bestseller lists and completely ignore critics. Most are paid and the lists are only for small, selected markets. The best way to find a book's popularity is checking the number on Amazon.com and the other booksellers.*
Click to expand...


I like looking around bookshops. Holding a book between my hands.

Usually, "The Book" will jump out at me.

One such example, I've just started "Seratonin". By Michel Houellebecq.


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## Remodeling Maidiac

What is Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about?


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## midcan5

Grampa Murked U said:


> What is Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance about?



A father and son journey to a kinda enlightenment.  Read it. 

“You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They _know_ it's going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it's always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values


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## midcan5

I should do a new thread on topic but for now I'll leave this important book here. Sarah tell it like it is. 

"No one saw it coming,” but what they mean is that they consider the people who saw it coming to be no one. The category of “no one” includes the people smeared by Trump in his propaganda: immigrants, black Americans, Muslim Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans, LGBT Americans, disabled Americans, and others long maligned and marginalized—groups for whom legally sanctioned American autocracy was not an unfathomable horror, but a personal backstory." Sarah Kendzior

'Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America'









						Hiding in Plain Sight
					

From New York Times bestselling author Sarah Kendzior comes the bitingly honest examination of the erosion of American liberty and the...



					www.goodreads.com


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## Harry Dresden

midcan5 said:


> I should do a new thread on topic but for now I'll leave this important book here. Sarah tell it like it is.
> 
> "No one saw it coming,” but what they mean is that they consider the people who saw it coming to be no one. The category of “no one” includes the people smeared by Trump in his propaganda: immigrants, black Americans, Muslim Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans, LGBT Americans, disabled Americans, and others long maligned and marginalized—groups for whom legally sanctioned American autocracy was not an unfathomable horror, but a personal backstory." Sarah Kendzior
> 
> 'Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America'
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Hiding in Plain Sight
> 
> 
> From New York Times bestselling author Sarah Kendzior comes the bitingly honest examination of the erosion of American liberty and the...
> 
> 
> 
> www.goodreads.com


the erosion of America started long before trump....


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## midcan5

Readings for those who like to think.





__





						Summer Reading from the Archive | Edge.org
					






					www.edge.org
				




'To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge, seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves.'


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## 2aguy

"The Law" by Friedrich Bastiat......"The Road to Serfdom," by Friedrich Hayek..........anything by Thomas Sowell....


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## midcan5

For the readers, the thinkers, those who steer their boat and don't look to false gods for leadership.  

'*The Cult of Trump*: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control' Steven Hassan









						The Cult of Trump
					

One of America’s leading experts in cults and mind-control provides an eye-opening analysis of Trump and the indoctrination tactics he us...



					www.goodreads.com
				





'*The Big Cheat: *How Donald Trump Fleeced America and Enriched Himself and His Family' 

Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and dean of Trumpologists David Cay Johnston reveals years of eye-popping financial misdeeds by Donald Trump and his family.









						The Big Cheat
					

Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter and dean of Trumpologists David Cay Johnston reveals years of eye-popping financial misdeeds by Donald T...



					www.goodreads.com
				




"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."  Isaac Asimov


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## midcan5

For those who think and do not follow, books. 

P.J. O’Rourke wrote this was the 'this is the strangest book of note I have ever read...' I agree, read and check out book linked at bottom and learn and puzzled too. 

'This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality'  by Peter Pomerantsev









						This Is Not Propaganda
					

Learn how the perception of truth has been weaponized in modern politics with this “insightful” account of propaganda in Russia and beyon...



					www.goodreads.com
				





And check out 'Nothing is True and Everything is Possible'.









						Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible by Peter Pomerantsev review – Putinism and the oil-boom years
					

Gangsters turned artists and Pushkin-spouting gold-diggers in a bleakly entertaining chronicle




					www.theguardian.com


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## midcan5

Book linked below is an amazing read.  You see how and why our presidential succession works and why Trump imitating Putin wanted to deny it.  Hopefully America can kept it storm in spite of republicans kowtowing to oligarchs and Trump. 

'Succession plans protect nations. Putin and Xi just threw theirs out.'



			https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/succession-plans-protect-nations-putin-and-xi-just-threw-theirs-out/2018/03/22/db9a6f9e-2d19-11e8-8688-e053ba58f1e4_story.html
		










						Colleen Browne's review of The Road to Unfreedom
					

5/5: Having read On Tyranny, I picked up this book because I was aware of how well Snyder understood our times and its perils. I did not realize how timely it was until I began reading it. The book tells how Putin has used a Russian brand of fascism to make himself dictator of Russia and how he...



					www.goodreads.com
				




*'The Road to Unfreedom Russia, Europe, America' Timothy Snyder *









						The Road to Unfreedom
					

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of On Tyranny comes a stunning new chronicle of the rise of authoritarianism from Russia to Europe and America.“A brilliant analysis of our time.”—Karl Ove Knausgaard, The New YorkerWith the end of the Cold War, the victory of liberal democracy seemed...



					www.google.com


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## midcan5

Just started this book and it is fascinating as it deals with the rise of authoritarianism in the world. 

"Twilight of Democracy tries to deconstruct the psychology and motivation of such people. For some it is the chance to be noticed; for others, it is revenge for slights. Applebaum moves on to Laura Ingraham, another former acquaintance, who has become host of a certain type of US political chat show. "She has, like so many others in the Fox universe, depicted illegal immigrants as thieves and murderers, despite overwhelming evidence that immigrants commit fewer crimes overall than native-born Americans."

'Twilight of Democracy' by Anne Applebaum









						Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum review – when politics ends friendships
					

Shaming Boris Johnson and other friends who shifted further right ... a personal survey of nationalisms, discussed alongside The Light That Failed by Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes




					www.theguardian.com


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## midcan5

Came across this author reading 'Twilight of Democracy' by Anne Applebaum, an excellent read which covers Europe and Brexit among other topics.  *Authoritarians, like Trump, appeal to the weak who see evil around every corner.  MAGA was just a cry for a past that never existed, if you looked at it closely you'd wonder at its appeal. It is nostalgia for an imaginary nirvana.* Author below covers that topic too: Nostalgia for an imaginary past. 

"Democracy is in decline. Over half of the world's population now lives under some form of authoritarian rule. Wherever democracy deteriorates, so does support for transparency and accountability. Disinformation about current events thrives, as do versions of history that cover up authoritarian crimes."









						Welcome to Lucid.
					

Today I'm launching Lucid, a publication about abuses of power and how to counter them. Lucid provides clear analysis of the consequences of democratic erosion and the toll of secrecy and corruption in government, boardrooms, and institutions. It also covers the global resurgence of resistance...




					lucid.substack.com
				




'Strongmen Mussolini to the Present' 'What modern authoritarian leaders have in common (and how they can be stopped).'









						Strongmen
					

What modern authoritarian leaders have in common (and how they can be stopped)., Strongmen, Mussolini to the Present, Ruth Ben-Ghiat, 9780393868418




					wwnorton.com
				




Ruth Ben-Ghiat: 'Any society can be susceptible to strongman figures if it's the right time.'









						[Interview] Ruth Ben-Ghiat: 'Any society can be susceptible to strongman figures if it’s the right time' - Stockholm Center for Freedom
					

American historian and political commentator Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat said in an interview with the Stockholm Center for Freedom that any society can be susceptible to an authoritarian strongman figure if it’s the right time. “It’s very important to see the warning signs in the beginning and stop...




					stockholmcf.org


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## iamwhatiseem

A list of all the progressive mind trash you can read - all right here in one place.
LOL


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## midcan5

Repost:  What is fascinating about Trump love, is it repeats itself so often throughout history.  You see it with Mussolini or Hitler or Stalin or any other authoritarian  leader.  They are the outsider trying to make things right, often misunderstood, they want to make their nation great again. And people follow and buy into it during times of change. Some people are so easily led, just point, just blame, and the authoritarian will led you back to safety. 

'Any society can be susceptible to strongman figures if it's the right time.'









						[Interview] Ruth Ben-Ghiat: 'Any society can be susceptible to strongman figures if it’s the right time' - Stockholm Center for Freedom
					

American historian and political commentator Dr. Ruth Ben-Ghiat said in an interview with the Stockholm Center for Freedom that any society can be susceptible to an authoritarian strongman figure if it’s the right time. “It’s very important to see the warning signs in the beginning and stop...




					stockholmcf.org


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## midcan5

This is a brilliant book as it covers the complexity of politics today throughout the world and does so in detail with numerous references.  
I bought the book but it is available online for those who want to understand the times we live in.  Read it and understand today's politics and the dangers it poses for freedom.  

'Cultural Backlash: Trump, Brexit and Authoritarian-Populism'

*Chapter 10 Trump’s America*

Chapter 10 sgl.pdf 10 sgl.pdf

Chapter 1  *'Understanding populism'*








						Chapter 1 sgl.pdf
					

Shared with Dropbox




					www.dropbox.com
				





'Chapter 3 *Varieties of populism'*








						Chapter 3 sgl.pdf
					

Shared with Dropbox




					www.dropbox.com


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## g5000

midcan5 said:


> Reading that opens the mind - Books​


It is my opinion that Alexis de Toqueville's _Democracy in America_ should be required reading for every schoolchild.


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## midcan5

I have finally come to understand QAnon. For now I'll just say it is about change. Not being a conspiracy fan - I feel conspiracy is right in the open and understandable. Q was a bit of a puzzle though.  More readings for those who want to know and understand the whys. 


"Trump's rise to power was no aberration in American history and that the political project of Trumpism is still very much alive. The full title is "The Cruelty Is The Point: The Past, Present And Future Of Trump's America.""

'Adam Serwer On New Book:* 'The Cruelty Is The Point'* In Trump's America'



'The Storm Is Upon Us: *How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory* of Everything' Mike Rothschild  - great read

How To Academy Podcast | Mike Rothschild - The Rise of QAnon

And:  QAnon | Meaning, Beliefs, & Conspiracy Theory


*'QAnon: What is it and where did it come from?'*


QAnon: What is it and where did it come from?


"Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead." Benjamin Franklin


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## the other mike

Illusions
Richard Bach

Handbook to Higher Consciousness
Ken Keyes Jr


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