Books that can Make a Difference? (Please Recommend)

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Books that can Make a Difference? (Please Recommend)

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1abductee
Modifié : Août 9, 2006, 12:19 am

Ok...so LT has grown to allow us (readers) to create these meaningful groups of like-minded people to interact and to get to know one another - but mainly to share what it is that we're reading.

What book(s) are you reading right now which if other people read would make this world a better place?

2quartzite
Août 9, 2006, 4:40 pm

I just got in the mail today, and I am reading while I wait for downloads F*U*B*A*R, America's Right-Wing Nightmare, (which won't touchstone) by Sam Seder and Stephen Sherrill. I couldn't claim it will improve the world, but is pretty funny so far.

3Linkmeister
Modifié : Août 10, 2006, 7:51 pm

I'm halfway through Lapdogs; not much is new to the avid blogger (or reader of blogs), but to the average citizen it might be enlightening.

Update: I finished it. My review is available on the social info page for the book. Thumbs kinda halfway up.

4cesarschirmer
Août 10, 2006, 6:25 pm

Loic Wacquant books can make a difference.

5nicolewolverton
Août 10, 2006, 8:01 pm

I recently finished Conservatives Without Conscience by John Dean. All things considered, I thought it was a useful treatise on why today's new conservatives think as they do. It's scary and a little depressing, but definitely useful.

6oracleofdoom Premier message
Août 11, 2006, 7:23 am

Has everyone read What Liberal Media by Eric Alterman? I found it to be really eye-opening.

7jaimelesmaths
Août 19, 2006, 3:53 pm

I suggest reading Politics the Wellstone Way. And then I suggest putting it down and volunteering for a local progressive candidate.

OK, fine, that was kind of a snarky response. My more serious answer would be anything by Barbara Ehrenreich or David K. Shipler. They're written at an approachable level but really force people to think about the class, race, and gender issues they raise.

8nickhoonaloon
Août 19, 2006, 4:43 pm

Jaimelesmaths touches on an important point here - there is a need for accesible (have I spelt that right ?)writings that encourage people to think about class race and gender. I don`t necessarily insist everyone think the same as me - I`ve so often been wrong ! Assuming you`re in the USA, you may not have come accross a couple of things that I think are very good - Towards an anti-Racist Feminism by Jenny Bourne and the same author`s Jewish Feminism and Identity Politics.

If you`re interested,you can get them off the web from an English organisation, the Institute of Race Relations (IRR). No doubt there are second hand copies available elsewhere. I`m not an IRR member or even particularly well-informed about their activities, so this is not a partisan point, just a personal recommendation.

9nfoskett521
Août 19, 2006, 9:11 pm

I would strongly recommend anything by Howard Zinn. Not only as a historical reference, but as an activist he has several essays regarding the subject of war, abuse of power, racism, etc. Some of my favorites include Terrorism and War and Artists in Times of War. Zinn writes with great passion and offers up the hope for possibilities and change.

10Risako
Août 20, 2006, 1:53 am

I'm reading The Rebel Sell and finding it (mostly) a useful analysis of what's gone wrong with the left and, more importantly, what can be done about it. (Short version: Less navel-gazing, more getting up and volunteering for local progressive candidates!)

This probably wouldn't help to "convert" anyone, but for those of us who are already progressive/liberal, it's a useful book.

11nickhoonaloon
Août 21, 2006, 5:41 am

How about Manning Marable`s stuff ?

I`m no expert on him, but the couple of things I`ve come across were well worth a read.

12anns
Août 28, 2006, 1:29 pm

See Michael Lerner's recent book 'The Left hand of God: Taking back our country from the religious right'. He is trying to present a position that could be supported by non-theists as well as theists.

13KromesTomes
Sep 1, 2006, 10:58 am

Ain't nobody's business if you do : the absurdity of consensual crimes in a free society is a little older (1993) and includes a section on Bible quotes that support his theme, but is still well worth a read if you can track it down.

14bigal123
Sep 1, 2006, 12:53 pm

Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich is definitely a book that can change society, but only if society wants to change.

15nickhoonaloon
Sep 2, 2006, 9:00 am

Quite right Big Al - changing society does depend on society wanting to change. And as as Edward G Robinson almost said to Humphrey Bogart, it`s not what you want but how much you want it. I did read Illich`s The Right to Useful Unemployment a long time ago, do you like that ?

I haven`t suggested a book that could or should change the world for a time, so here`s one I like, a pamphlet Black America ; Multicultural Democracy in the Age of Clarence Thomas and David Duke by Manning Marable.

16srharris19
Sep 8, 2006, 11:06 pm

Any good books out there in the category of -- Why I'm a Liberal/Progressive, or conversely, Why I'm NOT a Conservative?

17quartzite
Sep 9, 2006, 8:54 am

I believe author Jane Haddam's webpage has an interesting essay on why she is not a Republican despite espousing ceratin traditionally conservative values.

18nickhoonaloon
Sep 12, 2006, 5:46 am

If you`re looking for a personal account - `why I believe what I believe` - then you may like Paul Robeson`s Here I Stand, provided you take his naive pro-Soviet views with a pinch of salt. I bought a copy for my father as a present some years ago, and have recently borrowed it in order to read it for the 4th time, so it kind of selects itself.

Another book that I think may be interesting is Socialism or Your Money Back, a collection of articles from 100 years of the Socialist Standard - a UK periodical which began in 1904 and is still going today. I haven`t read it myself but from what I know of it, it sounds promising.

19camelspit Premier message
Sep 14, 2006, 1:31 am

Anything by Michael Leunig may not improve the world but can give a soul reason to hope.

20kellyholmes
Jan 9, 2007, 8:29 am

Affluenza by John De Graaf and others. I read it as part of a book club, and it changed all of us.

21Linkmeister
Jan 11, 2007, 12:24 am

quartzite, your pointer to Jane Haddam's site was welcome, except that now I'm on a Gregor Demarkian binge. I liked how she wrote and thought I'd try one of her books, and now...

Somehow I'd never heard of those books before.

22Editrixie
Jan 11, 2007, 4:51 pm

It's been awhile since I read it, but I found David Callahan's The Cheating Culture eye-opening. It helped me see connections between the rise of free-market mania and the plummeting of ethics. The Web site for the book is http://www.cheatingculture.com/.

23jaimelesmaths
Jan 12, 2007, 1:23 am

I just finished with Greg Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, and I cannot recommend it more highly. I'm hoping to find his new book, Armed Madhouse, soon. Palast is our version of John Stossel, except that he investigates, you know, things that really need investigating.

24scorpiorising
Jan 20, 2007, 6:54 am

possibly im just stating the obvious here, but Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival

25meghquinn Premier message
Fév 4, 2007, 1:24 pm

#7: I agree completely that everyone wanting to get involved in politics should read Politics the Wellstone Way. It's a great guide for individuals who want to understand grassroots politics.

I'm a fan of the humor in all of the books authored by Al Franken, especially Lies and Lying Liars Who Tell Them. Though they do not inspire learning more about the political process, it sure provides a laugh while getting angry at the conservatives of the world.

26jaimelesmaths
Fév 5, 2007, 2:46 am

#25> I'm a big Al Franken fan, too, along with the (dearly departed) Molly Ivins, who spoke at my graduation. Michael Moore's books are also entertaining. Yep, gotta love the liberal pundits, sprinkling a bit of humor in with the deep thoughts.

27FourSeasons Premier message
Modifié : Fév 17, 2007, 8:54 pm

Anything by Chomsky (I may also be staring the obvious as scorpiorising). The ones that should have changed the world but haven't; Hegemony or Survival, Failed States and The New Military Humanism. I am Irish, well European or whatever we are today, I dont know. But we quite conveniently dropped the real version of events in Kosovo episode from our memories. It's not just (some) Americans.

28teelgee
Modifié : Mar 2, 2007, 11:44 am

Here are a couple of my favorites for ideas and inspiration: How to Stop the Next War Now edited by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans and Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit. Good medicine for the weary activist.

29Akiyama
Mar 6, 2007, 9:42 am

I'd recommend The Road to Serfdom. Everyone should read it.

I know I'll get flack for this, but I'd also like to recommend The Bell Curve. Not for the "race and IQ" controversy (on which subject I will say nothing more than that I disagree with both the book's authors and it's critics) but for the last couple of chapters, in which the authors say why they believe that American society is becoming a much more difficult place for people of below average intelligence to cope with successfully (it was written before George W. Bush became president).

The Revenge of Gaia is a fantastic little book about climate change.

Moral Politics is an attempt at a theory of why people are liberals or conservatives, and how their worldviews differ.

Mind the Gap is an interesting book about economic inequality in Britain, written by a former advisor to Mrs Thatcher, and What's the Matter With Kansas? is about why poor states in America are more likely to vote Republican than rich states. Finally, The Right Nation attempts to explain why the right-wing in America is so much more right-wing than that in Europe.

BTW as far as politics goes, I would call myself a Green, albeit one with a lot of respect for the free market.

30Akiyama
Mar 6, 2007, 9:49 am

Oh, those books I just posted - I'm not reading them at the moment. The book I'm reading at the moment is China Shakes the World, about present day China, which is rather scary. I would definitely say everyone should read it. It's nice and short!

31tinbrain
Mar 16, 2007, 1:30 am

I joined this group just so I could second Akiyama's suggestion of The Bell Curve; every single criticism I'd head of that book that wasn't simply a logical fallacy was addressed in the preface. The chapter on race, which generates 95% of the press about the book, is only 5% of the book.

I really liked Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor. It was what I’d hoped Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America would be.

Oh, and I became a liberal when I read RawlsA Theory of Justice.

Right now, I’m reading A Problem from Hell. The subtitle is “America and the Age of Genocide”, which sums it up quite nicely. It’s the most depressing book I’ve ever read. I suppose it’s an argument for a form of liberalism that’s been out of vogue since we went into Afghanistan.

32leebot
Modifié : Mar 18, 2007, 7:36 pm

Um ... The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government???

Honestly, I think part of the problem in today's society is a genuine lack of understanding about how our nation is SUPPOSED to work. Concepts like the three branches of government and how checks and balances are supposed to work, separation of church and state, what "freedom of speech" really means (thinking of Dixie Chicks here, for one), what habeas corpus is and why it's important -- a lot of these concepts are completely lost on people and so they are willing to support things that should be insupportable.

I've read and enjoyed books mentioned here plus others --

Conservatives Without Conscience, Bush on the Couch, The End of Faith, The Audacity of Hope, but I often think that the people who would benefit most from the information might not be the ones who can really listen because they are already so entrenched in their views. Maybe I'm overly pessimistic. Of the books I've read (and there are others I haven't listed here that I thought were well-written), I think Obama's book is perhaps one that has the best chance of succeeding on several levels.

Lisa

33FourSeasons
Mar 21, 2007, 9:12 pm

I will always foist Chomsky, but I am reading Unpeople by Mark Curtis. It is essentially the same deal, lifting the veil on our Plutocracies and their policies. Curtis' accesible approach was refreshing. Peter Marshall's History of Anarchism is well worth a look too.

34rayncloudx Premier message
Mar 23, 2007, 6:31 pm

"What book(s) are you reading right now which if other people read would make this world a better place?"

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire
The Spread of Nuclear Weapons by Scott D. Sagan and Kenneth N. Waltz

Reading these two right now and they're both good. especially pedagogy of the oppressed. it's a must-read.

35cbaker123
Avr 21, 2007, 11:48 pm

The Law in Shambles by Thomas Geoghegan I don't agree with all of the book, but what I do agree with he states so clearly and convincingly, that it's well worth reading. It's only 142.
One Market Under God by Thomas Frank Before What's The Matter with Kansas? he explained how the idea of the free market has supplanted democacy in the minds of many Americans.
The Time of Illusion by Jonathan Schell to know what happened devious things a certain president (Nixon) did before the Bush Administration took it to a new level. Wonderfully written.
And, if I may say so, www.thefantasyyears.com, to understand how we got from Reagan to now, because that whole attack on Iraq didn't happen in a void.

36margd
Avr 22, 2007, 6:03 am

The Nurture Assumption - Why Childern Turn Out The Way They Do by Judith Rich Harris. It really DOES take a village to raise a child!

37kinmon
Mai 2, 2007, 1:09 pm

Under the heading "know thy enemy", Bush's Brain. The techniques being used by the Administration to hinder investigation into the firing of attorneys, classic Rove(Machiavelli). I agree that vast number of Americans do not know or remember how our government is suppose to operate. Is Civics still being taught? I recommend Catherine Crier book title has slipped my mind(sorry), on the legal system and how many appointments have been made for party based reasons. If we are a nation based on laws could any place be more damaging than our court system?

38tropics
Juin 20, 2007, 12:18 pm

I highly recommend Robert Fisk's recent heartbreaking treatise, "The Great War For Civilization: The Conquest Of The Middle East" (not as yet touchstoneable).

An excerpt:

"I think in the end we have to accept that our tragedy lies always in our past, that we have to live with our ancestors' folly and suffer for it, just as they, in their turn, suffered, and as we, through our vanity and arrogance, ensure the pain and suffering of our children. How to correct history, that's the thing."

39Linkmeister
Juin 20, 2007, 1:00 pm

There are three new books reviewed in the NY Review of Books this week. I'm not gonna retype and relink since I mentioned them on my blog here.

Dennis Ross, Chalmers Johnson, and Zbig Brzezinski are the authors.

40fikustree
Juin 20, 2007, 6:16 pm

I think people would be greatly helped from reading Food not Lawns and Your money or your life both are at their essence about living simply and not buying so much stuff and being engaged in your community.

41gborchardt
Juil 26, 2007, 1:06 pm

Advanced progressives will want to read The Scientific Worldview: Beyond Newton and Einstein (Understanding the Universal Mechanism of Evolution). You can check it out at www.thescientificworldview.com.

42nickhoonaloon
Juil 30, 2007, 3:15 pm

Two choices for me - W E B Du Bois - An ABC of Color - a selected writings covering every period of his life and thought. A cheap and cherrful introduction that covers a wide range of his interests. The first book of his I ever bought - at a stall at an outdoor `Rock and Reggae` event in Nott`m UK many years ago.

Also, one that I came back to recently when a friend wanted me to look something up for him. Socialisms by Tony wright. the author is/was a Labour MP, not one noted for his radical leanings, but clearly a thinker. Argues for a socialism free from the failings of either state centralisation (eg the Communist tradition) or the social democratic form (eg today`s Labour Party, similar to the US Democrats).

Not quite sure what Wright can say he`s done to create such a form of socialism - write this book, I suppose.

43robkill Premier message
Août 3, 2007, 10:03 pm

The Culture of Make Believe by Derrick Jensen. One of the most powerful books I've read this year -- or in several years. For some it will present a unifying discussion of many things they've already been thinking. For others, it will lead to the larger implications (and histories) of the everyday issues around which our political discussions commonly center.

44januaryw
Août 16, 2007, 10:54 am

Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol. The American school system needs to change and Kozol's voice is a strong cry for action. Shame of the Nation is a great one too.

45teelgee
Modifié : Août 16, 2007, 11:17 am

>43 robkill: Robkill -- Agree - Jensen is a brilliant writer. Culture...was astounding -- I also recommend A Language Older than Words and Walking on Water : reading, writing, and revolution. His writing is not for the feint of heart, he thoroughly believes we're free falling into collapse and advocates for assisting the fall rather than just letting it happen to us.

His newest, a 2-volume set, Endgame is one I haven't tackled yet. I do have to be in the right frame of mind to read him, and I've been feeling too fragile lately.

46wyrdchao
Août 19, 2007, 10:58 am

Or, for a really off-the-wall recommendation: The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. Sure to bend your brain enough to knock some practicality into.

No, really, I'm serious (and so were Wilson and Shea). The best way to understand the opposition is to learn WHY they think like they do. So read everything, get both sides of the story.

I think the REAL problem is that so few people read at all.

47nickhoonaloon
Août 22, 2007, 5:29 am

Now there we agree. I was shocked in my last job to find how many people in the UK simply didn`t know how laws were made, or who made them. I think it`s a disgrace in a country where our ancestors fought a Civil War for parliamentary democracy, that this state of affairs has occurred. I believe the government has introduced a subject of `cirizenship` into schools to address the problem, so for once I can`t in fairness blame policticians

A friend of mine always gets angry when his `young in the `60s` mates (all old-style socialists) won`t vote because of the limited choice now available (two main parties, both unquestioningly capitalist). I think he has a point.

48ejakub
Août 22, 2007, 4:01 pm

I would like to suggest these GREAT books which think have great relavence to our current political climate here in the U.S.

> One Dimensional Man - Herbert Marcuse (1964)
> Simulacra and Simmulation - Jean Baudrillard (1995 I think?)
> Mass Media... - Chomsky
> Zinn Reader - obvious....

These are all GREAT!

49jseger9000
Modifié : Août 23, 2007, 9:10 am

They aren't books I'm reading right now, but two books that would make the world a better place if everyone read them are The Grapes Of Wrath and In Dubious Battle by my favorite writer John Steinbeck.

Those books have shaped my political conscience more than anything else I've read.

Also highly recommended is The God Delusion. It's amazing the way that our current administration has convinced people to vote againt their own self interest by invoking religion.

50sisaruus
Août 23, 2007, 8:10 pm

I'd recommend The Divine Right of Capital: Dethroning the Corporate
Aristocracy by Marjorie Kelly. Kelly challenges many of those economic
assumptions that the U.S. culture accepts as truisms.

#44 - I haven't read Amazing Grace but Jonathan Kozol's books Savage
Inequalities and The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid
Schooling in America have both inspired me professionally and
personally.

51januaryw
Août 24, 2007, 9:01 am

Amazing Grace helped to draw me into social work I LOVE that beek

52Akiyama
Sep 19, 2007, 10:16 am

It won't make any difference but it's very entertaining - Occupational Hazards by Rory Stewart. The author was a British diplomat involved in governing parts of Iraq shortly after "mission accomplished". Read it, you won't be disappointed!

53BGP
Sep 22, 2007, 4:26 pm

Books that can make a difference (in the way that you view the world/a particular subject within the world):

Economics: Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz

Environmentalism/History of global environmental degredation: Ecocide by Franz Broswimmer (now out of print, but can be easily found on abebooks.com, etc)

Oil/Political Economy: The Prize by Daniel Yergin

Power: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault

American Foreign Policy: Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II by William Blum

Communism: The New Class by Milovan Djilas

Israel/Palestine: Righteous Victims by Benny Morris

Israel/Palestine 2: Arab and Jew by David K. Shipler

Lebanon: Pity the Nation by Robert Fisk

...and there are many, many more...

54Linkmeister
Oct 22, 2007, 10:44 pm

I just finished Charlie Savage's Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy. Touchstone for the book doesn't work, but Savage's name does.

It's a fine description of Cheney and Addington and friends' efforts to push the Unitary Executive Theory into the mainstream of American thought and governance.

It's discouraging, because he thinks said pushing has worked.

My review here.

55Arctic-Stranger
Oct 25, 2007, 12:35 pm

Has anyone read Paul Krugman's new book, The Conscience of a Liberal? I am a quarter through it, and have mixed feelings so far. (Wonky touchstone).

56wyrdchao
Oct 31, 2007, 12:37 am

>55 Arctic-Stranger: Nope, but want to bad. Am a pretty rabid fan of his blog on the NY Times site; he's been quoting quite a bit from the book and has also been interviewed a bit, so I am slowly getting the gist.

I like Krugman. He can admit he's wrong; he predicted that the housing bubble and the impact of tax cuts would be felt much sooner than they have been, so far, and he admits to be confused. Coming from a Princeton economist, this reassures me rather than otherwise. Everyone lies about money, after all.

57abductee
Nov 14, 2007, 1:34 am

I am about a third into The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, and I can't recommend it any higher than possible (for a starter course of her writings, check out No Logo).

I am more pissed off and upset than ever, and in the positive, world-altering mentality-way.

Books do make a difference.

58BarbN
Nov 19, 2007, 8:20 pm

Reading: A tragic legacy : how a good vs. evil mentality destroyed the Bush president
by Glenn Greenwald. Very interesting book-slow to start but the last few chapters are fascinating (and depressing).

59cedric
Déc 7, 2007, 8:22 am

Along with abductee, I recommend Naomi Klein. Awesome works, both of them. Then Francis Wheen How Mumbo-Jumbo conquered the World, David Harvey Brief History of Neo-Liberalism, Mike Davis Late Victorian Holocausts and of course Karl Marx 1844 Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts.

60RonWelton
Jan 3, 2011, 5:54 am

If a person is at all concerned about the increasingly disproportionate division of wealth in the U.S., I strongly recommend Unequal Protection by Thom Hartmann. The book clarifies the debate surrounding the recent Citizens United decision. The history leading up to the Supreme Court's ruling is eye opening.

61anneomalley
Jan 6, 2011, 5:15 am

I love Thom Hartmann. Haven't read the one you mentioned, I'm putting it on my list.

62Just1MoreBook
Jan 7, 2011, 1:12 am

Yes! to anything by Thom Hartmann. I was just listening to him on the radio again today.

63JNagarya
Modifié : Mar 17, 2011, 8:40 pm

#32 --

. . . The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Government???

Honestly, I think part of the problem in today's society is a genuine lack of understanding about how our nation is SUPPOSED to work. Concepts like the three branches of government and how checks and balances are supposed to work, . . . .

The model for the US Constitution was the Massachusetts-Bay constitution, written by John Adams, with which he established separation of powers/checks and balances.

It was his view that the fundamental problem is greed, and that it is an ineradicable element of human nature. He recognized that it is not in the nature of greed to regulate itself, so unless contained it devours everything around it, then devours itself.

So he separated powers -- "the purse" from "the sword" as example -- in order to contain, control, constrain, regulate greed -- in his day "jealousies" -- by having each branch always checked by the other two.

This also speaks to the fiction of a "free market" -- unregulated greed/lawlessness. The so-called "free market" has always been regulated -- either by gov't, for the benefit of all, or by the minority corporate sector for the benefit only of the minority corporate sector.

64RonWelton
Modifié : Fév 8, 2011, 5:18 am

I've completely loss hope for the efficacy of reason in our (U.S.) culture and government.

Just read an article (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/science/08creationism.html?scp=1&sq=high%20school%20biology%20teachers%20+%20creationism&st=cse) in the NY Times reporting that sixty percent of high school biology teachers present evolution as "something you can choose to believe or not." Thirteen percent advocate "creationism."

65thejazzmonger
Mar 15, 2011, 6:34 pm

I learned a lot from:

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David S. Landes

Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power by John Steele Gordon

Devenir membre pour poster.