18 Responses to “Reading for the New Majority”

1. jdyer Says:
   November 10th, 2006 at 7:10 pm

   Any reading list that includes by Norman Finkelstein is a list for anti-Israel extremists.

   This, btw, is the most idiosyncratic list I have ever seen.

   It’s time to call up the Dershowitz truth squad!

2. jdyer Says:
   November 10th, 2006 at 7:11 pm

   Who is John La Rue and what is his relation to OSR?

3. Scott Myers-Lipton Says:
   November 11th, 2006 at 2:37 am

   “Social Solutions to Poverty” should be included in the Democrats’ new reading list (http://www.SolvingPoverty.com).

   The book focuses on every major American solution to poverty that has been put forward by both policy experts and grassroots activists. The book contains the original text of these solutions, as well as commentary on the social context from which the solutions emerged and analysis of what happened to the proposed solutions.

   ————————————————-
   Scott Myers-Lipton, Ph.D.
   Associate Professor, Sociology Department
   Community Change Concentration
   San José State University

4. Lvtfan Says:
   November 11th, 2006 at 12:11 pm

   I’m glad to see Henry George’s Progress and Poverty on this list. It is one of the most important books ever written — yes, I know that sounds like hyperbole, but if you’ll explore it, I suspect you’ll reach the same conclusion.

   A new edition of this 125+ year old book was published this year. It is a thought-by-thought updating into contemporary language (about the level of Time Magazine), and has been abridged to remove multiple examples of phenomena. It is available in paperback from http://www.schalkenbach.org/.

   You can also explore Henry George’s ideas at http://www.wealthandwant.com/. You’ll gain an entirely different understanding of poverty’s cause — one that doesn’t blame the victim, by the way — and see just how simple it would be to reduce poverty — not by defining it away but by re-establishing economic justioce and creating a society where we are indeed created equal and treat each other as equals.

   I hope Professor Myers-Lipton’s book explores these ideas; the website he cited does not appear to mention them. But Progress and Poverty was the #2 bestseller in the later years of the 19th century, selling over 2 million copies before about 1905, and was translated into 30 or so languages.

   It should be required reading for all who seek a more just society. It is also a thrilling read!

   The Wealthandwant website’s front page has links to multiple online versions of the book, including a couple of synopses and a 35 page abridgement. (Don’t miss chapter 3 of that.)

5. Cristian Rojas Says:
   November 11th, 2006 at 2:08 pm

   Given the status of the world at this point I think that an important book to read for people in power is “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” by Jared Diamond. So that they can see that our civilization might not last for ever, or for another 100 years.

6. katemcshane Says:
   November 11th, 2006 at 3:54 pm

   I’ve been rereading the essays of June Jordan. I first read her in the 1970′s, when i was in my 20′s and actually imagined that this society would move forward from some of the changes begun in the 60′s. In order, her essay collections are CIVIL WARS, ON CALL, TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES, AFFIRMATIVE ACTS, and SOME OF US DID NOT DIE. She told the truth, she was a genius, and she led an exemplary political and human life. In the last 10+ years of her life, she taught at Berkeley.

   Also, I would include on this list the work of W.E.B. DuBois, Arundhati Roy, and Robin D. G. Kelley (particularly RACE REBELS, FREEDOM DREAMS, and YO’ MAMA’S DISFUNKTIONAL).

   And I would recommend WAR IS A FORCE THAT GIVES US MEANING by Chris Hedges.

   It’s a shame that the original list contained only two women authors, and other than the bio of Ralph Bunche, I’m not sure if any of the books were written by people of color.

7. peggysue Says:
   November 11th, 2006 at 6:29 pm

   From the Contemporary Issues Shelf in Griffin Bay Bookstore:

   State of Denial
   Bob Woodward
   Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War
   Michael Isikoff and David Corn
   Destined For Destiny: The Unauthorized Autobiography of George W. Bush
   weeklyradioaddress.com
   Our Endangered Values
   President Jimmy Carter
   Conservatives Without Conscience
   John W. Dean
   Enemy Combatant
   Moazzam Begg
   Talking Right: Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show
   Geoffery Nunberg
   Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq
   Thomas E Ricks
   The Greatest Story Ever Sold: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina (Hardcover)
   Frank Rich
   Target Iran
   Scott Ritter
   Armed Madhouse
   Greg Palast
   The Looming Tower
   Lawrence Wright
   Letter to a Christian Nation
   Sam Harris
   From Vietnam to 9/11
   John P. Murtha
   Guests of the Ayatollah
   Mark Bowden
   Without Precedent: Inside the 9/11 Commission
   Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton
   America Back on Track
   Senator Edward Kennedy
   Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq
   T. Christian Miller
   The Untied States of America: Polarization, Fracturing, and Our Future
   Juan Enrique
   An Inconvenient Truth
   Al Gore

8. David Cowhig Says:
   November 11th, 2006 at 11:29 pm

   Anatol Lieuwen’s America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism Oxford 2003 is an exposition of the history and psychology of American nationalism. Lieuwen sees the US divided between a optimistic nationalism and a resentful national chauvinism. Lieuwen is more critical of the latter, which he identifies with the Republican Party (which he calls the american nationalist party) than the former. Lieuwen is a Research Fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.

9. nother Says:
   November 12th, 2006 at 1:58 pm

   “I’m not sure if any of the books were written by people of color.”

   katemcshane I agree, we should at the very least add Cornell West’s book “Democracy Matters”
   http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=0143035835

10. John La Rue Says:
    November 12th, 2006 at 2:14 pm

    jdyer: “Who is John La Rue and what is his relation to OSR?”
    I’m one of Open Source’s fall interns — it’s taken a while to start posting on my own. I have written a few features, which were at the time posted under Greta or Brendan’s name (with an explanatory note). Most recently, I posted about the RNC ad in the Tennessee Senate race. Glad to be here, and looking forward to more discussion.

11. David Says:
    November 12th, 2006 at 5:58 pm

    JDyer: “This, btw, is the most idiosyncratic list I have ever seen.”

    Is this really a surprise? The list was compiled from the recommendations of seven different people. How can it not be “idiosyncratic?” Anyway, we like idiosyncracy, don’t we?

12. Ben Says:
    November 13th, 2006 at 3:16 pm

    Striking that there is little or nothing on an environmental topic here?

13. Katherine Says:
    November 13th, 2006 at 6:26 pm

    Ben: You’re right. We did try hard in the afternoon scramble to find both a scientific and an environmental voice, but unfortunately it didn’t work out in time.

14. The Biblio File » Blog Archive » Some light reading Says:
    November 14th, 2006 at 12:54 pm

    [...] n empathy from reading Milton Friedman. Reading List for Democrats This entry was posted [...]

15. OliverCranglesParrot Says:
    November 14th, 2006 at 8:22 pm

    My personal favorite commentary on modern politics:

    Being There By Jerzy Kosinski

16. Lvtfan Says:
    November 16th, 2006 at 4:22 pm

    Ben,

    Progress and Poverty speaks in many ways to environmental issues, and Henry George’s remedy would have awesome benefits in slowing, even reversing, urban sprawl.

    See http://www.wealthandwant.com/themes/Natural_Resources.html, http://www.wealthandwant.com/themes/Sprawl.html
    http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Foldvary_Geo-Rent.html
    http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Gaffney_Nonpoint.html
    http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Gaffney_RLT&GLT.html
    http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Gaffney_EiSoE.html
    http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Beck_3KTCS.html
    Bill Batt: The Compatibility of Georgist Economics and Ecological Economics at http://www.wealthandwant.com/docs/Batt_GEE.html

17. EnglishIan in France Says:
    November 22nd, 2006 at 9:56 am

    I do agree with Ben that it’s pretty scary that not one guest, or OSR voice, could be found to recommend some reading on climate change. One moment I sense the USA is at a tipping point of understanding on this issue, then a show like this. Very frightening.

    And ‘an afternoon scramble’ really can’t stand unquestioned as an excuse not to find such a reading recommendation. It was able to find Virgil and Thucydides; for a moment I thought we were going to have Paul Kennedy.

    And China, Russia, India and Brazil? Surely American Democrat leaders might find it handy being a little up to speed on these powerhouses. Hopefully, with some Shakespeare, Tolstoy and Dostoevesky all will work out fine, and at least we got Russia covered.

18. hurley Says:
    November 26th, 2006 at 10:56 am

    Ben & Englishman: Several environmental books were recommended on the original thread (i.e. the thread to the show). Mine was:
    Man and Nature; Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action, by the great Vermont polymath George Perkins Marsh (1864), “the first book to attack the American myth of the superabundance and inexhaustibility of the earth.” What could be more timely? An extraordinary book by an extraordinary man.

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