Important
Books
The Audacity of
Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Barack Obama. New
York: Crown Publishers, 2006. The refreshing, hopeful message of a man
whose mission is constructive service for the common good, focused on the
best of our traditions.
America Alone:
The Neoconservatives and the Oval Office. Stefan Halpen and Jonathan
Carter. Port Chester, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2004. The
“Neocon” ideology and its effects on administration decisions.
American
Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of
Bush. Kevin Phillips. New York: Penguin Press, 2004. A widely-heralded
and well researched book that shows how the Bush family’s self-interest
and mid-East business ties influence the public policies it promotes.
American Gulag.
Mark Dow. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2004. “Long before Abu
Ghraib, and even before 9/11, detainees in America’s immigration prisons
were being stripped, beaten, and sexually abused. . . .” Dow argues that the practices of the INS (which was folded
into the Dept. of Homeland Security in 2003) laid the groundwork for the
indefinite detentions and the muting of civil liberties after September
11. The New Yorker, Briefly
Noted, 28 June 2004.
American
Theocracy: The peril and Politics of Radical Religion. Kevin Phillips.
New York: Viking, 2006. Military miscalculation, the surge of
fundamentalist religion, our national debt, and our oil dependence are
undermining our security and our standing in the world.
Blackwater: The
Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. Jeremy Scahill.
TheAvalon Group, 2006. By the end of 2006, almost half of the U.S.
military force in Iraq were private, contractor forces, most of them
employees of Blackwater Corporation. Scahill shows the dangers to
democracy of this situation.
Chain of
Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib. Seymour M. Hersh. New York,
Harper Collins, 2004. How bureaucracy and ideology enable the
justification of torture.
Cobra II: The
Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq. Michael R. Gordon
and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor. Contrasts the feverish preparation for war
beginning soon after 9/11 with misleading public statements by the
administration. Follows its actions through spring of 2003. The authors
blame poor early decisions, too few troops, and the power vacuum after the
fall of Baghdad for the chaos and insurgency that followed.
Failed States:
The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy. Noam Chomsky. New
York: Henry Holt and Company, Metropolitan Books, 2006. Chomsky sees the
US as suffering a “democracy deficit” despite its democratic forms.
Regarding itself as above domestic or international law and planning
further militarism of the planet and even space greatly increase the risks
of nuclear war.
Ghost Wars.
Steve Coll. New York: Penguin Press, 2004. An examination of the CIA’s
role in Afghanistan over the last 25 years. A best seller.
Imperial
America: Reflections on the United States of Amnesia. Gore Vidal; New
York:Nation Books, 2004. Vidal observes that there is something suspicious
about the “ever reckless Cheney-Bush junta,” the partners who, in
addition to creating the Department of Homeland Security and the USA
Patriot Act, have embarked upon a series of wars in pursuit of the
world’s oil reserves—to the extent that they seem not to care about
“the decent opinion of mankind."
Imperial
Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terrorism. Anonymous, Dulles, VA: Brassey, 2004. The author (a CIA
veteran) says that “people out there do not hate us because of what we
are but because of what we do. “Both the intelligence community and much
of the military establishment believe that the Bush administration and its
crusading zealotry are threatening the power, even the existence, of their
institutions.” Column by Richard Reeve (Universal Press Syndicate) in The News and Observer, 26 June 2004.
Nemesis: The
Last Days of the American Republic. Chalmers Johnson. New York: Henry
Holt and Co., 2006. CIA
analyst, distinguished scholar, and best-selling author Chalmers Johnson
argues that US military and economic overreach may lead to the nation's
collapse as a constitutional republic. This is the last volume in his
Blowback trilogy.
Overthrow:
America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Stephen
Kinzer. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Times Books, 2006. Through
coups, invasions, revolutions, and other means, the US has overthrown
fourteen governments during the last 110 years.
A Power
Governments Cannot Suppress. Howard Zinn. San Francisco: City Lights
Books, 2007. A Collection of 36 previously published essays. Zinn holds
that “People who have no respect for human life, freedom or justice have
taken it over” but that “At certain points in history governments find
that all their power is futile against the power of an aroused citizenry.
Palestine Peace
Not Apartheid. Jimmy Carter. NY: Simon & Schuster, 2006. After
long personal and governmental experience and knowledge of the issues and
people involved in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, Former U.S. President
Jimmy Carter has watched his hope for a two-state solution get lost in
oppression of the Palestinians, with settlements built on Palestinian land
and increasing creation of isolated Bantustans, surrounded by a high wall,
also built on Palestinian land. Carter believes there is still a blueprint
for peace and justice but that the US must be in the forefront of efforts
to achieve it. He accuses Israel of creating an apartheid system in the
West Bank and Gaza. He notes, “I condemn acts of terrorism or violence
against innocent civilians, and I present information about the casualties
on both sides. The ultimate purpose of my book is to present facts about
the Middle East that are largely unknown in America, to precipitate
discussion and help restart peace talks (now absent for six years) that
can lead to permanent peace for Israel and its neighbours.” (Jimmy
Carter in The Guardian, December
12, 2006.
Peeping through
the Bushes. Ed Flattau. Philadelphia: Xlibris Corporation, 2004.
Flattau shows how, under claims of “balance” and “sound science”
this administration has undone almost every aspect of our nation’s
environmental progress.
Plan B:2 Rescuing
a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble. Lester. R. Brown.
New York: Norton, 2003. Brown spells out the changes in politics, economy,
and life style that he thinks will be needed for sustainability, health
and survival.
Rescuing Science from Politics: Regulation and the D istortion of Scientific Research. Wendy Wagner and Rena Steigner. Cambridge University Press, 2006. "instant road map for oversight and legislative reforms that would rescue science from the Bush administration's political black hole" from review by Robert Schall.
September 11th
Families for Peaceful Tomorrows: Turning Our Grief into Actions for Peace.
David Potorti. New York: RDV Books/Akashik Books. Imaginative,
constructive, reconciling actions taken by families of 9/11 victims,
responding to their loss by working toward peace and reconciliation
instead of reacting to violence with more violence. *
The Great
Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century. Paul Krugman. New York: Norton, 2005. The author is a NY
Times columnist and professor of economics at Princeton University.
This book reprints many of his 2000–2004 columns, incisive and
accessible analyses of our economy, the attempts to privatize Social
Security and more.
The Last
Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror.
David Orr. Washington, DC: Island Press, 2004. Orr believes that
the most important discovery of our age is awareness of our
interconnectedness. We must use this knowledge to focus our efforts on the
public good.
The Problem of
the Media: U.S. Communication Politics in the 21st Century. Robert
W. McChesney. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2004. An analysis of current
media policies and practices, with an account of the 2003 de-regulation
campaign. Suggests ways citizens can intervene to improve the system.
The Sorrows of
Empire: Militarism, Secrecy and the End of the Republic. Chalmers Johnson. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004. Johnson
maintains that the US has achieved a “new form of global imperial
rule.” He “fears that this military empire will corrode democracy,
bankrupt the nation, spark opposition, and ultimately end in collapse.”
Review by G. John Ikenberry in Foreign
Affairs, March-April 2004.
War Is a Force
That Gives Us Meaning. Chris Hedges. New York: Public Affairs Press,
2002. An anti-war resource. The author posits that although war is
sometimes considered “great” because it unifies people for a
“greater good,” it results in suspension of thought and reduces
people’s humanity to “them” and “us.”
What’s the
Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. Thomas
Frank. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004. Why “ordinary”
working-class Americans are attracted to conservative candidates despite
what would seem to be their economic self-interest. A best seller.
Target Iran:
the truth about the White House’s plans for regime change. Scott
Ritter. New York: Nation Books, 2006. Ritter, a former United Nations
weapons inspector, has set his sights on the White House's hyping of
Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program. In Target
Iran, he once again sets the record straight.
