Recommend (some) books...

[ColbertWatcher]

...for someone wanting to learn about politics... (EDITED to change subject)

My favorites, in no particular order:

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Shock-Doctrine/Naomi-Klein/e/9780805079838/?itm=1">Shock Doctrine by Naomi Kline
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Guns-of-August/Barbara-Tuchman/e/9780345386236/?itm=1">Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/A-Peoples-History-of-the-United-States/Howard-Zinn/e/9780060838652/?itm=1">The People's History of the United States Howard Zinn
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Heat-Wave/Eric-Klinenberg/e/9780226443225/?itm=2">Heat Wave by Eric Klinenberg
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Great-Depression/Robert-S-McElvaine/e/9780812923278/?itm=9">The Great Depression by Robert S. McElvaine
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Nickel-and-Dimed/Barbara-Ehrenreich/e/9780805063899/?itm=1">Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Rachel-Carson/Linda-J-Lear/e/9780805034288/?itm=3">Rachel Carson:Witness for Nature by Linda Lear
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Obedience-to-Authority/Stanley-Milgram/e/9780060737283/?itm=1">Obedience To Authority by Stanley Milgram
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Spanish-Civil-War/Antony-Beevor/e/9780141001487/?itm=28">The Spanish Civil War by Antony Beevor
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/W-E-B-Du-Bois/W-E-B-Du-Bois/e/9780805032642/?itm=5">W.E.B. DuBois Reader edited by David Levering Lewis

[unhappycamper]

1. Legacy of Ashes, by Tim Weiner

[taterguy]

2. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972

IF Stone's multi-volume Non-Conformist History of the United States
Paul Wellstone's memoir
Lester Bang's Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung
Asphalt Nation
The Flounder by Gunther Grass
David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest
Molly Ivins Can't Say That Can She?

Other titles to be named later after I think about it more

[EV_Ares]

3. U might want to add Jim Webb's new book "Time to Fight" to that list, eom.

[ColbertWatcher]

4. I haven't read it, but it can be added due to your rec. n/t

[FSogol]

5. "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis n/t

[fed-up]

11. An elderly gentleman recently told that was required reading when he was in HS-1st published 1935

I found a copy in my collection and just started reading it.

[FSogol]

13. It still should be. President Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip is Bush. n/t

[unapatriciated]

6. Here is a good book about America...

[ColbertWatcher]

7. I think he's on to a new one...

[blondeatlast]

8. "Blinded by the Right" and "The Republican Noise Machine" by David Brock

(I kinna think you've read at least the second one, though). :hi:

[ColbertWatcher]

9. Actually I haven't, but...

...now I will have to add it to my ever-increasing pile of books to read!

[blondeatlast]

16. I only say that because you already grasp how the media distorts

and manipulates--I would have sworn you'd at least have read "Noise."

Both are good reads besides being eye-opening.

[ColbertWatcher]

22. This list isn't necessarily for me alone...

...it's kind of a way for everyone to discuss books and to make a comprehensive list for people I may meet later!

[hatrack]

10. "Who Will Tell The People?" - William Greider; "No Logo" - Naomi Klein . . .

"The Prince" - Niccolo Machiavelli
"The Twilight Of American Culture" - Morris Berman
"Divided Planet - The Ecology Of Rich And Poor" - Tom Athanasiou

[YankeyMCC]

12. Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory by David W. Blight

on edit: didn't see People's History in your list when I first looked.

[ColbertWatcher]

23. No need to edit it out...

...if we both recommend it, all the better!

[fed-up]

14. "History of Standard Oil"-Tarbell, "Seven Sisters" Sampson, "Oil" Sinclair, "Oil, Land and Politics"

"The History of The Standard Oil Company" - Two Volume Set-Ida Tarbell-1904
(note be sure to get the older original version, not the brief newer edition)-an excellent if not horrifying read-Rockefeller perfected techniques of Big Brother to gain control of Oil Industry

from the preface
http://www.history.rochester.edu/fuels/tarbell/PREFACE.HTM


This work is the outgrowth of an effort on the part of the editors of McClure's Magazine to deal concretely in their pages with the trust question. In order that their readers might have a clear and succinct notion of the processes by which a particular industry passes from the control of the many to that of the few, they decided a few years ago to publish a detailed narrative of the history of the growth of a particular trust. The Standard Oil Trust was chosen for obvious reasons. It was the first in the field, and it has furnished the methods, the charter, and the traditions for its followers. It is the most perfectly developed trust in existence; that is, it satisfies most nearly the trust ideal of entire control of the commodity in which it deals. Its vast profits have led its officers into various allied interests, such as railroads, shipping, gas, copper, iron, steel, as well as into banks and trust companies, and to the acquiring and solidifying of these interests it has applied the methods used in building up the Oil Trust. It has led in the struggle against legislation directed against combinations. Its power in state and Federal government, in the press, in the college, in the pulpit, is generally recognised. The perfection of the organisation of the Standard, the ability and daring with which it has carried out its projects, make it the pre-eminent trust of the world-the one whose story is best fitted to illuminate the subject of combinations of capital.

..snip

"The Seven Sisters: the Great Oil Companies & the World They Shaped" by Anthony Sampson-1975



"Oil" by Upton Sinclair-1927-great read, below is not my review, is snagged off addall

Sinclair"s 1927 novel did for California"s oil industry what "The Jungle" did for Chicago"s meat-packing factories. In "Oil!" Upton Sinclair fashioned a novel out of the oil scandals of the Harding administration, providing in the process a detailed picture of the development of the oil industry in Southern California. Bribery of public officials, class warfare, and international rivalry over oil production are the context for Sinclair"s story of a genial independent oil developer and his son, whose sympathy with the oilfield workers and socialist organizers fuels a running debate with his father. Senators, small investors, oil magnates, a Hollywood film star, and a crusading evangelist people the pages of this lively novel


and
" Oil, Land and Politics: the California Career of Thomas Robert Bard" by W.H. Hutchinson-haven't read this one yet

Bard was born in Pennsylvania in 1841 to wealthy and religious parents. His father was a successful attorney and Bard was trained in law, business and surveying. During the Civil War he was a railroader. Along with a cousin and family friend he decided to go to California to make his fortune in 1865. He was convinced that land and oil were the future of the country. He drilled and tunneled for oil in the Ojai area for years, meeting moderate but erratic success. Finally in 1890 he got together with a successful oil man from Pennsylvania, Lyman Stewart, and through very complex maneuverings merged his several companies into a new entity called Union Oil of California. Much early oil history is related as Union Cal took off to become a major oil company. Bard brought in California"s first gusher and he became a critical factor in helping a develop its oil industry. He had a bitter feud with Stewart and left Union Cal with a considerable fortune in 1900. He later participated actively in state and national politics where he consistently broke new ground

[alfredo]

15. "Conservatives Without Conscience" By John Dean. Probes the mind

of the Authoritarians. It also shows why the an overwhelming majority of authoritarians are right wing.

[ColbertWatcher]

24. I have read this one. Thank you for reminding me! n/t

[alfredo]

27. It's very good.

[Uncle Joe]

17. I would recommend "The Assault on Reason"

by Al Gore.

Thanks for the list, ColbertWatcher.

[ColbertWatcher]

25. You're welcome.

I have not read Assault, but will add it to the pile!

[otherlander]

18. On Liberty

by John Stuart Mill

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Our Word is Our Weapon by Subcommandante Marcos

[Fireweed247]

19. Democratic Underground

I know it is not a book, but the internet is the way to be informed these days. By the time a book is printed it is outdated. We need to pay attention to immediate current events and shout loudly! We are the revolution and are shaping politics today.

[ColbertWatcher]

26. Being "outdated" is not a bad thing necessarily...

...technically all history is "outdated".

[Time for change]

20. Here's some that I wrote about recently

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2575335

[ColbertWatcher]

29. (for reference) Time for change's list...

http://books.google.com/books?id=Dl5l2G8_gwkC&dq=&pg=PP1&ots=O2turpguVg&sig=_VLxLqQ26s40JTHCFwp23oICdl8&prev=http://www.google.com/search%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3D%2522the%2Bbush%2Bagenda%2522%2Bjuhasz%26btnG%3DGoogle%2BSearch&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title">The Bush Agenda: Invading the World One Economy at a Time by Antonia Juhasz

Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond

The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman

Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program by Stephen Grey

House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power by James Carroll

Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic by Chalmers Johnson

Overthrow: America’s History of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq by Stephen Kinzer

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein

http://tour.democracynow.org/">Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back by Amy Goodman and David Goodman

Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy by Charlie Savage

All links from Time for Change's original thread.

Thank you for posting.

[DRK]

21. "Military Intelligence And You"

It's not a book, but a funny satire....shameless plug for my indie film...now on DVD. A faux training film that mashes up real WWII training films (William Holden, Alan Ladd, Ronald Reagan) with new scenes.

DRK

[ColbertWatcher]

30. LOL! Very funny!

Well done!

[T Monk]

28. Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which is also a warning

[ColbertWatcher]

31. I have a warning book in my list too (Spanish Civil War) n/t

[Fleshdancer]

32. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

and Blinded by the Right by David Brock (couldn't finish because I kept throwing the book at the wall...plan to read it again once Bush is out)