Palos Verdes Peninsula Democrats Book Page
Book Link Categories on This Page:
(Note: The Palos Verdes Peninsula Democratic Club provides the following links for reference and research only, and is not responsible for the content of any of the following books, nor does its membership necessarily agree with all points of view or facts presented therein.)
(click on selection or scroll down) (yellow asterisk * = see new listing):
* Books - Centrist & "Left"
* Books - Extremist & "Right"
Books - Centrist & "Left":Note: the following books are compiled from various "left" and "centrist" book suggestion sources.
Remember that you can order a book via Interlibrary Loan if they don't have it at your own library!
(**** are Club Member Recommended books.)
PVP Democratic Club Members: If you have read any of the following and would like to recommend it, please let the club know. Alternatively, if you do NOT recommend reading a book, let the club know why and a brief note within the following list will be included so fellow club members can read your comment.)
"The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States"
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks (July, 2004)
Amazon rating "4-1/2" - Book Description from Amazon: "... A chilling and valuable piece of nonfiction: a comprehensive and alarming look at one of the biggest intelligence failures in history and the events that led up to it.... Credit must be given to how readable the report is...."
"Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror"
Richard A. Clarke (March, 2004) Amazon rating "4"
Book Description from Amazon: "... Clarke, a veteran Washington insider who had advised presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, dissects each man's approach to terrorism but levels the harshest criticism at the latter Bush and his advisors who, Clarke asserts, failed to take terrorism and Al-Qaeda seriously. Clarke details how, in light of mounting intelligence of the danger Al-Qaeda presented, his urgent requests to move terrorism up the list of priorities in the early days of the administration were met with apathy and procrastination and how, after the attacks took place, Bush and key figures such as Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and Dick Cheney turned their attention almost immediately to Iraq, a nation not involved in the attacks...."
"American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush -- by Kevin Phillips"
by Kevin Phillips (a former Republican strategist per Amazon).
According to an Amazon.com review: "Citing the Bush family mainstays of finance, energy (oil), the military industrial complex, and national security and intelligence (the CIA), Phillips uses copious examples to show the dangerous alliance between the Bushes' business interests (huge corporations such as Enron and Haliburton) and the formation of national policy...."
"It is hard to tell what offends Phillips the most: the Bushes' systematic deceit and secrecy, their shady business dealings, their cronyism, or their family philosophy that privileges the very wealthy and utterly dismisses all the rest. It is clearly all of these things combined." more...
Anatomy of a Scandal: An Investigation into the Campaign to Undermine the Clinton Presidency"
James D. Retter (May 1998) Amazon rating "4"
"...And the Horse He Rode On: The People v. Kenneth Starr"
James Carville (out of stock at Amazon - huh!!) Amazon rating "4"
"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters"
Greg Palast (paperback - Feb. 2003) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"The Betrayal of Work: How Low-Wage Jobs Fail 30 Million Americans and Their Families"
by Beth Shulman - Amazon rating "4"
Discusses the elimination of the Middle Class by Corporate America.
Publishers Weekly review states: "One out of four U.S. workers earns less than $8.70 an hour. So begins Shulman's fact-filled look at the lives of America's working poor, and their struggles to survive without adequate health benefits, child care and job security."
"The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President"
Vincent Bugliosi, et. al. (paperback - May 2001) Amazon rating "3-1/2"
"Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth"
Joe Conason (Sept. 2003 - should be 2002?) Amazon rating "5 (max)"
"Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative"
David Brock (March 2002) Amazib rating "4"
"The Book on Bush: How George W. Bush (Mis)Leads America"
Eric Alterman and Mark Green - Amazon rating "4"
"The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder"
Mark Crispin Miller (out of stock at Amazon - huh!!) Amazon rating "4"
**** "Bushwhacked"
Molly Ivins (coming Sept. 2003 - so far, advance bits and pieces look great!)
"Changing the Powers That Be: How the Left Can Stop Losing and Win"
G. William Domhoff (Feb. 2003) Amazon rating "5 (max)"
**** "The Conscience of a Liberal: Reclaiming the Compassionate Agenda"
Paul David Wellstone (May 2001) Amazon rating "4"
"Corporate Nation: How Corporations Are Taking Over Our Lives and What We Can Do About It"
Charles Derber, et. al. (paperback Apr. 2000) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy"
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (August, 2004) Amazon rating "4"
Book Desciption at Amazon: "In this powerful and far-reaching indictment of George W. Bush's White House, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the country's most prominent environmental attorney, charges that this administration has taken corporate cronyism to such unprecedented heights that it now threatens our health, our national security, and democracy as we know it. In a headlong pursuit of private profit and personal power, Kennedy writes, George Bush and his administration have eviscerated the laws that have protected our nation's air,water, public lands, and wildlife for the past thirty years, enriching the president's political contributors while lowering the quality of life for the rest of us.
Kennedy lifts the veil on how the administration has orchestrated these rollbacks almost entirely outside of public scrutiny -- and in tandem with the very industries that our laws are meant to regulate, the country's most notorious polluters. He writes of how it has deceived the public by manipulating and suppressing scientific data, intimidated enforcement officials and other civil servants, and masked its agenda with Orwellian doublespeak. He reports on how the White House doles out lavish subsidies and tax breaks to the energy barons while excusing industry from providing adequate security at the more than 15,000 chemical and nuclear facilities that are prime targets for terrorist attacks. Kennedy reveals an administration whose policies have 'squandered our Treasury, entangled us in foreign wars, diminished our international prestige, made us a target for terrorist attacks, and increased our reliance on petty Middle Eastern dictators who despise democracy and are hated by their own people.'"
"The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things"
Barry Glassner (paperback - May 2000) Amazon rating "4"
"Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion"
Gary Webb (paperback June 1998) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"Dead Heat: Globalization and Global Warming"
Tom Athanasiou, Paul Baer (paperback) Amazon rating "5"
"Distorted Morality: America's War on Terror"
Noam Chomsky - Amazon rating "4"
"The Dirty Truth, The Oil and Chemical Dependency of George W. Bush"
Rick Abraham (paperback) Amazon rating "3-1/2"
**** "Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta"
Gore Vidal (paperback Dec 2002)
"Dude, Where's My Country?"
Michael Moore (Oct. 2003) Amazon rating "3-1/2"
Book Description from Amazon: "The people of the United States, according to author and filmmaker Michael Moore ... have been hoodwinked. Tricked, he says, by Republican lawmakers and their wealthy corporate pals who use a combination of concocted bogeymen and lies to stay rich and in control. But while plenty of liberal scholars, entertainers, and pundits have made similar arguments in book form, Moore's 'Dude, Where's My Country?' stands out for its thoroughly positive perspective...."
"Fear's Empire: War, Terrorism, and Democracy"
Benjamin R. Barber (September, 2003) Amazon rating "4"
[webmaster comment: I heard him on a talk show & he was outstanding! He's a professor at the U. of Michigan or Maryland(?).]
Book description by John Moe of Amazon: "... America asserting itself by preemptively waging war is both wrongheaded and dangerous, according to Benjamin R. Barber. In Fear's Empire, he suggests that unilateral military action perpetuates an image of America as an aggressive force that operates outside the accepted precepts of international law and policy. This could lead to less support from other countries in fighting a shadowy enemy and, because it perpetuates the image of America as self-righteous aggressor, could lead to generations of increased terrorism while contributing to a bunker mentality of fear back at home. But Barber does more than say what's wrong; he offers a detailed plan for a more conscientious foreign policy alternative. He draws a distinction between Pax Americana the strategy of preventive war which the United States used in Afghanistan and Iraq and Lex Humana or "preventive democracy," a strategy in which democracy is developed as a means of establishing a lasting peace around the world by encouraging a practical self-determination.
Barber draws important distinctions: simply demanding that other countries adopt America's laws and processes will not work and exporting America's consumer driven economic lifestyle would be nothing short of disastrous. But by extending the notion of the social contract to the world, helping countries establish their own democratic societies, and using democracy as a model for nations to work together, Barber argues, peace could be established and fear's empire finally defeated. Barber's writing is intellectual without being pedantic and passionate without being unnecessarily shrill or partisan. Such an approach is welcome in a political climate where the loudest shouters tend to get the most notice."
"The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq"
by Christopher Scheer, Lakshmi Chaudhry, Robert Scheer
(January, 2004) Amazon rating "3-1/2"
Book description on Amazon: "... the first book to hold the president and his team accountable for the government's campaign of disinformation leading up to the war in Iraq.... [the] coauthors ... have aggregated the hard questions that the purported leadership of the U.S. must answer."
Publishers Weekly Description on Amazon: "Setting out to prove that "every major assertion that our government put forward to justify the conquest of Iraq has proved false, this broadside (more akin to a long article than a short book) reviews the evidence (or lack thereof) for linking Iraq to al-Qaida and 9/11, and reveals what the authors say is the inflation of Iraq's weapons capabilities and the erroneous assumptions about how long the war would take." (Description Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Talibon Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden"
Jean-Charles Brisard, et. al. (paperback) Amazon rating "3"
"Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President"
J. H. Hatfield, et. al. (Dec. 2002) Amazon rating "4"
[Webmaster Note: The following quote was by one of the list submitters in Amazon's "listmania" and has NOT been verified as accurate.]
"Author received threats on his and his family's lives if he published this book - was found dead of an apparent suicide shortly after it was published."
"The Fourth Power: A Grand Strategy for the United States in the Twenty-First Century"
Gary Hart (July, 2004) Not yet rated on Amazon
Book Description from Amazon: "Gary Hart outlines a new grand strategy, one directing America's powers to the achievement of its large purposes. Central to this strategy is the power of American ideals, what Hart calls 'the fourth power.' Constitutional liberties, representative government, press freedom - these and other democratic principles, attractive to peoples worldwide, constitute a resource that may prove as important to national security and the national interest in this dangerous new century as traditional military, economic and political might....
Writes Hart: 'The idea that government exists to protect, not oppress, the individual has an enormous power not fully understood by most Americans who take this principle for granted from birth. Far more nations will follow us because of the power of this ideal than the might of all our weapons.'...."
"Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America"
[Webmaster Note: Is this a left or right-oriented book????]
Bertram Myron Gross (paperback June 1998) Amazon rating "5 (max)"
"Frontier Justice: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Bushwhacking of America"
Scott Ritter (paperback July 2003) Amazon rating "4"
"The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad"
Fareed Zakaria (editor of Newsweek International and former managing editor of Foreign Affairs) (April, 2004) Amazon rating "4"
[Webmaster's note: I'm not sure if this is liberal, centrist, or right in orientation, but it does look like a thought-provoking book, and with a bit of a "Middle Eastern" viewpoint.]
Book description on Amazon by Publishers Weekly: "Democracy is not inherently good.... It works in some situations and not others, and needs strong limits to function properly.... beginning with the reminder that in 1933 Germans elected the Nazis. While most Western governments are both democratic and liberal-i.e., characterized by the rule of law, a separation of powers, and the protection of basic rights-the two don't necessarily go hand in hand...."
"Gas War: The Truth Behind the American Occupation of Afghanistan"
Ted Rall (paperback - Dec. 2002) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century"
Paul Krugman, writer for New York Times (August 2004)
Amazon rating "4" - Book Description by Amazon: "... a chronicle of how "the heady optimism of the late 1990s gave way to renewed gloom as a result of 'incredibly bad leadership, in the private sector and in the corridors of power.' Offering his own take on the trickle-down theory, economist and columnist Paul Krugman lays much of the blame for a slew of problems on the Bush administration, which he views as a 'revolutionary power...a movement whose leaders do not accept the legitimacy of our current political system.' Declaring them radicals masquerading as moderates, he questions their motives on a range of issues, particularly their tax and Social Security plans, which he argues are 'obviously, blatantly based on bogus arithmetic'.... He also rails against the news media for displaying a disturbing lack of skepticism and for failing to do even the most basic homework when reporting on business and economic issues. The book is mainly a collection of op-ed pieces Krugman wrote for The New York Times between 2000 and 2003."
"Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance (The American Empire Project)"
Noam Chomsky (November, 2003) Amazon rating "4"
[Webmaster comment: is this book Centrist or Right??]
Book Description by Amazon: " ... In this richly detailed criticism of American foreign policy, he seeks to redefine many of the terms commonly used in the ongoing American war on terrorism. Surveying U.S. actions in Cuba, Nicaragua, Turkey, the Far East and elsewhere over the past half a century along with the modern American war in Iraq, Chomsky indicates that America is just as much a terrorist state as any other government or rogue organization. George W. Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq drew worldwide criticism, in part because it seemed to present a new philosophy of pre-emptive war and an appearance of global empire building. But according to Chomsky, such has been the operating philosophy of American foreign policy for decades...."
"High and Mighty: SUV's -- The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way"
Keith Bradsher (Sept. 2002) Amazon rating "3-1/2"
"How Much Are You Making on the War Daddy? A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush Administration"
William D. Hartung
"The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton"
Joe Conason, Gene Lyons (Feb. 2000) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"The Immaculate Deception: The Bush Crime Family Exposed"
Russell S. Bowen (May 2001) Amazon rating "4"
"Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror"
by "Anonymous" (July 2004) Amazon rating "4"
[apparently a rather mixed viewpoint, hawkish but also critical of Bush's actions.] Book Description from Amazon: "We are, the author notes, losing the war on terror. Hawks will squirm as the author heaps contempt on U.S. missions in Afghanistan (too little, too late) and Iraq ("a sham causing more instability than it prevents"), but opponents of Bush administration policies may blanch at Anonymous' suggestion that what's needed is for the West to 'proceed with relentless, brutal, and, yes, blood-soaked offensive military actions until we have annihilated the Islamists who threaten us....' Quoting the at-all-cost likes of William Tecumseh Sherman and Curtis Lemay on one hand and contending that unrelenting military measures be accompanied by concessions to the ideology of the militants on the other are unlikely to curry widespread support from either side of the divide...."
"Infectious Greed: How Deceit and Risk Corrupted the Financial Markets"
Frank Partnoy - Amazon rating "5 (max)"
**** "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"
Al Franken (Aug. 2003)
"Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism Are Reshaping the World"
Benjamin R. Barber, Andrea Schulz (August, 1996!) Amazon rating "3"
[webmaster note: At least someone was worried about religious zealots before 9/11!]
Book description on Amazon: "... there are two great opposing forces at work in the world today, border-crossing capitalism and splintering factionalism... they are the two biggest threats to democracy.... Although capitalism could have only grown to current levels in the soil of democracies, Benjamin Barber argues that global capitalism now tends to work against the very concept of citizenship, of people thinking for themselves and with their neighbors. Too often now, how we think is the product of a transnational corporation (increasingly, a media corporation) with headquarters elsewhere. And although self-determination is one of the most fundamental of democratic principles, unchecked it has lead to a tribalism (think Bosnia, think Rwanda) in which virtually no one besides the local power elite gets a fair shake. The antidote, Barber concludes, is to work everywhere to resuscitate the non-governmental, non-business spaces in life--he calls them "civic spaces" (such as the village green, voluntary associations of every sort, churches, community schools)--where true citizenship thrives."
"The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception"
David Corn
"Living History"
Hillary Clinton (June 2003) Amazon rating "3" (includes Republican readers) "The Mafia, CIA, can George Bush [Sr.]"
Pete Brewton (Dec. 1992) Amazon rating "4"
"Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency"
Senator Robert C. Byrd (July, 2004) Amazon rating "3-1/2" so far"
Book Description by John Moe at Amazon: "... the veteran Democrat offers scathing criticism of Bush, whom he sees as undeserving of the office, unfit to lead, 'callow and reckless,' and 'incredibly dangerous.' Besides criticizing the much-discussed rise of the neoconservative philosophy, Byrd bemoans what he sees as the erosion of constitutionally mandated separation of powers.... he uses well-reasoned legal and historical arguments to illustrate his concerns.... and though a certain level of decorum is generally practiced among governmental figures, the level of vitriol in his criticisms indicates that Byrd must either be confident he'll never need to be on Bush's good side or is simply too furious to care.... Byrd is also a bit long-winded in making his points, often launching into lengthy historical anecdotes as a means of comparing and contrasting Bush to his predecessors. But his thoughts are not snarky op-eds from a pundit; they are well earned, compellingly expressed, and come from a politician much more experienced than most."
"Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media"
Edward S. Herman, Noam Chomsky (paperback - Jan. 2002) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"Moyers on America: A Journalist and His Times"
Bill Moyers (May 2004) Amazon rating "4"
According to a reader review, Moyer states, "The soul of democracy has been dying, drowning in a rising tide of big money contributed by a narrow, unrepresentative elite that has betrayed the faith of citizens ... where a relatively small handful of the rich decide, with their money, who will run, who will win, and how they will govern."
Book Description at Amazon: "[The book describes] Bill Moyers's vision for America in this crucial election year. 'Our nation can no more survive as half democracy and half oligarchy than it could survive "half slave and half free."'—from Moyers on America.... Drawing from this practical experience, he [Moyer] demonstrates a unique understanding of how American politics works and an enduring faith in the nation's promises and possibilities. Whether reflecting on today's climate of megamedia concentration, rampant corporate scandals, or religious and political upheavals, Moyers on America recovers the hopes of the past to establish their relevance for the present."
"One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy"
Thomas Frank (Sept. 2001) Amazon rating "3-1/2"
Book Description from Amazon: "After nearly a decade of bull markets, Americans have come to equate free markets with democracy.... social critic Thomas Frank ... challenges this myth. With his acerbic wit and contempt for sophistry, he declares the New Economy a fraud. Frank scours business literature, management theory, and marketing and advertising to expose the elaborate fantasies that have inoculated business against opposition. This public relations campaign joins an almost mystical belief in markets, a contempt for government in any form, and an "ecstatic" confusion of markets with democracy. Frank traces the roots of this movement from the 1920s, and sees its culmination in market populism as a fusion of the rebellious '60s with the greedy '80s.... suddenly Wall Street is no longer full of stodgy moneygrubbers, but cool entrepreneurs.... Meanwhile, 'Americans traded their long tradition of electoral democracy for the democracy of the supermarket, where all brands are created equal and endowed by their creators with all sorts of extremeness and diversity....' Frank's close reading of the salesmen of market populism nails ... financial gurus.... Their writings, he contends, have served to make "the world safe for billionaires" by winning the cultural and political battle--legitimizing the corporate culture and its demands for privatization, deregulation, and non-interference.... his boisterous reminder that markets are fundamentally not democracies is worth repeating as the level of wealth polarization in America reaches heights not seen since the 1920s."
"A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present"
(author TBA)
"Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich - and Cheat Everybody Else"
David Cay Johnston (Dec. 2003) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
Book about unfairness in our tax system. (On Amazon search under "David Cay Johnston")
Book Description from Amazon: "One of the country's top investigative reporters reveals how the richest people within the top 1 percent of the country has rigged the tax code and other laws in its favor." more...
"Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace"
Gore Vidal - Amazon rating "4"
"Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America"
Arianna Huffington (Progressive Independent) (paperback Jan. 2003) Amazon rating "4"
"Plan of Attack"
Bob Woodward (April, 2004) Amazon rating "4"
Book Description from Amazon: "... As Bob Woodward reveals in Plan of Attack, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were part of a group leading the charge to war while Secretary of State Colin Powell, General Tommy Franks, and others actively questioned the plan to invade a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks while war in Afghanistan was still being waged.... It shows alarming problems in the way the war was conceived and planned, but it also demonstrates the tremendous conviction and dedication of the people who decided to carry it out."
Book Description from Publishers Weekly: "... Based on exhaustive research and ... more than 75 interviews with administration officials, veteran Washington Post assistant managing editor Woodward delivers an engrossing blow-by-blow of the run-up to war in Iraq...."
"The Politics of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity: A Diplomat's Memoir"
Joseph Wilson (April, 2004) Amazon rating "3-1/2"
Review by Joe Moe at Amazon: ".... A career diplomat, he found himself working for an administration that apparently leaked information revealing his wife, Valerie Plame, to be a CIA operative soon after Wilson cast doubt on Bush's claims of Iraq trying to buy uranium from Niger.... there was widespread speculation about who leaked the information. In The Politics of Truth, Wilson points a finger at Dick Cheney’s chief-of-staff I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby and national security aide Eliot Abrams although Wilson never really presents smoking gun evidence against them.... Wilson's account, personal and well written, maps out the human impact of the situation.... Wilson's animus toward the administration is made stronger by his support of the president in the 2000 election and he held out hope that a centrist conservative approach would help America's position in the world. That scenario withered, in Wilson's mind, when the plan to invade Iraq became increasingly inevitable and, like many traditional conservatives, Wilson mourns the rise of the ideological "neo-conservatives" who shaped foreign policy."
"Power Failure: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron"
Mimi Schwartz, Sherron Watkins (Mar. 2003) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill"
Ron Suskind (January, 2004) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
Book Description from Amazon: "... The George W. Bush White House, as described by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, is a world out of kilter. Policy decisions are determined not by careful weighing of an issue's complexities; rather, they're dictated by a cabal of ideologues and political advisors operating outside the view of top cabinet officials. The President is not a fully engaged administrator but an enigma who is, at best, guarded and poker-faced but at worst, uncurious, unintelligent, and a puppet of larger forces. O'Neill provided extensive documentation to journalist and author Suskind...."
"Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment"
James Gustave Speth (Feb., 2004) Amazon rating "5" (maximum!)
Publishers Weekly Description on Amazon: "Speth, dean of the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, sounds the alarm on the seriousness of the global environmental crisis. Although he contends that it is not too late to avert disaster, he stresses that we are running out of time and that we can't afford to let current trends continue.... overall, he argues that little has been accomplished by a plethora of international conferences, negotiations, action plans and treaties. The failure, for which he says the U.S. must take much of the blame, stems from a focus on the symptoms rather than on the underlying causes of environmental degradation...."
From the Back Cover per Amazon: " 'Gus Speth brought global environmental concerns to the world's attention nearly a quarter of a century ago. His extraordinary new book is an impassioned plea to take these issues seriously before it is too late. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to read Red Sky at Morning and take action while we can.'-Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States; 'A wide-ranging, powerful argument. This book has enormous credibility-it's the firsthand report of the American who's been closest to the front lines at one negotiation after another.'-Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature."
Amazon's Book Description: ".... Setting forth eight specific steps to a sustainable future, Speth convincingly argues that dramatically different government and citizen action are now urgent. If ever a book could be described as 'essential,' this is it."
Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet
Jim Mann, James Mann (March, 2004) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
Book Description by Shawn Carkonen of Amazon: "While campaigning for president in 2000, George W. Bush downplayed his lack of foreign policy experience by emphasizing that he would surround himself with a highly talented and experienced group of political veterans. This core group, consisting of Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Armitage, and Condoleezza Rice, has a long history together dating back 30 years in some cases. Dubbing themselves the Vulcans, they have largely determined the direction and focus of the Bush presidency. In this remarkably researched and fascinating book, Mann traces their careers and the development of their ideas in order to understand how and why American foreign policy got to where it is today.... Whether they came from the armed services, academia, or government bureaucracy, the Vulcans all viewed the Pentagon as the principal institution from which American power should emanate."
"Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions"
Clyde Pretowitz (May 2003) Amazon rating "5 (max)"
"Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations"
Al Franken
**** "Silencing Political Dissent: How Post-September 11 Anti-Terrorism Measures Threaten Our Civil Liberties"
Nancy Chang (paperback) Amazon rating "5"
"Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress"
Carl Pope (Executive Director of the Sierra Club) & Paul Rauber (Sierra magazine editor) (Hardcover, Sierra Book Clubs, April, 2004) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
Book Description from Publishers Weekly on Amazon: "Americans ought to be madder than they are about the Bush administration's environmental deceit.... That citizens aren't appalled and outraged in greater measure, they write, is thanks to what they cast as the slick rhetoric, obfuscated facts, deliberate disinformation and Orwellian way with words of Bush and his pro-growth cohorts (a Clean Air Act that adds to pollution, a Healthy Forest Initiative that encourages both more logging and more forest fires).... Bush and his environment-unfriendly cabinet (Interior, Energy, Agriculture and EPA, in particular but not exclusively) have stripped 235 million wilderness acres of protection from logging and mining interests; funneled billions of dollars in subsidies to giant agribusinesses; rewritten scientific reports to excise unwelcome findings on global warming; defunded Superfund cleanup of hundreds of toxic waste dumps; given near carte blanche to polluting industries to self-regulate; and even lied about the quality of Manhattan's air in the days after September 11. But the real energy of the book comes from its accumulation of small facts to paint the picture-of obsessive secrecy, crony capitalism and (or so the authors claim) the administration's conscious, unabashed commitment to the economic exploitation of the air America breathes, the water it drinks and the earth it walks on." (Review: "Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.")
"The Sorrows of Empire : Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic [The American Empire Project]"
Chalmers Johnson (January, 2004) Amazon rating "4"
Book Description from Shawn Carkonen at Amazon: "Since September 2001, the United States has 'undergone a transformation from republic to empire that may well prove irreversible,' writes Chalmers Johnson. Unlike past global powers, however, America has built an empire of bases rather than colonies, creating in the process a government that is obsessed with maintaining absolute military dominance over the world, Johnson claims. The Department of Defense currently lists 725 official U.S. military bases outside of the country and 969 within the 50 states (not to mention numerous secret bases). According to the author, these bases are proof that the 'United States prefers to deal with other nations through the use or threat of force rather than negotiations, commerce, or cultural interaction.' This rise of American militarism, along with the corresponding layers of bureaucracy and secrecy that are created to circumvent scrutiny, signals a shift in power from the populace to the Pentagon.... Johnson discusses .... the close ties between arms industry executives and high-level politicians. He also looks closely at how the military has extended the boundaries of what constitutes national security in order to centralize intelligence agencies under their control and how statesmen have been replaced by career soldiers on the front lines of foreign policy--a shift that naturally increases the frequency with which we go to war.... Johnson is a skilled and experienced historian who backs up his claims with copious research and persuasive arguments."
"Stop Bush in 2004: How Every Citizen Can Help"
Michael John Dobbins (August, 2003)
Amazon rating "3-1/2" (lots of apparent Republicans read & attacked it on principle!)
Book description on Amazon: "... Stop Bush in 2004 provides a complete overview of all aspects necessary for taking effective action. What to know prior to taking action, how to successfully organize, highlights of Bush’s record, and a full list of resources."
**** "Stupid White Men... and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!"
Michael Moore
"Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000"
Alam M. Dershowitz (paperback Oct. 2002) Amazon rating "4"
"There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yelow Stripes and Dead Armadillos: A Work of Political Subversion"
Jim Hightower (paperback Sept. 1998) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
**** "Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country - And It's Time to Take It Back"
Jim Hightower (Aug. 2003)
"Toxic Sludge Is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry"
John C. Stauber, Sheldon Rampton (paperback Oct. 1995) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"Trust Us, We're Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future"
Sheldon Rampton, John Stauber (out of print at Amazon - huh!!!) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"The War on Freedom: How and Why America Was Attacked on September 11, 2001"
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed (paperback - July 2002) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"War on Iraq"
Scott Ritter (paperback) Amazon rating "3"
"Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich"
Kevin Phillips (May 2002) Amazon rating "3-1/2"
"Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq"
Sheldon Rampton, John C. Stauber (paperback July 2003) Amazon rating "4-1/2"
"What Liberal Media? The Truth About Bias and the News"
Eric Alterman (Feb. 2003) Amazon rating "3-1/2"
"What's the Matter with Kansas? : How Conservatives Won the Heart of America"
Thomas Frank (June, 2004) Amazon rating "4"
Book Description from Amazon: "The largely blue collar citizens of Kansas can be counted upon to be a "red" state in any election, voting solidly Republican and possessing a deep animosity toward the left. This, according to author Thomas Frank, is a pretty self-defeating phenomenon, given that the policies of the Republican Party benefit the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the average worker. According to Frank, the conservative establishment has tricked Kansans, playing up the emotional touchstones of conservatism and perpetuating a sense of a vast liberal empire out to crush traditional values while barely ever discussing the Republicans' actual economic policies and what they mean to the working class. Thus the pro-life Kansas factory worker who listens to Rush Limbaugh will repeatedly vote for the party that is less likely to protect his safety, less likely to protect his job, and less likely to benefit him economically...."
Book Description from the Los Angeles Times: "A brilliant analysis—and funny to boot—What’s the Matter with Kansas? presents a critical assessment of who we are, while telling a remarkable story of how a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs came to convince a nation that they spoke on behalf of the People."
"When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Ladin: What the Government Should be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism"
Bill Maher
"Who Rules America?"
G. William Domhoff (paperback) No Amazon rating
"Who's Running America? The Bush Restoration (7th Edition)"
Thomas R. Dye (paperback) Amazon rting "4"
"The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk" [a victim of Starr]
Susan McDougal, et. al. - Amazon rating "4"
"Worse than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W.Bush"
John W. Dean (April 2004)
"You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want"
Micah Ian Wright, Howard Zinn, Kurt Vonnegut, Center for Constitutional Rights-Commentary
(40 pages of "posters")(May, 2003) Amazon rating "4"
Book description from Publishers Weekly on Amazon: "... Feeling that media coverage was blatantly pro-war.... he offers this as a (belated) warning against war on Iraq. Reworking American propaganda posters from WWI and WWII, Wright reveals his satiric take on current events: one poster reads, 'Millions of troops are on the move...All To Protect Your Oil Supply!' 'Is your SUV really worth their lives?' ... And many are messages from the Orwellian-sounding "Ministry of Homeland Security": The Statue of Liberty points to the onlooker and commands, 'You! Stop Asking Questions! You're Either With U.S. or You're With The TERRORISTS!' 40 pages of color illus."
Amazon's book description: "This volatile collection of political posters reworks classic American World War I and II propaganda into timely commentaries on war, peace, and patriotism in the post-9/11 era. These 40 one-sided posters skewer the war mentality, the Bush White House, Homeland Security, the War on Terror, John Ashcroft, the 2000 Presidential election, the military-industrial complex, and much more. Famed posters of yesteryear such as "Loose Lips Sink Ships" and Uncle Sam's "I Want You" are reinvented with new messages of peace and protest."
NOTE: "Back the Attack's images are ideal for enlarging and for use at political rallies and demonstrations."
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Books - Extremist & "Right-ish":("Know thine enemy" - be prepared to defend your position)
Note: If you just check these out from the library, you won't be paying to support these authors!
"Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy"
Robert Kagan, William Kristol (& includes essays by: "Richard N. Perle on Iraq, Elliott Abrams on the Middle East, and William J. Bennett on the importance of morality and character in foreign policy." Also includes Paul Wolfowitz, Peter Rodman, etc.)
(October 1, 2000 - written before 9/11!) Amazon "3-1/2"
Amazon customer/reviewer "a reader" of Mill Valley, Calif - "Absolutely a must-read: know your enemy! This is undoubtedly one of the most important books on US foreign policy published in recent years and should be read by anyone who cares about the future of the United States and the rest of the world. This is the manifesto of 'conservative internationalism' whose proponents, including many of the books authors, now infest the Bush administration and are his loudest ventriloquists. Here, then, is the current administration's strategic vision.
The basic argument is that the US needs to exercise world domination, here spun as 'benevolent global hegemony' and that there are a number of external obstacles which stand in the way and must be dealt with. These are Iraq, Iran, North Korea, China, the Middle East peace process and an independent Europe. In its clear and reasoned enunciation of strategy and future plans, it both rivals and surpasses the later chapters of Mein Kampf. Here is the game plan which must be read to understand where these people intend to take the world next.
If we ignore the desirability of this mission, its feasibility (the cost in money, lives and freedom) certainly merits discussion, but here the book is thin, relying on fairy story assumptions (budget surpluses!!!) and wishful thinking. The one distasteful aspect of the book is the attempt to wrap the entire endeavour in the cloak of 'American morality', understood as protecting citizen's liberties. This is breathtaking stuff from accomplices in the most extensive attempt to incinerate the Constitution in recent history.
Stripped of its ideological air cover and romantic fantasies, this is still an important, timely and lively document since this is the future course of foreign policy which the Bush administration plans to pursue.
Amazon customer/reviewer "gorgias" of Seattle - "The problem with neoconservative foreign policy is not that it is conservative and realistic but rather that it is liberal. The descriptions of problems here presented are real enough but the policies advocated in response are simply unrealistic precisely because they are imbued with a kind of moralizing and crusading liberalism that is not going to solve America's foreign policy problems but rather exacerbate them."
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