Non-fiction book recommendation thread!

[DireStrike]

This thread is for the recommendation of your favorite non-fiction books. Whether you find them insightful, informative, cutting-edge, or just plain well written, let others know about them.

Yes, I am well aware that we have a http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=209">forum for discussion of non-fiction books, but every now and then GD readers should probably be reminded of what a wonderful selection of groups and forums we have here at DU.



I will now exercise my power as thread starter to put at the top of the list two books which I've recently gotten into. These are Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business", and Douglas Rushkoff's "Coercion: Why we listen to what "they" say."

I really wish Neil Postman hadn't up and died on us a few years ago. We could use his prescient thoughts as we try to figure out how the internet affects us, and will grow to affect us. Nonetheless, "Amusing ourselves..." his analysis of our television culture, is every bit as correct as it was when he wrote it in 1985.

Regarding the internet, Douglas Rushkoff can provide a piece of the puzzle. He was the first to write on "Viral Marketing", and his book coercion is an exposé of all sorts of sleights used by salespeople, politicians, and other assorted scum. It also illustrates how common coercion is in all spheres of life, and practiced by many we would not consider scum...

Here is an excerpt from Postman's book that is frighteningly relevant to our current situation, and a http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Broadcast_Media/AmusingOurselves_Postman.html">link to more:

...in saying that the television news show entertains but does not inform, I am saying something far more serious than that we are being deprived of authentic information. I am saying we are losing our sense of what it means to be well informed. Ignorance is always correctable. But what shall we do if we take ignorance to be knowledge?

Here is a startling example of how this process bedevils us. A New York Times article is headlined on February 15, 1983:

Reagan misstatements getting less attention

The article begins in the following way:

President Reagan's aides used to become visibly alarmed at suggestions that he had given mangled and perhaps misleading accounts of his policies or of current events in general. That doesn't seem to happen much anymore.

Indeed, the President continues to make debatable assertions of fact but news accounts do not deal with them as extensively as they once did. In the view of White House officials, the declining news coverage mirrors a decline in interest by the general public.

This report is not so much a news story as a story about the news, and our recent history suggests that it is not about Ronald Reagan's charm. It is about how news is defined, and I believe the story would be quite astonishing to both civil libertarians and tyrants of an earlier time. Walter Lippmann, for example, wrote in 1920: "There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies." For all of his pessimism about the possibilities of restoring an eighteenth- and nineteenth-century level of public discourse, Lippmann assumed, as did Thomas Jefferson before him, that with a well-trained press functioning as a lie-detector, the public's interest in a President's mangling of the truth would be piqued, in both senses of that word. Given the means to detect lies, he believed, the public could not be indifferent to their consequences.
But this case refutes his assumption.

And here is a link to a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Rushkoff">wikipedia article on Rushkoff, as well as his http://www.rushkoff.com/blog.php">blog.

edit: Bolded book titles in an attempt at coercion! :o

[babylonsister]

1. Self-delete. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Conservatives without a Consicence

by Dean, definitely a must read

[RufusEarl]

3. A good book on Iraq, Fiasco by T. Ricks

[Woolwich]

4. The Albigensian Crusade

by Jonathan Sumption. Pretty damn good read.

[newyawker99]

7. Hi Woolwich!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Woolwich]

27. Thanks

good to be here.

[JHB]

5. A good series on the scuttling of the middle class...

I originally posted this elsewhere, but for resource value it's worth repeating here:
--------------------------------------------------------

One of the things I find that comes up when talking with people about the economy, globalization, etc., is many peoples' belief that it was all rather inevitable, so complaining about it is like complaining about the tide: you can do it, but it's pointless.

I don't have to wonder why they think that -- the "liberal" media has repeated the theme for nearly thirty years now -- but sometimes I wonder how it is that I became "inoculated" against this. Why am I so sure things didn't have to play out this way and that deliberate political decisions were at least as important as "the invisible hand" in bringing about what Paul Krugman called "The Great Unraveling".

Well, part of it was what I'd been reading. I can't exactly give my full reading list for the last 20 years, but I can recommend a few books that will help when it comes to fixing the "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and "Talking to an Elephant" problems.

Reporters James B. Steele and Donald L. Barlett wrote a series of articles, some for The Philadelphia Enquirer, some for Time, on how the changing economy was playing out for ordinary people. The first, published in book form in 1992, is a little dated, but that actually works in its favor now, since it's entirely pre-Clinton. The later series/books followed up on the same or similar themes, and collectively they serve as quite an information source and teaching tool when you try to explain to people just how far this "squeeze the middle" and "starve the beast" effort goes back.

Pick'em up at your library, or at a bookstore, and get

America: What Went Wrong?
by James B Steele, Donald L. Barlett

Paperback: 252 pages
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (January 1, 1992)
ISBN: 0836270010
"Worried that you are falling behind, not living as well as you once did?..."

Chapter 1 of "America: What Went Wrong" can be found here:
http://www.politicalindex.com/wrong1.htm


AMERICA: WHO REALLY PAYS THE TAXES?
by Donald L. Barlett

Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Remaindered Marked edition (March 23, 1994)
ISBN: 0671871579

America: Who Stole The Dream?
by Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele

Paperback: 276 pages
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing (June 1, 1996)
ISBN: 0836213149
"Let's suppose, for a moment, there was a country where the people in charge charted a course that eliminated millions of good paying jobs..."

The Great American Tax Dodge: How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness, Destroying the Income Tax, and Costing You
by Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele

Paperback: 302 pages
Publisher: University of California Press; 1st Califo edition (September 2, 2002)
ISBN: 0520236106
"A woman forms a company to conduct "research" for the benefit of her minor children and writes a monthly "rent" check to her husband to..."

Critical Condition : How Health Care in America Became Big Business--and Bad Medicine
by Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele

Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Doubleday (October 5, 2004)
ISBN: 0385504543

JHB
:patriot:

[bcoylepa]

6. Writing to Change the World

by Mary Pipher - the women who wrote Reviving Orphelia
very inspiring how to book - everythng from letters to editors to essays

[marions ghost]

8. The next one I want to read is

'Conservatives without Conscience' by John Dean.
-------------

Looking over at my 'political' bookshelf, these are all the nonfiction books I've read since 2000. Since I cared enough to buy them, I recommend them (otherwise I'd have read them in the store).

Bush's Brain (Karl Rove)--Moore & Slater
The Smartest Guys in the Room/The Fall of Enron --Mclean & Elkind
Moral Politics--George Lakoff
American Dynasty (the Bushes)--Kevin Phillips
The Family-The Story of the Bush Dynasty --Kitty Kelley
Whats the Matter With Kansas? --Thomas Frank
Bush on the Couch --Justin Frank
Worse Than Watergate --John Dean
Moyers on America --Bill Moyers
Fooled Again (Election theft)--Mark Crispin Miller
Cruel and Unusual (Bush & Cheney's New World Order) --Mark Crispin Miller
Culture Jam--The Uncooling of America --Kalle Lasn
The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight --Thom Hartmann
The Tipping Point--Malcolm Gladwell
A Nation Gone Blind (Cultural effects) --Eric Larsen
The Cheating Culture --David Callahan
Masters of Deception (White Collar Crime) --Louis Mizell
Profit Without Honor (White Collar Crime) --Rosoff, Pontell, Tillman
Free Culture--How Big Media Uses Technology & Law To Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity --Lawrence Lessig

[BurtWorm]

9. The One Percent Solution, by Ron Suskind

I've posted about it here, here, and here.

[marions ghost]

12. thanks for the book review...

I will put that one on my reading list.

[MrCoffee]

10. It's a little old, but i just re-read it, and you should too

Toxic Sludge is Good for You by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton

http://www.amazon.com/Toxic-Sludge-Good-John-Stauber/dp/1841199540/sr=1-2/qid=1158770660/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-5382815-6555247?ie=UTF8&s=books

[Broken_Hero]

11. Son of the Morning Star by

Evan S. Connell

[mmonk]

13. Here's my latest purchases that are good:

Losing Our Democracy-How Bush, The Far Right And Big Business Are Betraying Americans for Power & Profit by Mark Green

The Case For Impeachment-The Legal Case for Removing President George W. Bush from Office by Dave Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky

How Bush Rules-Chronicles of a Radical Regime by Sidney Blumenthal

Whose Freedom? The Battle over America's Most Important Idea by George Lakoff

[Mike03]

14. Three Sensational Political Books

1. FIASCO by Thomas Ricks. After reading this book--particularly the second and third sections about combat and life in Iraq--I felt for the first time that I completely understood why we have failed so miserably in Iraw, and who is to blame. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

2. HUBRIS by Isikoff and Corn. This book was even better than I hoped, in spite of the hype. This book completely vindicates those of us who knew from the outset the Iraq war was a con job and a horrendous mistake. It is also my new bible when it comes to arguing the points about the WMD, the lies, the distorted intel. I marked this book so much that I had to order additional copies.

3. The ONE PERCENT DOCTRINE by Ron Suskind. Suskind focuses more intensely on the role of intelligence agencies and the FBI in attempting to make sense of the war on terror. It's depth is narrow but deep, and in a sense I think it partially vindicates the CIA and FBI from accusations of ineptitude. (In fact, all three books deal with this topic to some extent.)

Taken together, three books comprise a trilogy of Truth. All three are heavily sourced and footnoted as well, therefore very useful in the combat against those who insist on perpetuating old lies.

EDIT: HUBRIS gives us an inside look at the Fitzgerald investigation as well--this is one of the standout aspects of the book.

Happy reading!

[Nutmegger]

15. My Book:

Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead

http://www.amazon.com/Strapped-Americas-30-Somethings-Cant-Ahead/dp/0385515057
_____

So many think that people are in debt because it's "their own doing". That's hogwash for the most part.

Student aid down and loans up along with interest rates. What a joke.

[Kosmos Mariner]

16. The Demon Haunted World....

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan

It should be required reading for all high school students. :)

wikipedia

The Demon-Haunted World is intended to explain the scientific method to laypersons, and to encourage people to learn critical or skeptical thinking. The book explains methods to help distinguish between ideas that are considered valid science, and ideas that can be considered pseudoscience.

Sagan provides a skeptical analysis of several kinds of superstition, fraud, pseudoscience and religious beliefs, such as gods, witches, UFOs, ESP, and Faith Healing.

Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of The American Rich by Kevin Phillips

Also should be required reading. After reading this book you get a better sense of how great wealth was built. And much of it looks more like piracy than industriousness.

Amazon.com

Most American conservatives take it as an article of faith that the less governmental involvement in affairs of the market and pocketbook the better. The rich do not, whatever they might say--for much of their wealth comes from the "power and preferment of government." So writes Kevin Phillips, the accomplished historian and one-time Washington insider, in this extraordinary survey of plutocracy, excess, and reform. "Laissez-faire is a pretense," he argues; as the wealth of the rich has grown, so has its control over government, making politics a hostage of money.

...Phillips dispels notions of trickle-down wealth creation, pricks holes in speculative bubbles, and decries the ever-increasing "financialization" of the economy--all of which, he argues, have served to reduce the well-being of ordinary Americans and government alike.

Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape by James Howard Kunstler

If you want to know why your subdivision has no soul, and why you feel increasingly isolated from everything, read this. I feel that the growth of Sprawl, especially in the Sun Belt has created more favorable conditions for the selfish and hostile GOP politics to thrive.

Amazon.com

...culprits that have conspired in the name of the American Dream to turn the U.S. landscape from a haven of the civic ideal into a nightmare of crass commercial production and consumption.

...Kunstler exposes the insidious "car lobby" and gives case studies of landscapes as diverse as Detroit, Atlantic City, and Seaside, Florida, to illustrate both the woes and hopeful notes.

[Nay]

17. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television--by Jerry Mander.

It's 25 years old, but truer now than it has ever been. It's still available, too, I believe. Want to know why people can't seem to think their way out of a paper bag? Why they have the attention span of a gnat? See Jerry for answers. He saw all of this spinning out in just about the way it has happened, and it's pretty disheartening.

[Junkdrawer]

18. Prelude to Terror by Joseph J. Trento n/t

[Opusnone]

19. The 9-11 Commission Report

The Republican War on Science
Voices from A People's history of the United States
Fortunate Son
The Bubble of American Supremacy

I've just listed my recent reads.

[Junkdrawer]

21. Well, the 9-11 Commission Report is in the non-fiction section...

of the bookstore, I'll give it that....

[Opusnone]

24. Wanted to finish it before picking up the 9-11 Omission Report

And the new one by Ben Veniste and Hamilton

[Junkdrawer]

25. I admire anyone who can slog through it....

:thumbsup:

[blonndee]

20. Consuming Desire: Mass Images and the Shaping of American Consciousness

by Stuart Ewen and Elizabeth Ewen. Awesome historical tracing of the causes and effects of the emergence of a visually-oriented culture of mass-produced images in the US. I'd summarize a bit more but my CTS is acting up today.

[blonndee]

28. Actually it's "Channels of Desire." Sorry.

And thanks to the poster in another thread who pointed out my mistake.

[CatholicEdHead]

22. American Theocracy

[Parche]

23. submarine books

Wahoo
Clear the Bridge
Thunder Below

[NotGivingUp]

26. The Last Hours Of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann