Favorite political books ever

[mvd]

I admit, I haven't read enough of them. My favorites have been Blinded By The Right by David Brock, and We're Right, They're Wrong by James Carville. I have What Liberal Media? and will read that after my latest John Grisham book.

[UrbScotty]

1. "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" and "It's Still The Economy, Stupid"

[Richardo]

2. I'm in chapter 11 of What Liberal Media?

...and it's excellent. And extremely infuriating.

My next: Big Lies by Joe Conason.

Other Faves:
A Vast Conpiracy (Toobin)
Boss: Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago (Royko)
Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat idiot and Other Observations (Franken)
We're Right, They're Wrong (Carville)

[UrbScotty]

3. I love the Rush Limbaugh one!

:D

[Richardo]

4. I can't wait for Franken's next one...one of the best titles EVER....

Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them...A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right

On sale 9/22/2003....

[Richardo]

12. ...and now Faux is suing to force him to change that title...

see: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=61689#61710 for the hypocracy.

[mvd]

5. Big Lies is one I want

Sounds great.

Also have Gore Vidal's Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta lined up.

[TheBigGuy]

6. four good political books that The Big Guy has enjoyed:

Boss, Richard J Daley and his Chicago
(by Mike Royko).

Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972
(by Hunter S Thompson)

The Emerging Republican Majority
(Kevin Phillips)

Up From Conservatism.
(Michael Lind).

[seventhson]

7. Der Fuehrer by Konrad Heiden. Bar none: the best presage of the BFEE

and what is happening NOW.

This German antiuNazi.s account of how Hitler rose to power (and how global fascism put him and kept him in power).

When one understands that it was the Bush family (along with the Rockefellers, big oil, the Dulles, Morgan, etc.) who put and kept Hitler in power- this book, from the phony Reichstag Fire blamed on Foreigners and terrorists but set by the stealth fascists to the phony excuses for war and methods of propaganda - one understands that it demonstrates the absolute blueprint for the BFEE.

Though written in 1944, (Heiden escaped to America with the help of Americans in the European underground) there is no other book which I believe one must read to undersatand global politics and global fascism a la the BFEE.

Bet on it.

[Deja Q]

8. "Downsize This" and "Stupid White Men"

I obviously love Michael Moore... :loveya:

[PittPoliSci]

26. excellent books!

and if you already haven't, watch The Big One! its a great movie based upon the Mike's tours promoting Downsize This!

[disgruntella]

9. currently reading...

"Weapons of Mass Distraction" by two guys from PR Watch. I haven't read that many political books lately so I don't know if it's "the best", but it's "darn good" and I would definitely recommend it.

I would also recommend "Blinded By the Right"

[damnyankee2601]

10. The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad

Any Joseph Conrad, really. Power and corruption are timeless partners. But "The Secret Agent" is particularly topical in regards to the effect of terrorism on governments and individuals.

Then, of course, there's Orwell's obvious "1984," which desperately need to be edited and re-issued as "2004" for all those college kids who won't read anything published before they were born.

[mvd]

11. How could I forget 1984?

That's definitely one of my favorites.

[On the Road]

13. "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: 1972" by Hunter Thompson

Maybe not what you had in mind. But I've read it three times.

I also love "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen. History book, but very political.

[TheBigGuy]

14. Only three times?

HST does pick up on that wired jazzed vibe that you get when involved in political campaigns...."politics junky"...i think that was his coining, wasn't it?

[Kat45]

19. I was also going to say "Fear and Loathing..."

Some great insights in that one.

[seventhson]

15. Excerpt to whet political appetites...for all the Hitler/Bush comparisons

The preceding from Der Fuehrer by Konrad Heiden, pp 631-638.

It was at this time <1922> that began to believe in his own God-given mission. It was no accident that-in his own words-he 'learned from the Bible with boundless love how our Lord and Savior seized his whip,' and marched on Jerusalem. Was not he himself armed with a heavy crocodile whip, marching through the streets of his beloved Munich, which he sometimes called the 'Mecca' of National Socialism? A short time previous, it is true, he had admitted in a chastened mood to his friend Georg Schott: 'All of us are nothing but little Saint Johns. I am waiting for a Christ.' But the period of modesty was drawing to a close. Were not all the signs by which Heaven customarily announces its prophets being fulfilled in him? The fanatical faith of the disciples, the rejoicing of the masses, the hostility or contempt of those in high places-and now wasn't he going through a sort of Golgotha? His Golgotha, to be sure, was nothing more impressive than the month in prison which he wished so fervently to avoid; but before going in, he took leave of his people with the words: 'Two thousand years ago the mob of Jerusalem dragged a man to execution in just this way.'

Hitler, introduced as a speaker, explains how Judah tried to conquer the world; first with the help of the Ten Commandments; then (this was only hinted rather shamefacedly) by Christianity; finally through Marxism and Bolshevism; for Hitler and Eckart had no doubt that Lenin was a Jew.

A metaphysical line runs through , not always easy to find amid all the vulgar vilification and barren, long-winded meditations; here a man seeks for God and discovers himself. This is exactly what happened to Soloviev's Antichrist; he too, like Hitler, had written in his thirty-third year, a book in which he claimed to be the Savior. .


This is a random excerpt, but you get the gist. What makes a fascist leader? The notion that you are God's gift to the world (when you are really the gift of someone Else)

[leftofthedial]

16. Lost History by Robert Parry

Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot by Al Franken

[geniph]

17. Shrub, by Molly Ivins

Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? & You Got to Dance With Them What Brung You, & Nothin' But Good Times Ahead, all by Molly Ivins (I'm a big Molly fan)
Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich (I wrote a review of this for the DU Book Review section)
Stupid White Men, Michael Moore
We're Right, They're Wrong, James Carville
Bush Dyslexicon, Mark Crispin Miller
Fortunate Son, J.H. Hatfield
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Greg Palast
Skipping Towards Gomorrah, Dan Savage
The Selling of the President, 1968, Joe McGinniss
Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, Al Franken
The Way Things Aren't, Steve Rendell
Betrayal of America, Vincent Bugliosi

Molly's got a new book coming out, too - Bushwhacked.

[Character Assassin]

18. "The Roosevelt Myth", by John T. Flynn

"Dead Right", David Frum
"The Road to Serfdom", F. A. Hayek
"Mexico: Biography of Power", Enrique Krauze

[sujan]

20. PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

[last_texas_dem]

21. Haven't gotten...

...to read as many as I got to when I was in high school (less spare time) but have plenty of favorites, and a few I have right now but haven't yet gotten to read!

Let me think; first I'd have to say Blinded by the Right- it's very telling, and very much a page-turner.

What Liberal Media? is excellent, loaded with facts.

Michael's Moore Downsize This is very funny and hard to put down.

The Bush Dyslexicon is more than a good collection of "Bushisms".

Although Toobin and Bugliosi's books on the 2000 election are both great, my favorite is actually Jake Tapper's Down and Dirty: The Plot to Steal the Presidency. Tapper writes with objectivity (he was a Nader supporter who disliked both * and Gore) but still reveals much more corruption on the * side simply because there was more to be found!

Reading The Emerging Democratic Majority was reassuring and informative, even if I did feel a bit disappointed with the 2002 midterms, having read it slightly before them.

Paul Begala's It's the Economy, Stupid offers loads of factual ammunition against those who worship at the altar of the Shrub.

And Fortunate Son is the best biography of Dubya I have read, with Molly Ivins's coming in a close second.

-edited last sentence for clarity

[tarkus]

22. State and Revolution

I really helped me understand socialism. It is also more interesting than writings by Marx.

[dofus]

23. "It Can't Happen Here"

by Sinclair Lewis. Truly prescient.

[mitchum]

24. Das Kapital

[HawkerHurricane]

25. The Way Things Aren't: Rush Limbaugh's Reign of Error

By FAIR

There Ain't Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos by Jim Hightower