Give your essential reads for progressives:

[StuffyJones]

Homegrown Democrat -- Garrison Keillor
What's the Matter with Kansas? -- Thomas Frank(s)?
Don't Think of an Elephant -- George Lakoff
A People's History of the United States -- Howard Zinn
United States; The Last Empire; Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace; Dreaming War:Blood for Oil the Bush/Cheny Junta -- Gore Vidal
An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire; Public Power in the Age of Empire -- Arundhati Roy
Year 501: The Conquest Continues -- Noam Chomsky

[cliffordu]

1. Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon

Which describes (among a thousand other things) the transition from rule by governments to the rule by multinational corporations.....

[StuffyJones]

4. Funny, I just got my Annotated GR book about a week ago

I've tried to read GR several times but have ended up putting it down--just missing too many of the references. Hopefully the guide will help. I'm a big fan of the Crying of Lot 49.

[cliffordu]

7. I read it the first time back in the early '70's sometime...

I used to drink with a guy who actually wrote his master's thesis on the book. We had great conversations about the characters....

I have read it a total of 7 maybe 8 times....I used to work in theater and had a lot of time sitting around....heh.


I just love Pig Bodine...heh.

[FrenchieCat]

2. This would make a good GD thread......

Kinda of out of place in Presidential IYAM.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. The US Constitution

The Federalist Papers
The Anti Federalist... (rarely read)
Read a little Teddy Roosevelt while you are at it

Some JFK

Any history written by Shlessinger Junior is also important...

Caro if you are to understand LBJ and what drove him and why things are not as clear cut as some folks think

Oh and don't forget some good distopya while at it

1984 George Orwell
Animal Farm, Orwell again
His notes on the Empire are always good for a hoot

You could also do some Phillip K Dick, his future worlds are very prophetic at times

Don't forget Adamn Smith, the Wealth of Nations (Essential to understand we do NOT live in a capitalist system)

I know, this seems almost like a college readying list, then again... it is.

[StuffyJones]

6. And McCain had missed Wealth of Nations until this year

The man is over 70 and has been in the Senate for a quarter century + and never thought about picking it up.

Amazing how the media allows this guy to compare to Obama. Sad state of affairs in our country when a race this lopsided in talent is this close...

[enigmatic]

5. "The Jungle"- Upton Sinclair

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. And Emile Zola's 'Germinal'

which goes very well with 'The Jungle'.

[enigmatic]

11. yep

Great call..

[cliffordu]

8. Lord of the Flies.

[StuffyJones]

10. Reading Mastery - Level 2 Storybook 1 (Reading Mastery: Rainbow Edition) AKA "The Pet Goat"

Bush's 9/11 reading.

[enigmatic]

12. Tommy: The LIfe And Times Of Tommy Douglas by Walter Stewart

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Life-Political-Times-Tommy-Douglas-Walter-Stewart/9781552783825-item.html

[Greyhound]

13. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins

1984 by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
War is a Racket by Gen. Smedly Butler
The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin

[YankeyMCC]

14. Herotodus and or Thucydides

These ancient histories demonstrate the consistency of the mistakes humans make, the traps we fall into that lead to war and suffering. Perhaps if more people read these we'd do a better job of progressing past making such mistakes so often or so completely at least.

Also, "Grapes of Wrath" and "Of Mice and Men"

[fla nocount]

15. There's far to many to list....

Somebody already has Lord of the Flies so, Catcher in the Rye, Johnny Got His Gun, Nation of Sheep, The Ugly American, Steal This Book and anything that Salinger ever wrote. That should prime your weapon and get you started on the right path.