Eight years in Power by T. Coates A emotional, historical book about Obama’s legacy including the decades preceding it and how we got to where we are.
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Peter Moskowitz, How To Kill A City – best book on gentrification I’ve read, and by the g-word, I mean how investors kill neighborhoods and cities through “growth,” re-zoning and targeting high-end (white) hipsters only. Case studies: Detroit, New Orleans (where I live), NY, SF.
New here but been reading newsletter for awhile. Great job. I recommend The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth. When fascism comes to America in the form of an authoritarian leader.
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I recommend “Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right” written by Arlie Russell Hochschild, a women from San Francisco who traveled to the Deep South to understand why people voted for Trump. She then went back to check her theory with the same people who agreed she’d understood. Enlightening.
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I have been trying to understand who “The Base” is, how they think and why they vote against their own interests. Stranger in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right is the best book I’ve read on this subject so far. I don’t feel any more empathy for them, but at least I know now how they think and why they have such misguided hatred for us.
Stephen King’s “Under the Dome.” It shows how a lying, greedy, malignant narcissist can quickly destroy a society. Big Jim Rennie=Tinyhands Donnie Trump.
The Girl with Seven Names - One women’s journey of living and escaping North Korea.
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White Working Class, Overcoming Class Cluelessness in America, by Joan C. Williams.
Think Trump voters are just stupid? They aren’t. They see the world from a very different viewpoint, where Trump kinda, sorta makes sense. If you have an interest in understanding this, and thinking about how to fix it, this is an outstanding place to start.
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The Dandelion Insurrection by Rivera Sun.
An inspirational novel and a romance, a story of nonviolent revolution in the United States after all protest has been silenced. “This book offers through its story many tools and strategies developed by countless leaders throughout history, including Gandhi, Dr. King, Cesar Chavez, and Professor Gene Sharp. From marches to cazerolazo pot-and-pan protests to strikes to Victory Gardens for the People; the Dandelion Insurrection shares ideas that have changed the world… ‘Be like the dandelions, spring up in intolerable soils, dare to stand up against violence, and blossom into love!’”
Andrew Harvey’s latest book “Savage Grace: Living Resiliently in the Dark Night of the Globe” has been deeply helpful for me.
If you really want to know where we are, read Cicero. And the best summary out there for non Classical folks is the trilogy of Cicero’s political life by Robert Harris. These are Imperium, Dictator and Conspirata. The series is all about Rome two centuries ago, but the themes, personalities and chaos mirror our world today.
The Plot to Hack America, by Malcolm Nance
I just started “How the Right Lost its Mind” by Charles Sykes.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Right-Lost-Its-Mind/dp/1250147174
The author has a reputation of being a traditional conservative, so I figured it would be good to get a republican viewpoint on this crazy situation.
Revolution’s End: The Patty Hearst Kidnapping, Mind Control and the Secret History of Donald DeFreeze and the SLA.
Talks about the beginning of police militarization in the US, as well as the height of experimentation on black prisoners.
(https://www.amazon.com/Revolutions-End-Kidnapping-Control-DeFreeze/dp/1510714251)]
Orphan Master’s Son, a novel
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins was my primer last year on the commingling of business and governance in the US.
It’s a memoir, and it was set between 1970 and 1990. I wonder if it’s quite a bit dated now that Trump’s foreign policy is to put a paper bag over America’s head and pretend no one else can see us.
Fantasyland
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Have been trying to find things that help me understand the other side, especially since I have conservative family members.
A very helpful book was:
The Righteous Mind; Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt.
Also want to second the recommendation for
Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacClean. It goes beyond “Dark Money” into the theoretical beginnings.
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Matt:
I think you are doing a great job. You summarize news to make an easy read. You cover subject that ‘go over the head’ of most of the news channels. You are keeping Trump on his toes.
Keep up the good work! We appreciate your efforts.
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