Remember, “What records would you want on a deserted island?”–”Oh, man, no way could I live without Rock and Roll Animal.” Right. This is more like, “What books would you assign every high school senior?” Or, for those of us given to more extreme solutions to all that ails us, “What would you force-feed all the counter-revolutionaries after you’d sent them off to the re-education camps?,” except, of course, that we wouldn’t call them that. Of the thousands of books we all wish we’d world enough and time to savor, I throw these out there because they’re by and large non-partisan, truthful, eye opening, divergent in their subject material, skeptical, yet end, with a notable exception or two, with some call to pragmatic action. Some have real style–that cynicism of Hunter Thompson’s that comes of a thwarted and perverted idealism, Pollan’s rambunctious curiosity and jaunty rambles, Scott Nearing’s almost–almost–insufferable smugness and quiet indignation. Others, maybe, less so (so be grateful I left Chomsky off the list). Missing: anything valuable on economics, the current state of finance (see Kevin Phillips, Part III of American Theocracy, a book that should probably make the ensuing list of ten), the environment, the Muslim world, and a few other things beside. That’s because either I don’t know anything about them, am not excited by the subject, or maybe, they just make me sad–you know, stuff like spotted owls, Sarjanes-Oxby, and Omar Quaddafi.
I’m working on brief reviews of all of them.
Please send or post your own annotated lists.
By the way, here’s Ralph Nader’s recommended reading for the holidays, and “12 Books to Stiffen Your Resolve” from Rebecca Solnit.
William Greider, Who Will Tell the People? The Betrayal of American Democracy. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992. HB, 464 pp.
Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. New York: Ballantine, 1996. Paper, 447 pp.
Greg Palast, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. London: Plume, 2003. Paper, 370 pp.
Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 3rd ed. New York: Harper Perennial, 2003. Paper, 752 pp.
John Stauber and Sheldon Ramptom, Toxic Sludge is Good for You: Lies, Damn Lies, and the Public Relations Industry. Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1995. Paper, 236 pp.
Scott Nearing, The Making of Radical: A Political Autobiography. New York: Harper, 1972. Paper, 308 pp.
Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006. HB, 445 pp.
Greg Critser, Generation Rx. New York: Mariner Books, 2006. Paper, 308 pp.
Hunter Thompson, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972.
Naomi Klein, No Logo. New York: Picador, 2000. Paper, 502 pp.
James Carroll, House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power. Boston & New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. HB, 655 pp.
Eduardo Galeano, Upside Down: A Primer for the Looking-Glass World. Trans. Mark Fried; engravings Jose Guadalupe Posada. New York: Metropolitan Books [Henry Holt], 200. HB, 358 pp.
