reading list? Any suggestions?

[recoveringrepublican]

Was at the weekly protest tonight in St. Pete Florida. A young woman (I would say about 17) came up to talk to us, with what seem to be an honest intent for some dialog. She was just like I was a couple of years ago....full of idol worship for her country and her knowledge of world affairs was direct from the "liberal" media. Like I said, she seemed honest in her attempt to discuss matters with us, but there was not enough time. I was thinking about how people gently showing me the facts help turn my way of thinking around, but so did reading many books that my husband gave me. I've gotten great suggestions from this site, so if you were to make a list, what books would you put on it.

[DawgHouse]

1. A People's History of the United States

by Howard Zinn.

[phusion]

2. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

by John Perkins

Exception to the Rulers by Amy Goodman

The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson

1984 by Orwell :)

Culture of Make Believe by Derrick Jensen

[Warpy]

3. "Lies my Teacher Told me" by Leowens

"The Hidden Persuaders" by Vance Packard (dated, but still useful for deconstructing propaganda)

[prairierose]

4. Thom Hartmann's We the People

very good history & civics lesson

[Haymare22]

5. The Peter Principle.....

...about rising to our own levels of incompetency, came out in during 60's.
Im sure it can be found....
Ex...The Peter Principle was first introduced by L. Peter in a humoristic book (of the same title) describing the pitfalls of bureaucratic organization. The original principle states that in a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their "level of incompetence". The principle is based on the observation that in such an organization new employees typically start in the lower ranks, but when they prove to be competent in the task to which they are assigned, they get promoted to a higher rank. This process of climbing up the hierarchical ladder can go on indefinitely, until the employee reaches a position where he or she is no longer competent. At that moment the process typically stops, since the established rules of bureacracies make that it is very difficult to "demote" someone to a lower rank, even if that person would be much better fitted and more happy in that lower position. The net result is that most of the higher levels of a bureaucracy will be filled by incompetent people, who got there because they were quite good at doing a different (and usually, but not always, easier) task than the one they are expected to do.

[K-W]

6. The Republican Noise Machine -David Brock

his Blinded by the right is a revealing read as well.

[ultraist]

7. The Anarchists Cookbook

Just kidding.

[jedr]

8. Chomsky

Some Good ol' Noam Chomsky is always great. Hegemony or Survival is wonderful.

[Haymare22]

9. There is No Tomorrow.....

Moyers wrote a excellent piece on these reds by above title.

He got these reds AND THEIR AGENDA pegged.....

[lala_rawraw]

10. Well...

It depends on what it is she wants to discuss really.

I would say that if she is interested in History, then some of the mentioned books above are great ideas. If she is interested in the crimes of this admin, she will have to start with JFK background, so that Watergate and current situations have context. I would even suggest reading Hegel because there is a heavy handed mentality at play here. If she had a few years to really dig in, why would even suggest going back to the Reformation period to see how the Confederacy went under ground.

Plausible Denial: by Mark Lane (JFK assasin...now you may think this is conspiracy theory junk; but I have long suspected that a President would not resign over a little break in, nor would a reporter buy that as a reason. My guess is that deep throat made a deal with Woodward to trace the break-in to the White House as long as the real questions regarding the break in were left alone. Given the current environment, hard to call this theory as opposed to a "working model.") JFK's death leads directly to LBJ > Nixon and this entire administration: Rummy, Wolfie, Kissinger, Bush Sr., Cheney, Perle, etc.

A good read about how the Watergate break-in was funded:
(The "how" of this is fascinating, especially the "rat/f**cking" stuff." The why is never fully answered to my satisfaction).

I would also suggest reading this wonderful collection of speeches by MLK:

A Call to Conscience : The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (to again understand that Republicans have no heroes... Lincoln is not of their party, they claim to be of his party).

Moving right along:

The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House
by Seymour Hersh (remember, this guy is still around in more ways than just being pundit)

1984 By George Orwell because that is where we are now.

Crossing the Rubicon by Mike Rupert (because it needs to be read)

I could go on and on, but I would probably frighten this 17 year old away from reading alltogether... history is not always a fun read, especially history that is not pre-packaged.

I would suggest Henry David Thoreau for what I think has always been where America should be.

Okay, I will shut up now... just had to throw those in. (note, no spell check, like to wing it:))

[Stop_the_War]

11. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken