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A Library for a Revolution

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As we enter the Fighting Season of 2014-2016, it's time for a no-bullshit assessment of the intellectual capital we'll have at our disposal as we finally engage in the brewing confrontation between the Neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party and the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, which is to say the progressives, the New Dealers, the populists, or those the poets call They Who Would Not Embrace The Suck (TWWNETSs, for short).

I've spent the past few years raiding library book sales by the truckload, gathering up books I knew would be needed as we position ourselves to be useful to our country in the coming presidential election.  But the problem with booksale-scavenging is you can't always find the books you need to have on-hand immediately, and so I was fortunate to get a $150 Amazon giftcard for Christmas.  I immediately fired up my to-read list and assembled a list of some 60-odd books I felt I absolutely could not do without, and then went through the agonizing process of cutting it down to the 18 books the giftcard could actually afford.

I present this must-get list to you my fellow Kossacks, both to share titles for those looking for more good books themselves, and for the advice of those who have read many of these books already.  Are there any on my list below that fell below expectations, and I should boot from the list for a more useful title instead?  

In the comments section please let me know what you think!  Which titles do you heartily recommend?  Which titles should I drop, and what should I replace them with?  What are your top reading suggestions?  I'd like to really get a good populist reading list put together in preparation for 2016, and if we get a good discussion I could edit the diary to put together a larger cumulative list including everybody's suggestions!

Without further ado, here is the list!

Those Books On The To-Buy List That Survived:
1.    A Short History Of Progress (Ronald Wright)
2.    The Unwinding (George Packer)
3.    Austerity: The History Of A Dangerous Idea (Mark Blyth)
4.    The Beijing Consensus: How China’s Authoritarian Model Will Dominate The 21st Century (Stefan Halper)
5.    The Race For What’s Left (Michael T. Klare)
6.    Freefall (Joseph Stiglitz)
7.    All Too Human (George Stephanopoulos)
8.    Locked In The Cabinet (Robert Reich)
9.    The Thumpin’ (Naftali Bendavid)
10.    The New New Deal (Michael Grunwald)
11.    Lincoln And The Economics Of The American Dream (Gabor S. Boritt)
12.    The Civil War And The American System (W. Allen Salisbury)
13.    Henry Clay: The Essential American (David S. Heidler)
14.    The Politics Of Upheaval: The Age Of Roosevelt Volume III (Arthur Schlesinger)
15.    Cautious Visionary: Cordell Hull & Trade Reform 1933-1937 (Michael A. Butler)
16.    Myths Of Free Trade (Sherrod Brown)
17.    The Selling Of “Free Trade”: NAFTA, Washington, And The Subversion Of American Democracy (John R. MacArthur)
18.    The Making Of NAFTA: How The Deal Was Done (Maxwell A. Cameron)

As you can see from the bottom of the list, I’m increasingly convinced that trade policy is connected to virtually every dire challenge we face today, whether the concentration of wealth in the top 1%, or the deregulation of the banks and the explosive growth of the credit card industry, done in an attempt to prop up consumption.


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