#OccupyWallStreet has a library of donated books. What would you put on the #OWSreadinglist?She suggests Pierson & Hacker's "Winner-Take-All Politics."
I'll open it up beyond books, though: books, blogs, magazine articles, whatever. What are your suggestions?
The Uprising, by David Sirota. It's got this great chapter on these stock holder nuns that fuck shit up at stock holder meetings. It's fabulous!
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/WorldOnTheEdge or something like it. it's one thing to say you want a more equitable, productive economy and it's another to use that production to avert raging ecological negative feedback loops. the FIRE sector has us mitigating risks to itself.
ReplyDeleteRules for Radicals is one of the best all-around books on this subject. I’d also go with any book on Cesar Chavez—such as César Chávez: Autobiography of La Causa—as a good primer on social movements and protests. I’d also recommend Nixonland by Rick Perlstein in particular his portrayal of many aspects of the Anti-war Movement as being ineffective and alienating to many Americans of all sorts of political stripes who were actually very skeptical of American involvement in Vietnam. In terms of other media there’s a great documentary from the 70’s called Harlan County USA about a coal strike in an impoverished community in Kentucky. It shows the huge amount of dedication and time it takes to build a successful social movement and the meetings, meetings and more meetings necessary to do it.
ReplyDeleteAlong the lines of "Winner-Take-All-Politics" I'd suggest a lot of Larry Bartels' work, specifically "Unequal Democracy".
ReplyDeleteWhat's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America - Thomas Burke
ReplyDeleteThough I haven't read it, I think Corey Robin's new books, The Reactionary Mind should get a spot.
ReplyDeleteFreefall by Joseph Stiglitz. Confirms much of what they're saying.
ReplyDeleteFollowing Rob Mellen's theme: Aftershock by Robert Reich, and Crisis Economics by Nouriel Roubini.
ReplyDeleteSimon Johnson's 13 Bankers
ReplyDelete"Red State Blue State, Rich State Poor State" by Gelman.
ReplyDelete-"Bowling Alone"
-"Nixonland" or "The Gathering Storm"
-"Rebirth of a Nation" or "American Colossus"
Off the top of my head, books on the organizing and politics side of things:
ReplyDeleteAlinsky, "Rules for Radicals" and "Reveille for Radicals"
Ed Chambers, "Roots for Radicals"
Hannah Arendt, "On Revolution"
Bernard Crick, "In Defence of Politics"
Gene Sharp, "From Dictatorship to Democracy" & "The Politics of Nonviolent Action"
Novels
John Steinbeck, "In Dubious Battle"
Ignazio Silone, "Bread & Wine"
P.S. If there's one "prop" to add, I'd suggest (just like "The Onion") American flags, lots of them. There's wisdom in Jesse Jackson's observation that the civil rights movement picked up the Bible and the flag, and marched with them.
Napolitano's "Constitutional Crisis".
ReplyDeleteAnd, perhaps, Akhil Reed Amar's "America's Constitution".
Paul Krugman "The Conscience of a Liberal" and "The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008".
ReplyDeletedeer hunting with jesus - joe bageant.
ReplyDelete"Naked Economics" by Charles Wheelan is a good starting point for people wanting to talk seriously about economics.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing---this Oct. 5 post by Blue Girl at "They Gave Us A Republic": http://www.theygaveusarepublic.com/diary/9368/some-basic-rules-for-successful-radicals
ReplyDeleteIncluding these helpful points of advice from her own experience:
*Proclaim the movement to be nonviolent and stick to it.
*Image matters.
*Stay focused.
*Accept that the movement has already been infiltrated and comport yourselves accordingly.