Book Recommendations

In our world of internet, TV-documentaries, mp3's and torrents, we often forget the good "old" books, which are still written. So, anyone got any good tips? It can be pretty much any kind of book that has a nice message or otherwise makes you think. You can browse books recommended sofar below.

Rated 5 out of 5
* Seven Pillars of Wisdom : A Triumph (Novel about Arabia) by T.E. Lawrence (Yea, the Lawrence of Arabia guy)
* Taking the Risk Out of Democracy by Alex Carey
* Fat Cats & Running Dogs: The Enron Stage of Capitalism by Vijay Prashad
* The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice & Folly in an American City (Columbia Northwest Classics) by Peter Boag (Foreword), John G. Gerassi
* Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Right's Abuses a.k.a 'Victims of British Policy' by Mark Curtis

Rated 4.5 out of 5
* 1984 by George Orwell
* Back on the Road: A Journey Through Latin America by Alberto Granado (Foreword), Ernesto Guevara, Richard Gott (Introduction), Patrick Camiller (Translator)
* Another Century of War? by Gabriel Kolko
* The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice, Seventh Edition by Jeffrey Reiman
* Che: Self Portrait by Ernesto Che Guevara, Victor Casaus (Editor)
* Selling the Work Ethic : From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PR by Sharon Beder
* Killing Hope by William Blum RatedThe Motorcycle Diaries : Notes on a Latin American Journey by Ernesto Che Guevara, Cintio Vitier, Aleida Guevara
* Corporations Are Gonna Get Your Mama : Globalization and the Downsizing of the American Dream by Kevin Danaher
* The Creature from Jekyll Island: A second look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin
* People Before Profit : The New Globalization in an Age of Terror, Big Money, and Economic Crisis by Charles Derber (preface by Noam Chomsky)
* Silencing Political Dissent: How Post-September 11 Anti-Terrorism Measures Threaten Our Civil Liberties by Nancy Chang
* The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization (No-Nonsense Guides) by Wayne Ellwood, John McMurtry
* When Corporations Rule the World by David C. Korten

Rated 4 out of 5
* Brave New Wordl by Aldous Huxley
* Blowback : The Costs and Consequences of American Empire by Chalmers Johnson
* The CIA's Greatest Hits (The Real Story Series) by Mark Zepezauer
* Capital : Volume 1: A Critique of Political Economy by Karl Marx
* Hegemony or Survival : America's Quest for Global Dominance by ...Guess who
* Guantanamo: What the World Should Know by Michael Ratner, Ellen Ray
* The Complete Bolivian Diaries of Che Guevara, and Other Captured Documents by Daniel James
* Imperial Crusades: Afghanistan, Iraq and Yugoslavia by Alexander Cockburn & Jeffrey St. Clair
* The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot
* Globalization and it's Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz
* No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs by Naomi Klein
* A People's History of the United States : 1492-Present by Howard Zinn
*Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz
* Global Spin: The Corporate Assault on Environmentalism by Sharon Beder
*How Mumbo-jumbo Conquered the World by Francis Ween
* Pirates and Emperors, Old and New : International Terrorism in the Real World by Noam Chomsky
* Superpatriotism by Michael Parenti
*The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan
*The Economics of Innocent Fraud: Truth For Our Time by John Kenneth Galbraith
* War Plan Iraq: Ten Reasons Against War with Iraq by Milan Rai, Noam Chomsky

Rated 3.5 out of 5
* Bad News From Israel by Greg Philo & Mike Berry
* Dude, Where's My Country? by Michael Moore
* The Silent Takeover : Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy by Noreena Hertz
* Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press & 'Project Truth' by Robert Parry
* The Chavez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela by Eva Golinger (note: Chavez himself referred to this book,
when Democracy Now! asked him about the matter)
* The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel P. Huntington
* The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq by Christian Parenti
* Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent by Eduardo H. Galeano, Cedric Belfrage (Translator)
* Stupid White Men ...and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation! by Michael Moore

Unrated
* Hugo Chavez: The Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela by Richard Gott
* Front Lines of Social Change: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade by Peter N. Carroll (Foreword), Richard Bermack
* Sacco and Vanzetti : Rebel Lives (Rebel Lives) by Nicola Sacco, Bartolomeo Vanzetti, John Davis (Editor)

Special Feature
These 2 books, where one is a short alternative to the other:
* Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time by Carroll Quigley Rated 4.5/5

1300 Pages Too Long For You? Try W. Cleon Skousen's review of "Tragedy & Hope" in his book:
* The Naked Capitalist by W. Cleon Skousen Rated 5/5

This is the original book that exposed the power wielded by the Council on Foreign Relations and other elite groups.
He did this by reviewing Tragedy and Hope - a history book written in about 1966 by Dr. Carroll Quigley, an insider
with connections to the power elite.

"This book will definitely make you THINK.

Books from alternative sites:
* Tupelo - The World's Forgotten Boy by Matt Degennaro
* Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell (Robert Noonan) - FREE Download
* The Art of War by 6th cent. B.C. Sunzi by Sunzi, 6th cent. B.C. - FREE Download.
* The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli by Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527 - FREE Download

Books named and Recommended by Various users:
Marx: Kapital
Negri-Hardt: Impery
Peter Berger: Capitalistic revolution (met your enemy not just read left, left and only left - propaganda is common thing)
Hana Arendt: Sources of totalitarism
Jurgen Habermanss: any
The Te of Piglet
The Media Monopoly
Breaking the News
Neil Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death
Breaking the Chains of Phsychological Slavery
James W. Loewen: Lies My Teacher Told Me
The Culture of Fear
Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley published in 1938

note: Links and quotes are from Amazon. Reason being the place has lots of reviews for each and every book. As well as the very cool feature Search Inside, which you may have noticed on most of these books. Basically it means they got parts of book on the site for public viewing, as well as a search function for the book. I'm not associated with amazon in any way, and would consider alternative links if provided and/or called for. Like the one below here.

Alternative places to find books

* Http://www.akpress.org

Killing Hope by William Blum...Number 1!!

Hmm it seems to have gotten alot of good responses. Well, except for a guy named "True Christian American", he didn't like it

I'll add it to my list of books to find.

Alex Carey's "Taking the risk out of democracy" is a must read on the history of propaganda.

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/s97/carey.html


You may be surprised that someone suggests novels in this thread, but i did not do to much reading lately. Besides, authors i could suggest off the top of my head are easy enough to spot right here on this site.

T.E. Lawrence "Seven Pillars of wisdom" is a verry interesting read for anyone who wishes to get an idea on what's "wrong" with Arabia. Ofcourse he romanticises and he's been accused of overrating his role within the arab revolt, but his recollection of historical events appear correct. It is also interesting to see how a regular army (Brits) used irregular troops in a guerillia warfare, and how the arabs wish for independents, freedom and democracy has been abused for the first time in modern history.

joseph stiglitz - globalization and its discontents [IMF/world bank/WTO etc]


haven't read this one but i think its very interesting:

Richard Gott - Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution

I third Alex Carey's Taking the Risk Out of Democracy as a must read. (Fourth of July is a farce... symbolic.)

must read: Capital - karl marx

the worldly philosophers - robert L heilbroner

you can find capital easily online and the worldly philosophers is on amazon.

I'll have to check some of these suggestions out.

A few that I would recommend are:
The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by Edward Griffin (should be required reading in all schools)
Tragedy and Hope by Carroll Quigley (a current project of mine as it's over 1300 pages)
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy by Greg Palast

If you like foreign affairs, I'd recommend books by Chalmers Johnson such as Blowback.

If you want to understand the paranoid delusions of the neo-cons , try The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel Huntington and anything by Robert Kaplan.

i would add

'The Freedom' by Christian Parenti:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 75-0390000

'Bad News From Israel' by Philo & Berry:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 75-0390000

'Unpeople: Britain's Secret Human Right's Abuses' by Mark Curtis
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 75-0390000

'Imperial Crusades' by Cockburn & St. Clair
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 75-0390000

'Fat Cats & Running Dogs' by Vijay Prashad
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 75-0390000

My own humble endorsement:

People Before Profit: The New Globalisation in an Age of Terror, Big Money and Economic Crisis. By Charles Derber

I haven't read finish the entire book, but I am very satisfied with what I've read so far. The book has a preface by Noam Chomsky as well. What I like particularly about this book is that it is written in a very clear and concise manner, and the author really makes very succint and precise points.

No Logo (Naomi Klien-sp?)

and of course, for the political newbies (people we're trying to wake up) out there, i'd suggest America The Book (Jon Stewart), and Michael Moore's books- specifically his more recent two, Stupid White Men, and Dude, Where's My Country?

almost forgot one of my favs (and really easy to find on the net), Howard Zinn's bestseller:

A People's History Of The United States

Great tips.
and thanks for providing the links til661

Updated at top, and included a note about the "search inside" function, which I actually haven't tried til now, very cool feature for referencing.

I would suggest:
George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four
Noam Chomsky - Hegemony or Survival

Or am I being too obvious?