Anatol Lieven - "America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism"

What about the weighted voting system where everybody casts three votes? It is incredibily difficult to choose a single book for each week. It seems like the book club vote would be a particularly good opportunity to test how a system like that actually would work.

Cass Sunstein: The Second Bill of Rights: FDR's unfinished revolution and why we need it now more than ever.

It's based around FDR's 1944 state of the union address. I haven't read it yet, but it looks very interesting.

This is a couple of years old, but it was a source behind the Dean for America movement.

The book is a discussion of how to start and feed a self-sustaining trend.

I beleive this is a way we can outflank the Republican Noise Machine.

Cheers,
Anne

Status Anxiety -
- Alain De Botton

From the review by the Boston Globe:

"
Perhaps, but status anxiety goes back to more than just nostalgia for the womb, as de Botton shows throughout this brisk little read. Thanks to the American Revolution, he argues, the Western world now operates under the assumption -- however false -- that we live in a meritocracy. The lowliest page boy can aspire to billions, as can a doctor happily bringing in a six-figure salary. The result is a society of people forever measuring themselves against one another and those above them. And the richer we become, the more we need to feel loved.

It sounds like an incredibly reductive argument, but as de Botton zigzags through history collecting examples and illustrating points, his reasoning acquires an elegant simplicity. In the 17th century, status anxiety was dangerous sport as hundreds of thousands of men died dueling over honor. Over the years, it became less dangerous to seek status since the culture -- at least in theory -- accepted that everyone could have it. In the 20th century, a self-help boom exploded in America with gurus like Anthony Robbins exhorting Americans to be all they could be. The implied assumption behind Robbins's success is that most Americans felt they wanted more out of life.

Two forces make it even harder now to accept our status: snobbery and dependence."

It could well be said, of conservatism,
versus liberalism - Trippi's great success
with Dean was to turn our stock market
impulses into buying and selling political
capitol.

The GOP has cornerd the market on snobbery,
but what does the word "liberal" mean to you.

I can offer a definition of "libertarian",
and it just might use a few french words.
Ooo la la! what a great book! Read it!!
Enjoy.

I strongly recommend We the People: A Call to Take Back America by Thom Hartmann.  

I picked up this book at Deanfest (oops, DemocracyFest) last summer before the Democratic convention.  Since it is a comic book and costs only $15, I figured it would be a cheap, light read for when I stood in security lines or otherwise had to burn time.

It turned out to be one of the most powerful books I've read in years, succinctly and powerfully illustrating (through words and pictures) the rise of unchecked corporate control in America, and suggesting what We the People need to do now to restore government of, by, and for the people.

Although some of its messages are more timely for our pre-election hopes, the most important value in the book is its effective and compelling use of the Lakoff-esque frame of "The Commons".  I think the key to re-framing the debates on taxes, social security, and the budget may be in adopting Hartmann's frame of The Commons to our articulation of Democratic values.   While the Republicans underpin arguments by saying, "It's your money," we can effectively re-capture the argument by saying, "It's your country."  It sounds simplistic, but the frame of the Commons is compelling and important.

If you're a history buff, you'll also enjoy Hartmann's exploration of the historical context for the situation we find ourselves in today.

Before the end of the Convention, I'd read the book and loaned it to three other people, who also finished it quickly and went out and bought copies for themselves to pass on to others.  It's that kind of book.

Stanley Greenberg's "The Two Americas".

Or there's always Teixeria and Judis' "EDM".

Perfectly Legal by David Cay Johnston

Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism by Susan Jacoby

Democracy Heading South: National Politics in the Shadow of Dixie by Augustus B. Cochran III.

Publishers Weekly:

Yes, yes, this is a little obscure, but... As we all gear up for the crucial battle of '05, that of reforming our Democratic party, I think a very helpful read would be William J. Crotty's excellent 1978 book on the Dem's reform movement and commissions that came in the wake of the 1968 election, "Decision for the Democrats: Reforming the Party Structure".

This is a book highly under-publicized in the progressive blogosphere - so I'd like to bring it to your attention.

Whitewashing Race: The Myth of a Color-Blind Society, by Michael K. Brown et al.

It is truly a remarkable, eye-opening book that everyone who wants to understand the truth about race relations should read - not only does it give you some excellent historical perspective, but it provides you all the ammunition you need to refute or debunk false claims from the right-wing on race issues in America.

I found 'don't think of an elephant!'[know your values and frame the debate], by George Lakoff a great educational and stimulating experience as to how language frames create the mindset and power of persuasion and debate. Lakoff illuminates and explains how Republicans have learned to control the message through language frames.  Moreover, he is clear about what Democrats have to learn to do to control and com municate their messages with power and control.A really brilliant understanding and how-to book about political warfare and discourse.
Also, I found "Eats, Shoots & Leaves" by Lynne Truss a delightfully witty and edifying book about the importance of the comma, among other grammatical catastrophes she describes in common usage. At long last we have    

... but for a classic that remains frighteningly revealing, The American Voter by Angus somebody and a lot of other people.  Also John Zaller's Nature and Origin of Mass Public Opinion.  Less so is Larry Bartels---accurate, but unrevealing.

By Thomas Hobbes.  Know the enemy, plus it is public domain so you can read it for free.
This article here, albeit from an Israeli political context, is an example how a Hobbesian world view informs the neo-Conservative movement.  It should also explain the neo-conservative affinity with certain Evangelicals, after all, if America is God's New Israel then our ideal leadrship and political cultures should be identical, no?

After the Empire by Emmanuel Todd.  By a European academic, this is a sometimes brilliant, always insightful look at American foreign policy.  It was a bestseller in Europe.  I'm not sure Todd is correct in every aspect of his analysis, but that should actually make for a livelier discussion should the book be chosen.    

There's lots here that defies conventional American thinking, for instance the notion of "theatrical micromilitarism," a term Todd uses to describe the pattern of American military engagement throughout history.  I mentioned this to a Canadian friend who said, "Oh, everyone around the world regards US soldiers as incompetent and the US military as poor strategists."  Not what you were taught in school, not the picture the media shows.  Not what the flag-wavers want you to think.

A good read, whether chosen for the book club or not.

Belies many basic positions of the neocons on why govt should not spend on social issues.  For instance:  There is no strata of society being regularly paid not to work.  Countries who take care of their people between jobs have the same growth in Gross Domestic Product as countries that don't.  There is no sound economic justification for subsidizing corporations between bankruptsies but not supporting people between jobs.  This book claims to afford the first look at these issues over time as opposed to just looking at snapshots of economic positions.  Cambridge University Press.

I've nominated this before, but I'll try it again...

John Rawls, Theory of Justice.

First,
This work has made huge waves in political science over the last 20 years. It's single-handedly reinvigorated the study of political thought in political science departments.

Second,
The book is a stunning defense of wealth redistribution, equality before the law, and political mobility. It's also very persuasive setup for why everyone should support progressive economic government. It isn't just another argument from another academic hack. It is a complete justification and prescription for just and legitimate government. Rawls may become our era's Kant or J.S. Mill.

I think progressives/liberals should hasten its trip down from the ivory tower of academia by reading and understanding it.

But,
It is thick. You can't just skim through it or plow through it like a "best-seller-esque" non-fiction book. It takes work to "get it".