Some books I recommend

20. May 2008 by admin.

I read mostly political analysis, history and science fiction & fantasy books. You might think these genres are very different, but, unfortunately or fortunately–depending on how you look at it–they are often not that dissimilar. This is especially true when reading about current political events and contemporary foreign affairs.

Here are some great recent non-fiction political affairs/socio-economic analyses I’ve been reading:

1. “Shock Doctrine” By Naomi Klein

Now, you’ve got to understand that my intellectual hero is Noam Chomsky, when it comes to insights into the workings of American foreign policy. So, if you think that William F. Buckley is the greatest thing since sliced bread, then my recommendations probably won’t do much for you.

That being said, Chomsky is rapidly moving to his mid-80s, and needs an intellectual heir apparent. I would say that Naomi Klein could well be that heir or, more likely, heiress. Klein is incredibly bright. She not only weaves together seemingly disparate facts and narratives into a coherent whole, but also is very well-researched. One of my favorite recent lines from a book came from her: “By ‘think tank’, I mean people who get paid to think by the people who make the tanks”.

“Shock Doctrine” examines the Milton Friedman school of economic theory which Klein calls ‘Disaster Capitalism’. Klein makes the case that this economic theory was applied to Pinochet’s Chile and to post-Katrina New Orleans, both with spectacularly unsuccessful results.

Great book that everyone should read. It’s now in paperback.

2. “American Theocracy” by Kevin Philips. This is another great book which not only advances a thesis–that the American Empire shares similarities with all the empires that came before it (Roman, Dutch, Spanish, English) and is doomed to suffer the same fate that those empires faced, including the eventual obsolescence of the energy type that the empire was based on–but also taught me a number of things that I didn’t already know.

In fact, the book is so dense with interesting info, that I had to read it quite slowly to absorb all the information I was getting. Please don’t think that the book is boring or dry–it isn’t; if anything, it suffers from being too interesting, kind of like the Wall Street Journal used to be, before it was acquired by Rupert Murdoch.

3. “What We Say Goes” by Noam Chomsky: This book, probably the 90th or 100th authored by Chomsky (or something in that range–I lose count), is great. Written like many of his more recent books in Q&A interview style, it is a very lucid and intelligent perspective on American foreign policy through part of 2006.

As always, Chomsky infuses his perspective with a plethora of well-researched facts to support his viewpoints. His ability to clarify his positions very granularly and not succumb to general statements continues to distinguish his positions on everything he discusses. His mind amazes and humbles me. I will miss him when he departs this mortal coil.

That’s all the books I want to recommend right now. I’ll be back with more soon.

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