Progressive bibliography for a public library (about 25)?

[blondeatlast]

What are the essentials?

Keep in mind, public libraries are severly limited in funds, so have to stay in the "popular" mode. Circulation is always the bottom line.

I'm looking for a list of about 25 titles that will serve the progressive community. Reading level should be high school/junior college; we can neither afford nor have demand for academic level books (except by the inevitable intellectual snobs--don't get me started on that!).

And yes, our library owns all of Will's books; how do you suppose THAT happened?! :evilgrin:

ISBNs are tremendous worksavers for me, btw!

Thanks much--I can be fairly certain that any recommendations will be considered, and the big 25 will be provided if at all possible.

[blondeatlast]

1. Also, teen level titles would be EXTREMELY helpful; our library

has a ste-of-the-art teen center that is tremendously popular, and I have a feeling that activism may become very trendy soon.

[revree]

2. I review books for several websites...here are my faves...

THIEVES IN HIGH PLACES by Jim Hightower, very grass roots
ISBN 0452285658

WHAT LIBERAL MEDIA? Eric Alterman critical to understanding media bias
ISBN 04650001777

SOUL OF A CITIZEN by Paul Rogat Loeb the best book I've ever read about progressive activism, so inspiring and features young people doing tremendous things in the world, too
ISBN 0312204353

LOOKING FOR GOD IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES by Marie Jones
ISBN 1931044422 spirituality from a progressive standpoint

[blondeatlast]

4. We're doing something LEFT--we have 'em all!

I'll read "Looking for God," haven't read that one yet.

Thanks.

[tanyev]

3. Of all of the recent books I have read,

John Dean's Worse than Watergate was the best at cutting right to the issues and laying them out in an easy to understand manner.
ISBN0-316-00023-X

I'm also partial to Molly Ivins--Shrub, Bushwhacked.

[blondeatlast]

5. "Worse Than Watergate" was incredible.

Not just a great read, but very concise and great commentary from one who knows about corruption at the highest level.

Of all the anti-bunny books I read, I honestly think that was the best one.

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Richard Clarke's "Against All Enemies"

is very good and. IMO, well-balanced. He gives praise and criticism to Clinton, Reagan, and Poppy Bush as well as Dubya. It's a good review of what has gone on in foreign affairs, particularly American relations with Arab and Muslim states over the past two decades.

[NMDemDist2]

7. Don't forget "Perfectly Legal" by David Cay Johnston and

"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" by John Perkins

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251

and Robert Kennedy Jr's book on the environment

and Garrison Keillor's new one the Homegrown Democrat IIRC

you may to check out this website too....

www.progressivebookclub.com

[blondeatlast]

8. So far, I'm happy to say we own all but one, and I requested

"Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" earlier this week!

Keep them coming!

BTW, if anyone can find a review of "Confessions" I'd be in your debt. It wasn't in the major review journals, and we like to have something to point to when a title gets "challenged," as political books sometimes do.

Even if from the progressive-type press, as long as it has some respect in the field, it'll help.

Thanks.

[justiceischeap]

14. I don't know if this counts as a review

but there are several "editorial" reviews on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/product-description/1576753018/ref=dp_proddesc_0/102-2055288-8334527?%5Fencoding=UTF8&n=507846

From Publishers Weekly
Perkins spent the 1970s working as an economic planner for an international consulting firm, a job that took him to exotic locales like Indonesia and Panama, helping wealthy corporations exploit developing nations as, he claims, a not entirely unwitting front for the National Security Agency. He says he was trained early in his career by a glamorous older woman as one of many "economic hit men" advancing the cause of corporate hegemony. He also says he has wanted to tell his story for the last two decades, but his shadowy masters have either bought him off or threatened him until now. The story as presented is implausible to say the least, offering so few details that Perkins often seems paranoid, and the simplistic political analysis doesn’t enhance his credibility. Despite the claim that his work left him wracked with guilt, the artless prose is emotionally flat and generally comes across as a personal crisis of conscience blown up to monstrous proportions, casting Perkins as a victim not only of his own neuroses over class and money but of dark forces beyond his control. His claim to have assisted the House of Saud in strengthening its ties to American power brokers may be timely enough to attract some attention, but the yarn he spins is ultimately unconvincing, except perhaps to conspiracy buffs.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[tanyev]

9. What about DVDs?

"Unprecedented" and "Hijacking Catastrophe" are excellent.

Or maybe David Brock's The Republican Noise Machine. I haven't actually read that one. I read Blinded by the Right and really liked it, but the focus is a blend of his coming to terms with the right wing and also his personal struggle with how open he should be about his homosexuality.

[MountainLaurel]

10. "A People's History of the United States"

"And Voices from a People's History" . . . . 0060528370 and 1583226281

Ronald Takaki's "A Different Mirror" 0316831115

Loewen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me" (0684818868) and his other books along the same lines. 0684870673

for YAs, how about the graphic novel Perseopolis, about a young woman growing up in Iran. 0375422307 and 0375422889


edited to add ISBNs

PM me if you want more suggestions: I do collection development at a community college library. We try to provide books that the students will want to read.

[bemildred]

11. A few suggestions:

"Inseparable Enemies" -- Walter Karp
"Who Will Tell The People" -- Greider
"Savage Inequalities" -- Kozol
"Lies We Live By" -- Hausman
"Money and Class In America" -- Lewis Lapham
"Lies My Teacher Told Me" -- James W. Loewen
"United States" -- Gore Vidal
"The Rich and The Super-Rich" -- Fred Lundberg
"Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk" -- Postman
"The Unconquerable World" -- Schell

And of course anything by George Orwell.

[stevebreeze]

12. AMERICA: WHO REALLY PAYS THE TAXES?

Now a decade old still very very relevant and a great read.

[OrwellwasRight]

13. I also say everything by Vonnegut and

Kevin Phillips' The Politics of Rich & Roor and Wealth and Democracy.

Do you have any Paul Sweezy?