Iraq

Night Draws Near : Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War by Anthony Shadid. Award winning journalist Shadid lets the Iraqi people speak for themselves as America invades and then occupies their country. No big names, press conferences or historic events, just a nation in transition.

Squandered Victory : The American Occupation and the Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to Iraq  by Larry Diamond. The author is an expert on democracy efforts worldwide and served in the CPA. He brings an insider's view to the chaos and hubris that characterizes our occupation of Iraq.

Understanding Iraq: The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History from Genghis Khan's Mongols to the Ottoman Turks to the British Mandate to the American Occupation by William R. Polk. Polk's long standing expertise and depth of understanding are a sharp contrast to the instant op-eds that litter the Internet. Find out just how close our occupation is to the one by Britain in the 1920s.

The Iraq War by John Keegan. Keegan is merely the best military writer of our time. Though the Iraq situation stretches in front of us, the war part of it ended quickly and Keegan does his usual expert job of dissecting it. For war in the context of everything else, read Thomas PM Barnett. 

Chain of Command : the road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib by Seymour Hersh. Americans have great amnesia. Give us three years and we forget our own past. We want our leaders to be truthful and want to believe them so, even when they are not.  As the joke goes, "Who you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?" Hersh condenses his reportage from the last four years and the results are damning.

Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides by Christian Appy. The book that Studs Terkel would have written if he were 20 years younger. Based on hundreds of interviews with a minimum of editorializing. Propulsive reading for those who don't remember or have put it out of their minds.

They marched into sunlight: war and peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 by David Maraniss. From the author of the great Lombardi bio When pride still mattered comes a look at three interlocked events. A battalion marches into an ambush in South Vietnam, with results that will not get made into a Mel Gibson movie. In Madison Wisconsin, protestors plan to disrupt Dow chemical recruiting, with results that stained the floors of campus buildings with blood. In the White House, President Johnson faces an election and a war he can't win. Interview based history at its best.

The Universal Hunger For Liberty: Why the Clash of Civilizations Is Not Inevitable by Michael Novak. A thought proving book that asks important questions. How compatible is democracy with Christianity? How is democracy different in a secular society and can it survive there? How compatible is Islam with democratic ideals? Novak holds that culture and politics are at least as important as economics. A work that compliments The Pentagon's New Map.

The Pentagon's new map: war and peace in the twenty-first century by Thomas P.M. Barnett. This book merely clarifies how to look at the world from a strategic and military viewpoint, including a yardstick for how the Iraqi peace could have been won. Check out his website and blog at www.thomaspmbarnett.com. His newest work is Blueprint for Action : A Future Worth Creating. Barnett is a classic optimistic Neo-Wilsonian, with some remarkable insights into how the world can and dhsould work.

Politics

Citizenship papers by Wendell Berry. Essays on what it means to be a citizen, the importance of community, the evils of globalization, etc. Not really a political book, because it is much deeper than that. This is a book that can change your mind and even your life. Read at your own risk.

Big lies: the right wing propaganda machine and how it distorts the truth by Joe Conason. From the co-author of The hunting of the president (not reviewed). Tired of the shrill cries of treason? Take a look at the actual vast right wing conspiracy that controls America's media.

Stand Up, Fight Back: Republican Toughs, Democratic Wimps and the Politics of Revenge by E.J. Dionne.  Written (and ignored) as a guide to Dems for 2004, Dionne's work has lasting merit in trying to restore some balance to our divided country. Though his prescriptions ring true, he almost totally ignores abortion as an issue.

Homegrown Democrat : a few plain thoughts from the heart of America by Garrison Keillor. Droll and deadpan, Keillor dissects the Republicans, with their "I got mine" attitude. They would definitely not be welcome in Lake Wobegon. Funny and dead serious. 

Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. A look at the origins of the Mormon religion and present day polygamists / fundamentalists that will give you the creeps and a lot to think about. As my bother says "Disconnectedness defines danger." .

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush by Kevin Phillips. Phillips was a conservative Republican until the neo-cons twisted both terms out of recognition. Now he turns his considerable skills on the source code for the Bush dynasty and restoration. Not a screed, but a well documented, deeply thought examination of how we got where we are today. His Wealth and Democracy: a Political History of the American Rich is also excellent.