Books for Liberals

Bold Important

 

Contents



 

Liberal Values

Raymond Arsenault (ed.), 1991, Crucible of Liberty, 200 Years of the Bill of Rights

Peter Beinart, 2006, The Good Fight, Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again

Alan Brinkley, 1998, Liberalism and Its Discontents

Senator Robert C. Byrd, 2004, Losing America, Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency

Glenn Greenwald, 2006, How Would a Patriot Act?  Defending American Values from a President Run Amok

Gary Hart, 2002, Restoration of the Republic, the Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st-Century America

Thom Hartman, 2004, What Would Jefferson Do?  A Return to Democracy

Neil Jumonville and Kevin Mattson (eds.), 2007, Liberalism for a New Century

Caroline Kennedy (Editor), 2003, A Patriot’s Handbook, Songs, Poems, Stories and Speeches Celebrating the Land We Love

Richard C. Leone and Greg Anrig, Jr. (eds.), 2003 , The War on Our Freedoms, Civil Liberties in an Age of Terrorism

John McGowan, 2007, American Liberalism, An Interpretation for Our Time

John E. Schwarz, 2005, Freedom Reclaimed, Rediscovering the American Vision

Harvard Sitkoff (ed), Perspectives on Modern American, Making Sense of the Twentieth Century

Paul Starr, 2007, Freedom’s Power, The True Force of Liberalism

Cass R. Sunstein, 2004, The Second Bill of Rights, FDR’s Unfinished Revolution and Why We Need it More than Ever

Jules Witcover, 2003, Party of the People, A History of the Democrats

Randall B. Woods, 2006, LBJ: Architect of American Ambition

Donna Zajonc, The Politics of Hope, Reviving the Dream of Democracy

John Zogby, 2008, The Way We’ll Be, The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream

Duane Elgin, 1981, Voluntary Simplicity

Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, 1993, Your Money or Your Life

 

Grass Roots Organizing

Saul Alinsky, 1946, Reveille for Radicals.

Saul Alinsky, 1972, Rules for Radicals.

Stanley Horwitt, 1992, Let Them Call Me Rebel, Saul Alinsky: His Life and Legacy

 

The following books about the ICA’s Human Development Approach are available at ICA USA 773-769-6363 or www.ICA-USA.org:

R. Brian Stanfield, 1900, The Courage to Lead

R. Brian Stanfield, 2002, The Workshop Book: From Individual Creativity to Group Action

Laura Spencer, 1989, Winning Through Participation

Institute of Cultural Development, 1989, Approaches that Work

 

Paul Rogat Loeb (ed.), 2004, The Impossible Will Take a Little While, A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear

Paul Rogat Loeb, Soul of a Citizen, Living with Conviction in a Cynical Time

 

Religious Liberalism

Dan Brown, The DaVinci Code

William Slone Coffin, Credo

Donna Cross, Pope Joan

Michael Lerner, The Left Hand of God, Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right

Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

Bishop John Shelby Spong, Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism

Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth

Clint Wallis and Nate Hardcastle (eds.), Jesus is not a Republican

Jim Wallis, 2005, God’s Politics, Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It.  A New Vision for Faith and Politics in America

 

Liberal Political Strategy

Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, 2006, Crashing the Gate, Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics

Paul Begala, 2002, It's Still the Economy, Stupid, (George W. Bush, the GOP's CEO)

Jared Bernstein, 2006, All Together Now, Common Sense for a Fair Economy

James MacGregor Burns, 2006, Running Alone, Presidential Leadership, JFK to Bush II, Why It Has Failed and How We Can Fix It.

James Carville and Paul Begala, 2006, Take It Back, Our Party, Our Country, Our Future*

Earthworks Action, 2006, 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right

Laura Flanders, 2007, Blue Grit, True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians

Mark Halperin and John F. Harris, 2006, The Way to Win, Taking the White House in 2008

Gary Hart, 2006, The Courage of Our Convictions, A Manifesto for Democrats

Don Hazen and Lakshmi Chaudhry, 2005, Start Making Sense, Turning the Lessons of Election 2004 into Winning Progressive Politics

Glenn Hurowitz, 2007, Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party

Matthew R. Kerbel, 2006, Get the Party Started, How Progressives Can Fight Back and Win

Robert Kuttner, 1987, The Life of the Party

Bill Lofy (ed.) Politics the Wellstone Way

Ted Rall, 2004, Wake Up, You’re Liberal

Thomas F. Schaller, 2006, Whistling Past Dixie, How Democrats Can Win Without the South

Bill Scher, 2006, Wait!  Don’t Move to Canada!  A Stay-and-Fight Strategy to Bring Back America

Chuck Schumer, 2007, Positively American, Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time

Tony Schwartz, 1973, The Responsive Chord, How Radio and TV Manipulate You, Who You Vote For, What You Buy, and How You Think

David Sirota, 2008, The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington

Joe Trippi, 2004, The Revolution Will Not be Televised.  Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything

Paul Waldman, 2006, Being Right Is Not Enough, What Progressives Must Learn from Conservative Success

 

Liberal Framing

George Lakoff, 2004, Don’t Think of an Elephant, Know Your Values and Frame the Debate

George Lakoff, 2006, Whose Freedom, The Battle over America’s Most Important Idea

Geoffrey Nunberg, 2006, Talking Right

Jeffrey Feldman, 2007, Framing the Debate, Famous Presidential Speeches and how Progressives Can Use Them to Change the Conversation (and Win Elections)

Jeffrey Feldman, 2008, Outright Barbarous, How the Violent Language of the Right Poisons American Democracy

Bernie Horn, 2008, Framing the Future, How Progressive Values Can Win Elections and Influence People

 

Liberal Political Policy

Peter Beinart, 2006, The Good Fight, Why Liberals—and Only Liberals—Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again

Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon, 2005, The Next Attack, The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting It Right

Barry Bluestone and Bennett Harrison, 2000, Growing Prosperity, The Battle for Growth with Equity in the 21st Century

Lester R. Brown, 2003, Plan B, Rescuing a Planet under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble

Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Reed, 2006, The Plan, Big Ideas for America

John Kenneth Galbraith, 1996, The Good Society

Norton Garfinkle, 2006, The American Dream vs. The Gospel of Wealth: The Fight for a Productive Middle-Class Economy

Ted Halstead (ed.), 2004, The Real State of the Union, From the Best Minds in America, Bold Solutions to the Problems Politicians Dare Not Address

Gary Hart, 2006, The Courage of Our Convictions, A Manifesto for Democrats

John Kao, 2007, Innovation Nation, How America is Losing Its Innovation Edge, Why It Matters and What We Can Do to Get It Back

Jeff Madrick, 2002, Why Economies Grow, The Forces That Shape Prosperity and How To Get Them Working Again

Matthew Miller, 2003, The 2% Solution, Fixing America’s Problems in Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love

Randall Rothenberg, 1984, The Neo-Liberals, Creating the New American Politics

Chuck Schumer, 2007, Positively American, Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time

Gene Sperling, 2005, The Pro-Growth Progressive, An Economic Strategy for Shared Prosperity

 

Election Reform

Douglas J. Amy, 1993, Real Choices New Voices, The Case for Proportional Representation Elections in the United States*

George Farah, 2004, No Debate, How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates

Howard Friel and Richard Falk, 2004, The Record of the Paper, How the New York Times Misreports US Foreign Policy

 

Corporations Aren’t People

·       Thom Hartman, 2002, Unequal Protection, The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights

·       Marjorie Kelly, 2001, The Divine Right of Capital, Dethroning the Corporate Aristocracy

 

Government, Social Services and Lifestyles

Influential Environmental Books

Dean Baker, 2006, The Conservative Nanny State

Mirian Wright Edelman, the Measure of Our Success, A Letter to My Children and Yours

Al Gore, Creating a Government that Works Better and Costs Less, the Report of the National Performance Review

Jacob S. Hacker, 2002, The Divided Welfare State, The Battle over Public and Private Social Benefits in the United States

Robert Haveman, Starting Even, an Equal Opportunity Program to Combat the Nation’s New Poverty

Jill Quadgno, One Nation Uninsured, Why the U.S. Has No Health Insurance*

Juliet B. Schor,  1993, The Overworked American, The Unexpected Decline of Leisure

John E. Schwarz, America’s Hidden Success, a Reassessment of Public Policy from Kennedy to Reagan

Harvard Sitkoff (ed), 1985, Fifty Years Later, The New Deal Evaluated

Barbara Ehrenreich, 2001, Nickel and Dimed. On (Not) Getting By in America

Barbara Ehrenreich, 2005, Bait and Switch, The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream

Lisbeth B. Schorr with Daniel Schorr, Within Our Reach, Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage

John de Graaf (ed), 2003, Take Back Your Time, Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America

Juliet B. Schor, 1998. The Overspent American, Why We Want What We Don’t Need

Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi, 2003, The Two-Income Trap, Why Middle-Class Parents Are Going Broke

Juliet B. Schor, 2004, Born to Buy

John de Graaf, David Wann and Thomas H. Naylor, 2005, Affluenza, The All-Consuming Epidemic

Mark Robert Rank, 2005, One Nation, Underprivileged. Why Poverty Affects Us All

David Shipler, 2004, The Working Poor. Invisible in America

Catherine Crier, 2002, The Case Against Lawyers, How the Lawyers, Politicians and Bureaucrats Have Turned the Law into an Instrument of Tyranny—and What We as Citizens Have to Do About It

Charles J. Sykes, 1992, A Nation of Victims, The Decay of the American Character

 

Increased Inequality and Private Risk

Daniel Altman, 2004, Neoconomy, George Bush’s Revolutionary Gamble with America’s Future

Jacob S. Hacker, 2006, The Great Risk Shift, The Assault on American Jobs, Families, Health Care, and Retirement and How you can Fight back

Thom Hartmann, 2006, Screwed, The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class – and What We Can Do About It

Michael A. Hiltzik, 2005, The Plot Against Social Security, How the Bush Plan is Endangering Our Financial Future

Max J. Skidmore, 1999, Social Security and Its Enemies, The Case for America’s Most Efficient Insurance Program

James Lardner and David A. Smith (eds.), 2005, Inequality Matters, The Growing Economic Divide in America and Its Poisonous Consequences

Louis Uchitelle, 2006, The Disposable American, Layoffs and Their Consequences

William H. Gates Sr. and Chuck Collins, 2002, Wealth and Commonwealth,  Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes

 

Autobiographies and Biographies

Colin Powell, 1995, My American Journey

Barack Obama, 1995, Dreams from My Father, A Story of Race and Inheritance

Barack Obama, 2006, The Audacity of Hope, Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

Hillary Clinton, 1996, It Takes a Village

Jesse Ventura, 1999, I Ain’t Got Time to Bleed

Bill Moyers, 2004, Moyers on America, A Journalist and His Times

Hillary Clinton, 2004, Living History

Bill Clinton, 2004, My Life

Terry McAulife, 2007, What a Party!  My Life among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and other Wild Animals

Naftali Bendavid, 2007, The Thumpin’, How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican revolution

 

Recent Political History

 

The Nineteen Thirties – The New Deal

Arthur M. "Schlesinger, Jr., 1957, The Crisis of the Old Order: 1919-33, The Age of Roosevelt, Volume I

Arthur M. "Schlesinger, Jr., 1958, The Coming of the New Deal: 1933-35, The Age of Roosevelt, Volume II

Arthur M. "Schlesinger, Jr., 1960, The Politics of Upheaval: 1935-36, The Age of Roosevelt, Volume III

Harvard Sitkoff (ed), 1985, Fifty Years Later, The New Deal Evaluated

 

The Nineteen Sixties – The Golden Era

David Riesman, Nathan Glazer and Reuel Denney, 1950, The Lonely Crowd, A Study of the Changing American Character

William H. Whyte, Jr., 1956, The Organization Man

Vance Packard, 1957, The Hidden Persuaders

Betty Friedan, 1963, The Feminine Mystique

Alvin Toffler, 1970, Future Shock

Charles A. Reich, 1970, The Greening of America

John Kenneth Galbraith, 1958, The Affluent Society

John Kenneth Galbraith, 1967, The New Industrial State

John Kenneth Galbraith, 1973, Economics and the Public Purpose

 

The Nineteen Seventies – End of Growth

Edmund S. Phelps, 1962, The Goal of Economic Growth

E. F. Schumacher, 1973, Small Is Beautiful, Economics as if People Mattered

Mancur Olson and Hans H. Landsberg (eds.), 1973, The No-Growth Society

Willis W. Harman, 1976, An Incomplete Guide to the Future

E. J. Mishan, 1977, The Economic Growth Debate, An Assessment

Hazel Henderson, 1980, Creating Alternative Futures, The End of Economics

Hazel Henderson, 1981, The Politics of the Solar Age: Alternatives to Economics

Daniel Bell and Irving Kristol (eds.), 1981, The Crisis in Economic Theory

Robert Kuttner, 1984, The Economic Illusion, False Choices Between Prosperity and Social Justice

Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Steven M. Tipton, 1985, Habits of the Heart

Thomas Michael Power, 1988, The Economic Pursuit of Quality

Herman E. Daly and John B. Cobb, Jr., 1989, For the Common Good, Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the Environment and a Sustainable Future

Frances Moore Lappe, 1989, Rediscovering America’s Values, A Provocative Dialogue for Exploring Our Fundamental Beliefs and How They Offer Hope for America’s Future

1989, Redefining Wealth and Progress, New Ways to Measure Economic, Social and Environmental Change

Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler and Steven M. Tipton, 1991, The Good Society

George P. Brockway, 1991, The End of Economic Man, Principles of Any Future Economics

George P. Brockway, 1995, Economists Can Be Bad for Your Health

Frank Ackerman, David Kiron, Neva R. Goodwin, Jonathan M. Harris and Kevin Gallagher (eds.), 1997, Human Well-Being and Economic Goals

 

Conservative Ascendency

Derek Leebaert, 2002, The Fifty-Year Wound, The True Price of America’s Cold War Victory

Milton and Rose Friedman, 1980, Free to Choose, A Personal Statement

Lou Cannon, 2003, Governor Reagan, His Rise to Power

Robert Kuttner, 1996, Everything for Sale

John Kenneth Galbraith, 1992, The Culture of Contentment

Thomas Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas?  How Conservatives Won the Heart of America

Domenick J. Maglio, 2005, Invasion Within, Overcoming the Elitists’ Attack on Moral Values and the American Way

Dean Baker, 2006, The Conservative Nanny State

Brian Mann, 2006, Welcome to the Homeland, A journey to the Rural Heart of America’s Conservative Revolution

Alan Wolfe, 1998, One Nation, After All, What Middle-Class Americans Really Think About

Gertrude Himmelfarb, 1999, One Nation, Two Cultures, A Searching Examination of American Society in the Aftermath of Our Cultural Revolution

Newt Gingrich, 1995, To Renew America

Bill Clinton, 2004, My Life

Roger Morris, Partners in Power, The Clintons and Their America

Haynes Johnson and David S. Broder, 1996, The System, The American Way of Politics at the Breaking Point

Joseph Stiglitz, 2003, The Roaring Nineties

Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, the Hunting of the President, the Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton

Newt Gingrich, To Renew America

Joe Scarborough, 2004, Rome Wasn’t Burnt in a Day

D. J. Dionne Jr, 1996, They Only Look Dead, Why Progressives Will Dominate the Next Political Era

Amy Goodman, The Exception to the Rulers

Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, Off Center, the Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy

James Bovard, 2003, Terrorism and Tyranny, Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil

Daniel Altman, 2004, Neoconomy, George Bush’s Revolutionary Gamble with America’s Future

Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten, 2006, One Party County, The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century

Philippe Sands, 2005, Lawless World, America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules from FDR’s Atlantic Charter to George W. Bush’s Illegal War

Julian Eilperin, 2006, Fight Club Politics, How Partisanship is Poisoning the House of Representatives

 

Conservative Deception

Eric Boehlert, 2006, Lapdogs, How the Press Rolled Over for Bush

David Brock, The Republican Noise Machine, Right-Wing Media and How it Corrupts Democracy

Senator Robert C. Byrd, 2004, Losing America, Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency

Graydon Carter, 2004, What We’ve Lost, How the Bush Administration Has Curtailed Our Freedoms, Mortgaged Our economy, Ravaged Our Environment and Damaged Our Standing in the World

Joe Conason, Big Lies, The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth

John W. Dean, 2004, Worse than Watergate, The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush

Julian Eilperin, 2006, Fight Club Politics, How Partisanship is Poisoning the House of Representatives

Ben Fritz, Bryan Keefer, and Bendan Nyhan, 2004, All the President’s Spin, George W. Bush, The Media, and the Truth

Al Gore, 2007, The Assault on Reason

Jack Huberman, 2007, The GOP-Hater’s Handbook, 378 Reasons Never Again to Vote for the Party of Reagan, Nixon and Bush Again

Michael Isikoff and David Corn, 2006. Hubris, The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War

Mark Crispin Miller, 2004, Cruel and Unusual, Bush/Cheney’s New World Order

Frank Rich, 2006, The Greatest Story Ever Sold, The Decline and Fall of Truth From 9/11 to Katrina

Mark Halperin and John F. Harris, 2006, The Way to Win, Taking the White House in 2008

Glenn Greenwald, 2008, Great American Hypocrites, Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics

Eric Alderman, 2008, Why We’re Liberals, A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America

 

Conservative Incompetence – Bush’s ‘War on Terror’ and Iraq

Lawrence Wright, 2006, The Looming Tower, Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

James Fallows, 2006, Blind Into Baghdad, America’s War in Iraq

George Packer, 2005, Assassins’ Gate, America in Iraq

Philippe Sands, 2005, Lawless World, America and the Making and Breaking of Global Rules from FDR’s Atlantic Charter to George W. Bush’s Illegal War

Julia E. Sweig, 2006, Friendly Fire, Losing Friends and Making Enemies in the Anti-American Century

Mark Crispin Miller, 2004, Cruel and Unusual, Bush/Cheney’s New World Order

Thomas E. Rick, 2006, Fiasco, The American Military Adventure in Iraq

James Risen, 2006, State of War, The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration

Bob Woodward, 2006, State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III

 

Conservative Corruption

Kevin Phillips, 1994, Arrogant Capital, Washington, Wall Street and the Frustration of American Politics

Marjorie Kelly, 2001, The Divine Right of Capital

Mark Green, 2002, Selling Out, How Big Corporate Money Buys Elections, Rams through Legislation, and Betrays Our Democracy

Thom Hartmann, 2002, Unequal Protection, The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights

Jim Hightower, 2003, Thieves in High Places, They’ve Stolen Our Country and It’s Time to Take It Back

David Cay Johnston, 2003, Perfectly Legal, The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich – and Cheat Everybody Else

Ted Nace, 2003, Gangs of America, the Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy

Charles Derber, 2004, Regime Change Begins at Home, Freeing America from Corporate Rule

Charles Lewis, 2004, The Buying of the President 2004, Who’s Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challenger – and What They Expect in Return

Roger Lowenstein, 2004, Origins of the Crash, The Great Bubble and its Undoing

T. Christian Miller, 2006, Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq

Micah L. Sifry and Nancy Watzman, 2004, Is That Politician in Your Pocket?  Washington on $2 Million a Day

David Sirota, 2006, Hostile Takeover, How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government – and How We Take It Back

 

Christian Conservatives

Glenn Greenwald, 2007, A Tragic Legacy, How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency

Chris Hedges, 2006, American Fascists, The Christian Right and the War on America

Esther Kaplan, 2004, With God on Their Side, How Christian Fundamentalists Trampled Science, Policy, and Democracy in George W. Bush’s White House

Mark Douglas McGarvie, 2004, One Nation Under Law, America’s Early National Struggles to Separate Church and State

Ryan Sager, 2006, The Elephant in the Room, Evangelicals, Libertarians, and the Battle to Control the Republican Party

Mel White, 2006, Religion Gone Bad, The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right

 

Traditional Conservatives Criticize New Conservatives

Bruce Bartlett, 2006, Impostor, How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy

Patrick Buchanan, 2004, Where the Right Went Wrong, How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency

Stephen Slivinski, 2006, Buck Wild, How Republicans Brock the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government

Michael D. Tanner, 2007, Leviathan on the Right, How Big-Government Brought Down the Republican Revolution

Richard A. Viguerie, 2006, Conservatives Betrayed, How George Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause

Joe Scarborough, 2004, Rome Wasn’t Burnt in a Day

 

Others Criticize New Conservatives

James Bovard, 2003, Terrorism and Tyranny, Trampling Freedom, Justice and Peace to Rid the World of Evil*

Graydon Carter, 2004, What We’ve Lost, How the Bush Administration Has Curtailed Our Freedoms, Mortgaged Our economy, Ravaged Our Environment and Damaged Our Standing in the World

Glenn Greenwald, 2006, How Would a Patriot Act?  Defending American Values from a President Run Amok

Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson, 2006, Off Center, the Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy*