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Need Political and or Controversial book recommendations - 2/2/2010 5:58:39 PM   
NeedToUseYou


Posts: 2297
Joined: 12/24/2005
From: None of your business
Status: offline 		I am buying some books, and my interests are Political, Religion, Economics, and Psychology.

I'm wanting to buy books that have influenced thought, and would be considered classics or standards.

I am logged into ebay, and will probably buy like ten books.
I currently have bought.
1. Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged.
2. Communist Manifesto (Read part of it along time ago).
3. Machiavelli The Prince.

Need suggestions. Thanks.

Controversial, and preferable radical, or books that have effected thought in the area they cover.



< Message edited by NeedToUseYou -- 2/2/2010 5:59:59 PM >
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 6:34:36 PM   
littlewonder


Posts: 15659
Status: offline 		Civil Disobedience by Thoreau

The Bible

< Message edited by littlewonder -- 2/2/2010 6:39:05 PM >

(in reply to NeedToUseYou)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 6:50:57 PM   
NeedToUseYou


Posts: 2297
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quote:

ORIGINAL: littlewonder

Civil Disobedience by Thoreau

The Bible


Ordered the Civil Disobedience one.

I've read a good share of the bible already.

(in reply to littlewonder)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 6:53:02 PM   
TheHeretic


Posts: 19100
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Status: offline 		The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers

_____________________________

If you lose one sense, your other senses are enhanced.
That's why people with no sense of humor have such an inflated sense of self-importance.


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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 7:09:44 PM   
MrMister


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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers


Excellent choice.

I'll try to add few choices you may possibly find helpful;

For general reading - 1984 by George Orwell

Economics- anything by Ludwig von Mises

Religious classic - Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan (but I only recommend getting the version written in modern language)

Or perhaps even a copy of the "Koran" or "Quotations from Chairman Mao (The Little Red Book)

(in reply to TheHeretic)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 7:13:46 PM   
Silence8


Posts: 833
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Status: offline 		anything by Slavoj Žižek -- I'd recommend 'Violence' and 'First Tragedy, Then Farce'. The National Review referred to him as the 'most dangerous political philosopher in the West'.

Also, Howard Zinn just died -- have you read the 'people's history'?

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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 7:14:08 PM   
MissCake


Posts: 149
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Status: offline 		Anything by Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky.

The Prince by Nicollo Machiavelli

Robert MacNamara's memoirs.

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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 7:20:09 PM   
dcnovice


Posts: 37282
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Status: offline 		One book I've heard good things about and have been meaning to read for years is Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire.

I'd also take a look at Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, which is quite political/economic in its way. Not surprisingly, it was a great favorite of FDR's.


_____________________________

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it's never enough to keep up.

JANE WAGNER, THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF
INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE

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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 7:21:26 PM   
samboct


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Status: offline 		How about some philosophy- other than Ayn Rand (yech...)

Actually quite readable- Thus Spake Zarathustra- Nietzche.  After reading this, the movie 2001 will finally make sense.

I always liked Plato's Symposium- but like a lot of philosophy, reading massive tomes is often a waste of time.  You have to rip this one apart line by line with a Greek dictionary (the names have meaning and humor- example- Eraxymychus- Burp Curer) to really get it.

Kant- the Critique of Pure Reason is genius- and just about impossible to plow through.  Kant figured out the layout of the brain through sheer deduction, but he's not easy to read.

Freud- The Interpretation of Dreams- but perhaps a more modern take- Eric Palumbo- Dreaming and Memory.

A well reviewed overview of psychoanalysis- readable- Listening to the Melody of the Mind - Rima Brauer

Economics- Thorstein Veiblein- Theory of Conspicuous Consumption

Anthropology (which has attributes of a lot of the above)- Guns, Germs and Steel- Jared Diamond

HTH

Sam

(in reply to TheHeretic)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 7:22:06 PM   
littlewonder


Posts: 15659
Status: offline 		Common Sense by Robert Paine
Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Mein Kampf by Hitler
The Anarchist's Cookbook
Lolita by Nabakov

(in reply to dcnovice)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 7:29:59 PM   
LadyAngelika


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quote:

I've read a good share of the bible already.


You then might want to try The God delusion By Richard Dawkins

- LA

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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 7:30:51 PM   
Silence8


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quote:

ORIGINAL: samboct

Economics- Thorstein Veiblein- Theory of Conspicuous Consumption



It's Thorstein Veblen - Theory of the Leisure Class -- but yeah, I'd double that recommend. Funny as hell, and extremely insightful. 'Theory of the Leisure Class' is the perfect antidote to any formal education -- Veblen enables the reader to reawaken those intuitions that an 'education' makes you forget.

(in reply to samboct)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 7:35:31 PM   
samboct


Posts: 1817
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Status: offline 		Oops- shows you how good my memory is.....

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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/2/2010 7:45:41 PM   
Brain


Posts: 3792
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Status: offline 		Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Hardcover)

In this compelling and important analysis of the triumph of capitalism and the decline of democracy, former labor secretary Reich urges us to rebalance the roles of business and government. Power, he writes, has shifted away from us in our capacities as citizens and toward us as consumers and investors. While praising the spread of global capitalism, he laments that supercapitalism has brought with it alienation from politics and community. The solution: to separate capitalism from democracy, and guard the border between them. Plainspoken and forceful, if somewhat repetitious, the book urges new and strengthened laws and regulations to restore authority to the citizens in us. Reich's proposals are anything but knee-jerk liberal: he calls for abolishing the corporate income tax and labels the corporate social responsibility movement distracting and even counterproductive. As in 2004's Reason, Reich exhibits perhaps too much confidence in Americans' ability to think and act in their own best interests. But he refuses to shift blame for corporations' dominance to the usual suspects, instead pointing a finger at consumers like you and me who want better deals, and from investors like us who want better returns, he writes. Provocatively argued, this book could help begin a necessary national conversation. (Sept. 6)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://www.amazon.com/Supercapitalism-Transformation-Business-Democracy-Everyday/dp/0307265617



The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
By John Maynard Keynes

http://books.google.ca/books?id=dQD9o31F1N4C&dq=John+Maynard+Keynes&printsec=frontcover&source=an&hl=en&ei=1O1oS7cvx5S2B8m80eUG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=&f=false


Doris Goodwin, one of the best, take your pick

http://books.google.ca/books?as_auth=Doris+Kearns+Goodwin&source=an&ei=4e9oS5aqFsWVtgfowvnnBg&sa=X&oi=book_group&ct=title&cad=author-navigational&resnum=10&ved=0CCgQsAMwCQ

(in reply to NeedToUseYou)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/3/2010 2:25:37 AM   
NeedToUseYou


Posts: 2297
Joined: 12/24/2005
From: None of your business
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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers


I watched the series or at least I think I did or it had a very similar name. If so the series if I recall was rather long, is there substantially more to the book? As I work on the computer all day, so I've at listend to about every documentary several times over.



(in reply to TheHeretic)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/3/2010 2:32:54 AM   
NeedToUseYou


Posts: 2297
Joined: 12/24/2005
From: None of your business
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quote:

ORIGINAL: MrMister

quote:

ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers


Excellent choice.

I'll try to add few choices you may possibly find helpful;

For general reading - 1984 by George Orwell
read that one

Economics- anything by Ludwig von Mises
Anyone in particular.

Religious classic - Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan (but I only recommend getting the version written in modern language)


Or perhaps even a copy of the "Koran" or "Quotations from Chairman Mao (The Little Red Book)

I think I'll skip the Koran for the time being, pure ancient religious text, bogs me down after awhile, same reason I haven't read the whole bible from end to end.

The Chairman Mao book sounds interesting.

LOL, I just bid on the Little Red Book, and the seller is from CHINA. Maybe it's subsidized by the state.


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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/3/2010 2:53:38 AM   
NeedToUseYou


Posts: 2297
Joined: 12/24/2005
From: None of your business
Status: offline
quote:

anything by Slavoj Žižek -- I'd recommend 'Violence' and 'First Tragedy, Then Farce'. The National Review referred to him as the 'most dangerous political philosopher in the West'.

Also, Howard Zinn just died -- have you read the 'people's history'?
quote:

ORIGINAL: MissCake

Anything by Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky.

The Prince by Nicollo Machiavelli

Robert MacNamara's memoirs.



Bid on People's History since you both say he's good.  Though the others sound interesting, I've watched Chomsky plenty, so, prefer to read some new viewpoints.

(in reply to MissCake)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/3/2010 2:58:27 AM   
NeedToUseYou


Posts: 2297
Joined: 12/24/2005
From: None of your business
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quote:

ORIGINAL: samboct

How about some philosophy- other than Ayn Rand (yech...)
The reason I bought that first is I've noticed so many really, really don't like her, and I guess the only way to find out is to read it.

Actually quite readable- Thus Spake Zarathustra- Nietzche.  After reading this, the movie 2001 will finally make sense.

I always liked Plato's Symposium- but like a lot of philosophy, reading massive tomes is often a waste of time.  You have to rip this one apart line by line with a Greek dictionary (the names have meaning and humor- example- Eraxymychus- Burp Curer) to really get it.

Kant- the Critique of Pure Reason is genius- and just about impossible to plow through.  Kant figured out the layout of the brain through sheer deduction, but he's not easy to read.

Freud- The Interpretation of Dreams- but perhaps a more modern take- Eric Palumbo- Dreaming and Memory.

A well reviewed overview of psychoanalysis- readable- Listening to the Melody of the Mind - Rima Brauer

Economics- Thorstein Veiblein- Theory of Conspicuous Consumption

Anthropology (which has attributes of a lot of the above)- Guns, Germs and Steel- Jared Diamond

HTH

Sam



Well, I'm going to stop updating on what books I've bid on (since it's getting to be alot), I just went through and selected one or more books from each post and put a bid on them. The ebay god, will decide which books gets to warp my brain. It'll take me a while to get through them all I'm sure.





< Message edited by NeedToUseYou -- 2/3/2010 3:03:52 AM >

(in reply to samboct)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/3/2010 3:13:02 AM   
Aynne88


Posts: 3873
Joined: 8/29/2008
Status: offline 		Well I would skip Rand...most overrated writer ever.

Howard Zinn already mentioned but brilliant as is Chomsky.

I also second Satanic Verses.

Voltaire's Candide...excellent.



< Message edited by Aynne88 -- 2/3/2010 3:17:10 AM >

_____________________________

As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.
—Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer and Nobel laureate (1902–1991)



(in reply to NeedToUseYou)
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RE: Need Political and or Controversial book recommenda... - 2/3/2010 3:13:19 AM   
Level


Posts: 25145
Joined: 3/3/2006
Status: offline 		Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell

The Essential Galbraith, by John Kenneth Galbraith

Those two would give you a good sample of economic thought, Right to Left.

_____________________________

Fake the heat and scratch the itch
Skinned up knees and salty lips
Let go it's harder holding on
One more trip and I'll be gone

~~ Stone Temple Pilots

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