Books
The Mueller Report
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The Mueller report, though old news, is still very relevant to understanding the crimes of the Trump regime. In part one, there is a very good and detailed description of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Part 2 presents nine possible cases of obstruction of justice.
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The Anatomy of Fascism by Robert Paxton
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This is the classic work on European Fascism in the 30's. Quite scholarly and not for the faint of heart. But this is the book you start out with if you want to acquire a serious understanding of fascism.
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How Fascism Works by Jason Stanley
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This is a good book about the general nature of fascism and how fascism is currently attacking our American democracy. There is a chilling section about how German Jews were unaware of what was happening in their own country and how they normalized the process of their fellow Jews being arrested and sent off to concentration camps.
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Moral Politics by George Lakoff
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This is an 800-page volume, quite scholarly, but basically approachable to ordinary people who are willing to pay the dues. I consider this book to be THE definitive guidebook for progressives who are puzzled about how conservatives and pro-Trump people can say the things they do and vote against their own self-interest. He wrote 2 smaller books: "Don't Think of an Elephant" and "The Little Blue Book". |
How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Danel Ziblat
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If you want to understand how our American democracy is being dismantled, the people who are doing it and where they came from, this is the book. This should be a key book on anyone's reading list who wants to understand how America got to where we are today, and most likely where we have yet to go.
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The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
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This is not for the faint of heart either. But it is THE classic look into the psychology and sociology of fascism and authoritarianism in general. Arendt was a German philosopher and political theorist who emerged from WW2 and wondered how that tragedy could happen.
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Fascism, A Warning by Madeleine Albright
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This is a warning about the scourge of fascism issued by former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright. She is a survivor of different brands of European fascism and this book is a recounting of those experiences.
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The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich
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This is another stiff read, but will be very rewarding to the reader who persists. Reich is one of a number psychologists who emerged from the Nazi era and WW2 and asked the question: "How could this happen". Reich offers valuable information that will enable the reader to understand what is happening in the Trump movement today.
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The Extinction Rubicon by Tony Corrado
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The Road to Unfreedom by Timothy Snyder
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This is an important book, well worth the read. It's also available as an audio book on Google Playbooks.
This is a detailed picture of Vladimir Putin, Russian fascism and their on-going successful attack on our American democracy. It's packed full of names, dates, places and very convincing narrative of Russia's attack on our democracy. Donald Trump's role is not left out. |
One Long NIght by Andrea Pitzer
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Andrea Ocasio Cortez has finally come out and described the Trump "administration's" immigrant detention camps for what they are. The lady who wrote this book says that what is happening now in our country is no different from what happened in the early stages of Nazi Germany.
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From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp
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This is THE manual for resisting authoritarian government, as well as a manual for those seeking to overthrow it and restore some semblance of democratic government to their country. Dr. Gene Sharp was the pre-eminent expert on non-violent resistance and is the author of a number of books about non-violent resistance. He was associated with the Albert Einstein Institution.
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Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen
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Why is the QAnon conspiracy theory so popular these days? This book is must reading for anyone who wants to understand the "craziness" loose in America today. It is a wonderful background book which will make sense about how Trump has managed to deceive as many people as he has. The conclusions of this book are not comforting -- but knowledge is power.
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Fire & Fury by Michael Wolff
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This is a fascinating look behind the scenes in the earlier days of the Trump White House. This is a good primer about the character of Donald Trump and how his earlier staff members managed to interact with him.
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The Future of Capitalism by Paul Collier
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Stiff reading by a British professor in the Blavatnik School of Government in the UK. This is a fairly unbiased, pragmatic take on the current crisis of capitalism and practical suggestions for how to fix the problem.
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The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells
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This is a real-life horror story, well researched and documented by Wallace-Wells. The conclusions reached in this book are alarming and not comforting. If you are a millennial, this may interfere with your sleep at night. This is "Climate Change 101" and must reading for anybody who wants to be literate on climate change.
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The Next America by Paul Taylor
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This is a book by a researcher at the Pew Research Center. It's full of graphs, statistics and the like -- real data. Some of the reading is quite dry, but it documents the demographic changes that are already beginning to change the face of America. There is a collision between generations going on in America. Advice to the old: "Resistance is futile -- you will be assimilated (by the future)."
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Rules for Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky
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This is the classic work about community organized by Saul Alinsky. This is a pragmatic summary of how to organize common people and help them get their power back. The insights in this book should not be overlooked by anyone engaged in politics, but especially by Progressives.
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Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism by Robert Jay Lifton
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This is the classic work for those people who wish to understand the psychology of cults, fascism, and any type of mind control, including advertising. It started out as a work by an Army psychologist who studied Americans who were held as prisoners of war in Chinese prison camps. This is the road map for how tyrants and cult leaders enslave the minds of their followers.
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The Monarchy of Fear by Martha Nussbaum
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On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
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The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by Bandy Lee
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This is arguably the most important reference book for those wishing to understand the psychology of Donald Trump. This book is a assessment by a number of practicing psychologists and psychiatrists of Donald Trump's character and mental state, especially his narcissism. This is a must-read for those who wish to understand where Donald Trump is coming from.
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The Cult of Trump by Steven Hassan
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Anybody who is familiar with cults knows who Steven Hassan is. He is THE expert. Make no mistake about it -- the Trump movement is a very real and dangerous cult. Through careful and thorough research, Hassan shows conclusively that the Trump movement is a cult with Donald Trump as its leader. Hassan offers ideas on how to resist this very dangerous cult.
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Democracy in Chains by Nancy MacLean
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How did we get into this Trump mess? This situation is the result of planning and lots of money spent by those who plotted to gain control of our American democracy. This is not a conspiracy theory, but actual fact, aptly documented by Nancy MacLean.
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The Apprentice by Greg Miller
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Fear by Bob Woodward
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Dark Towers by David Enrich
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This is a real life horror story, probably more chilling than reading Frankenstein. This is a matter-of-fact account about conscienceless human predators with vast amounts of money and power at their disposal. Most of the book is an account of the history of Deutsche Bank with mostly passing references to Donald Trump's involvement.
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The System by Robert B. Reich
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Trumpocalypse by David Frum
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Propaganda by Edward Bernays
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Survival of the Friendliest by Brian Hare
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This book was a game-changer for me. These two scientists have looked carefully into the how certain animal species really survived, not by being the toughest and meanest predators, but by becoming "social" and cooperating. There's not enough room here to discuss the details, but prepare to have your whole outlook about human survival (and your pet dog) get turned upside down.
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Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen
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Politics is for Power by Eitan Hersh
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This book is bad news for Democrats, the last election notwithstanding. Hersh argues that many Democratic party organizations have lost touch with their voters and have become obsolete. Hersh, through several examples of successful organizations, persuasively argues for the re-making of the Democratic Party. His formula is simple: get back out into the neighborhoods, spend time with real people, the voters, get to know them and get involved in making their lives better. In so doing, Democrats will recover real political power.
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Twilight of American Sanity by Allen Frances
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Authoritarian Nightmare by John W. Dean and Bob Altemeyer
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The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
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The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
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This is the Thomas Paine, one of our founding fathers, that most Americans know little or nothing about. This is the impassioned treatise of a man who rejected religious revelation and believed in the supremacy of reason. He also presents a devastating critique of Biblical revelation based on the book itself. He then attacks religious institutions and persuasively argues for the separation of church and state in the new American democracy. This will not be comfortable reading for conventional Christians.
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Common Sense by Thomas Paine
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The Anti-Coup by Gene Sharp
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The Great Infidels: Lectures by Robert Ingersoll
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The Chalice & The Blade by Riane Eisler
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Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
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Thomas Piketty is a French economist and scholar. In this incisive book, in my opinion, takes up where Karl Marx left off. He points out some of Marx's errors and updates the whole subject of inequality up to the present day. This is a rigorous work, not for the faint of heart, and is very enlightening. Mr. Piketty presents us with a challenge about how to deal with economic inequality in the times ahead.
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Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty
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This is a college course in a single book. The audio book itself is 48 hrs. long! This is Thomas Piketty's ambitious follow-on to his previous work, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. He presents a comprehensive historical survey of the various inequality regimes throughout history, including ternary, ownership, slave & colonial, communism & hypercapitalist societies. He concludes with recent developments and suggests a way forward into "participatory socialism"
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Videos
This is an excellent and timely talk by Noam Chomsky in the Old North Church in Boston about the threats posed to human civilization by climate change, nuclear war and the loss of democracy in the West.
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/27/noam_chomsky_we_must_confront_the
https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/27/noam_chomsky_we_must_confront_the
Slide Shows
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This is a PowerPoint file broken up into 2 parts (so that it will fit). This presentation is an introduction to the concept of 2 moralities: the "Strict Father" morality and the "Nurturing Parent" morality. This is presented as a paradigm (manner of perception) through which to view how conservatives and liberals view the world. This is a greatly simplified condensation of the book Moral Politics by George Lakoff. The intent of this presentation was to show liberals how to understand the thinking of Trump supporters and conservatives in general.
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