What authors/books do you recommend me to understand Politics?

[Davino]

What sources can you share with me to set a good foundation for politics/sociology/philosophical_law...?

I'm not scared to do heavy reading or tackle difficult authors. I want a solid and holistic base for Society sense making.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to answer

[DocWatts]

I've read quite a bit of political science and sociology, and I've found the following three books to among the most helpful for contextualizing some of our contemporary political dysfunctions.

The Righteous Mind goes in to why liberals and conservatives have differing moral intuitions.

The Dictators Handbook goes into the incentive structures operating on people in positions of power, and why that tends to produce self-serving behavior.

How Fascism Works is useful for contextualizing the democratic backsliding which has been taking place in countries all over the world throughout the past decade or so.

[Davino]

@DocWatts Thanks, I'll download them for reading. 

I couldn't answer before because of the crash. I'll definetely check them

[TheAlchemist]

I can't recommend anything but I can share a method for finding some great books in any field. Go to reddit and a specific subreddit for lets say sociology, geopolitics, critical theory, psychoanalysis, philosophy etc. and do a search within that subreddit for book recommendations in a specific topic. This wya you can often find some of those more specific and rigorous books in any topic instead of the more popular science, often less nuanced books that a more general audience might be familiar with in that field. 

Edited May 14 by TheAlchemist

[TheAlchemist]

In regard to documentaries, I highly recommend some of Adam Curtis' work. In relation to politics/ideology "Can't get you out of my head" is very eye opening. He compiles archival footage in fascinating ways to narrate the rise and fall of various ideologies and worldviews at a wide-scale societal level, exploring how we got to where we are and also a tiny bit about how we might move forward. Quite fun to watch yet also highly thought-provoking and insightful. 

Another lovely series of his is "The Trap" which goes along nicely with Leo's latest release 

 

 

Edited May 14 by TheAlchemist

[bebotalk]

When I hit my late teens I decided consciously to understand the world better as I thought I needed to as an adult. 

I started to watch current affairs programmes, took a course at local college, and even joined a political party for a while.

I tried to read objective sources before I develop my own views. I didn't want to be clouded in others' biases before I developed my own views.