Politics & Government Book List

[Leo Gura]

Let's pull together a list of the best books on politics and governance.

I'm noticing that one of the biggest challenges with politics is that people (including myself) are just damn ignorant of the historical facts of governance and geo-politics from around the world. We spend way too much time debating culture war issues and partisan demonization vs actually studying how societies around the world have been managed.

Politics and governance is not my area of expertise, but I want expand into it more. I want you guys to become more educated about it too. To do that I feel we need to build a foundation with books.

So search the web for the best political book lists. I'm talking about non-partisan, non-ideological stuff. Well-researched stuff. Stuff that goes into the details of how government works.

For example, I want a list of books that Michael Brooks from the Majority Report was reading. See what you can find. It shouldn't just be about American politics but international politics.

[TrustTheProcess]

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/117332.TMBS_Book_Recommendations

looks like a solid list

[FlowerNote]

@Leo Gura Where do you find the inspiration and motivation to still be passionate about discussing and philosophizing about worldly matters like politics, when at the same time labeling everything as pure imagination? Just for fun or for leaving an intellectual legacy as Leo?

This might sound like a harsh question, its not, i just find it hard to comprehend being passionate about something which you think is just as real as the dream you had last night.

[AtheisticNonduality]

7 minutes ago, FlowerNote said:

@Leo Gura Where do you find the inspiration and motivation to still be passionate about discussing and philosophizing about worldly matters like politics, when at the same time labeling everything as pure imagination? Just for fun or for leaving an intellectual legacy as Leo?

I assume for love.

[Carl-Richard]

I see you were inspired by Michael Brooks' extensive knowledge of policy. The dude was a walking library. He really opened my eyes on how little I know about the world of politics, especially internationally. This thread is a good contribution to his mission.

Edited July 26, 2020 by Carl-Richard

[Carl-Richard]

11 minutes ago, FlowerNote said:

@Leo Gura Where do you find the inspiration and motivation to still be passionate about discussing and philosophizing about worldly matters like politics, when at the same time labeling everything as pure imagination?

From an absolute perspective, everything is an illusion, but from a relative perspective, politics is still important for survival.

[Kdicious]

Listmuse.com , go to Nonfiction section and it has several different categories like Economics, Political Science, Anarchist/Communist/Socialist, Environmental/Activism/Social Activism, Sociology, History, etc. 

It has a regions section too for specific regions- Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, Latin America, etc. 

I think it’s based heavily on Noam Chomsky’s readings as well. 

[Milos Uzelac]

@louhad Thank you for finding and  sharing this resource treasure trove I had no idea it had existed and that TMBS posted their literature ?

Glossed over it a lot great books for understanding international politics from what I can see. 

BTW I and my friend on the history department from college have to read the british social historian Eric J Hobsbaum parts from the literature Michael listed as reading material for passing whole exams on our faculty.

I think personally from the list for having a solid socio-historical foundation and contemporary political grounding and true understanding in the world, one should start from reading from the list:

1. The Age of Extremes 1919-1991 by Hobsbaum (read parts have for the exam, need to cover it more over the summer) 

2. Bref History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey (read only excerpts from it, haven't read it whole - laziness, distraction) 

3. The Global Minotaur by Yannis Varufakis (same as Harvey) (not on this list) 

Would Add to the TMBS list:

Very useful resource on beginning to learn to understand the meta aspects of the genesis and adaptability of contemporary political power:

4. Power and Knowledge 1973-77

by Foucault (about 200 page book compromised out of short elucidating (though, somewhere pretty complex) interviews with the author on his understanding of the meta-origins and relationships between power and knowledge in modernity and describing the list of their various counter-intuitive manifestations

(cool example from the book how the traditional premodern folktales about vampires were co-opted and adapted for the needs of modern contexts and common imagination by the rising in power bourgeoise during the rise and expansion of the industrial revolution in the mid to late 19th century via newly popular novels about them as a metaphor and political tool to smear the image and influence the the rising negative public's perception of the then declining and no longer dominant traditional European aristocracy as lazy, decadent parasites who have now become a toll on the hardworking and moral parts of society. - he list this as a prominent example of how in modern-contemporary politics, popular cultural products intended for mass market reach and mass consumption indirectly often became used as tools for solidifying or weakening and legitimising or discrediting the current distribution of power) 

Also from Hobsbaum:

5. The Invention of Tradition 1983. - primarily read the parts  that focus on the socio-historical syncretic genesis of the symbolism and even culture of modern nationalism and nation states ( he uses examples of western European countries) and the colonial tradition left over in colonies of European empires. 

For a surprising broader understanding the socio- psychology (even its subconscious traditional religioisity desires and drives underneath it) behind the political climate and culture of contempt, demonization violence, intolerance and dangerous mass movements, even though it primarily focuses on the example of the Christian Right and evangelical mass movement, culture and political base in America :

6. American Fascists: The Rise of the Christian Right and the War on America 2006. by author Chris Hedges

(even if the title sounds and at a glance looks and suggests content that is demonizing to this group behind the first chapters of the 250page book (which I read so far) there is treasure trove of insights into subconscious religious and political drives in humans and how they due to the influence of false, failed and flawed but still powerful and lasting authority and institutions fail to actualize and often get distorted and perverted into its opposites and the human individual and collective psychology that lead people into these types of movements and convinces them or pressures them to stay in them.) 

 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Milos Uzelac

[Lyubov]

https://www.amazon.com/Political-Order-Decay-Industrial-Globalization-ebook/dp/B00IQOFS7M

Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Present Day

by Francis Fukuyama

 

Probably one of the best books about understanding what has lead up to the current political situation around the world and why it is occurring. 

his other book: The Origins of Political Order is also supposed to be really good.

 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Lyubov

[Setty]

[Annoynymous]

[Annoynymous]

[Annoynymous]

[Annoynymous]

[Mr Being]

 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Mr Being

[Mr Being]

For economics this is probably the hardest and longest (over 1400 p) book on economics you will ever find.

[Roy]

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt is pretty good.

Explains essentially why everyone acts like an idiot when it comes to politics and religion, more or less.

[Lindsay]

I just finished professor Richard Wolf’s “Demacracy at Work: A cure for Capitalism “ 

highly recommend for skeptics of socialism. He provides a real solution, history, and is very persuasive. There is also a debate on youtube with his fellow libertarian colleague, Professor Epstein. Epstein does a good job at raising questions other libertarians would raise during his critiques of Wolf’s book. It available on audible! I listened to it during chores. 
 

[Jennjenn]

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. 
 

[Espaim]

On 26/07/2020 at 0:10 PM, Mr Being said:

For economics this is probably the hardest and longest (over 1400 p) book on economics you will ever find.

[Man, Economy and the State]

 

Isn't that book biased towards neo-liberalism or libertarianism? When I was I libertarian I remember people suggested me to read that book but I never got into it