Political/Philosophical Book Recs

[reckoner]

I browse the Politics forum pretty frequently and I've noticed some of you are quite well spoken and really know your facts. I was wondering if any of you have book recommendations concerning politics or philosophy. I know that's a pretty open broad topic, but I'm pretty open to anything (sans Going Rogue). I know books are covered in the entertainment section, I just thought I'd get better responses here.

[saysmydoctor]

"Politics as Vocation" - Max Weber

Interesting discussion of politics, power, politics power, and the very definition of power itself.

[GeeBee]

Anything by Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, or O'Reilly.

[Josh Weinstein]

Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"

[bladerdude360]

I read All The Sha's Men for Poli/Sci last year. It was long and parts were kind of dry, but overall it was pretty interesting and informative.

[re7ard1337]

Anything by Hannity, Coulter, Limbaugh, or O'Reilly.

i cannot tell if this is serious or not. but it made me lol.

[notoaststereo]

stephen t. asma has some great books about philosophy, but they arent very political.

[princesschad]

Plato's "Republic"

[macabre]

Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation

One of the best books I've ever read, not only because it is so illuminating but also because of how well-written it is for an economics/political science book.

[thatwasamoment]

For a serious read: Arab and Jew http://www.amazon.com/Arab-Jew-Wounded-Spirits-Promised/dp/0142002291

For a quick interesting read, I'd check out books by Naomi Klein and John Perkins

[open mind]

chomsky ain't bad.
the prince, art of war, and 48 laws of power are worth a read.
The ishmael related books by daniel quinn are good food for thought.

[nerdvglc]

most anything by kurt vonnegut. lots of dark humor, and crazy stories, and they always have a pretty good reason for existing. cat's cradle is one of my favorites.

[saysmydoctor]

Plato's "Republic"
Fuck this book.

[erccentea]

Chomsky "Hegemony or Survival"

[xshady121]

There's a search function.

2 recommendation threads:

http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=1187872

http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=847892

and the "official thread"

http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=690042

[justlikehoney]

John Stuart Mill?

[Crowe41]

Steven Jay Gould - Rocks of Ages

It discusses the topic of science vs. religion and how the author believes that the two exist completely separate of each other but are equally important in understanding the world. He explains how science and religion seek to examine different answers to the questions of life, are not related and therefore should never be in conflict.

[GeeBee]

i cannot tell if this is serious or not. but it made me lol.
Not. And thanks. ;-)

[princesschad]

Fuck this book.

yeah. I'm not a huge fan either but when I hear political and philosophical I think of it first.

[kwsqd]

short essay that I'm fond of:
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/f/frank-dissent.html

[Mitch]

Currently reading The Republic. Intriguing read, but I've agreed with most of the criticism I've read about it so far. The Socratic Method is kind of presumptuous and ostensibly points out flaws in someone's belief by showing inconsistency but in most cases it just seems manipulative. Also, as others have said, Plato's "ideal city" is pretty ugly.

Has anyone here read 40 Million Dollar Slaves?

[EasySkankin]

Even though I understand his logic, Platos contempt for the arts disturbed me.

[Love As Arson]

Re-read "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon" recently. It is still amazing. Most people do not recognize how funny Marx was.

Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living. And just as they seem to be occupied with revolutionizing themselves and things, creating something that did not exist before, precisely in such epochs of revolutionary crisis they anxiously conjure up the spirits of the past to their service, borrowing from them names, battle slogans, and costumes in order to present this new scene in world history in time-honored disguise and borrowed language. Thus Luther put on the mask of the Apostle Paul, the Revolution of 1789-1814 draped itself alternately in the guise of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and the Revolution of 1848 knew nothing better to do than to parody, now 1789, now the revolutionary tradition of 1793-95. In like manner, the beginner who has learned a new language always translates it back into his mother tongue, but he assimilates the spirit of the new language and expresses himself freely in it only when he moves in it without recalling the old and when he forgets his native tongue.

http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/index.htm

[Theseventhson]

Atlas Shrugged

[Jake Gyllenhaal]

http://dwoq5s27enw2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/books_films/6-downsizethis__.jpg

Michael Moore rips into the Clinton administration for compromising with Republicans lawmakers!