What I’m reading these days…

by Karoli on July 21, 2010 · 2 comments

My reading list is more interesting than my opinion these days, so I figured I’d do a few reviews of the best ones. All of these are ones that I’d recommend to anyone really interested in politics, the dialogues, the narratives, and even the screw-ups.

Over the Cliff: How Barack Obama’s Election Drove the American Right Insane
John Amato & Dave Neiwert

Disclaimer: I write at Crooks & Liars. Take this review with a grain of bias, but not a lot, actually.

This book is a walk down recent memory lane. It’s a twisty lane, with lots of weeds and boulders. Amato and Neiwert take us back to the bad old days of town halls last year, death panels, nazi signs, and armed patriots with scary t-shirts on while reminding that what is today, was also yesterday. During Clinton, during the Kennedy/Johnson years, and really simply represents stirring-up by mainstream Republicans who re-activate the fringe groups in times when they’re out of power. The election of the nation’s first African-American president has magnified something that’s been around since the end of the civil war.

It’s tough to read, mostly because reading about last year when this year is no more sane is just difficult. All of the noise, the insanity and the lies just flood right back to front and center.

Still, it’s a book that should be on your bookshelf if for no other reason than to remind about what the agenda is, why it exists, who funds it, and how it’s used to undermine and thwart any meaningful progress that might benefit citizens who are not in the upper class or outside fringes. It’s also an excellent reference source, particularly when read at the same time as Jonathan Alter’s The Promise (reviewed below)
Supreme Power: Franklin Roosevelt vs. the Supreme Court
Jeff Shesol

This is one of those books that won’t be read by many, and should be read by all. It is the story, told through diary entries, narrative, interviews, and news blurbs, of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s tumultuous relationship with the Supreme Court and his plan to stack it in order to save the New Deal, which was in danger of being overturned by conservatives on the court.

Much of it reads like today’s news, right down to the ideological split on the court, on the left, and on the right. Nothing quite says “everything old is new again” like the narrative of this book. From contentions on the left that FDRs policies were corporatist sellout compromises to accusations from the right that FDR planned to turn the country into Europe, history plays out on a landscape of a President determined to turn around a country pillaged by speculators and thieves.

Here’s a rather classic quote from the section of the book dealing with FDR’s first presidential campaign.

“‘I am waging a war in this campaign,’ he declared, ‘a frontal attack against the ‘Four Horsemen’ of the present Republican leadership — the horsemen of Destruction. Delay. Deceit. Despair.’ The administration, he said, was in the grip of a failed doctrine, one ‘so unsound, so inimical to true progress, that it has left behind in its trail everywhere economic paralysis, industrial chaos, poverty and suffering.’”

And this, from the narrative around Roosevelt’s decision not to nationalize the banking industry. Sound familiar?

Indeed, in every sector, he left many established, entrenched interests untouched. He viewed them — for a time, anyway — as essential partners in this new national enterprise.

This book is one that goes on my “Essential Reading List for Liberals and Progressives”, because it grounds this present time firmly in the roots of the past, shows who Franklin Delano Roosevelt was, what factors caused him to move farther left over time (hint: it wasn’t criticism from the left; it was criticism from the RIGHT), and takes a hard look at what factors played into his successful New Deal policies, despite much resistance from the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court
William H. Rehnquist

My reasons for reading this go without saying: Who better to give an inside look at the Supreme Court than a Supreme Court justice? Rehnquist goes back to the beginning and gives a nice overview of the court, its key rulings, how they came to be, and what they meant for the country. Given how much of our electoral politics is staked in Supreme Court appointments, it’s a great read for a sense of how the judicial branch works.

The Promise: President Obama, Year One
Jonathan Alter

This is a great book to read side-by-side with Amato and Neiwert’s Over the Cliff. While Over the cliff describes what is going on in the press and at town halls, Alter’s book gives an inside look at the administration, how they came at problems, how the state of the economy played into their legislative priorities, and how they viewed the fight over health care reform. One of the best chapters in the book concerns the decision-making process on Afghanistan. Alter has some excellent inside sources and documentation, and brings the reader as close to the situation room as any of us are likely to get.

Highly recommended if you enjoy getting a sense of what goes on behind the scenes.

Other books I’m reading but haven’t read enough to review yet: