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Posted by rladew on 2005-02-06 14:43:14 +0000

Literature of the Left

Please Don't Snicker. I am honestly looking for a few reccomendations of books you guys would reccommend. I'm a big fan of George F. Will. Who would you guys think someone of GFW's intellect on the left would be? I would like to read a few books. Recently, I got a Noam Chomsky book which unbeknownst to me came w/ a Molly Ivins book 'Bushwhacked' and another book which name alludes me at the moment... I was about to ask anyone on this list if they would want a free Molly Ivins book, and then I got to thinking I should ask for some book reccomendations from you guys liek we trade fiction and music references to and fro here on Rideside. Maybe I'll crack open the Ivins if its reccomended, but it struck me as a left wing equivalent to a Hannity or Coulter or something.... Thanks for yr time.... RL

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2005-02-07 16:21:15 +0000
While I would argue that the following books are centrist, they are certainly left of G F Will. Al Franken's "Lies: and the Lying Liars who tell them?" Great at disproving neo-cons. Haven't read it, but my mom loved "Bush at War" by Woodward. Mmm... still thinking....

Posted by tgl on 2005-02-07 18:13:52 +0000
First let's sunder some analogies: Ivins maybe be far left, however, she's not a nut and respectable media outlets continue to publish her. As for Coulter, she got canned by the The National Review! G. Will is no N. Chomsky, pleasant baseball treaties aside. You looking for current topics or more academic tomes? As everyone knows, I get news analysis from The Atlantic and now The American Prospect. I've heard the recent Woodward books are pretty good. I'm finished with the 9/11 Commission Report, that's worth the 10 bucks. I'm thinking of getting in touch with my inner Keynesian; Galbraith keeps cropping up in my periodical readings. I've been meaning to get to Huntington as well, although, he's not exactly left-wing.

Posted by rladew on 2005-02-08 01:14:27 +0000
Thanks Guys.... _______________________________ Jazz is not dead...it just smells funny. - F. Zappa

Posted by tgl on 2005-02-08 06:21:10 +0000
I'm beginning to think that "Keynes" and "Galbraith" don't belong in the same sentence. Maybe someday I'll know why...

Posted by Honar the librarian on 2005-02-08 17:48:32 +0000
Gailbraith is a post-keynesian, which basically means that you pretend to be keynesian while hiding the fact that you're blowing money under the table (this was called the vietnam war or the war on poverty, depending on how you look at it). See Matusow's "Unravelling of America," for more information. I exaggerate a bit, but whateves, that's basically all economics is anyway--pretending that systems involving people operate like simple mathematical systems. See paul krugman and his feelings on globalization. Before Hitchens broke with the left over iraq, he was considered quite the typical lefty, in a harpers new yorker sort of way (I might argue that it is foolish to make distinctions between the rich who don't go to church and feel guilty about being rich and the rich who go to church and don't feel guilty about being rich). For an interesting, if older analysis of liberalism, by a not-lefty, try Theodore Lowi's "the end of liberalism." And let's not get into the distinctions between a pro-israel american left and a pro-palestinian verging on anti-semitic european left (especially england and france).

Posted by tgl on 2005-02-08 20:49:55 +0000
I thought Gailbraith broke with JFK (or maybe LBJ) on the Vietnam thing.

Posted by tgl on 2005-02-09 04:08:46 +0000
Should I be looking for "krugman globalization" or "critique krugman globalization"? Next time around, I'm going for the Great Books option.

Posted by Honar the librarian on 2005-02-09 15:35:59 +0000
You mean Adam Smith and Marx? Or Keynes? Actually, I have a krugman book that I haven't read yet (that's what happens when I go to the MIT press super blow-out sale, and why I have the book buying moratorioum). I was thinking of his NYT op-eds--which I suppose aren't the best place for a nuanced argument... Also, I think you're right that Gailbraith broke w/ LBJ over Vietnam, but I don't know if it was for economic or humanitarian reasons (much like Iraq, both are defensible reasons to be opposed).

Posted by tgl on 2005-02-09 16:15:12 +0000
Regarding Smith, Marx vs. Keynes: um, yeah. I was lamenting my choice of a vocational degree. Great Books will always be great books, right? Or is it all relative? Sorta like being at the MIT Press bookstore Krugman gets his nuance on here: The Economists' Voice: Vol 2.: Issue 1: Article 1

Posted by dawnbixtler on 2005-02-09 17:20:24 +0000
George Will's baseball writing aside, he's still pretty ignorant especally the Social security phase out Bush Proposes, as seen [url=http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_02_06.php#004749] here.[/url] I wonder if he's on Bush's payroll... Remember when he called Democrats "Big Government" in a post a few weeks back? How behind the times is that? Like 35 years? And definitely [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9307-2005Feb8.html?sub=AR]not any more.[/url]

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