LetsNotRepeatThePast asked:
There is no book that brings together my threads because I draw from a very broad range of scholarship (history, philosophy, political psychology, law, Constitutional history, etc).
But here are my recommendations for reading that has most helped me understand how we got here, and how we get out. These are the books (and studies) I most often draw on as sources.
I’ll save my best recommendation for last. (Tease!)
First, How Democracies Die, by Harvard Professors Ziblatt and Levitsky:
Here’s an excellent lecture by one of the authors, Steven Levitsky. The earthquake analogy is fabulous, as is the reasons for why Democrats should avoid what he calls “constitutional hardball.”
In his classic work, Max Weber, Politics as a Vocation, lays out three sources of authority for government. You can read it here. Current politics is the Democratic Party (rule of law) v. Republican Party (charismatic leader)
Another classic work, and essential reading for understanding the American right wing and the conspiracy theory mindset. You can read it free, here.
This is a complex and brilliant book:
Timothy Snyder is fluent in numerous languages (I believe 11!) and uses primary sources in the original languages. He has a youtube series that I recommend.
The author of this book, Heather Cox Richardson, also offers a daily email analyzing the days news from the perspective of a (brilliant) political historian:
You’ll learn that authoritarianism, do-nothing administrations, and oligarchy are not new in America. She offers an important perspective.
Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley writes about propaganda and fascism, showing patterns in American history.
Here’s a lecture in which he lays it out. It also contains one of my favorite quotations ever. Stanley said: “Without truth, we cannot speak truth to power. So there is only power.” That pretty much sums it all up.
And this classic work on fascism:
“Authoritarianism is not a Momentary Madness but an Eternal Dynamic Within Liberal Democracies” appeared in this volume.
One of the authors, Karen Stenner, made the essay available free, here.
MacLean traces the rise of the modern libertarian movement and connects it to today’s right wing politics to a backlash against Brown v. Board.
If you want a history of the Second Amendment, this one is excellent:
The Authentic Appeal of the Lying Demagogue, by Oliver Hahl, Minjae Kim and Ezra W. Zuckerman Sivan.
Political Orientations are Correlated with Brain Structure in Young Adults, by Ryota Kanai, Tom Feilden, Colin Firth, and Geraint Rees.
Right Wing Authoritarian Scale, Ngo and Saunders.
Top recommendation: Take a break. Read something for fun. Escape. A murder mystery. A time travel story. Don’t let the crazy news cycle wear you out.
Announcement
Now that my Making of America series is complete (the final book, Thurgood Marshall, was published last month) I have undertaken another book project. I’m now under contract with Macmillan to write a book on disinformation entitled A Firehose of Falsehoods.
It will be a graphic novel, which is totally cool. (I don’t think I’ve ever published book that could properly be called cool.
The series has a trailer. You can see it here:
