Need some help

[SuperSquirrel]

Can anyone recommend some books on America Politics for complete beginners?

[Smart_Cookie]

Why?


Are you having trouble sleeping?

(lol) :D

[SuperSquirrel]

LOL I can sleep fine, it's just that I'm not to good when it comes to politics and I would like to learn more about it.

[boooeee]

Richard Hofstadter's "The American Political Tradition" - I was forcefed this in high school. My memories of it aren't too pleasant, but my history teacher gave us the impression that this was pretty well regarded.

[SuperSquirrel]

Thanks. I'll have to see if my library has it or can at least request it from another library.

Can anyone think of any others?

[grunion]

Well, it really depends on what it is you are trying to learn about. Political history? I'd go with Hofstader or Zinn. An understanding of the power structure? You might like C. Wright Mills, or Domhoff, but that might get a bit too complex. For critique of the political system today Noam Chomsky is considered the 1000 pound gorilla, and is quite readable but there are people here (and elsewhere) who will trash him.

But bottom line to really get an understanding I wouldn't start with a book but pick up a magazine or two (prefereably from different political ideologies) to really get a grasp on what issues there are and how they are subject to interpretation. Try The Nation, the American Political Journal, The New Republic or The Progressive.

[Giz]

Can anyone recommend some books on America Politics for complete beginners?

"Parliament of Whores" PJ O'Rourke.

[brooklyn44]

"The Making of the President," by Theo. White, started a whole new trend in chronicling the presidential campaign. It won a Pulitzer in 1962 for its coverage of the Kennedy-Nixon race.
"The Boys on the Bus," Timothy Crouse's look at covering the McGovern-Nixon campaign.
"All the President's Men." by Woodstein. (No other book by the self-aggrandising fop Bob Woodward)
And for a fictional treatment of American politics..."All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren's 1949 take on Huey P. Long.
I know there are many interesting books on the Legislative branch, but I can't recommend one off the top of my noggin.

As for current politics I recommend "Lapdogs:How the Press Rolled Over for Bush," by Eric Boehlert.

[Maenoon]

I highly recommend Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen. It'll give you an excellent background on American history as well as a lot of insight that explains why our political system works (or doesn't work) the way it does.

For irreverant reading, I agree that you've got to pick up P.J. O'rourke.

I'm also a huge Hunter S. Thompson fan. His book Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 made me become a journalist.

Now, I'm not a Democrat, and a lot of what Al Franken writes is pro-Democratic party, but he really does an excellent job of exposing current political conniving. It's somewhat discouraging, but The Truth with Jokes is an enlightening book.

After that, you may need a really good laugh, because there aren't really that many jokes in Al Franken's last book. So, I really love the Daily Show's book America. It's wicked.

[Dustin Kesselberg]

Politics for dummies?

[Garrette]

I won't recommend books as others have done that, but I will recommend that you spend some time first looking up some definitions of terms you will run across and which will run over each other, disguise themselves as each other, swear they are someone else, and then pretend they never changed what they were. You will frequently find these terms being (mis)used and begin to think (with quite a lot of justification) that the pundits who throw them around don't really know what they are either:

Neocon

Neoliberal

Realpolitik

Realist (and Realism)

Conservative

Liberal

There are more, but these will get you started. Looking these terms up will also probably prompt you to focus your search a bit more so that you don't feel as if you're floundering as you learn the system.

[Dustin Kesselberg]

Liberal conservatism
Neoconservatism
Paleoconservatism
Social conservatism
Fiscal conservatism
Classical liberalism
Cultural liberalism
Economic liberalism
Neoliberalism
Ordoliberalism
Paleoliberalism

[kc440_]

.

Can anyone think of any others?

I would say read Gore Vidal's Essays. He has a compilation of his essays about America. It has "America" in its title. It was published a few years back. An interesting and prolific writer.

kc440