The Left Wing Book Club
The failed Charles Freeman nomination made me realize that we have four years of foreign policy "fun" to look forward to from the practitioners of "smart power." To better understand where what direction this might send the US, I'm thinking of doing a series of analyses of different progressive or liberal foreign policy "classics" from the last few years. These are books known to have influenced Obama's foreign policy team, or the progressive left that is the backbone of "smart power's" political support.
Pursuant to this idea, I am in the middle of reading "The Post American World" by Fareed Zakaria, which Candidate Obama was famously seen clutching (if not reading) on an airport tarmac. Other books I'm thinking of reading are:
1. the "Blowback" Trilogy by Chalmers Johnson
2. "A Problem From Hell" by Samantha Power
3. "Chasing The Flame" by Samantha Power
4. "The Israel Lobby" by Walt and Meirsheimer
5. "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein
6. "The Secret History Of The American Empire" by John Perkins
7. "The Corporation" by Joel Bakan
8. "Hot Flat and Crowded" by Thomas Friedman
9. "Limits of Power" by Andrew Bacevich
10. "The Dark Side" by Jane Meyer
11. "Failed State" by Noam Chomsky
I chose the above based on one of two criteria:
a. whether a book had been specifically associated with the Obama administration, or
b. whether I'd observed large numbers of local progressives reading them at coffee shops.
If you can think of others I should read. Let me know.
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