Recommended Political Books.

[Absnt]

I'll start:

The Ugly American.

Quote:The Ugly American, by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick, was published in 1958. Set for the most part in the fictional Southeast Asian country of Sarkhan, with excursions to Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Burma, the novel takes place in the 1950s, during the cold war, when the United States and the Soviet Union struggled for supremacy across the globe. Sarkhan is presented as a country of about 18 to 20 million people with a rather shaky government that fears a possible coup attempt by the communists, who are powerful and well-organized. Sarkhan tries to stay independent of the two superpowers and as a result receives aid from both. But too often, as the authors make clear in this fictional story that they claim is based on fact, U.S. aid does not meet the needs of the local people. Moreover, the American diplomats who serve in Sarkhan and throughout Southeast Asia do not for the most part have any knowledge of the country's language or culture, so they are not effective in winning the people to their side. By contrast, Russian diplomats are well trained. The authors fear that unless the United States adopts a different strategy and trains its foreign service personnel better, it may end up losing the cold war.

The Ugly American was a bestseller and had an impact on the politics of the day, being read reportedly by President Dwight Eisenhower and many U.S. senators. It helped to create an atmosphere in which the United States reaffirmed and reshaped its commitment to defending freedom against communism. This new commitment was apparent during the presidency of John F. Kennedy, from 1961 to 1963. Kennedy fostered new methods of fighting communism in South Vietnam, developed the U.S. Special Forces, and founded the Peace Corps.

Even if you are a communist, you can only gain from reading this book.

[thewake]

Atlas Shrugged

Quote:Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing.
The book explores a dystopian United States where leading innovators, ranging from industrialists to artists, refuse to be exploited by society. The protagonist, Dagny Taggart, sees society collapse around her as the government increasingly asserts control over all industry (including Taggart Transcontinental, the once mighty transcontinental railroad for which she serves as the Vice President of Operations), while society's most productive citizens, led by the mysterious John Galt, progressively disappear. Galt describes the strike as "stopping the motor of the world" by withdrawing the "minds" that drive society's growth and productivity. In their efforts, these people "of the mind" hope to demonstrate that a world in which the individual is not free to create is doomed, that civilization cannot exist where people are slaves to society and government, and that the destruction of the profit motive leads to the collapse of society.

One of the best books I ever read. I'm not so sure now, but after I read it I was positive it was the best book I'd ever read. The main virtue of the book isn't that it's a good novel, it is a decent novel (Ayn Rand is no Mark Twain though), but the ideas expressed through the novel are revolutionary.
And no, I haven't watched the movie yet.

Free to Choose

Quote:Free to Choose: A Personal Statement maintains that the free market works best for all members of a society, provides examples of how the free market engenders prosperity, and maintains that it can solve problems where other approaches have failed. Published in January 1980, the 297 page book contains 10 chapters.
Milton Friedman won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1976. Contrary to normal practice the book was written after the TV series was produced, although the line "Basis for the acclaimed public television triumph" is written on the front cover, using the program transcripts as reference. The book was on the United States best sellers list for 5 weeks.
The Friedmans advocate laissez-faire economic policies, often criticizing interventionist government policies and their cost in personal freedoms and economic efficiency in the United States and abroad. The authors argue against government taxation on gas and tobacco and government regulation of the public school systems. The Friedmans argue that the Federal Reserve exacerbated the Great Depression by neglecting to prevent the decline of the money supply in the years leading up to it.
On the subject of welfare, the Friedmans argue that current welfare practices are creating "wards of the state" as opposed to "self-reliant individuals" and suggest a negative income tax as a less harmful alternative. The Friedmans also argue for abolishing the Food and Drug Administration, tighter control of Fed money supply, and the repeal of laws favoring labor unions.

Probably one of the most eloquent arguments for a free market.

[Aya]

Profiles In Courage



Read it niggas

[Bob Dole]

http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum ... ic=29571.0

Read this thread. Follow links. Pick up the suggested books.

Don't stick to one ideology. Go outside your comfort zone. If you're a hardcore capitalist, read Capital by Marx. If you're a lefty economically, read some Adam Smith.

[happy fool called Nigel]

Ojibwa Warrior and Days of War, Nights of Love.

Okay, that's too cliche for anyone on here who knows me. But whatever. They're good books.

[SaintVicious]

Mein Kampf

[Aya]

Machiavelli's Prince

[Thought Criminal]

There are the basics of course, "The Communist Manifesto" by Marx and Engels, "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, and "Now and After" by Alexander Berkman.
The first is self explanatory, Second is on capitalism, and the third is about anarchism.

Probably my favorite is "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway. The story itself doesn't set out to be political but it carries a strong message about the futility of war.

All very good books. Even if you don't agree with the philosophy (I don't agree with Rand) Keep an open mind. Its good to know how all systems work including those you disagree with.

[Phrozen_Soul]

I highly recommend "Sunshine Soldiers" Its a journal from the view of a hippy/anti-culture that was forced to do basic training for the reserves so he wasn't drafted.

[psychopath]

Harry Potter

[LOON_ATTIC]

psychopath Wrote:Harry Potter

[thewake]

Lunatic Wrote:

psychopath Wrote:Harry Potter

Free the elves!

[SH☮TGUNHEⒶRT]

Nineteen Eight Four

Fighting for Our Lives- An Anarchist Primer, this book is actually free and available for download. I'm checking it out.

[Absnt]

savagesociety Wrote:this book is actually free and available for download.

Implying all books aren't free and available for download. :troll:

[SH☮TGUNHEⒶRT]

Absentinsomniac Wrote:

savagesociety Wrote:this book is actually free and available for download.

Implying all books aren't free and available for download. :troll:

[thewake]

savagesociety Wrote:

Absentinsomniac Wrote:

savagesociety Wrote:this book is actually free and available for download.

Implying all books aren't free and available for download. :troll:

Bad copyrights are bad.

[Absnt]

savagesociety Wrote:

Absentinsomniac Wrote:

savagesociety Wrote:this book is actually free and available for download.

Implying all books aren't free and available for download. :troll:

When your me, if it's been put into a PDF format, it's free.

[thewake]

Absentinsomniac Wrote:When your me, if it's been put into a PDF format, it's free.

As a rule of thumb, I like to respect the copyright as long as the author is still living. If he's dead, why the heck shouldn't I be able to copy it?

[Absnt]

Weswammy Wrote:

Absentinsomniac Wrote:When your me, if it's been put into a PDF format, it's free.

As a rule of thumb, I like to respect the copyright as long as the author is still living. If he's dead, why the heck shouldn't I be able to copy it?

As a rule of thumb, I steal shit, then buy a legitimate copy when I get some money for it if I liked it...

[happy fool called Nigel]

Absentinsomniac Wrote:

Weswammy Wrote:

Absentinsomniac Wrote:When your me, if it's been put into a PDF format, it's free.

As a rule of thumb, I like to respect the copyright as long as the author is still living. If he's dead, why the heck shouldn't I be able to copy it?

As a rule of thumb, I steal shit, then buy a legitimate copy when I get some money for it if I liked it...

[.Manicrose.]

I can't deal with PDF, it hurts my eyes and you can just forget about printing all that shit out, so I just go to the bookstore conveniently located across the street and spend hours there browsing.

[Thought Criminal]

As a rule of thumb I'm just a greedy asshole and don't feel like paying for shit.
Not like I could anyway.
For me its either A) don't have the money so don't have it or B) Still don't have the money and have it anyway.

[LOON_ATTIC]

Thought Criminal Wrote:As a rule of thumb I'm just a greedy asshole and don't feel like paying for shit.
Not like I could anyway.
For me its either A) don't have the money so don't have it or B) Still don't have the money and have it anyway.

The fucking library, it works.

Also I always end up distracted when reading PDFs and it just feels different from real books... it's more fatiguing, etc.

[HeartofShadows]

Thought Criminal Wrote:As a rule of thumb I'm just a greedy asshole and don't feel like paying for shit.
Not like I could anyway.
For me its either A) don't have the money so don't have it or B) Still don't have the money and have it anyway.

Amen to that!
Besides its a copy not stealing.

[Thought Criminal]

Lunatic Wrote:The fucking library, it works.

I don't pirate PDFs. I'd much rather buy the book or check it out from the library. I like having ink and paper in my hands. It feels more like a book.

[Absnt]

Yeah, I fucking hate PDF's too, but there's no libraries in my immediate area, and the closest book store fucking far as shit away. Eh, oh well. Hope I don't go blind or something.

[HeartofShadows]

Lol use ifranview noobs.

[Thought Criminal]

The fuck is that?

[Absnt]

IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 , 2008, Vista, Windows 7.
(click here for IrfanView EULA)

It is designed to be simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.

IrfanView seeks to create unique, new and interesting features, unlike some other graphic viewers, whose whole "creativity" is based on feature cloning, stealing of ideas and whole dialogs from ACDSee and/or IrfanView! (for example: XnView has been stealing/cloning features and whole dialogs from IrfanView, for 10+ years).

IrfanView was the first Windows graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with Multiple (animated) GIF support.
One of the first graphic viewers WORLDWIDE with Multipage TIF support.
The first graphic viewer WORLDWIDE with Multiple ICO support.

Some IrfanView features:

Many supported file formats (click here the list of formats)
Multi language support
Thumbnail/preview option
Paint option - to draw lines, circles, arrows, straighten image etc.
Toolbar skins option
Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD)
Show EXIF/IPTC/Comment text in Slideshow/Fullscreen etc.
Support for Adobe Photoshop Filters
Fast directory view (moving through directory)
Batch conversion (with image processing)
Multipage TIF editing
File search
Email option
Multimedia player
Print option
Support for embedded color profiles in JPG/TIF
Change color depth
Scan (batch scan) support
Cut/crop
IPTC editing
Effects (Sharpen, Blur, Adobe 8BF, Filter Factory, Filters Unlimited, etc.)
Screen Capturing
Extract icons from EXE/DLL/ICLs
Lossless JPG rotation
Unicode support
Many hotkeys
Many command line options
Many PlugIns
Only one EXE-File, no DLLs, no Shareware messages like "I Agree" or "Evaluation expired"
No registry changes without user action/permission!
and much much more

Click here to see a screenshot of IrfanView.


LOLWUT?

[John Tuttle]

John Locke's Second Treatise on Government:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_ ... government

The Federalist Papers (you can find them all online - Federalist No. 10 is the most important if you are American since it lays out the ideas behind the constitution. Avoid Glenn Beck's reinterpretation of the Federalist Papers).