10 Essential Books for Understanding How the World Works

[operator kos]

Here's the game:

If you were going to teach a class in deep politics/deep history, and you could have your students read ten and only ten books, what would they be? Your goal is to give the next generation as broad and deep an understanding of the true power structure of the world as possible. I don't have my complete list yet, but it would look something like this (in no particular order):

1. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
2. A Terrible Mistake by H.P. Albarelli
3. The Franklin Scandal by Nick Bryant
4. The War on Truth by Nafeez Ahmed
5. Crossing the Rubicon by Michael Ruppert
6. JFK and the Unspeakable by James Douglass
7. UFOs and the National Security State by Richard Dolan
8. ???
9. ???
10. ???

[coffin_dodger]

Food First, The Myth of Scarcity - Frances Moore Lappe & Joseph Collins 1977

This is an extraordinarily prescient and eye-opening book that is as fresh today as the day it was published.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Good picks so far. I'd go for introductory and empowering stuff, too.

"Little Brother," by Cory Doctorow It's a fast, easy read about a group of kids fighting back against the techno-fascist surveillance state, and winning. Best of all, everything that Doctorow teaches here really works -- it's a minimanual for the Anonymous generation.

"Dark Spots on the Map," by Trevor Paglen Secrets are interesting and fun and this approach is a compelling introduction to the world of covert ops and black budgets. I've had great success with this book as a trojan horse, because the subject is cool.

"The Works: Anatomy of a City," by Kate Asher Like a David Maculay book for grownups, this is a visual guide to infrastructure literacy. I think the subject of how cities function is extremely important and nobody can afford to be ignorant of these facts.

"The Lucifer Principle," by Howard Bloom The critical concept here is that the human superorganism behaves very different than individual humans and our families, our communities, our tribes. This is a conversation-starter with a lot to offend everyone and the science is breathlessly fast-paced.

[Peachtree Pam]

All the books by Antony Sutton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_C._Sutton

[kelley]

"Collapse" by Jared Diamond isn't deep politics per se but should be on the list; "Germs, Guns, and Steel" would also work, but I'd go with Diamond's second book if I had to choose.

[Jeff]

Good titles, Operator. I've also found these essential:

Deep Politics and the Death of JFK by Peter Dale Scott
Into the Buzzsaw by Kristina Borjesson
Daimonic Reality by Patrick Harpur

[Elihu]

The Politics of War - Walter Karp

[thurnundtaxis]

Dark Alliance - Gary Webb

The Octopus - Kenn Thomas Jim Kieth

[JackRiddler]

.

Such an endeavor requires an understanding of the workings of the society, the economics, the modes of production and power, the institutions and the ruling classes that produce, support and are shaped by a deep state. You cannot see the part properly without knowing the whole. Two authors who come to mind as providing some of that context are C.W. Mills (The Power Elite) and Daniel Brandt (whom I know through articles at Namebase). Mills doesn't even talk about the deep state, he just provides a still-contemporary picture of the class society within which it lives.

You need theory to work with, if only to deconstruct it or reject it as inadequate, a process in which you'll come up with better. I think Daniele Ganser gives some of that and see the very important article by Ola Tunander, here:

https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Document:De ... Deep_State

He turned that into a book, apparently available online (can't get it to load).

http://www.scribd.com/doc/22601699/Gove ... he-Shadows

I would also look to other nations and possibly historical periods, for many reasons. Past experience can provide models and lessons for the present day. The motivations and dynamics at work in deep state development are similar, but differ. Americans will be able to understand that it's not about them per se. Less projection is going on when you look at these other examples, and resistance can be overcome by showing that they really do happen here.

The Road to 9/11 by Peter Dale Scott is worth reading just for the Glossary of deep state terms, which I have not found online but may soon just type up for our collective pleasure. The early chapters have an excellent high-level history of CIA and postwar deepstate. (Still missing much, which is in the nature of the subject).

Not complete without a look at the Drug War. The greatest book perhaps is Drug War, by Dan Russell, which is also an act of poetry; but then again for a course maybe it's best to use Whiteout, which covers all the same chapters in the history of government and drugs in the style of a textbook, with a bibliographic and introductory approach.

Paglen shows something of the holistic, theoretical and open-empirical approach required for understanding. A geographer is exactly what the subject needs more of.

There is one book I've seen that is most comprehensive with regard to the CIA in the world and that's William Blum, Killing Hope (the current title of CIA: A Forgotten History). Something like 50 chapters, each devoted to an operation or set of operations in one country at a given time.

Also, go to the Top Secret America thread, right here!

.

[MinM]

Secret Agenda: Watergate, Deep Throat and the CIA - Jim Hougan

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Naomi Klein


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[operator kos]

I was thinking about including 1984 and Brave New World if I couldn't come up with more solid non-fiction titles, but you guys delivered. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I guess I should refine my question. The hypothetical target I have in mind for this hypothetical class is your average college-educated liberal who is fairly aware of social/economic justice issues but has never looked into topics that have the stink of conspiracy about them. Someone who is fairly intelligent but still subject to the 'stop think' of the conspiracy theory label.

I want a set of books that will cover these areas:

UFOs
JFK & other assassinations
9/11 & other false flags
human trafficking
human experimentation
banking
oil
drugs
black ops generally

[Project Willow]

If I had to recommend one trafficking/experimentation survivor account at this time, it would be Thomas's Daybreaks Over Dharamsala. She's a writer with a resume and reputation, she's also the author of The Battle in Seattle. Plus, the book contains passages like this:

(Excerpt from the first chapter.)
"This has, of course, created doubt and dismay as I’ve tried to heal from the electric shocks that could never happen but did; the sexual slavery as a child that only my body remembers; the experiments that happened to someone else In my body; the days and nights in the dark that made indistinguishable my self from all that did not exist; the places where I became an animal, where being debased for the enjoyment of others was my charm and my glory. I heal from it all, even as I know it could never have happened to me. It is what I don’t know that has both saved me and condemned me. And it seems, at times, as though there is no difference."

You didn't include RA, but I assume that would be part of trafficking. For a gentle, short, fictional introduction, from another writer/survivor who I hear is working on her autobiography, Mad Dog by Kelly Watt. Otherwise, although these can be difficult for new initiates, in the following order, Beyond Disbelief by Sara Scott, and then of course, the Noblitt's anthology, RA in the 21st Century.

For general introductions to human experimentation, an older title, but one I found poignant and well written and would make a good lead in to Albarelli's work, The Plutonium Files by Eileen Wellsome. Accounts of other programs have been released since, but I haven't kept up with them, so I'd like to hear from those who may have done.

It's funny, I feel like I'm missing something really obvious. I've got an internet attention span, like Jeff describes in his latest essay, I can't read books anymore, even though I spend a third of each day reading.

[Project Willow]

Thanks Riddler, for the Scrib'd link.

That reminds me: A Question of Torture Alfred W. McCoy.

[Stephen Morgan]

"Collapse" by Jared Diamond isn't deep politics per se but should be on the list; "Germs, Guns, and Steel" would also work, but I'd go with Diamond's second book if I had to choose.

Actually, his second book was about monkey sex.

[brekin]

I'd add:

Reich's The Mass Psychology of Fascism
&
War is a Racket (or The Plot to Overthrow the Whitehouse)
&
Chimpanzee Politics