Reading List for the Second Term

Glenn Beck is a bubbling pustule of a hack. Here are some books to prep you for the next four years. 

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
I don't anticipate a resurgence of the Occupy movement. Even if they do return in any significant way, they were more a hapless might-have-been than the boiling cauldron of class warfare some insisted they were. And with no leader, there wasn't even a Madame Defarge to speak of. The Tea Party, on the other hand, remains because we can't have nice things. The hard right isn't softening, if their fiscal cliff (now debt ceiling) fanaticism and Sandy Hook truther schemes demonstrate anything. And while the Tea Party is not the bottom-up revolt that was the French Revolution (quite the reverse, amazingly), there remains more than a hint of misdirected anger and not so veiled threats of violence that would've given Dickens more than enough material to work with. Despite--or because of--their unpopularity, they still see themselves as righteous victims, a siege mentality that's not quite ready to break, so we will hear from them again over this next term. And they have a few ready and willing Madames Defarge to chose from.

This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil War - James M. McPherson
I don't want to look like I'm shitting on the spirit of 1776, because that was cool and important. But America didn't become the country we know today until we had to start killing each other instead of Brits and Native Americans. See, the Civil War never actually ended despite the awkward fact that it officially ended 148 years ago this Spring. McPherson's essays highlight not only how academia has viewed the war in the century and a half since its ostensible close, but how the nation's history and culture have been shaped by it. Particularly of note are chapters one (covering the historical revisionism and whitewashing that buttresses neo-Confederate mythology), eight (documenting the fights in Southern schools to ensure that Yankee intransigence Southern honor was taught properly, prefiguring the textbook battles of today), and sixteen (on Lincoln's dramatic use of "war powers" to expand executive control in times of emergency, something no president has done since).

Nixonland - Rick Perlstein
What the Civil War began, Nixon's Southern Strategy carved into stone. It was a cynical gambit that not only exploited the cultural divisions of the sixties, but deepened them for maximum political impact. It galvanized racial politics, launched the culture wars, and left a large chunk of the country permanently tied to the Republican Party (to the detriment of both). As Perlstein demonstrates, Nixon laid the template for everything that came after, from the self-perpetuating polarization to the modern conservative movement that is as much a profit-generating scheme as it is a political ideology. And whatever Nixon's successors wish to do to bring Americans back together, they keep finding Nixon still very much alive, gumming up the works.

I, Lucifer - Glen Duncan
This one actually has nothing to do with American politics. It's just a damn good book.

Nos Populus, however, does have something to do with American politics and is also available. You know, if you like reading your own political themes into explicitly political novels.