Do you know of any great political, social or history books?

Question

I need to learn more about world history, american history and politics. Do you know of any novels that explore these topics or non-fiction books that aren't too dry to read?

Answer 1

In Defense of Internment by Michelle Malkin

Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores by Michelle Malkin

The Interrogators by Chris Mackey and Greg Miller

The Art of War by Sun Tzu (required reading for the Marine Corp and Army)

The 9/11 Report by Thomas Kean, Chair, and Lee Hamilton, Vice Chair

Unhinged by Michelle Malkin

A web site that may or may not be a eye opener is http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/ . It talks about the Civil war or the war between the North and South. The war was not really about slavery but was about state's rights. Slavery did not become a part of the war until after the war had already started. State's rights are guaranteed by the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, under the United States Bill of Rights.

These are just a few, there are many more out there, go to your local library and talk to the librarian. He or she can help find books that will meet your needs.

Answer 2

Try these non-fiction books: There is a wartime theme here.

Insurgent Mexico by John Reed: John Reed was one of the first investigative reporters. Mr. Reed rode with Pancho Villa during his armies advance to Mexican City in 1914.

Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed: About the 1917 Red October, Russian Revolution. Warren Beatty made a movie called "Reds" based on this book.

*Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman: Book Description
"More dramatic than fiction...THE GUNS OF AUGUST is a magnificent narrative--beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced and sustained....The product of painstaking and sophisticated research." CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman has brought to life again the people and events that led up to World War I. With attention to fascinating detail, and an intense knowledge of her subject and its characters, Ms. Tuchman reveals, for the first time, just how the war started, why, and why it could have been stopped but wasn't. A classic historical survey of a time and a people we all need to know more about, THE GUNS OF AUGUST will not be forgotten.

A Russian Journal by John Steinbeck and Robert Capa. Steinbeck and photographer Capa travelled through Russia after World War II on behalf of the New York Herald Tribune. The book is a collection of their reports and photographs. Steinbeck would later win the Nobel Prize and Capa (considered by many to have taken the most famous war photo in history) has the dubious distinction of being the first American war correspondent to die in Viet Nam.

Fiction: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway: Fiction about the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway was there as a war correspondent.

Answer 3

If you are interested in French revolution,read Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orzy,Tale of two cities by Charles Dickens and Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini.Scarlet Pimpernal justifies the aristocrats.Tale of two cities sympathise with the common people.But Scaramouche tells the true story albeit a bit cynically from the view point of Andre-Louis who has connections with both the aristocrats and the common people.

Answer 4

The Prince, by machiavelli, is a short non-fiction work, and the best primer on western political thought you can get.

4 good novels that show how strength, wealth and work translate into political power are:

1 the good earth, by pearl buck
2 gates of fire, by steven pressman
3 aztec, by gary jennings
4 raptor, also by gary jennings

these novels are works of historical fiction, and are of interest to this subject not because of their primary stories, but because of the wealth of accurate historical data on how the political and economic systems of these cultures worked, especially in times of crisis or change

Answer 5

Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States"

Answer 6

'rights of man' by thomas paine

...

Thomas Paine wrote the book called Rights of Man in 1791 as a reply to Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke, and as such, it is a work defending the French Revolution.

Paine's Declaration of the Rights of Man can be approached from his most telling points:

1. Men are born, and always continue, free and equal in respect of their rights. Civil distinctions, therefore, can be founded only on public utility.
2. The end of all political associations is the preservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man; and these rights are liberty, property, security, and resistance of oppression.
3. The nation is essentially the source of all sovereignty; nor can any individual, or any body of men, be entitled to any authority which is not expressly derived from it.

These three points are similar to the "self-evident truths" expressed in the United States Declaration of Independence.

In line with his views on individual human rights, when the French called for the execution of the monarch Paine suggested that the monarch be exiled to America, where he would then have to work for a living. This suggestion was ignored and Robespierre had the monarch imprisoned and sentenced to death.

...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0486408930/026-5374879-9822069?v=glance&n=266239

Answer 7

The grapes of wrath - John Steinbeck
Gone with the wind - Margaret Mitchell
To Kill a Mocking Bird - Harper Lee
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee - ( forget the author.)
The first three are novels, the last is history about the US.

Answer 8

Fast Food Nation is interesting, it talks about American economy and social welfare. Nickel and Dimed is another with this same theme.

Great Political Thinkers is a terrific compilation of Poltical essays throughout history.

Plato's Republic is great as well.

Answer 9

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was popular in the '70's. It would be a "dusty gem" for you, possibly.

Answer 10

look into Howard Zinn. He supplies the "others" perspective. not in elementary terms the white landowner's perspective. it particularly is pronounced as something like commerce historic past of the U. S..