Book Nominations

[Sheila Zelkowitz]

Here are my nominations.  I took the comments from  the Amazon descriptions with some editing and a couple of my own comments.  The first is definitely a philosophy book discussing the ideas that motivated a revolution.  The second is also about ideas--ideas that expressed the prejudices and fears that almost overwhelmed the country in the early 20ieth century,

Nature's God: The Heretical Origins of the American Revolution - Mathew Stewart

Drawing deeply on the study of European philosophy, Matthew Stewart tracks the ancient, pagan, and continental ideas from which America’s revolutionaries drew their inspiration. In the writings of Spinoza, Lucretius, and many Enlightenment philosophers, Stewart discusses the true meanings of “Nature’s God,” “the pursuit of happiness,” and the radical political theories with which the American experiment in self-government began.  

He asserts that America’s founders intended to liberate us not just from one king but from the ghostly tyranny of supernatural religion, and quotes many of the "founding fathers" in support of his arguments.  The book was generally received positively, but a negative almost apoplectic review in the Journal of Ecclesiastical History shows that the intersections of religion and politics are still hot button issues.

American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis

by Adam Hochschild

 A reassessment of the overlooked but startlingly resonant period between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when the foundations of American democracy were threatened by war, pandemic, and violence fueled by battles over race, immigration, and the rights of labor

This was America during and after the Great War: an era blighted by lynchings, censorship, and the sadistic, sometimes fatal abuse of conscientious objectors in military prisons—a time whose toxic currents of racism, nativism, red-baiting, and contempt for the rule of law then flowed directly through the intervening decades to poison our own.

[Svend Hovmand]

Here is my first book proposal  by Anne Applebaum:

'Autocracy'  which describes how  dictators/autocrats

work together  around the world. Highly relevant today.

"Anne Applebaum shows, how today's autocracies are

supported by a web of kleptocratic financial structures,

surveillance technologies, and professional  propagandists

who operate beyond their own borders. Corrupt companies

in one country do business with corrupt companies in another.

The police in one country can arm and train the police in another.

The autocrats are rewriting the rules of world trade  and governance

as their propagandist pound home the same message about

weakness of democracy and the evil of America.

The members of Autocracy Inc, are not linked by a unifying

ideology, but rather by common desire for power,wealth and

impunity, and their belief that democratic ideas, whether  they

come from their own internal opposition or from the democratic

world, are dangerous and must be destroyed. If democracies

are to survive, Anne Applebaum argues, we must reframe

our worldview and learn to fight back."

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[Svend Hovmand]

Here is my second proposal  for a  recent book

by Gary Gerstle " The rise and fall of the neoliberal order"

I quote from the introduktion:

" Across the second decade of the twenty-first century the 

tectonic plates structuring American politics and life began to shift.

Even before the pandemic struck,developments that ten years

earlier would have seemed inconceivable now dominated politics

and popular consciousness : the election of Donal Trump and the launch of a presidency like no other; the rise of Bernie Sanders

and the resurrection of a social left; the sudden and deep questioning

of open borders and free trade; the surge of populism and

ethno-nationalism and the castigation of once-celebrated elites;

the decline of Barack Obama's stature and the transformational

promise that his presidency once embodied for so many;

and the widening conviction that the American political system

was no longer working; and that American democracy was in crisis -

a crisis that the January 6,2021 assault by a mob on the

Capitol so shockingly dramatized.

In this dizzying array of political developments, I discern the fall

or at least the fracturing - of a political order that took shape in the 1970s and 1980s and achieved dominance in the 1990s and the first

decade of the twenty-first century. I call this political formation a

neoliberal order. Ronald Reagan was its ideological architect;

Bill Clinton  was its key facilitator. This book is a history of this political order's rise and fall. It offers a history of our time."

I think this book presents many insights that might be

helpful in understanding somewhat better what's going on

in the political arena today.

[Mike DiFilippo]

A fine set of nominations by the group - many of them are on my To-read list now.

 One endorsement for Sheila’s nomination below is a Thomas Jefferson quote from the dedication plaque in the Jefferson Memorial:

“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

This statement shows vividly the contradictions of a brilliant mind struggling with the human history of religions as probably the most pervasive form of the tyranny he so excoriates…. maybe until the populist tyranny we have to deal with at this very moment.

On Mon, Jun 23, 2025 at 12:55 PM Sheila Zelkowitz <slamb...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Janet Medina]

Several books I was going to nominate have been nominated by others. That’s exciting. Others are about to be added to my to-read list, regardless of whether or not we choose to read them as a group. I enjoy the diversity of nominations from this august group. I always learn so much from all of you.

Here is my second nomination:

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Greene (author of Turtles All The Way Down and other books)

Here is the Amazon summary:

The Anthropocene is the current geologic age, in which humans have profoundly reshaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his groundbreaking podcast, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale—from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar.

Funny, complex, and rich with detail, the reviews chart the contradictions of contemporary humanity. As a species, we are both far too powerful and not nearly powerful enough, a paradox that came into sharp focus as we faced a global pandemic that both separated us and bound us together.

John Green’s gift for storytelling shines throughout this masterful collection. The Anthropocene Reviewed is a open-hearted exploration of the paths we forge and an unironic celebration of falling in love with the world.

Janet

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 26, 2025, at 8:38 AM, Mike DiFilippo <mik...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Janet Medina]

Several books I was going to nominate have been nominated by others. That’s exciting. Others are about to be added to my to-read list, regardless of whether or not we choose to read them as a group. I enjoy the diversity of nominations from this august group. I always learn so much from all of you.

[Janet Medina]

Apologies if you received this message more than once. 

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 6, 2025, at 1:41 PM, Janet Medina <janet...@verizon.net> wrote:

Several books I was going to nominate have been nominated by others. That’s exciting. Others are about to be added to my to-read list, regardless of whether or not we choose to read them as a group. I enjoy the diversity of nominations from this august group. I always learn so much from all of you.

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