A REAL American Progressive Reading List

Problems are solved with open discussion and brave exploration of all aspects of ideas, not by shutting down free speech and minimizing the Overton window. Or just shouting partisan sound bites at each other.

Towards the end of encouraging that, I have created a reading list of contemporary titles which I wish every American could read and discuss. It includes books that look at the roots of American society and other Western countries, books which look at what can be seen when we spend time trying to understand people unlike us and some of the best thinking and writing about civil liberties that I have read.

America has traditionally held a creative tension between progress and conserving the past. I believe that in normal situations, real progress only comes from convincing others logically, not from the coercive use of government legislation to make others do what we want. These books are meant to give books which can be resources in charting the course for that REAL progress.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/5438598-don?shelf=real-american-progress-reading-list

1) The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great
by Ben Shapiro
ASIN B07CLMXWT9

This book is a brilliant look at how Western civilization has arisen as a result of the tension between Athenian logic and Judeo-Christian values. Ironically, much of our civilization seems determined to undercut that strong foundation. Shapiro looks at other civilizations that have abandoned those values (Nazi Germany, the USSR) and the high price in pain and loss of life which followed. He offers suggestions for reversing course before it is too late.

2) Republican Like Me: A Lifelong Democrat's Journey Across the Aisle
by Ken Stern
ISBN 0062460781 (ISBN13: 9780062460783)

The former of NPR became concerned about the growing political polarization in our country and spent a year exploring Republican communities. E.g., having an 8 year old guide him on a pig hunt (adeptly correcting his gun safety shortcomings), visiting religious communities and so on.

This book parallels my experiences in life as a moderate/libertarian lefty who risked joining the NRA (and found it exemplary...and not at all like the caricature the media presents) and finally after 2016, the Republican party.

3) Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today
by Wendy Kaminer
ISBN 0807044113 (ISBN13: 9780807044117)

Wendy Kaminer was on the ACLU board before she was ousted because she was unwilling to compromise on civil liberties. I see her as one of the most fiercely admirable people on the left because of her principled, unflinching stands in favor of individual rights.

4) The Gun Control Debate: You Decide
by Lee Nisbet (Editor)
ISBN 0879756187 (ISBN13: 9780879756185)

This book is the best example I have encountered of how contentious topics should be debated. The author solicited the best works recommended by the NRA *and* gun control organizations, with the goal being to present rational, objective facts people could use to make decisions for themselves, not sound bites and shabby emotional manipulation. This has been a favorite resource for the better part of 30 years.

Interested in a Political Diversity Book Club?

The political landscape of this great nation is rapidly devolving into a trivial and dangerously simplistic mess, composed of meme exchanges and rote recitation of talking points at each other instead of sincere dialogue. If we are going to prevent American from descending into the chaos of a third world banana republic, it is more critical now than ever that we the people learn how to really engage each other over issues again, rather than just emote and shout at each other.

Perhaps the worst part of all this is its futility. Most of the groups shouting at each other actually make up part of the solution for making this country even better than it already is. Liberal and conservative, red state and blue state, atheist and religious person...if they could learn to discuss their differences constructively and without fear of the accusations that doom many political conversations...what could we achieve?

What couldn't we achieve?

So what I am suggesting here is that we begin using the internet constructively to READ about a variety of viewpoints and discuss them freely and openly. If others are interested in this project, I will set up a discussion group (e.g., at goodreads.com) and we can begin nominating books. I am including a few contemporary books that are well worth reading. Depending on interest, we may also look at some classics like Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" or Thoreau's essay on civil disobedience.

I hope you will join us!

Here are a few initial book ideas ordered by publication date:

1. Free for All: Defending Liberty in America Today (link)
   By Wendy Kaminer, published in 2002, ISBN 0807044113 / 9780807044117
   
   Wendy Kaminer is an author I just discovered a couple years ago. She is sort of the Ben Shapiro of the left, fiercely principled (so much so that the ACLU drove her from their board of directors) and utterly committed to preserving freedom in America. This book looks at a number of topics from that perspective at a time when the government was  beginning to curtail freedom just after 9/11.
2. Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil (link)
   By James Bovard, published in 2003, ISBN 1403963681  / 9781403963680
   
   This book was published a year after Kaminer's book and offers another look at the the immediate post 9/11 period but from more of a libertarian than classic liberal perspective. Like Kaminer, Bovard is fiercely principled and points out anti-freedom government actions without regard to party affiliation.
   
   (Passing another anniversary of 9/11 is an excellent opportunity to contemplate whether we have sacrificed too much freedom for illusory promises of safety. I was reminded of this when listening to SOFREP Radio's 9/11 commemoration (link). SOFREP Radio is a podcast produced by members of the the military special operations community. Their comments about fighting terrorists overseas and returning home to find the civil liberties infringements we had grown to tolerate back home were a painful but necessary listen.)
3. The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure (link)
   By Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, published in 2018, ASIN B076NVFT5P
   
   This book was published this year and examines the growing political partisanship in America and the dangerous extent to which we now isolate ourselves from alternative viewpoints. It was reading this book which inspired me to see if this political diversity book club could be part of the solution to America's growing tribalism...and violence.
   
   In terms of political perspective, I would classify this book as non-partisan. It examines both right and left sided orthodoxies and points out their dangerous tendencies.
4. Republican Like Me: A Lifelong Democrat's Journey Across the Aisle (link)
   By Ken Stern, published in 2017, ISBN 0062460781 (ISBN13: 9780062460783)
   
   "The former CEO of NPR set out for conservative America to find out why these people are so wrong about everything. It turns out, they weren’t."
   
   This excellent book shows how Americans can learn to understand and appreciate people who aren't like them, instead of merely treating large groups of people as the enemy. Highly recommended in this painfully Balkanized era in which we live.