EPCYD Reading List

MAKE AMERICA READ AGAIN!

Because most of us young people don’t vote unless we feel informed on the issues, we’ve compiled this suggested reading list for people to consult — with books about core values, communications, and controversial issues.  A familiarity with these books and texts will educate you, enlighten you, and encourage you to be more active in politics at all levels.

(Each book title is a link, getting you to the Amazon.com page for buying the book.)

A) Books to help us resistors understand our core selves:

• Why I Am A Democrat – Ted Sorenson
• The Courage of Our Convictions – Gary Hart
• The Conscience of a Liberal – Paul Wellstone
• Moral Politics – George Lakoff

B) Books about where we stand on the issues:

• Overview
  1. Democratic Party Platform
  2. Stronger Together – Hillary Clinton & Tim Kaine
  3. Our Revolution – Bernie Sanders
• Economics (the books of Robert Reich)
  1. The Future of Success
  2. Supercapitalism
  3. Aftershock
  4. Beyond Outrage
  5. Saving Capitalism
• Economic and Income Inequality (Joseph Stiglitz)
  1. The Great Divide
  2. The Price of Inequality
  3. Rewritng the Rules of the American Economy
• Taxes (Paul Krugman)
  1. Fuzzy Math
  2. The Great Unraveling
• Healthcare
  1. In Critical Condition – Edward Kennedy
  2. America Back On Track – Edward Kennedy
  3. Critical – Tom Daschle
  4. Getting it Done – Tom Daschle
• Guns
  1. Gun Fight – Adam Winkler
  2. The Second Amendment – Michael Waldman
  3. Enough – Gabrielle Giffords & Mark Kelly
• Immigration
  1. A Nation of Immigrants – John F. Kennedy

C) Books to help us communicate our values:

• Further books by George Lakoff
  1. Don’t Think of an Elephant
  2. Whose Freedom?
  3. Thinking Points
  4. The Little Blue Book
• Cracking the Code – Thom Hartmann
• Words That Work – Frank Luntz

D) Books to help us organize for action and/or run for public office:

• The Candidate – Samuel Popkin
• No Excuses – Robert Shrum
• Take Back Your Government – Morgan Carroll
• Rules for Revolutionaries – Becky Bond & Zack Exley
• Give Me Liberty – Naomi Wolf

E) Further reading (Fiction):

• 1984 – George Orwell
• Animal Farm – George Orwell
• Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
• Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
• All The King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren
• The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
• The Plot Against America – Philip Roth
• When She Woke – Hillary Jordan

F) Further reading (Essays):

• Politics and the English Language – George Orwell
• Brave New World Revisited – Aldous Huxley
• The End of America – Naomi Wolf
• Ur-Fascism – Umberto Eco

G) Books from the Dark Side:

• Donald Trump
  1. The America We Deserve
  2. Time to Get Tough
  3. Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America