Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis

Brooks Adams, The Theory of Social Revolutions

I like the list from Historiann and the suggestions by the commentators. The Polan book is on my list, and I had not heard of the Stephanie Coontz book. Let me put on my European specialist hat and recommend Obama read two books about present and potential foreign policy problems:

David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. (Avon Books: NYC, 1989). The origins of our current problems in the Middle East, including Israel/Palestine, part of the the tiff with Iran, and the occupation of Iraq go all the way back to the flawed peacemaking of 1919. In a sense, every place American soldiers have been deployed in the last twenty years was once a part of the Ottoman Empire. In a sense, the occupation of Iraq represents the last in a series of wars that broke up that empire starting in the 1820s.

Stephen Kotkin. Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000. (Oxford UP: NYC, 2001). Kotkin concisely traces the decline and disintegration of the Soviet Union. He also hints at some of the failures and limits of US foreign policy. Much of Putin’s policies since 2000 contain an element of continuity with Brezhnev’s foreign and economic policies. Reading this should point to the risks and opportunities for engagement with the Russian government and people. It also illuminates some of the social, economic and political problems faced by the Ukraine, the Baltic Republics and other former Soviet republics.

Brodsky shows Obama that one can use the English language with a little more elegance and vision.

1. Chris Hedges, “War is a Force that Gives us Meaning,” is a thoughtful (if chilling) treatment on the collective choice of war;
2. Liz Cohen’s “A Consumer’s Republic” provides excellent insight into how the US public became so voraciously materialistic;
3. Ted Steinberg’s “Down to Earth” is an excellent survey of American Environmental history;
4. Paul Hawken’s “Ecology of Commerce” and/or his “Blessed Unrest,” for a blueprint (and hope) for achieving social and environmental justice;
5. Alan Brinkley, “The End of Reform” offers perhaps the most thoughtful treatment of the New Deal Era.

And Profane: I know you REALLY don’t want to hear this, but a certain Big Dog agrees with you completely!

But sorry to play Debby Downer on Friday night.

PARTY ON!