When Corporations Rule The World
by David Korten
Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu, Nobel Peace Laureate
This is a 'must-read' book-a searing indictment of an unjust international economic order, not by a wild-eyed idealistic
left-winger, but by a sober scion of the establishment with impeccable credentials. It left me devastated but also very
hopeful. Something can be done to create a more just economic order.
John Cavanagh, Fellow, The Institute for Policy Studies, and coauthor of Global Dreams
If you can read only one book on how to understand and address the enormous challenges of our time, When Corporations
Rule the World is it...
Bella Abzug, Co-Chair, Women's Environment & Development Organization
Required reading for women who want to peek behind the curtain of the global economy and figure out how to save ourselves
and respond to the global SOS.
From Booklist
Beginning in the 1960s, social, economic, and political observers have expressed concern over the role of multinational
corporations. As the global economy has evolved, it is the transnational corporation that provokes apprehension. In The New
Realities (1989), Peter Drucker issued the early warning that the advent of the transnational company heralded a structural
change in the world economy. Now Korten sounds loud the alarm. He blames the corporate quest for short-term financial gain
for creating a "market tyranny that is extending its reach across the planet like a cancer, colonizing ever more of the
planet's living spaces, destroying livelihoods, displacing people, rendering democratic institutions impotent, and feeding
on life." The solution, he argues, is to "re-create societies that nurture cultural and biological diversity [and get]
corporations out of politics . . . creating localized economies." Korten's critique and his solutions are bold and
unequivocal. --- David Rouse
How Democratic Is The American Constitution?
by Robert Dahl
Reviewed by David Thundershield Queen
No library on democracy would be complete without Robert Dahl’s “How
Democratic Is the American Constitution?” (Yale University Press, 2001).
Robert Dahl is Sterling Professor Emiritus of Political Science at Yale
University and past president of the American Political Science Association.
Many consider him to be the premier scholar on Constitutional Democracy.
His book shows just how lacking in democracy the American system is in
comparison to many of our European allies!
Dahl demonstrates how, due to the context in which it was conceived, our
Constitution came to incorporate significant anti-democratic elements. Also,
Greek democracy was minimal compared to the true democracy of the
Iroquois Confederacy (Six Nations), that the french philosophers- Rousseau,
Montesquieu and Montaigne -became enthralled with and then subsequently
influenced (along with the “forefathers” contact with American-Indian
Nations) the Americans- Madison, Franklin and Jefferson. Europe had no
such democracies.
It must also be remembered that this “democracy” (at the time and continuing,
abated, into the present) excluded American-Indians, African-
Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, women, and gays!
America may be “democratic” compared to many repressive, despotic
nations- many of which the U.S. Government props up with military aid and
arms -but not nearly as free and democratic as many Americans think or as
compared to many other (European) Democracies.
“I’ve always anticipated that Bush is going to be the next president.
Democracy is still about exploitation. It’s not `what it has done for us [as
Native People],’ it’s `what it has done to us.”
- John Trudell, American Indian Movement National Chair (2000)
I also recommend reading Howard Zinn’s “A People’s History of the the
United States.” It tells the story of American History (the struggle for
democracy) from the perspective of those excluded- Am. Indians, Blacks,
Hispanics, Asians, women and poor whites.
Life In Prison
by Stanley Williams
Publishers Weekly
As a boy, Williams heard the older kids who'd served time tell stories that made prison sound glamorous and fun, a place
to hang out with your friends and prove how tough you were. But now, after 16 years on San Quentin's death row for the
murders of four people, Williams (Gangs and Violence), co-founder of the notorious Los Angeles Crips gang, knows that
prison "is no place you'd ever want to be." In this slender volume, he explains why: the cramped quarters, lack of
freedom and privacy, homesickness, violence and daily indignities (strip searches, having to use the toilet in
public). Williams often goes beyond mere description, asking readers to imagine or emulate his experiences
("To get a feel for what it's like to live in a prison cell, test yourself. Spend ten hours--nonstop and alone--in
your bathroom"), an effective technique. Though the book's stated goal is to warn kids away from Williams's path, its
matter-of-fact, often homogenized tone connotes more of a plea for sympathy than a caution intended to frighten
kids. Co-author Becnel's foreword contributes to this problem, although the stark black-and-white photographs of
Williams, San Quentin and other prisons and prisoners toughens the tone to some degree. Those concerned that
purchasing the book will profit a convicted killer can be reassured: Williams' royalties will be donated to the
Institute for the Prevention of Youth Violence. Ages 8-up.
A Man Without A Country
by Kurt Vonnegut
A Man Without a Country is Kurt Vonnegut’s hilariously funny and razor-sharp look at life, art, politics, and the condition
of the soul of America today.
Based on short essays and speeches composed over the last five years and plentifully illustrated with artwork by the author
throughout, A Man Without a Country gives us Vonnegut both speaking out with indignation and writing tenderly to his fellow
Americans, sometimes joking, at other times hopeless, always searching.
On Bullshit
by Harry G. Frankfurt
Amazon.com
"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit," Harry G. Frankfurt writes, in what must
surely be the most eyebrow-raising opener in modern philosophical prose. "Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his
share. But we tend to take the situation for granted." This compact little book, as pungent as the phenomenon it
explores, attempts to articulate a theory of this contemporary scourge--what it is, what it does, and why there's so much of
it. The result is entertaining and enlightening in almost equal measure. It can't be denied; part of the book's charm is the
puerile pleasure of reading classic academic discourse punctuated at regular intervals by the word "bullshit." More pertinent
is Frankfurt's focus on intentions--the practice of bullshit, rather than its end result. Bullshitting, as he notes, is not
exactly lying, and bullshit remains bullshit whether it's true or false. The difference lies in the bullshitter's complete
disregard for whether what he's saying corresponds to facts in the physical world: he "does not reject the authority of the
truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a
greater enemy of the truth than lies are."
This may sound all too familiar to those of use who still live in the "reality-based community" and must deal with a world
convulsed by those who do not. But Frankfurt leaves such political implications to his readers. Instead, he points to one
source of bullshit's unprecedented expansion in recent years, the postmodern skepticism of objective truth in favor of
sincerity, or as he defines it, staying true to subjective experience. But what makes us think that anything in our
nature is more stable or inherent than what lies outside it? Thus, Frankfurt concludes, with an observation as tiny and perfect
as the rest of this exquisite book, "sincerity itself is bullshit." --Mary Park
Douglas Groothuis, The Denver Post
"'On Bull----,' a remarkable (and serious) discussion on a prevalent problem by an insightful thinker".
Fast Food Nation:
The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
by Eric Schlosser
To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar America. Though created by a handful
of mavericks, the fast food business has triggered the homogenization of our society. Fast food has unleashed the malling of
our landscape, widened the chasm between rich and poor, spawned an epidemic of obesity, and propelled the juggernaut of
American cultural imperialism abroad. That's a lengthy list of charges, but Schlosser makes them stick with an artful mix
of first-rate reportage, wry wit, and careful reasoning. Schlosser has unearthed a trove of fascinating, unsettling
truths -- from the unholy alliance between fast food and Hollywood, to the source of one major chain's flavors (the
New Jersey Turnpike), to the seismic changes the industry has wrought in food production, popular culture, and even
real estate. He also uncovers fast food's enormous efforts to reel in the youngest, most susceptible consumers even
while it hones its institutionalized exploitation of teenagers and minorities. Schlosser then turns a critical eye
toward globalization -- one of today's hottest topics and a phenomenon launched and fueled by fast food. Fast Food
Nation is a groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history, likely to transform the way America thinks
about the way it eats.
Nigger: An Autobiography
by Dick Gregory
Dick Gregory does four things in "Nigger" that make the book outstanding. First, he is beyond-brutally honest. Secondly, he
makes himself vulnerable. Thirdly, even when Gregory tells of his childhood and the tragedies in his life, he does so
with humor. (Perhaps he could NOT do so without humor. Gregory seems to be one of those people who is funny, regardless
of the situation.) Finally, he asks for no pity.
My Last Sigh: An Autobiography
by Luis Bunuel
In this intimate memoir, surrealist Luis Buñuel's provocative thoughts illuminate the background of his films. In
addition, he reminisces about his childhood in Spain and friendships with contemporaries Federico Garcia Lorca
and Salvador Dali.
The Red Notebook
by Paul Auster
The Red Notebook brings together in one volume all of Paul Auster's short, true-life stories--a remarkable collection of
tales that documents the curious, miraculous, and sometimes catastrophic turns of everyday reality. In The Red Notebook, Auster
again explores events from the real world--large and small, tragic and comic--that reveal the unpredictable, shifting
nature of human experience.
Hobo
by Eddy Joe Cotton
When Zebu Recchia was 18 years old, his "hippie on a Harley" father fired him for the last time from a masonry job in
Denver. Unsure of his next step, Zebu took off down the road with his thumb out and a one-way desire to see the
world. Once he stopped hitchhiking and hopped on a train, Zebu was changed forever. He became Eddy Joe Cotton,
a young hobo-in-training. Hobo is the story of what Eddy Joe learned on the rails, the American landscape he
witnessed, and the world-wise and world-weary men who became his teachers.
Harkening back to the works of Jack Kerouac and J. D. Salinger, with the same appeal as modern writers like J. T. LeRoy,
Hobo is a real portrayal of a young man who takes to the trains to find himself.
Sidewalk
by Mitchell Duneier
An exceptional ethnography marked by clarity and candor, "Sidewalk takes us into the socio-cultural environment
of those who, though often seen as threatening or unseemly, work day after day on "the blocks" of one of New York's most diverse
neighborhoods. Sociologist Duneier, author of "Slim's Table, offers an accessible and compelling group portrait of several poor
black men who make their livelihoods on the sidewalks of Greenwich Village selling secondhand goods, panhandling, and scavenging
books and magazines.
Duneier spent five years with these individuals, and in "Sidewalk he argues that, contrary to the opinion of various city
officials, they actually contribute significantly to the order and well-being of the Village. An important study of the
heart and mind of the street, "Sidewalk also features an insightful afterword by longtime book vendor Hakim Hasan. This
fascinating study reveals today's urban life in all its complexity: its vitality, its conflicts about class and race,
and its surprising opportunities for empathy among strangers.
