Democracy, Plutocracy, or Hypocrisy?

Books on American government

list compiled by Roger Herbst

The following books give progressive critique of American government. A number of these books were favorably reviewed by such national media institutions such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post (see citations below), but we might wonder where the reporters were at these media institutions when the actual government malfeasance transpired. The list is alphabetical by author.

Addicted to War: Why the US Can't Kick Militarism

An illustrated expose by Joel Andreas. AK Press (US) 674-A 23rd Street Oakland CA 94612-1162. www.akpress.org. "Addicted to War is a witty and devastating portrait of US military policy, a fine example of art serving society." Howard Zinn. "Political comics at its best. Bitterly amusing, lively and richly informative. For people of all ages who want to understand the link between US militarism, foreign policy, and corporate greed at home and abroad."--Michael Parenti, historian, author of History as Mystery. "Our young people will learn more about the cult of militarism in this short and accurate book ...than they might learn in their first twelve years of schooling." --Blase Bonpane, Director, Office of the Americas.

Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II

William Blum, Common Courage Pr., 2000. An exhaustive, well-organized inspection of more than fifty five foreign interventions conducted by the US this century. In this fact-filled tome, Blum documents America's hidden, quasi-fascist agenda since defeating Hitler. In short, the Cold War was largely a fiction from the western media. Our mainstream press have been and still are perpetuating a lie--that the US was not the aggressor in its conflicts against "communism". This myth has imiserated tens of thousands of innocent people across almost every country on the globe. Killing Hope contains much incriminating information that somehow never made it to our history textbooks." --Scott Loughrey

Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Super Power

William Blum, ZED Books, 2000. "Bravo! A vivid well aimed critique of the evils of US global interventionism.... antidote to officialdom's lies and propaganda" --Michael Parenti. "Blum demonstrates how US policy, under the banners of freedom and human rights, has led to barbarous criminal acts, how the worlds 'force for peace' has acted in the most bellicose form. An eye-opener for students of national security policy" --Saul Landau, Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington DC. "Bill Blum came by his book title easily. He simply tested America by the same standards we use to judge other countries. The result is a bill of wrongs--an especially well documented encyclopedia of malfeasance, mendacity and mayhem that has been hypocritically carried out in the name of democracy by those whose only true love was power." --Sam Smith, editor, The Progressive Review, Washington DC.

Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire

Chalmers Johnson, Henry Holt Publishers, 2000. "The term 'blowback', invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended consequences of American policies. This incisive and controversial book lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our over-extended empire, which insists on projecting its military power to every corner of the earth and using American capital and markets to force global economic integration on its own terms. From a case of rape by US servicemen in Okinawa to our role in Asia's financial crisis, from our early support for Saddam Hussein to our actions in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster. In the wake of the Cold War, the US has imprudently expanded the commitments it made over the previous forty years. In Blowback, Johnson issues a warning we would do well to consider: it is time for our empire to demobilize before our bills come due." --book jacket. "A take-no-prisoners account of the consequences of American global policies, hailed as 'brilliant and iconoclastic'"--Los Angeles Times. "Boldly provocative... A useful and timely alert."-- Richard Bernstein, The New York Times.

Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press

Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Verso, 1998. "An incredible compilation of stories that the mainstream media has ignored over the years. Includes a discussion of Gary Webb's three-part 'Dark Alliance' series in the San Jose Mercury News (1996), which provided evidence that the CIA knowingly did business with drug dealers who both supported the Contra cause and were shipping crack to South Central LA. In retaliation, the Washington Post, New York Times and LA Times published vicious and mendacious commentary against Webb.... There is also a hair-raising chapter on Operation Paperclip. In the formative days of the US intelligence service, intelligence officers (Bill Donovan and Allen Dulles) persuaded FDR [and then Harry Truman] to provide a safe haven in America for Nazi war criminals and their money: industrialists, intelligence officers and scientists such as Werner Von Braun.... Also chronicles how the CIA, during WWII and afterwards, teamed up with kingpins of the US Mafia, such as Lucky Luciano. The official reason was to get the Mob's help in preventing sabotage of US ships from fascist elements. After the war, the CIA was so grateful that it assisted in the gangsters' creation of a Corsican drug syndicate. This later became the French Connection, where 80 percent of the heroin entering the US came from Marseilles." ---Scott Loughrey.

Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace: How We Got to Be So Hated

Gore Vidal, Nation Books, 2002. "The US has been engaged in what the great historian Charles A. Beard called 'Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace'. The federation of American Scientists has catalogued nearly two hundred military incursions since 1945 in which the US has been the aggressor. In a series of penetrating and alarming essays, ...Gore Vidal challenges the comforting consensus following both 9-11 and the Oklahoma City bombing; that these were simply the acts of 'evil-doers'". The Times Literary Supplement (U.K.) noted that Vidal's "United States (Essays 1952-92) is one of the great American books of the twentieth century." It won the 1993 National Book Award.--from the book jacket.

Flawed by Design: The Evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC

Amy B. Zegart, Stanford University Press, 1999. "Zegart's study deftly balances organizational theory and the realities of American politics to provide new insights into the origins and evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC. Based on voluminous historical materials, this book is a must-read for all serious students of American foreign policy process and the policy it produces." --Lt. General Brent Scowcroft, USAF (ret) Former National Security Advisor. "Fifty years after the creation of the national security decision-making mechanisms, Zegart's analysis is both historically timely and intellectually insightful. Her assessments should be seriously considered in any systematic efforts to update and reform the existing arrangements." --Zbigniew Brzezinski Center for Strategic and International Studies. "By providing a fresh look at the importance of organizational design, this innovative, prize winning study raises critical analysis of the disappointing performance of the CIA, JCS, and NSC to a new level of sophistication. Through research and incisive analysis of these agencies lay bare severe flaws in their initial design and show how this contributed to many costly failures" --Alexander L. George Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Stanford University.

A People's History of the United States 1492-Present

Howard Zinn, Harper Collins, 1999. "Historians may well view it as a step toward a coherent new version of American History" --New York Times Book Review. "Known for its clear prose as well as its scholarly research... the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of America's women, factory workers, African Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers. Howad Zinn has received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award." --from the book jacket.