USC4P&J Suggested Reading List

Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
Gore Vidal

In a series of penetrating and alarming essays, whose centerpiece is a commentary on the events of September 11, 2001 (deemed unpublishable in this country until now), Gore Vidal challenges the comforting consensus following both September 11 and Timothy McVeigh's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City: These were simply the acts of "evil-doers."

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Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance
Noam Chomsky

With the striking logic that is his trademark, Chomsky tracks the U.S. government's aggressive pursuit of "full spectrum dominance" and vividly lays out how the most recent manifestations of the politics of global control -- from unilateralism to the dismantling of international agreements to state terrorism -- cohere in a drive for hegemony that ultimately threatens our existence. Lucidly written, thoroughly documented, and featuring a new afterword by the author, Hegemony or Survival is a definitive statement from one of today's most influential thinkers.

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The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them
Amy Goodman, David Goodman

The acclaimed host of Pacifica Network's Democracy Now! challenges the corporate and political hypocrisy that has silenced America.

Amy Goodman's The Exception to the Rulers, written with her brother David Goodman, chronicles the tireless efforts of an unembedded journalist and her colleagues to get to the truth and expose the lies, corruption and crimes of the power elite-an elite that is bolstered by large media conglomerates.

For years, award-winning journalist Amy Goodman has confronted the Washington establishment and its corporate cronies. She hosts the national radio and TV show Democracy Now! , now the largest public media collaboration in North America and a phenomenal grassroots movement. Her goal is "to go to where the silence is, to give voice the silenced majority."

Now, in her first book, Amy Goodman offers her no-holds-barred perspective on world events and the hidden motives behind those in power. On subjects ranging from the deceptions of the George W. Bush administration, war profiteering in Iraq, to the corruption of media monopolies and corporate influence over the government, Amy Goodman attacks and exposes the lies and hypocrisy that put democracy at risk.

Note: this book is also available in Italian: Scacco al potere.

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Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
John Perkins

"Economic hit men,” John Perkins writes, “are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder.”

John Perkins should know—he was an economic hit man. His job was to convince countries that are strategically important to the U.S.—from Indonesia to Panama—to accept enormous loans for infrastructure development, and to make sure that the lucrativeprojects were contracted to U. S. corporations. Saddled with huge debts, these countries came under the control of the United States government, World Bank and other U.S.-dominated aid agencies that acted like loan sharks—dictating repayment terms and bullying foreign governments into submission.

This extraordinary real-life tale exposes international intrigue, corruption, and little-known government and corporate activities that have dire consequences for American democracy and the world.

Listen to (or read the transcript of) a one hour interview with the author on Democracy Now!

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We Did Nothing: Why the Truth Doesn't Always Come Out When the UN Goes In
Linda Polman

Throughout the 1990s our government and its partners in the UN sentenced thousands of people to death. From the war zones of Somalia to Haiti to Rwanda, a lack of resources and trained troops, and the disregard of governments like our own ensured that UN peacekeepers were unable to halt murder and genocide. Time and again Linda Polman was witness to these failures. From the terrifying ordeals of the unsupported blue helmets on the ground to the cynical way resolutions are made and undermined by the Security Council, Polman devastatingly shows how and why the UN fails those who it is charged to protect.

During the 1990's Polman visited UN peacekeeping missions in Somalia, Haiti and Rwanda to try to understand how resolutions are made and how the peace is lost. The result is this extraordinary, disturbing and utterly compelling book. In We Did Nothing, journalist Linda Polman shows how the world's most powerful countries abuse the United Nations, and describes the everyday consequences of that abuse for UN peacekeeping soldiers.

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Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Chalmers Johnson

The term "blowback," invented by the CIA, refers to the unintended results of American actions abroad. In this incisive and controversial book, Chalmers Johnson lays out in vivid detail the dangers faced by our overextended 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 U.S. servicemen in Okinawa to our role in Asia’s financial crisis, from our early support for Saddam Hussein to our conduct in the Balkans, Johnson reveals the ways in which our misguided policies are planting the seeds of future disaster.

In a new edition that addresses recent international events from September 11 to the war in Iraq, this now classic book remains as prescient and powerful as ever.

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