Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time

With not a single non-fiction book related to American government or international relations in best selling book lists like the New York Times or Barnes and Noble, it is evident why a majority of Americans is pathetically ignorant of international affairs and easily manipulated by politicians and their mass media sponsors. Perhaps when the decline of the American Empire is analyzed by future historians, the famous quote from the 19th century American essayist and critic E.P. Whipple will be used as a dissertation for a post doctorate degree.

Understanding the importance of reading non-partisan books written by academic professionals like Andrew Bacevich and Larry Bartels in addition to investigative jounralists like Stephen Kinzer and Philip Shenon, Opinione would like to advocate some well-written and thought provoking books for your summer time reading season.

The first book that should be on everyone’s to buy list this summer is Unequal Democracy. Written by Larry Bartels, the Director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University, the book offers an academic analysis of the relationship between politics and economics. The book was the winner of two national book awards in 2009 by the American Political Science Association and is packed with facts presented in a academic and non-partisan manner. The book is highly recommended for anyone wanting to get a true understanding of how the American political system functions. Future historians will undoubtedly use this book as a primary source document in their analysis of how the American Empire and its capital Washington DC mirrored the Roman Empire and the city of Rome before its downfall in 232 AD.

For readers who may want an in-depth and sobering look at the intimate relationship between political power and the news media, When the Press Fails by W. Lance Bennett, Regina Lawrence and Steven Livingstone is highly recommended. As all the books recommended, this book is written by academic members from the fields of political science and mass communication. After reading this book, you will never look at news the same way.

Expanding beyond the confines of domestic American politics, several new books just published such as Tom Englehart’s The American Way of War: How Bush’s Wars Became Obama’s, and Steven Kizner’s, Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future, would be an eye opener for anyone wanting to learn more American Foreign Policy. Surely to be make anyone who has believed the political rhetoric from politicians for the last 10 years feel like a complete moron, the books are a no holds bare on explaining how the Cold War era military industrial complex has now evolved into a corporate political complex. The book by Steven Kizner follows up on his groundbreaking book, Bitter Fruit, that explained the CIA’s overthrow of a democratic Guatemalan government in 1954. Reminiscent of Noam Chomsky’s intellectual explanation of American foreign policy during the Cold War in his book Hegemony or Survival- America’s Quest for Global World Dominance, the books by Kizner and Engelhardt are much more intriguing to read than any fictional military-political thriller by Tom Clancy.

By far the most highly anticipated this summer is the new book by Andrew Bacevich, Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War. The same author who introduced the terms Incumbents Party and the National Security State Apparatus, this book will undoubtedly be another best seller for the retired lieutenant colonel and professor of international relations at Boston University.

Whether it is reading a paperback book while at the beach or a hard cover first edition while camping in the mountains, this new summer reading season offers an excellent new batch of non-fiction books.

With more Americans obsessed with their image and wanting to be seen with the latest new smart phone or other high tech product, wouldn’t you want to stand out and be seen reading something intellectual and educational rather than a book by Glen Beck or Spoken from the Heart, by the aristocrat and member of a political dynasty, Laura Bush.

Perhaps a famous quote by P.J. O’Rourke will inspire some people.

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. ~P.J. O'Rourke