Required Reading.

This post will be a continually updated list of books that should be read by every progressive, liberal, and Democrat who wishes to get a handle on the insanity that is U.S. politics. Many of them also provide guidance on how to become politically active and keep from getting discouraged. Some I've read and can recommend personally; others I have not, but am familiar enough with the reputations of the authors (many of them progressive bloggers) that I have no qualms about listing them. This post will always be accessible via the link in the left-hand sidebar under "Reading Room." Suggestions are welcome! (FWIW, as many as possible are linked via Powell's Books, a great progressive-minded online book retailer. I encourage you to patronize Powell's whenever you buy books online. Please click through from my blog so I get teh monies!)

• Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics / Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas-Zuniga
• Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative / David Brock
• Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy / Frederick Clarkson
• Conservatives Without Conscience / John Dean
• The United States of Wal-Mart / John Dicker
• Why Americans Hate Politics / E. J. Dionne
• Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit / Al Gore
• An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It / Al Gore
• How Would a Patriot Act? / Glenn Greenwald
• The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophies of the 21st Century / James Howard Kunstler
• Don't Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate (A Progressive Guide to Action) / George Lakoff
• The Republican War on Science / Chris Mooney
• Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government - and How We Can Take it Back / David Sirota
• God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It / Jim Wallis