"Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin. Also, DESCENT INTO TYRANNY by Alex Jones.

I recommend "Web of Debt" by Ellen Brown 2007. "The Shocking truth about our money system - the sleight of hand that has trapped us in debt and how we can break free". It seems to undergird our global reality, i.e., what drives wars, wealth and poverty worldwide. This is scholarly researched and clearly written and more than just an inconvenient truth I feel it's an essential truth for anyone wishing to understand the human tectonic plates of our civilization.

A must read for our next president is a forthcoming book this year by Winslow Myers titled "Building a World Beyond War: A Roadmap for Citizens." As other small books like Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" have played a significant role in our history, this work articulates a critical path for our future. The means are the ends in the making. For more information contact beyondwar.org.

Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston seems to me essential reading for anyone concerned about the future of our country and the growing disparities that may be our most important threat to democracy.

"On Man and The Universe", Aristotle. Would be a good companion for the president. People and times change but the need for fairness and civility are always there.

I saw the show you did a few weeks back on makeing the case for impeachment. I agreed with you and your guests compleetly. Given the fact that this white house has gotten so much power in the last 7 years, I would love to see the next president read Animal farm. what a perfect book to demonstrate the absoult courption of power.
christian lopez

"Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future" by Peter Ward. The various global warming scenarios presented at the end of this book make all other problems seem small by comparison.

I hope this is the place for book suggestions for Bill Moyers show on Fri. 2-8.
The book, 3 Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Relin. Story of Greg M and his quest to build schools in Afghanstan and Pakiston in the villages where the poorest people live and they want education more than anything. Greg shows that education is the only way to bring peace and a way to end Islamic terrorism. If we really want peace, we will have it, not with military might, but with book, not bombs.

In light of the recent revelations that all of the 9/11 "confessions" were obtained under torture, and in an effort to prevent America's further slide into a dictatorial police state, I reccomend that the next president read David Griffin's, "The 9/11 Commision Report: Omissions and Distortions."

I agree with Harold K. below. Constitutional expert Joel Bakan's book, "The Corporation", and the documentary based on the book, are too important not to read and see. This book truly shook me to the core.

2 books:

"The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf." A new President has to account for policy changes that offer so much advantage to corporations at the expense of relatively powerless individuals. What could be the consequences to constitutional order if this trend continues unchanged?

"The Sorrows of Empire" or any other book by Chalmers Johnson. A national security imperative has led us to eke out over 700 military bases internationally. Is this over-extension and if so, what would be the consequences, both pro and con when we scale back?

How about "The Spoon River Anthology" to remind a President living inside the beltway that the lives of those he or she governs are fleeting, yet filled with so much hope and fear.

Bill --

I would like the next President to read (not scan) _Utopia_ by Thomas More. It is both wonderful and somehow sad that the critique of law, politics, and society offered in _Utopia_ remains -- after nearly five hundred years in print -- still so very much on target.

More wrote _Utopia_ not to describe a destination but to start a discussion, and a journey. Reading the book and understanding its history might remind the next President that, although it may be a long and difficult trek to improve human societies, it is always a journey worth undertaking.

It might also remind the President that even lawyers do have imaginations and can use them, as lawyer More did in writing his book.

Then again, More did lose his head. . . .

Best,

Howard V. Hendrix

Reading through, I noticed only one person recommended Joel Bakan's "The Corporation". This is both sad and frightening,for such an important book. We'll never grow as a society without paying heed to this work.

Citizen Power by Mike Gravel. He's one of the most patriotic living Americans - a modern day Thomas Paine. He may not win the election (sadly), but his message is the best one to truly influence the future of our country for the better.

I believe the one book the next president should read is "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. Only by understanding where our country truly has been can we make informed decisions regarding our future.

BLESSED UNREST by Paul Hawken

First, and foremost,the message of this book is positive. The book had its genesis in after-talk meetings with thousands of people who shared their work, their beliefs, and their business cards. It carries the subtitle"How the Largest Movement in the World Came Into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming." The movement is composed of organizations that fit within the very broad framework of environmental activism, peoples' rights, and social justice. The number of such entities world wide falls between one and two million (more than ten million individuals)—largely non-profits and NGOs. Now with the certainty of a new President, government can react and capitalize on the successful works in progress.

Before arriving at the White House, the elected one should read the latest works of Oliver Sacks (about the brain), Sherwin B. Nuland (about aging-very accelerated as a President), and Nicholas Basbanes (about books-the power of the printed word to stir the world). A quiet time to read is a necessity.

David Cay Johnston's new book is revolutionary and everyone needs to read it.

Bill,

A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan and Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam by Robert Dreyfuss should be on the top of any new President's reading list for foreign policy.

I would like to add that I find it disgraceful that so many people would recommed the crank that David Ray Griffin publishes about 9/11. They desperately need to read this.

Any president that allows the Bible to be their first choice - should be required to read Leo Tolstoy's thoughtful non-fictional critique - The Kingdom of God Is Within You - the book credited with being a major influence on Mahatma Gandhi.

CONSUMED How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole by Benjamin R. Barber. This book should definitely be read by every candidate and citizen. It is the best book I have read in a DECADE and I read hundreds of books. Read it.

This great list of books suggests that our government hasn't been using the best ideas that could put our country in a positive direction.

The next president must listen to new ideas or we're doomed to hear the same distored noise, where, in Yeats' words, " The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity"

"Imperial Life in the Emerald City," by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, is the best book written about our failed occupation in Iraq.

The aforementioned books, from "The Shock Doctrine" to The Constitution," are terrific, but I just want a president that will listen to the voices of a hopeful future, not a fearful past.

Lester Brown's "Plan B 3.0"... if you care about your children and grandchildren.

It all depends. If the next president is a Democrat, he or she should read "Before the Storm" by Rick Perlstein. That book is indispensable for understanding how the GOP was transformed from a political party into a pathology. And if our next president does not get that he or she is up against a pathology, there won't be a lot of headway to be made.

If a Republican, "Eisenhower" by Stephen Ambrose. Our Republican friends need to be reminded that it is possible to be both a Republican and a responsible leader. (However, someone needs to redact the chapter on Guatamala first..)

Lester Brown's Plan B 3.0... if you care about your children and grandchildren.

"The Great War for Civilisation" by Bill Fisk. No, that's not a typo, just English spelling. This book was a real eye opener as to the abuse heaped on the population of that region.

Plus, the book is long and fat-- this might keep our new president occupied finding out how we and other imperial regimes have operated.

"Blowback" by Chalmers Johnson or any relevant history book which emphasizes how we as humans keep making the same mistakes over and over. And over and over due to our innate hubris.

Like a lot of others have, I vote for "Collapse", by Jared Diamond.

Nobody is going to "bring" a book with them to the White House. However, the next president may "TAKE" a book with them to the White House.
Explanation: Bring it here, take it there. Bring it with you when you come, take it with you when you go. Hopefully, the next president will at least have better grammar than the current resident. It would be nice if supposedly educated reporters did as well, but not likely.

A must read: Voltaire's Bastards by J.R. Saul (1992)
Though written very densely,it fully explains our systemic, i.e. institutional (govt, business, military, etc)dysfunctions in the western developed nations. The Vietnam and Iraq debacles are prime examples, that have deep, intertwining roots that must be extricated and remedied. If not, we will repeat our disasters, like drug addicts, until system collape.

There are a lot of expected recommendations posted here (Atlas Shrugged, The Art of War, etc.) Let me suggest one that most probably haven't read: "The Seventeen Traditions," by Ralph Nader.

The book, as the title might suggest, details seventeen traditions instilled in Ralph Nader by his parents. The lessons found therein are desperately needed in an age devoid of civic virtue. Cultivating these principles among America's youth is the single most important challenge to our sputtering democracy.

I would recommend two books: The Art of Non-War by Kim Michaels and Mary's Message of Love by Allan Arthur Schulte. These would be two balanced approaches to the problems we are facing in this country because obviously the approaches that have been done in the past are not working.

War does not bring prosperity and this country has to move out of this dualistc thinking. Mary's Message of Love Mother Mary'presents her views on contempary issues that are facing this nation--everything from aboration to gay rights. Both are a must read. You don't have to be Catholic to read about Mary.

"Deterring Democracy" by Noam Chomsky. "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine couldn't hurt either. I really enjoy your show Bill, keep up the great work.

An Unbroken Agony: Haiti from Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President by Randall Robinson, 2007, exposes the CIA covert removal of democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti in 2004.
http://www.randallrobinson.com/

All the Shah's Men by Stephen Kinzer, 2003, details the CIA overthrow of the elected government of Iran in 1953 in order to enrich the foreign oil companies. This sowed the seeds for the blowback the US is experiencing today.
http://www.onpointradio.org/shows/2003/07/20030709_a_main.asp

These two books show the US-backed CIA methods used for covertly overthrowing foreign governments, beginning with Iran in 1953. Any President needs to understand this formula, used repeatedly, if he or she is to stop the US's illegal attacks against other countries and regain world respect for the US. We can no longer afford to have a secret government operating within our elected government. The sad truth is that Presidents already know this formula. It's the non-reading US citizens who need to read and learn it.

I would strongly suggest that the next president read and understand the Constitution of the United States of America. Future presidents must understand the importance of this document. This president has no understanding and no desire to understand let alone protect this foundation of Democracy. We must restore our Constitution. Impeachment is mandatory to stop further erosion of our Constitution.

It may already have been suggested, but I'd like to recommend the next president (and all government leaders for that matter) read Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States".

Let's hope the next president reads.

For the next president, I recommend Rhinehold Niebuhr's Irony of American History. Niebuhr will remind our new leader that American is one nation among many and doesnt' necessarily represent God's will. This books would set a context for any leader and also reminds a new president that, "nothing really worth doing can be accomplished in one life time."

I would recommend strongly that they read David Cay Johnston’s, How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill). David Cay Johnston’s writing is riveting, and his expose on how government regulations are helping take from the many to help the few is essential knowledge or all who wish a good and prosperous future for America. Which I hope our presidential candidates do. As David points out while from 1970 to today the size of our GDP has more than tripled, yet the lower 90% of American have seen their incomes drop. Johnston has done provides a major service for America and it will only be useful if we and the presidential candidates read it and take action. In case you missed it Mr. Johnston was interviewed by Bill Moyer’s, http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01182008/profile.html
and Terry Gross’s Fresh Air http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17808622
They are well worth listening to and passing on to our friends and politicians who love America and want to help it to have a great future.

Best book: "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston

Bill,

Books for the next president to read:

All books by Dr. Ron Paul

"Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin (already recommended several times)

"The Creature From Jekyll Island" by G. Edward Griffin (no relation to David Ray Griffin)

"Cracking the Code: The Fascinating Truth About Taxation in America" by Peter Hendrickson

"The Israel Lobby" by Meirsheimer and Walt

That should be enough to get them started. Problem is those running know all this information already, yet they won't talk about it, except for Dr. Ron Paul.

I recommend "The Art of Possibility" by Rosamund & Benjamin Zander. As the title implies, this book is about what is possible, about reaching for goals that were thought to be unreachable, about all of us taking care of each other so as to to nurture that impulse.It is subtitled "A Book Of Practices", and each section opens with a quote or an anecdote to set the stage for what is to follow. The first one goes like this---"A shoe factory sends two marketing scouts to a region of Africa to study the prospects for expanding business. One sends back a telegram saying, 'Situation hopeless, no one wears shoes!' The other write backs triumphantly, 'Glorious business opportunity, they have no shoes!'"

The whole book is like that. it is an inspiring read, yet fun and playful. One of the sections begins with a story in which the punch line is, "Don't take yourself so God Damned Seriously!" This book follows that axiom.

I recommend to the candidates the book "The Israeli Lobby" by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt to serve as a primer of the working of various Israeli lobbies. And how domestic politics dictates our foreign policy.

I highly recommend Alan Greenspan's book, THE AGE OF TURBULENCE. It is time we get our heads out of the clouds and begin to understand the economics of the age in which we are living.

Bill
Nothing can help a president maintain his/her direction better than Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth". If followed, the president can stay focused on what is important and we will all benifit.
Cait

I echo the recommendations for The Shock Doctrine and Dark Ages America. A great book that has yet to be suggested is The Politics of Jesus by Obery Hendericks, Jr. I would also like to see him as a guest on your show from time to time during this campaign season.

The next prez should read Faust.

i have to agree...

Author: David Ray Griffin

"DEBUNKING 9/11 DEBUNKING"

so shocking i didn't want to believe it... but, the evidence speaks for itself. Why did we not hear any of these facts during and shortly after 9/11? Bill please interview this guy!

"Voltaire's Bastards" by John Ralston Saul. This is an impossibly broad analysis of what ails us and why. It is astonishing that one person could write so knowledgeably about so many things, around a common thread.

I can't follow all his arguments, so I can't tell if he is really on the right track or not - but there are some pretty good exolanations for things that have puzzled me for a long time.

How did we get ourselves into this mess? A president could get some perspectivew here.

The first requirement of good government is COMPASSION.

No book I have ever used as a daily read compels compassion more than KITCHEN TABLE WISDOM by Rachel Naomi Remen.

Without compassion all governments shall eventually corrupt.

* “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand, the rights and strengths of the individual vs. the mob,
* “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, personal failure, discovery and salvation,
* “1776″ by David McCullough, remembering what we were when we as a nation were just discovering for ourselves,
* “Theodore Rex” by Edmund Morris, Theodore Roosevelt’s Presidency and how TR as a person defines what personal strength and moral courage really are,
* “Citizen Soldiers” by Stephen Ambrose, to me this book defines what is perhaps our single greatest trait as a nation, our individual citizen’s willingness to help set wrong to right. We did it for the right reasons then and are so lost now, and lastly,
* “Team of Rivals” by Doris Kearns Goodwin, perhaps the best of the bunch as it describes the times of hatred, strife and war that at its core is so similar to our times now.

"The Creature from Jekyll Island" - G. Edward Griffin

The creature is the Federal Reserve which is creating fiat money and depleting our economic wealth by transferring it to the third world.

Add my own formula, $ = NAME RECOGNITION = ELECTION, and the next president will see that at least one of the sheep out here understands his or her socialist (probably Council on Foreign Relations) motivation to ignore our Constitution in favor of world government.

Follow the money and you'll see what, not necessarily who, drives everything.

Book: State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America by Pat Buchanan. We are losing our culture, language, sovereignty, heritage, history, country, and national security to non-citizens (illegal immigrants) who view our country as a welfare state and a paycheck. Americans built this country and we can not continue to be on a path of self-destruction by allowing an unfettered flow of non-citizens into our country because it will ultimately be to our own peril. For the last 30-40 years, all our Presidents have forgotten the importance of our immigration laws and why they need to be enforced.

Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston

My suggestion is that the next president should read The Art of non War, by Kim Michaels.

Though 35 years old, E. M. Schumacher's SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL: Economics as if People Mattered is still and will always be relevant.

It's been interesting reading thru so many thoughtful posts and nominations of wonderful books. But I have to say, at this point I am so tired of hearing about what's WRONG with the US, or the world, I think we have a pretty clear picture about that. I'm more interested in reading books about SOLUTIONS -- HOW do we make these very wrong things right, and get our country back on track? That's what I am desperately looking to hear more ideas about. That's why I'm not drawn to books like Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine," Naomi Wolf's book or some of the others listed here. While I recognize their clarity and even moments of brilliance, they don't really tell us something that you can't figure out by looking at the news headlines today, i.e. our country is screwed up, dreadfully so.

No, instead I am drawn more to books like Steven Hill's "Ten Steps to Repair American Democracy." We need solutions, and I have read this book and it's brilliant and concise and chock full of solutions. I agree with what the other person who proposed this book said, that so much of what ails our country starts with the failure of our democratic system. If we don't fix that, all is else is lost, I'm afraid. So I would say that books like "Ten Steps" are where we need to focus now. Like Obama has said, it's time for hope, time for new beginnings, time for getting it right, and books like Ten Steps offer that hope in the form of real solutions. That's where I think we need to go. Anybody else with me on this? Or are you all still into ranting about the problems?

Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II by William Blum

And

Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror by Mahmood Mamdani

"The Assault On Reason"
by Al Gore
This book will instruct the next President about how our government was intended to work, the constitution, and the seperation of powers. By examining the Bush administrations constant abuses of presidential power and the media's inattention to the concept of a "well informed citizenry" the next president will have a guide of what to be wary of, how to uphold the oath of his/her office to "faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and to the best of his or her Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," and a real understanding of being in service to the commen good. This book explains what it all means.

"A Multitude of Counsel on Strengthening the Family by Dr William C. Small

Many of the issues that we face in society pertaining to crime and the economy can be traced back to the break down of the family. A president of a company or president of a country can return their respective entity to relative peace and prosperity by concentrating on strengthening the families within their area of responsibility. Each fortune 500 corporation operates on family principles. This book contains the seven principles that fortune 500 corporations operate on which led them to become economic powerhouses. The next US President needs to read this book to return America to its status as an economic powerhouse in the world market.

SUPERPATRIOTISM by Michael Parenti.

This book challenges the "USA! USA!" as number one that is so well parodied on "The Colbert Report".

THE DARK SIDE OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY by Linda Ellerbe.

With both parties trying to appear Christian, it is important to remember what the tragic results have been when Christianity has imposed its will in the past. It was not sweetness and light.

"Good Poems for Hard Times" selected by Garrison Keillor.

Bill:
As a Canadian watching American affairs with great interest, I would recommend the following book go into the White House with the next president: All I Need To Know I Learned In Kindrgarten.

William Carlos Williams' seminal collection of poems "Spring and All". The apparent simplicity belies a poet that worked hard and constantly refining his work. We should only be lucky enough for a President to strive for such.

"As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," (Proverbs 23:7)

Public education has not been developing children's mental and spiritual capacities for the 21st century: thinking, reasoning, judging, perceiving, intuiting, etc. are necessary in order to understand the complex issues and, hence, to vote. Thus, I recommend an excellent website ... http://www.criticalthinking.org/

People need to hear more about what the candidates are reading and how they will use those ideas to move democracy -- and public educatio --- back on track after becoming president.

As a nation, the people's conversation must also examine whether the current democratic system is really of, for, and by the people -- or just of, for and by a 1% minority.

Without realizing it, Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" seems to have predicted America's current conundrum ... for, time is definitely the variable on the side of those in power--throughout their families' generations:

"... it only remains to know which power in the constitution has the most weight, for that will govern; and though the others, or a part of them, may clog, or, as the phrase is, check the rapidity of its motion, yet so long as they cannot stop it, their endeavors will be ineffectual; the first moving power will at last have its way, and what it wants in speed is supplied by time."

Source: Common Sense, by Thomas Paine, printed by W. and T. Bradford, Philadelphia, 1791.

Online - accessed Feb 7, 2008 http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/commonsense/text.html

Isn't it ironic? ... and scary for the rest of the world ...

America, symbolized in the person of George Washington, resisted the notion of a monarchy ... the title of King George I of America. It seems that it was only a question of time before democracy of, for, and by the people became a monarchy of sorts ... today, he reigns America!

Examples abound that those in power do read and harness authors' thoughts in service to their agendas.

Online - understandingrace.org ... immigration laws --- a current topic of debate --- has a sordid history:

"The worldwide Eugenics movement gained strength in the U.S. at the end of the 1890s, when theories of selective breeding espoused by British anthropologist Francis Galton and his protégé Karl Pearson, gained currency. Connecticut was the first of many states, beginning in 1896, to pass marriage laws with eugenic provisions, prohibiting anyone who was "epileptic, imbecile or feeble-minded" from marrying. The noted American biologist, Charles Davenport, became the director of biological research at a station in Cold Spring Harbor in New York in 1898. Six years later the Carnegie Institute provided the funding for Davenport to create the Station for Experimental Evolution. Then, in 1910, Davenport and Harry H. Laughlin took advantage of their positions at the Eugenics Record Office to promote eugenics."

"...Madison Grant, a lawyer known more as a conservationist and eugenist created the "racialist movement" in America advocating the extermination of "undesirables" and certain "race types" from the human gene pool. He played a critical role in restrictive U.S. immigration policy and anti-miscegenation laws. His work provided the justification for Nazi policies of forced sterilization and euthanasia. He wrote two of the seminal works of American racialism: The Passing of the Great Race (1916) and The Conquest of a Continent (1933). The Passing of the Great Race gained immediate popular success and established Grant as an authority in anthropology, and laid the groundwork for his research in eugenics."

Source: http://www.understandingrace.org/history/science/eugenics_physical.html

May God bless America's ordinary people ...

Peace!

The bible is a mythical book. Any reasonable person will wonder what it would have to do in the oval office, especially if not complemented by the Torah, the Koran, and the sacred scriptures of all major world religions.

And what a joke of having the president read only one other book! It makes George W. Bush appear literate.

Anyway, I would definitely concur that Griffin's "Debunking 9/11 Debunking" would be an excellent candidate. Even though it is widely available, clearly written and well-reasoned, politicians have tried hard to ignore its existence. Yet reading it would force a U.S. president to start doing his/her job at long last: recognize publicly that the U.S. government is overrun with corruption, purge the U.S. government of its criminal elements, and make the remaining employees understand that public service is first and foremost about serving the public.

Love,

Might I be so bold to suggest that our next president read a book that turns integrity from a vague, abstract, philosophical concept into a set of concrete, specific actions? If the next president wants to live at the intersection of personal freedom and collective highest good, the book to read is "The New IQ: How Integrity Intelligence Serves You, Your Relationships and Our World by Dr. David Gruder." I don't at all mean to be self-serving with this recommendation. I am passionately sincere about it.

My suggestion, besides the Bible and the Constitution, would be The Essential Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is a most timely book when the New Deal is being unravelled, and we shall soon rediscover the value of what our parents and grandparents bequethed us. Their blood, toil, tears and sweat yielded years of relative peace and prosperity. May it not have been in vain.

Our next president needs to read

-Nuclear Power is not the Answer, by Helen Caldicott

-Humanism and Democratic Criticism, by Edward Said

-Conversations in Maine: Exploring Our Nation's Future by Grace Lee Boggs, James Boggs, Freddy Paine, and Lyman Paine

And, although I would hope that the book that founded our country has a permanent home in the Whitehouse, I must include what should be required reading for all presidents, Common Sense by Thomas Paine.

I've given this much thought since viewing an airing of the program a few days ago.

First of all, let me say that I agree with the idea that you can gain insight into a person's thinking by reading the books they've read; as much as we might like to think the government is incompetent, I think they are not merely seeking to intimidate the citizenry by securing our library records.

I've read many of the books recommended by others. "Heat" by George Monbiot. "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein. I find that "Plan B 3.0", by Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute, is the best. Why?

"Plan B 3.0" succintly addresses every problem facing the planet today, giving concrete science-based solutions that can affordably and quickly be implimented on a global scale. No other book does this so well, nor so convincingly.

"Plan B 3.0" directly references Jared Diamond's work from "Collapse", answering the questions "Collapse" poses for our current civilization. It's solutions necessitate a way of doing business which is different than that outlined in "The Shock Doctrine". Besides, I think most presidential candidates are well aware of the reality "The Shock Doctrine" unmasks for us average citizens.

"Heat" is a magnificent work, and unique in daring to actually calculate and consider the realities of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. It presents a picture of a just Britain, taking proper responsibility for historical emissions. Interestingly, this book had to be sourced from Canada for quite a while, as it was not available here! Equivalent versions of "Heat", written for every nation, need to be written. So whilst I think it's an important component and contribution, a reading of "Plan B 3.0" is the greater plan, and "Heat" is a subserviant work.

I am a climate educator, presenting a slideshow authored by Al Gore, as featured in "An Inconvenient Truth". Yet I do not bring copies of his book to my presentations. I bring "Plan B 3.0", and recommend it to everyone not satisfied with merely changing their lightbulbs and buying a brand new hybrid car.

"Plan B 3.0" MUST be the guidebook for the next president, or civilization is lost.

"The Corporation", by constitutional lawyer Joel Bakan. I believe it to be the most important book thus far largely ignored.

There are a number of erudite and important books that would contribute enormously toward a philosophical foundation for good governance. Overall, though, if someone had read, grasped and appreciated the entire John McPhee catalog, I would be content that they were at least capable of perceiving perspective, the lack of which, I believe, has lead to many of the catastrophic dilemmas in which we are currently embroiled...

"Cerebrations of a Solitary Man" by Bradley Berman

The Great Work by Thomas Berry. TR Crowe says, "Maybe once every 100 years does someone emerge from the shuddering mass of humanity who speaks to us with a kind of clarity that is universally profound. Thomas Berry is such a figure. "The Great Work" will, I believe, be remembered as the touchstone, the 'bible' whose wisdom laid the groundwork for our continued healthy existence here on Earth."

''THE SHOCK DOCTRINE" by Naomi Klein"

I think Hillary Clinton's suggestion was the best. The Constitution. However, I think she needs to brush up on the Constitution as well as the rest of the 434 members of Congress. In addition all of the Executive appointees as well as Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney need to READ the Constitution. I have a copy myself close by and find myself watching the news, looking an item in question up and begin screaming at the TV screen. It is pretty plain to me. Why can't the Americans who take an oath to the Constitution defend and uphold it.

End of the Line: The Rise and Coming Fall of the Global Corporation by Barry C. Lynn, 2005. From the jacket: "End of the Line is the first real anatomy of globalization. It is the story of how American corporations created a global production system by exploding the traditional factory and casting the pieces to dozens of points around the world. It is the story of how free trade has made American citizens come to depend on the goodwill of people in very different nations, in very different regions of the world. It is a story of how executives and entrepreneurs at such companies as General Electric, Cisco Systems, Dell, Microsoft, and Flextronics adapted their companies to a world in which America's international policies were driven ever more by ideology rather than a focus on the long-term security and well-being of society."

I recommend: "The Post-Corporate World" by David C. Korten. Good historical background for how we've gotten into the political, economic, environmental mess we are in, and how to get out of it - gave me hope!

The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, by David Korten. A must read for leaders who are serious about working for real change.

''THE SHOCK DOCTRINE" by Naomi Klein" might cause a White House reader to rethink the casually heartless history we have chosen for the people of Iraq.....and then again, perhaps not, profit being profit.

"A Soldier of the Great War" by Mark Helprin.
It would be too long for George Bush but any of the other candidates could handle it.

freeluch is the best book in these times that the president could read, bar non

I was happy to read a number of posts that validate my choices for companion novels: The Grapes of Wrath and Atlas Shrugged. These stories helped me formulate beliefs and foster some confusion about the correct relationship between the individual and society. The next President’s success will depend heavily on his or her ability to demonstrate and articulate an understanding of those that disagree. Reading these books will empower that understanding.

I suggest the book "The Real Lincoln" By Thomas Dilorenzo the ideas put forth in that book put a lie to what we now call the ideas of our forefathers. Industrial strength central government is not in the founders tastes for they saw it in King George, an all powerful OZ is our problem now under this unitary executive showing all the lie that power vested in one omnipotent executive is a cource to a tyrants rule.

Naomi Kleins 'The Shock Doctrine'.....or anything else she has written for that matter.

I think the old text "A Theory of Justice" by John Rawls may be a good book to have as a primer to create a better society. I want to start over.

Any book by any economist that has the word "fair" more times than "free" and whose last name does not start with Fr is worth taking a chance on.

First - I'd want Bill Moyers for president. Lacking that, we need someone who doesn't wave the flag and the bible and has read books like Harris's Letter to a Christian Nation or Time Traveling with Science and the Saints.

Citizen Power by Mike Gravel. Washington insiders have forgotten that this is a governmnet of, by and for the people; Gravel's book is a good reminder of what we can accomplish when we work together and are no longer "drugged by fear." Obama says "Yes we can" but Mike Gravel tells us how we can.

My husband enjoyed reading Free Lunch by Mr. Johnston so much I purchased my own copy and we talk about the insight Mr. Johnston shows in this excellent book.

Two books, the first is Thom Hartmann's What would Jefferson Do? This book reminds us of the history of the constitution, what Jefferson thought American should be/become. The second is Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, an Eater's Manifesto. We have a serious health problem caused in part by our diets. This book is straightforward in evaluation our current problems and suggests next steps in finding sane diets and recovering from years of low quality foods.

David Cay Johnston Free lunch is a great book that should be read by everyone.

"Citizen Power" by Mike Gravel.

We build a battleship a day in WWII, we can build enough windmills and solar to power the country in a year. And enact the National Initiative to do the things government won't.

I recommend the next president (and for that matter the current one) read "Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil" by Michael C. Ruppert (with Contributor Catherine
Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing/Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush Administration)
ISBN 0865715408
512 pages

If it's down to one book, I'd have to vote for Thom Hartmann's brilliant THE LAST HOURS OF ANCIENT SUNLIGHT. Regardless of who wins, the next president will need to understand how the upcoming energy crisis and environmental issues like global warming will shape western civilization for the foreseeable future.

THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1980
by Dean Baker

For me, D'Toquville's "Democracy in America" should be on the President's desk. It is a powerful reminder of the voluntary power of the American spirit without the intercession of the central government. Government is a necessary part of the American future, but it needs to be an expression of the people, not the dictator to the people.

THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1980
by Dean Baker

There have been some excellent suggestions by many contributors. I would add that the next president should read and reread "The Leaders We Need" by Michael Maccoby. The leader we want (the one elected!) needs to have the personality, emotional, analytic, and strategic intelligence to lead all the generations of this era.

I would like them to read John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. Do you think they can follow his tightly reasoned arguments on individuality, etc.? Having read it, would they grasp its policy implications? Perhaps the best we can hope for is that the president's staff, knowing he/she is reading the book would themselves read it to be able to talk to the President about it and the staffs' thinking would be informed by Mill's points!

I would recommend "A Short History of Progress" by Ronald Wright. He outlines the indicators in the fall of civilizations: class, economics, environment etc and goes back centuries and analyses the major ones. The indicators are telling, penetrating for our times, considering (and he makes that point) we have only one civilization now, and its global. About 200 pages.

Utter Incompetents by Oliphant... it wasn't just the Iraq war, virtually EVERYTHING Bush Admin touched turned out to be huge mistakes....the War (occupation) just got the most press because it was the costliest and most obvious mistake...this is a primer on what NOT to do...had Bush been a "do nothing" president on cruise control from Clinton years, our country would be in far better shape than it is now. Can't believe no one else recommended it. The title makes it sound like satire, but it's a serious investigation and details nearlly all the Administration's hideous mistakes these past 8 years. Sigh. Knowledge is power.

I highly recommend SHELL GAME, By: NY Times Best Selling Author Steve Alten! Fabulous read and jam packed with pieces of the truth of the Past, Present and Future of America and the world!

I would like the next president to read "Savage Inequalities" by Jonathan Kozol. We need to provide for our children in public schools or we have no future.

I would also recommend "Democracy in America" by Tocqueville, and add to the list the autobiographies of Frederick Douglass ("Narrative of the Life", "My Bondage and My Freedom", and "Life and Times"), "The Powers That Be" by David Halberstam, and "The Vanishing Voter" by Thomas E. Patterson. I would also recommend anything by Franz Kafka, just to remember that what appears to be absurd today can be true tomorrow.

Freelunch is the only book the new prsident needs to read

Thousand Year War and the only book that (after 20 years plus) still scares me----The Handmaiden's Tale.
I am looking forward to Bill's program.

I'd suggest "The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order" by Parag Khanna to be published in March 2008 by Random House. For a preview see Khanna's essay in The New York Times Magazine (January 27, 2008)which was adapted from the upcoming book.

I also agree with all those people who nominate Zinn's wonderful history of the U.S.

I agree that one can tell a lot about a person by what books they read, but probably not so much based on a single book mentioned in the context of a political campaign. I would prefer to snoop through each candidate's personal library. THAT would tell me something.

If I could pick one book for the next president to read, it would be Stacey Mitchell's brilliant "Big Box Swindle." It is by far the best book on the cancerous big-box phenomenon that I have come across, with much greater breadth, honesty and clarity than any other treatment, including the highly touted "The Wal-Mart Effect" (by Charles Fishman). If we are to do anything about the sorry state of the U.S. (and global) economy, the menace of global warming, or myriad other threats to our environment and way of life, we must heed the message of this vital book. By the way, Stacey Mitchell would be an excellent choice for an interview on the program.

"This I Believe" edited by J Allison and D Gediman

The Shock Dictrine: http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/01/why-right-loves-disaster

So many fantastic books suggested! You have all vastly increased my reading list. I'd agree with many of those already suggested, but I'd also recommend Bill McKibben's Deep Economy. It gave me a sense of hope that if we recognize economic growth cannot continue without destroying the planet, we can create a more humane, creative, and rewarding life. I love his comment about the developed nations, that "For most of human history, the two birds of More and Better roosted on the same branch. You could toss one stone and hit them both....Now, if you've got the stone of your own life, or your own society, gripped in your hand, you have to choose between them." The question is not how we can make more money and have more stuff, but how we can enhance life.
Bill, thanks for your wonderful show and for being a voice of reason and compassion.

Read "WAR IS A RACKET" by General Smedley Butler. And don't imitate your predecessor.

The book I would suggest for the next president to read is: "Blowback" by Chalmers Johnson. Perhaps by reading it he or she would give more thought to the possible consequences of our actions abroad.

If I had one book to recommend it would be David Ray Griffin's "Debunking 9/11 Debunking". Paraphrasing Professor Emeritus Richard Falk of Princeton University, until we know the truth about the events of that day, we won't get anything right.

Dr. Griffin seeks and finds a very disturbing truth.

The Philosophy Of Freedom by Rudolf Steiner

I think the President should read "Ethics for Policy Decisions" by W.A.R. Leys, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1952. This volume demonstrates a decision making technique based on the ideas of the great philosophers: Plato, Aristotle, Bentham, Kant, Spinoza, Hegel, Marx, Dewey and others. It provides a series of questions to be asked about priblem situations that enable a careful ananysis to be made to learn the possible consequences of varioous possible decisions. A great book even though it is not famous!!

I can't choose just one. Any of Thomas Paine's writings and a comprehensive book on Ethics. Starting with Aristotle, Socrates and Plato

Pfft.. hands down

Free Lunch By David Cay Johnston
if there is any book that upsets you more when you read it- you haven't paid enough attention to this one...

Suggested book for next president: "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins which includes quotes by founding fathers about their thoughts on religion.

Definitely "The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism" by David Friedman.

Useful for clearing the room of the stench left by "Shock Doctrine"... ;)

I would suggest that the next president read "10 Steps to Repair American Democracy," (www.10Steps.net) by Steven Hill from the New America Foundation. If we don't fix the political process and make it fairer, nothing else will be possible. That book lays it out clearly, the many ways our democracy is failing, and how we can make it work again.

I would suggest "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich". You'll find the reason below.
***************************
Below is a talk that I delivered at a "TAKE A STAND" rally in Augusta on August 28 sponsored by the Iraq Summer Campaign.
When I sent him a draft copy, Noam Chomsky responded with "Very eloquent, and very well done."
**********************************
There were good Germans, just like there are good Americans

I grew up in a German-American family. My father, a Leisner, was drafted in early 1941 along with four of his brothers. My mother, a Rinehart, served as a WAVE nurse while her two brothers were drafted.
I was always amazed that hardly anyone would talk about WWII and their experiences. Perhaps it was PTSD.

As a result, I started reading about WWII when I was in my early teens.
In 1961, at the tender age of 15, I read the paperback copy of "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William L. Shirer. I was blown away. When asked what I thought of the book by both the Principal and Superintendent of my High School, I told them, "I never knew there was another nation like America".

Since then, I have been fascinated by the relationship between Nazi Germany and Emperial America. Between the European Holocaust and the two American Holocausts. Between party/state control and corporate control. Between anti-semeticism and racism. Between Lebensraum and Manifest Destiny.

Since I have always view myself as a good American, subscribing to liberty and justice for all, I have always thought that there were good Germans who resisted the Nazis and Hitler.

By the way, always keep in mind the fact that Hitler didn't do it alone. There were individual Nazis all the way down to the local level and plenty of corporate supporters. Sounds just like Bush and the Republicans.

The Nazis permanently suspended all civil liberties following the Reichstag fire in early 1933. It created the Gestapo (secret state police) as one of its major instruments of political terror, with all actions of this body immune to judicial review. It abolished the principle of "no punishment outside the law," as well as the judiciary's autonomy; the Fuehrer's edict could overrule the law as well as impose the degree of punishment. The Nazis created concentration camps, where, until the late 1930s, prior to the establishment of work and death camps outside Germany, no fewer than 200,000 non-Jewish Germans were incarcerated for alleged political, racial or anti-social offenses. The Nazis dissolved all political parties other than its own, rendering parliament an empty shell, notwithstanding the fact that more than half of the German electorate had voted for parties other than the Nazis in the March 1933 elections. As a result of the suppression of civil freedoms and of all opposition, the Nazis attained a monopoly of information so as to manufacture consent.

Between 1933 and 1945, many thousands of people resisted the Nazis using both violent and non-violent means. Among the earliest opponents of the Nazis in Germany were Communists, Socialists and trade union leaders. Although mainstream church hierarchies supported the Nazis, individual German theologians such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer opposed the regime. Bonhoeffer was executed in 1945.

The German conservative elite within the Intelligence Services, Foreign Service and the military's General Staff composed small pockets of opposition to the Nazi regime. These groups consisted of those who had been opposed to the Nazis in 1933 and those who became disillusioned by Hitler during the course of the war. One of those who had lost his faith in Hitler was Colonel von Stauffenberg, the
aristocratic Nazi army officer who tried to kill Hitler with a briefcase bomb placed under a conference table on July 20, 1944. The plot failed and Stauffenberg was executed along with many others.

In addition to resistance by Jews, members of other victimized groups resisted the Nazis. In May 1944, SS men ordered Roma (Gypsy) prisoners to leave their barracks at the Auschwitz Gypsy family camp. Sensing that they were being sent to death in the gas chambers, the Gypsies armed themselves with knives and axes and refused to leave. The SS guards retreated. In a show of spiritual resistance, many Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany and elsewhere resisted Nazism through defiance. Some of them refused to serve in the German army and, as concentration camp prisoners, organized illegal religious study groups.

Other forms of non-violent resistance included sheltering Jews (sometimes at risk of death), listening to forbidden Allied radio broadcasts and producing clandestine anti-Nazi newspapers. In the face of Nazi repression and violence, acts of resistance at times significantly impeded German actions, saved lives or simply boosted morale of the persecuted.

In Nazi Germany, all known political dissenters were imprisoned, and many German priests were sent to the concentration camps for their opposition, including the parson of the Berlin Cathedral Bernhard Lichtenberg and seminarian Karl Leisner. Hitler was never directly excommunicated by the Catholic Church and several Catholic bishops in Germany or Austria are recorded as encouraging prayers of support for "The Führer"; this despite the fact the original Reichskonkordat of Germany with the Holy See proscribed any active political participation by the priesthood.
******************************************************************
Blessed Karl Leisner
Prisoner No. 22356
ordained on 17th December 1944 in Dachau Concentration Camp
On 23th June 1996 Karl Leisner was beatified by Pope John Paul II.
*******************************************************************
The Nazis did not persecute Jews alone. Five million Christians lost their lives as well. Gypsies; homosexuals; Jehovah’s Witnesses; the physically and mentally handicapped; blacks, Slavic peoples such as Czechs, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians and Ukrainians; and anybody who resisted or spoke against Hitler’s administration were all persecuted.

In 2004, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder honored Germany’s Nazi resistance on the 60th anniversary of the most famous plot to kill Hitler. But the remembrance also underscored the fact that, unlike in countries like France and the Netherlands, the German resistance never gained popular support for an uprising against Nazi rule.

Schroeder said Germans need to keep on asking themselves: ”How could the dictatorship rely for so long on a broad mass base?"

But there were some protests against the Nazis that succeeded.

On July 14, 1933, the Nazis instituted the "Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Diseases." This law, one of the first steps taken by the Nazis toward their goal of creating an Aryan "master race," called for the sterilization of all persons who suffered from diseases considered hereditary, such as mental illness, learning disabilities, physical deformity, epilepsy, blindness, deafness and severe alcoholism. With the law's passage the Nazis also stepped up its propaganda against people with disabilities, regularly labeling them "life unworthy of life" or "useless eaters" and highlighting their burden upon society.

Just a few years later, the persecution of people with disabilities escalated even further. In late 1939, Adolf Hitler secretly authorized a medically administered program of "mercy death" code-named "Operation T4." Between 1940 and 1941 approximately 70,000 Austrian and German disabled people were killed under the T4 program, most via large-scale killing operations using poison gas.

In July 1941, the Bishop of Münster in Westphalia, Clemens August Graf von Galen (who was an old aristocratic conservative, like many of the anti-Hitler Army officers), publicly denounced the “euthanasia” program in a sermon, and telegraphed his text to Hitler, calling on “the Führer to defend the people against the Gestapo.” On 3 August Galen was even more outspoken, broadening his attack to include the Nazi persecution of religious orders and the closing of Catholic institutions. Local Nazis asked for Galen to be arrested, but Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels told Hitler that if this happened there would be an open revolt in Westphalia.

By August the protests against "Operation T4" had spread to Bavaria. Hitler himself was jeered by an angry crowd at Hof, near Nuremberg – the only time he was opposed to his face in public during his 12 years of rule. Despite his private fury at the Catholic Church, Hitler knew that he could not afford a confrontation with the Church at a time when Germany was engaged in a life and death two front war since, following the annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland, nearly half of all Germans were Catholic. On 24 August he ordered the cancellation of the T4 program, and also issued strict instructions to local Nazi officials that there were to be no further provocations of the churches for the duration of the war.

Although Hitler formally ordered a halt to the program, the killings secretly continued until the war's end, resulting in the murder of an estimated 275,000 people with disabilities.

Most extraordinary and telling is the Rosenstrasse incident. Some 30,000 Jews lived openly in Germany as the spouses of Christians. Nine in ten such marriages remained intact despite ceaseless harassment. Oriented toward family values as they were, the Nazis could not decide how to handle these Jews without violating the sanctity of marriage. Early in 1943, Goebbels, then in charge of Berlin, decided it was time to cleanse the capital by rounding up these last Jews. Hitler agreed. Some 2,000 Jewish men from mixed marriages were seized and taken to a large downtown building on the Rosenstrasse, from which they would be deported to the camps.

For a week their Gentile wives stood in the winter cold, chanting “We want our husbands back!” Ordinary Germans sometimes joined them. All told, the protests involved about 6,000 people. They continued in the face of S.S. and Gestapo threats, even threats to use machine guns. They continued though British bombers pounded the city by night. But the Nazis dared not fire upon these defenseless, unorganized Aryan women. Berliners saw the protests directly. Foreign diplomats spread word of it to the world press. The BBC broadcast the story back into Germany.

What was the outcome of Nazi Germany’s only mass demonstration to save Jews? The 2,000 Jewish husbands were released with Hitler’s approval. Two dozen who had already been sent to Auschwitz were returned. Jewish-Christian couples continued to live openly and survived the war. They would comprise the great majority of German Jewish survivors.

Goebbels later commented to an associate that the regime relented “in order to eliminate the protest from the world, so that others didn’t begin to do the same.” Sadly, this strategy was successful: during the rest of the war, no similar action would ever be taken in defense of Jews in general.

Nor does this exhaust the catalogue of successful opposition. When Goebbels called for mass employment of housewives in war industries, also early in 1943, refusal was widespread. Again, reprisals were rare, partly because of the regime’s established emphasis on traditional roles for women. On a broader scale, Germans who refused to participate in atrocities—even if they were soldiers, party members, or S.S. men—almost never suffered retaliation. This was so well known that, after the war, Nazis accused of war crimes were forbidden to claim fear of retaliation as a defense.

Abd it was not only the adults who resisted, by the late 30s, thousands of young working class people were finding ways to avoid the clutches of Hitler Youth. They were gathering together in their own gangs and starting to enjoy themselves again. This terrified the Nazis, particularly when the teenagers started to defend their own social spaces physically. What particularly frightened the Nazis was that these young people were the products of their own education system. They had no contact with the old Democrats and Socialists, knew nothing of Marxism or the old labor movement. They had been educated by the Nazis in Nazi schools, their free time had been regimented by Hitler Youth listening to Nazi propaganda and taking part in officially approved activities and sports.

These gangs went under different names. Their gang uniform varied from town to town, as did their badges. In Essen they were called the Travelling Dudes, in Oberhausen and Dusseldorf the Kittelbach Pirates and in Cologne they were the Navajos. But all saw themselves as Edelweiss Pirates, named after an edelweiss flower badge many wore.

Gestapo files in Cologne contain the names of over 3,000 teenagers identified as Edelweiss Pirates. Clearly, there must have been many more and their numbers must have been even greater when taken over
Germany as a whole. Initially, their activities were in themselves
pretty harmless. They hung around in parks and on street corners, creating their own social space in the way teenagers do everywhere. On weekends, they would take themselves off into the countryside on hikes and camping trips in a perverse way mirroring the activities initially provided by Hitler Youth.

The activities of the Edelweiss Pirates grew bolder as the war progressed. They engaged in pranks against the authorities, fights against their enemies and moved on to small acts of sabotage. They were accused of being slackers at work and social parasites.

They began to help Jews, army deserters and prisoners of war. They painted anti-Nazi slogans on walls and some started to collect Allied propaganda leaflets and shove them through people’s letterboxes.

A 1943 Dusseldorf-Grafenberg Nazi Party report to the Gestapo stated
“There is a suspicion that it is these youths who have been inscribing the walls of the pedestrian subway on the Altebbergstrasse with the slogans "Down with Hitler", "The OKW (Military High Command) is lying", "Medals for Murder", "Down with Nazi Brutality" etc. However often these inscriptions are removed within a few days new ones
appear on the walls again."

As time went on, a few Edelweiss Pirates grew bolder and even more heroic. They raided army camps to obtain arms and explosives, made attacks on Nazi figures other than Hitler Youth and took part in partisan activities. The Head of the Cologne Gestapo was one victim of the Edelweiss Pirates.

The authorities reacted with repressive measures. These ranged from individual warnings, round-ups and temporary detention (followed by a head shaving), to weekend imprisonment, reform school, labor camp, youth concentration camp or criminal trial. Thousands were caught up in this hunt. For many, the end was death. The so-called leaders of the Cologne Edelweiss Pirates were publicly hanged in November 1944.

White Rose was a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany, consisting of a number of students from the University of Munich and their philosophy professor. The group became known for an anonymous leaflet campaign, lasting from June 1942 until February 1943, that called for active opposition to Hitler's regime. Six members of the group were arrested by the Gestapo, convicted and executed by beheading in 1943. Their sixth leaflet was smuggled out of Germany through Scandinavia to England, and in July 1943 copies of it were dropped over Germany by Allied planes, retitled "The Manifesto of the Students of Munich."

So, what are the lessons of history?
What can we Americans learn from German resistance?

Roger Leisner is a historian, the founder/owner of Radio Free Maine and a long-time Maine peace and justice advocate.

For more information, I suggest the following book and film:

Confront! Resistance in Nazi Germany
John J. Michalczyk
Published in 2004

The Restless Conscience:
Resistance to Hitler within Germany 1933-45
Released in 1992 and nominated for an Oscar

Hopefully, all candidates have read the important historical documents of the US. To grasp the depth and breadth of the political disappointment we are suffering and not quite re-orientating ourselves out of, a more acute analysis is needed. I strongly recommend Simon Critchley's new book, Infinitely Demanding: Ethics of Commitment, Politics of Resistance. 150 pp. of theoretical analysis and grounded political possibility. It is a bit tougher than most of the other recommendations, but our problems are also a bit tougher... Read it with a couple of friends and plan on a reread. Actually, it's worth the price just for the last chapter: Crypto-Scmittianism - the Logic of the Political in Bush's America.

"Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years" by David Talbot. Every person running for president would do well to read this book and see what they'll be up against regarding the intelligence and military establishments. They run things as much as any elected official, probably more so.

I recommend A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. It explains the change of consciousness required to initiate and sustain an effective response to global issues.

I would suggest Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass"

Naomi Klien: The Shock Doctrine The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

This book is essential to understanding the policies and procedures followed by both US parties in bed with multi-corporations.

Why The Right Loves A Disaster
By Naomi Klein - January 27th, 2008

If this kind of crisis opportunism feels familiar, it's because it is. Over the last four years, I have been researching a little-explored area of economic history: the way that crises have paved the way for the march of the right-wing economic revolution across the globe. A crisis hits, panic spreads and the ideologues fill the breach, rapidly reengineering societies in the interests of large corporate players. It's a maneuver I call "disaster capitalism."

http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/01/why-right-loves-disaster

Citizen Power by Mike Gravel

I recommend Louise Richardson's book, "What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat" (2006, Random House, 312 pp.)
This book knocks some common sense at the problem, that one cannot really defeat a tactic (targeting civilians violently...any one person can decide to act that way), but one can help contain the threat and lessen the number of attacks. The book dispels a number of myths about terrorists and their motives, and also offers many policy suggestions. Richardson is connected to a network of folks who have been studying world terrorism for decades, and our lawmakers would be wise to call upon them to share their wisdom.

I recommend "Yes or No - The Guide to Better Decisions" by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Unlike his book "The One Minute Manager" which is only somewhat useful, "Yes or No" offers a process and road map for decision making that leads to better decisions based on available information and the persons intuition, intelligence, and insight.

Assault on Reason by Al Gore

I recommend he/she reads
'Hunter's Wingmen' at
www.usdoj.gr It is an
electronic book.

Man, Economy, and State with Power and Market by Murray N. Rothbard

Murray N. Rothbard's great treatise Man, Economy, and State and its complementary text Power and Market provides a sweeping presentation of Austrian economic theory, a reconstruction of many aspects of that theory, a rigorous criticism of alternative schools, and an inspiring look at a science of liberty that concerns nearly everything and should concern everyone.

I would recommend our next president read BECOMING JEFFERSON'S PEOPLE - RE-INVENTING the AMERICAN REPUBLIC IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY by Clay S. Jenkinson -- A small, thin volume with a BIG message.

I would recommend that the President read A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander et al. That is because it is an outstanding and unique book about how to design things -- from regions to highways to houses to bedrooms -- in a way that corresponds to human needs and a humane social life and draws on both accumulated cultural knowledge and scholarly research. In this way, it is a model for how to think about planning and designing things of any kind, whether architectural, urban, or social.

I would suggest the Chalmers Johnson trilogy. If they can only read one it should be the last one: Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Empire.

The Machinery of Freedom: Guide to a Radical Capitalism
by David D. Friedman

This book argues the case for a society organized by private property, individual rights, and voluntary co-operation, with little or no government.
Among topics covered: how the U.S. would benefit from unrestricted immigration; why prohibition of drugs is inconsistent with a free society; why the welfare state mainly takes from the poor to help the not-so-poor; how police protection, law courts, and new laws could all be provided privately; what life was really like under the anarchist legal system of medieval Iceland; why non-intervention is the best foreign policy; why no simple moral rules can generate acceptable social policies -- and why these policies must be derived in part from the new discipline of economic analysis of law.

Gold: The Once and Future Money
by Nathan Lewis

Though I doubt any politician would heed it's message.

"The Shock Doctrine: Rise Of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein is the most profound book that I've read in my lifetime. It's about why we are now back in a feudal society taking the rest of the world with us. It is a new paradigm from which to view our world. From Chile to Poland to Baghdad to Katrina, economists turn out to be as evil as any tyrant. It devastates Milton Friedman and the lighter Rubin/ Greenspan version and shows it to be just a big flim flam that has wreaked misery and death. Truly a frightening and important book.
It's companion piece is "Legacy of Ashes" which chronicles one failure after another of a bunch of elite alcoholic jerks known as C.I.A. top officials. Shocking and depressing.
"Free Lunch" as mentioned and Robert Kuttner's "The Squandering of America" also put the screws to the so-called free market theory otherwise known as feudalism.
"Ending Poverty in America" edited by John Edwards.

Book everyone should read, Collapse by Jared Diamond. It reminds us that how we live today effects generations to come or if they do.

Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government by P. J. O'Rourke and Andrew Ferguson.
'Cause believe me, he's gonna need it.

Book everyone should read, Collapse by Jared Diamond. It reminds us that how we live today effects generations to come or if they do.

The next president cannot take office and base his administration on a deadly lie; He or she cannot, therefore, blindly adopt as fact the unbelievable and destructive deception that has been perpetrated on our country and its citizens by a handful of greedy, violent, power-mad people.

In order for this country to heal, the lie must be exposed, the indicted must be brought to justice, and the guilty punished for all the pain, sorrow, suffering and death they have brought upon their own countrymen.

That's why I suggest Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Ray Griffin

I'm sorry I came to this thread late; I read about it on truthout.com. Here's a book for the next president's shelf that no one has mentioned yet. It has gotten hardly any attention from American reviewers, perhaps because it was written by the Canadian military historian and journalist, Gwynne Dyer. It is THE MESS THEY MADE: THE MIDDLE EAST AFTER IRAQ. Dyer melds hard-nosed common sense with a remarkably mastery of the facts to produce an explanation that not only the next president, but every Washington legislator and every concerned citizen should read.

Book everyone should read, Collapse by Jared Diamond. It reminds us that how we live today effects generations to come or not.

I hope the President would read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

Radicals for Capitalism: A Freewheeling History of the Modern American Libertarian Movement by Brian Doherty

Great show, by the way.

Anyone else having problems with this blog? - my name shows up over a message I didn't write, and the message I did write has someone else's name on it.

B.K.S. Iyengar's latest book, "Light on Life" is what I want my next president to read.

A Drug War Carol by Susan Wells and Scott Bieser.

The travesty of The War on (some) Drugs needs to end before it destroys more lives.

"The Law" by Frederic Bastiat

Thank You for your wonderful, thoughtful and educational show.
My Recommendation of a book for the next President is:
MAKING GLOBALIZATION WORK
by Joseph E Stiglitz
Published in 2006, it is a
study on economics that is good for our country and the world.

My b

I would hope that the President would have read THE MAKING OF THE ATOMIC BOMB by Richard Rhodes. It makes the horrors of modern warfare all too clear. It also dramatizes the intense desire of nations to come up with the next new weapon in order to stay ahead of the current enemy. That desire in this case creates a juggernaut which cannot be halted even when the balance of power shifts and the wise minds who started the process say "stop, the situation has changed."
Yes, as another viewer of your show wrote, it did prove Americans can complete big projects. But especially in the case of defense projects, we must always remain reflective enough to decide if our ultimate goal will be truly defensive.

The freeborn men and women of the getyourhandsdirty.net forums would greatly appreciate it if the future POTUS would read the book, "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross.
PS: Trust us, Mr. President, it beats the hell out of that David Ray Griffin tripe. ;)

I'd recommend our incoming president read "The Bottom Billion" by Paul Collier, an economics professor at Oxford University and former director of research at the World Bank. Collier's thesis is insightful, clear and concise -- four types of "traps" (1.civil war; 2.dependence on natural resources for economic growth; 3. being landlocked with bad neighbors; and 4. bad governance in a small country) combine to condemn roughly one billion people in various parts of the world to intractable poverty. His analysis exposes why traditional methods to address global poverty (and poverty's handmaid, violence) -- economic aid on one hand, military intervention on the other -- may each be effective in certain circumstances but are nonetheless limited and costly treatments that may not reach root causes. Yet he notes that each of these "traps" can also be addressed by good -- and comparatively inexpensive -- policy decisions on the part of the developed world's leaders. Collier's book directly applies to the challenges that the United States faces in 1) Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Global War on Terror and 2) the economic ramifications -- both domestic and foreign -- of the globalization of trade. Each issue is high on the list of worries faced by voters across the political spectrum. Collier, mercifully, appears to have no specific axe to grind, making his book worthwhile reading, especially for those who worry about the impact, both physical and moral, of American power abroad.

COMMON SENSE!

War Is The Force That Gives Us Meaning
by Chris Hedges

The Books that I would recommend to the new President would be the following:

THE IDEA THAT IS AMERICA by Anne-Marie Slaughter

THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck

TEAM OF RIVALS by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, by Jared Diamond

The EPIC story of the “Everyman” against the massive corporate machine continues to play out in today’s politics. The next President will need to call each of us to the ideas and values that are the foundation of this country. They will need to know and understand the failures of past great empires and inspire in each of us a vision for our future that is GREATER than ever imagined. They will need to harness the talents and ideas from every sphere of our society.

Mr. Moyers, thank you for seeking the truth and fighting for a free and open press. You are a true American Hero.

http://melissafrei.wordpress.com

Democracy Maters: By Cornel West....There has never been a much timely and opportuned season, for the repair of a battered, injured, fractured and mis-understood demo"critical" state....This book by the good Doctor, is the blueprint and written manual for "D"emocracy of the 21st Century.

How about the very simple book from Dr. Seuss, "Horton hears a Who". This is about an elephant, Horton saving the Whos in Who-ville. Horton can not see the Who, but he can hear them. The Who ask Horton to protect them from harm. The core of the story is that a person is a person no matter how small. Horton could only do so much then the Who have to help themselves by doing their part to be heard. I always believed this to be a classic story of our own democratic society. Horton as a representative in congress and the Who as the people. Neither one can achieve much without the other. But Horton can do more if the Who can be heard by the other Jungle Animals.

David Cay Johnston's New Book, "Free Lunch" would be the best book for our next President and cabinet to read.

"My Pet Goat" It worked for the past 7 years why reinvent the voter now. The 1% are laughing all the way to their WAR CHEST right now.
Best Movie "Dumb and Dumber" it so real its true.

I would recommend that the person seeking to be our next president read The Third Millenium by Ken Carey. We are entering a new paradigm. Our future is secure but still unwritten. Ken's insight and profound poetic persuasions are worthy of a glimpse.
Blessings/Peace, John Hosay
(Goochland County, Virginia)

I love Johnston's work at the NYT and I love free lunch.

Go back to this country's roots. There was one book that created the definition "American" - Thomas Paine's "Common Sense." Really, this book should be in every family next to their religious text.

no contest - free lunch!

I would suggest the president read FREE LUNCH. It's relevant, timely and really well written

The next president should read Nickel and Dimed by Barbara E. - for a look at the real world.

I suggest John Perkin - Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man. Thanks. Robert D. Williams

Apollo's Fire - Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy - Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks.

We need more intiative in alternative energy sources.

I would suggest Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America -- the 2001 bestseller in which Barbara Ehrenreich articulately described her several months spent working undercover at the most low-level jobs (hotel maid, waitress at diner, discount store clerk, etc.) We need leaders who know and understand the challenges facing those who have the least power and privilege!

Apollo's Fire - Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy - Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks

We some more initiatives in alternative energy sources.

The best book for the next president and for the rest of us who will vote for her or him is DAVID CAY JOHNSTON'S FREE LUNCH. It should be required reading for all of us, Democrat, Republican, or Independent.

Since I reviewed it on my blog, www.writingdoctor.typepad.com, I'll just copy my post here for everyone to read:

“The rich,” said F. Scott Fitzgerald, the Roaring Twenties’ chronicler of corruption, “are very different from us.” Now, 80 years later, David Cay Johnston’s brilliant new book, FREE LUNCH: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) (Portfolio, December 27th, 2007), demonstrates how much the richest of the rich are different from you and me.

Yes, “They have more money,” as Hemingway, unimpressed, replied to Fitzgerald. But Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning tax expert of the NEW YORK TIMES and Rochester resident, makes clear how much money the super-rich steal from the rest of us--and what they cost us. Addicted to money, the rich buy themselves ever-bigger chunks of political power--and we must pay the bill.

Who are these super-rich? How do they fill their already bulging pockets? In 2005, 300,000 individuals, constituting the top tenth of the top one percent of Americans, had incomes greater than the poorest 150 million Americans struggling to make ends meet at the bottom of the economic pyramid. The much-squeezed middle class--you and me?-- squirm between them. Our pockets are increasingly empty, picked by political and corporate grabbers to make the very rich even richer. The poor, middle classes, and even the moderately rich (the group that my mother called “comfortable”) have neither hors d’oeuvres nor a place at the super-rich’s free lunch buffet. Never sated, the super-rich think their billions aren’t enough.

Feeding the ever-hungry super-rich at the campaign finance table takes a high-powered team. More than 35,000 lobbyists crowd Washington’s K Street. They act as free lunch’s waiters, sommeliers, and maitre-d’s. This horde of lobbyists doesn’t act alone. They require chefs--politicians all-too eager to serve access and influence to the highest bidder. Without their connivance—and contrivance, there would be no free lunch.

Johnston reminds us how Ronald Reagan asked prospective voters “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” Their resounding “no” elected Reagan. Three decades later, the bottom 90 percent of Americans, Johnston’s “vast majority,” living models for Edward Hopper’s paintings, must answer with another “NO.” “Getting by on about $75.00 less each week than it did a generation earlier,” their annual income continues to skid downhill.

With the economy flourishing--at least ostensibly, what happened to everybody at the bottom of the pile? “Where,” asks Johnston, “did all the money go?” It went to the top, where super-rich money usually goes. Ready to be skimmed, it soared into corporate profits, options, CEO’s salaries. It went to the top tenth of the top tenth of Americans (got that?). Their portion of the economic pie was the greatest since 1929, just before the Twenties stopped roaring and fell flat.

In its rampantly unequal distribution of unbridled wealth, Johnston finds the United States unlike its democratic colleagues, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. Our wild concentration of money at the top follows in the footsteps of three major nations: Russia (yep, Russia), Mexico, and Brazil. Like us, these countries have an explosively burgeoning class of billionaires at the top mirrored by an even more explosively growing poor class and an increasingly stressed—and downwardly spiraling middle class. Even though “these four countries are societies in which adults have the right to vote,” says Johnston, “…real political power is wielded by a relatively narrow, and rich segment of the population.”

Johnston, a Socratic gadfly, makes the case for restoring old-fashioned rules, which “define a civilization.” For “Without rules, there is no civilization…Wherever the world has civilizing rules based on some moral or practical principle, we see prosperity and freedom.” But the rule book has changed. At least, in this country: “In America, the long expansion of who plays a role in deciding the rules has ended. The base of influence has begun to contract. In part, because of the campaign finance system, which transfers power to those who donate and who steer donations.”

Selling power to the highest bidder invites abuse: “To those who lust for power, of what use is acquiring power unless they can abuse it? …The philosophy of the power monger is no different from that of the cancer cell, which mindlessly seeks growth for the sake of growth until it overwhelms its host.”

Johnston is a great phrasemaker. His supporting cast covers the waterfront from Aristotle, Plato, and Virgil, to Jeremiah, Adam Smith, John Locke, and the Founding Fathers. Every page brims with quotable lines: “Karl Marx never envisioned commercial sports as the opiates of the masses.” “Cheating, like pregnancy, is not a halfway condition.” In “Selling the Furniture of Modern Society,” Johnston seeks solutions to where the money goes, “Instead of a Whodunit, this one is a Whogotit.”

FREE LUNCH is replete with nauseating examples of political sales crying out for moral Prilosec—or better yet, Ipecac. Johnston indicts governmental actions that deliberately enrich irresponsible corporations and individuals. He arraigns the rich for steering American jobs to less expensive workers in other lands. The list of corporate, individual, industrial predators is endless: HMOs, big Pharma, “Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, MBNA, Citibank…exploit the poor, the unsophisticated, the foolish”; Donald Trump, Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, John Snow, Kennie-boy Lay, George Steinbrenner (before the Mitchell Report on steroids), Mike Keiser, builder of the most expensive golf courses in America, Tom DeLay, Dennis Hastert, Thomas Scully (head of Medicare), Bush, Cheney, and their minions, the golden parachutes of Jack Welch and Bob Nardelli, and a host of followers.

After all that, what can we do? How can we get the country back on track? Tellingly, FREE LUNCH contains 26 chapters accusing the super-rich buyers and political sellers of stealing the power rightly belonging to the rest of us. Yet only one chapter details what we might do to stop free lunches for the super-rich and anyone else pigging out at the trough.

Still, Johnston has faith in arousing Americans to participatory democracy. In both PERFECTLY LEGAL: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich—and Cheat Everyone Else and FREE LUNCH itself, he argues that we have a moral obligation to be active members of society. He urges us to remember that “when they invented taxation based on ability to pay, they invented democracy…We are not the United States of Me or the United States of You. We are the United States of America. We are a society.”

Apparently worried that Johnston's current litany of super-rich political cheating may be a Christmas “downer,” the publisher delayed its release till December 27th. Yet the timing of this must-read book is perfect. For Johnston’s call to arms is a great way to begin 2008, to “get us thinking as a nation about how every single free lunch cheats us all (because) in the end, we must be the ones who make our government work, fulfilling the preamble to our Constitution. No one else,” concludes Johnston, “is going to do it for us. Reform begins with you.”

It’s a tall order, but with FREE LUNCH’s exhortations at hand, we may awaken to ways of proving Johnston right. 2008 may be a better year--because we will finally try to make it so.

I have read Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston. This should be read by everyone who pays taxes. No where else can you learn how the tax system is subsidizing the rich.

I would suggest "Who Moved My Cheese", by Spencer Johnson, M.D. The world and the world of politics is an ever changing place, and I just couldn't take it if there was a president blamed his ineffectiveness on Congress, or whoever. He needs to be adaptable to be able to make lemonade out of lemons. Our futures depend on it.

The book I think a President should read is Paul Krugman's "The Great Unraveling", because I think he has the best and most complete information about this country's economic situation and excellent options on what to do. Krugman is one of the rare journalists who is both brilliant and humble.

I think all the presidential candidates should read Mike Gravel's book, Citizen Power. And when they're done reading it, they should hit themselves (hard, and continuously) for being such awful candidates.

I would like to see the next president read David Cay Johnston's recently published book, "Free Lunch". As a former United Airlines Captain whistle blower who was prevented from speaking out on alleged white-collar federal criminality in the post-9/11 airline bankruptcy debacle, I have discovered first-hand the stranglehold that the powerful Wall Street banks an other corporations have on both sides of the aisle in Congress and our Department of Justice through the evidence that has been collected by a grassroots organization called The Whistleblowing United Pilots Assn.

The United Whistleblower Association continues to press forward in forcing government to investigate the incontrovertible evidence at hand, but witness protection is required for key criminal informants in the case, which has not been provided by our Department of Justice for obvious reasons. We will not relent; we will not give up.

The current federal loopholes in our nations bankruptcy laws favor these huge corporations, but when evidence has been produced, which suggests alleged federal criminality that continues to be ignored by both the Department of Justice and the relevant congressional oversight committees, it makes one wonder whether we truly have a federal government, which is paid for by our hard-earned tax dollars, that honestly represents the concerns of "We the People".

When will the maddness end? It is inconceivable that our government and the corporatocracy would have the audacity to exploit the horrific events of 9/11 for huge financial gains by the few on the financial backs of employees and the American taxpayer through the allegedly illegal means employed to distress-terminate employee pensions.

There have been countless examples of suicides, family break-ups, substance abuse, mental breakdowns, and other tragedies as a result of the ruthless acts of the few within the corporatocracy, which is not covered by the mainstream media...for obvious reasons.

The evidence is all there; government and law enforcement choose to ignore it. Why? Because these same special interests are dumping huge amounts of money into both sides of the aisle in Congress through K-Street lobbiest and other means.

So even though I applaud Mr. David Cay Johnston for his moral courage to write the book "Free Lunch", I doubt that any sitting president or member of Congress would be interested in reading it as they are all well aware of the issues that are addressed in the book...they are all part of the political process that perpetuates this corrupt system.

It is the American taxpayers who should rush out and purchase this book during this critical election cycle but, more importantly, they should scream out demanding change to a system that is currently destroying middle-class America, while obscenely enriching the very few extremely wealthy individuals...at our expense.

The Creature from Jekyll Island : A Second Look at the Federal Reserve by G. Edward Griffin. Put him on your show sometime and let's learn how to overpower the pirates who have wrested control of the United States of America from the Constitution.
Also, Addicted To War: Why The U.s. Can't Kick Militarism by Joel Andreas.

"Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin - or any of his books on 9/11. We have been told "9/11 changed everything", and indeed it has! The truth of 911 is the single most important issue of our time because the lie of 911 has been the excuse for perpetual war and the shredding of our constitution.

I hope (no doubt in vain) that the next president will have read Naomi Wolf's The End of America. Failing that, I would love to see Bill Moyers interview her on the show. I am not entirely sure what to make of her case, and I believe that an appearance on The Journal would help me sort it out. Her book is quite popular (about #500 on Amazon.com) yet I don't see her in the mainstream media.

FREE LUNCH! There's no other choice.

I hope (no doubt in vain) that the next president will have read Naomi Wolf's The End of America. Failing that, I would love to see Bill Moyers interview her on the show. I am not entirely sure what to make of her case, and I believe that an appearance on The Journal would help me sort it out. Her book is quite popular (about #500 on Amazon.com) yet I don't see her in the mainstream media.

David Cay Johnston's "Free Lunch."

"..........Dare to imagine if someone found a better way to solve our world problems and free ourselves from all this senseless suffering..............." The book, "The Art of Non-War", is the book I would absolutely and gratefully choose to read by Kim Michaels. God Bless this author!!

I recommend "THE KASIDAH OF HAJI ABDU EL-YEZDI" by Sir Richard Burton as reading for a future President - or anyone else!

The Shock Doctrine

It is the most significant book that I've read regarding the history of the United States for my time. It is a parallel to the Japanese leaving Pearl Harbor out of their history books. This book deserves a pulitzer and to be in our our US history classrooms. The footprint this book makes is historical and explains how our government got away from we the people and how it is impossible for us to even call ourselves a democracy. It is most disturbing to me that this book had to educate me about how our government truly operates and functions with blatant disregard to the citizens of our nation and other nations. Democrat and Republican alike need to read this book.

THREE DAY ROAD, Joseph Boyden
Viking, Penguin

A WW1 Epic. 2 Canadian Indians battle the Germans in France...

Why combat is an insanity comparable to
cannabalism in human beings.

James Olmas plannng the movie.

I just finished FREE LUNCH by Johnston - it's fantastic. I think everyone should read it.

David Cay Johnston’s book Free Lunch would be a perfect choice

How about Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed"? It's a harsh reminder of what the real world is all about.

BLESSED UNREST by Paul Hawken -- a compelling, inspiring description of how the third sector (nonprofits and individuals within civil society) is humanity's "immune response" to political corruption, environmental degradation, and social injustice.

I would recommend the book, "IKE-An American Hero" by Michael Korda as a book for the next president to take into the white house. Growing up as a Boomer in the 1950's but not old enough to appreciate the sacrifices made during WWII, I was interested in how Eisenhower influenced the war and in politics after the war. His leadership as general and president are underestimated by the american people. The rancor, self interest, greed, partisan politics, and short term vision current today in Washington must not be perpetuated. The American values and character Eisenhower brought to the presidency need to be reaffirmed and included again into politics.

Sorry to see only one other post at this time supporting my selection for a "must read" which is Joe Bageant's DEER HUNTING WITH JESUS -- DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA'S CLASS WAR.

I hope to see an interview with this most insightful, informative author on The Journal very soon.

I would recommend "Native Wisdom" by Ed McGaa and "In Our Own Best Interest" by William F. Schulz.

Three suggestions:

(1) The United States Constitution

(2) "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville

(3) "The Federalist & Anti Federalist Papers"

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer. A little critical thinking can never be too much!

Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray
Griffin

I think all the candidates should have to read "IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A COOKIE" I read this book back in third grade and if you apply the logic of this simple little book about a greedy little mouse you can see the correlation of what this administration is doing and how scary it is. If you don't understand what I am talking about, I suggest you check it out. Its pretty obvious.

Baruch Spinoza's Political Treatise.

WAR on the middle class...

The Pres. should read "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Kline. It is a horrifying book but shows how our country is doing horrific things for greed and power.

Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston

I wish all politicians would read "The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine, so that never again would they dare to pretend that the Founders intended to create a Theocracy.

"An Ordinary Man" by Paul Russesabagina is not only a book for America's next President, it's a read for everyone. As many know, it's the story of how one person saved more than 1,200+ lives during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda when more than 800,000 were slaughtered. The book's about: a) leadership -- and not abdicating that role in spite of being in the middle of the worst of horrors with certain death almost a guarantee; b) commitment -- in Paul Russesabagina's case, saving lives -- and never (even when his family members have been murdered) letting hate and revenge even creep in; c) trust -- although almost drowning in a sea of mistrust; d) life -- and how we can capitalize on our potential for humanity by arresting evil with our commitment, courage and authenticity; e) communication and how we can effectively -- indeed, no matter what the situation -- take the route of civilized words and peaceful negotiation in the most hatred-filled circumstances and find the gold in humankind that makes miracles possible. America is hungry for that kind of leadership -- committed, humane, unselfish, courageous, peaceful, authentic, inspiring.

I recommend "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Ms. Rand would call all the lobbyists who influence our elected officials--"looters." Her highly-educated thinking characters go "on strike" while the infrastructure of the country is gradually destroyed by many factors, including poor maintainence and public apathy. A lot like the United States in 2008.

The Poems of Rumi, near at hand at all times, would provide our next president with wisdom, understanding and a certain lighthearted reality check as he/she tackles the monumental challenges ahead.

"Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston. The U.S. government is plagued by an imbalance that was created by deregulation. Although I'm not in favor of big government, we went to far. As a result, big business has infiltrated the government process, removed the necessity for competition and procured a "Free Lunch" at our expense. This book is dead on in describing the problem with America. It is a must read.

"Free Lunch," by David Cay Johnston, because it exposes the dirty little secret that the government is in collusion with the wealthiest few among us to ensure that the upper one percentile maintain their lifestyle at our expense.

Assuming the the next President can think critically about what he reads, I would recommend The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr.

There is nothing more important on our planet right now than to start a process of world peace - to ensure a real cooperation of all kinds around the globe which is necessary for the survival of our society in all ways, from economics to environmental issues. The book "The Art of Non-war" by Kim Michaels is such a book that explains the very consciousness we need to enter into to make that peace possible. To change our consciousness is the only way to change the outer world. And this process has to start with the "world"-leaders, such as the president of U.S.A.

"No Future Without Forgiveness" by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Because a little forgiveness goes a long way, even in the White House.

"Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston. Everyone should read this book before they vote.

Free Lunch by David Cay Johnston

As our Commander and Chief and as our coordinator of all goverment operations, I would want our next president to read and discuss with all of his cabinet members and advisors Mortimer Adler's book, How to Think About War and Peace. He wrote it in 1944 and had it reprinted in 1971 and 1995. All presidents need a conceptual framework of what world peace and war really means and looks like.

Dear Mr. Moyers . . .

I believe "The War Prayer" by Mark Twain is essential for the next President . . . and perhaps the country!

Sincerely,

Rachel I. Branch

As a taxpayer, I fervently hope our next president reads Free Lunch: How America's Wealthiest Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) by David Cay Johnston. We're selling our democracy down the drain.

Mr. Moyers,

Every candidate should read FREE LUNCH. In fact, everyone who wants to be an infromed voter should read it. The scams of politicians and large corporations are revealed.

The next president should read Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest American Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You With the Bill)by David Cay Johnston. This country is being ruined by the greed of the rich and Johnston reveals how.

Books: For a Republican president, Grapes of Wrath.
For a Democrat, Atlas Shrugged.
I know they are dated, but they each go right to the core of what the two parties just don't get.

Bill - your shows are consistently first class and thought-provoking.

The next president should read "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. I hope you'll have him on soon.

Sincere thanks for your commitment to intelligent discussion.

Dear Mr. Moyers,
I would suggest that our next President read Origin Of the Species by Charles Darwin. This book would encourage our President to remember that we are all interconnected. Darwin eloquently lays the groundwork for the wealth of science that proves we owe our existence to every living species and the planet earth. We share the same atoms and breathe the same air. It is much more difficult to neglect or do harm to one another when we see ourselves as separate.

The Story of American Freedom by Eric Foner. I think the next president needs to know exactly what the history of the American people is when it comes to their interpretations of their rights under the Constitution. Hint: They really take that right "peacably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances" very seriously.

Easy and Hard Ways Out by Robert Grossbach is THE book the next President should read and re-read, every six months. A copy should be kept in the oval office to pass on to each succeeding President. The ethical questions raised should be pondered daily.

I don't know why there wasn't widespread rioting when David Cay Johnston's book, Perfectly Legal, was published a couple of years back. The next POTUS should be required to read not just Perfectly Legal, but Johnston's newest book, Free Lunch.

I would recommend the next president read "Perilous Times", by Geoffrey Stone, because it addresses what can occur when only looking at one side of an argument. It does this by exploring what can occur to individual civil liberties in a time of crisis (i.e. war, national disaster, etc.). It shows how, in past times of crisis, certain basic rights are pushed aside in the interest of national security (e.g. unconstitutional internment of Japanese people during WWII).

I want to make it clear that national security is extremely important, but so are our individual rights and freedoms. We live in a time of crisis where an imbalance can occur between the two. This causes us to have to pick one over the other: security or civil liberties. This choice has further added to divides in this country: right versus left, Republican versus Democrat, and authoritarian versus civil libertarian. These divides have been very apparent in more recent years in politics, and I believe they do more harm than good.

There are many arguments that can be made from one side or another in support of national security over upholding individual rights in a time of crisis and vice versa. However, I think that anyone who reads this book will see that attention needs to be paid to both sides. It is this attention that the next president must be sure to have, and not just over issues of national security and civil liberties.

Always remember that there are two sides to every coin, two sides to every argument, and I would hope that the next president would give equal time and attention to those sides. I feel that they will do so especially after having read "Perilous Times".

The next President should take a copy of the "Far Side" by Gary Larson into the White House. Or "Doonesbury" Laughter really is the best medicine. Then read some poetry by Pablo Neruda

That's an interesting challenge. I would say:

The Culture of Contentment by John Kenneth Galbraith

A Fable by William Faulkner (or maybe that doesn't count since we're supposed to exclude the Bible?)

The Confidence-Man by Herman Melville

The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft (okay, just kidding on that one!)

Common Sense, Rights of Man, and the Age of Reason by Thomas Paine.

"Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason." - from Common Sense

I should add the Tao Te Ching, Witter Bynner translation.

Cheers!

Because the next President will have to repair the country to restore it, I recommend the Constitution by our Founding fathers.

So that the next administration can uncover the truth and prosecute the perpetrators, Debunking 9/11 by David Ray Griffin

Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire-Gibbons...How empires fall...useful reading to the our current government

Overthrow- The story of American Interventions in Foreign governments in the 20th century

So many books-so little time: These are worth the time!

The True Cost of Low Prices - the Violence of Globalization by Vincent A. Gallagher

Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol

Pathologies of Power by Paul Farmer

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

Compassion by H. Nouwen, D. McNeill, D. Morrison

Crossing the Racial Divide (Ed.Sojourners)

How Much Is Enough? by Arthur Simon

The Sneetches & What Was I Scared of? by Dr. Seuss

I recommend the next President read "Broken Government" By John Dean The best of the trilogy "Worse than Watergate" and "Conservatives without conscience"

I would suggest the book Killing the Dream by William Blum.
Lee Loe, Houston, TX

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin and The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf

I recommended A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey

The people that participated in your survey have recommended some terrific books, however there seems to be a pattern here, and the pattern indicates the recognition to prevent the next president from making the same mistakes. There is also the desire to reverse these disastrous decisions. But it goes deeper than that. These book titles indicate an indictment of failed policies that go back generations, particularly where the uneven distribution of wealth is concerned. The good thing to come out of the present situation (and it is hard to find one) is that people are starting to rage against the unfairness in society and the direction their country is going in. Unfortunately, I sense the majority may still be going down the road most traveled.

Letters from Nuremburg. This book by Senator Christopher Dodd and his father Thomas Dodd is the book the President should bring with him to the Whitehouse. It constantly reminds us how war, and the need to spread power at any cost, affects all people, including the victors and the vanquished.

Bill,
I would recommend Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense by one of you guests, David Cay Johnston. That book sure lays out what wrong with our country.

I would specifically say for Barak Obama: "Robert Kennedy and His Times" by Arthur Schlesinger. RFK was the last inspirational figure in the democratic party, and for a young voter like me who was born in the Reagan era (what I refer to as the dark ages), I see Barak as the heir to the RFK legacy.

I've just finished reading The Burial at Thebes by Sophocles (trns. by Seamus Heaney) and was struck by the likeness of Creon to our current administration, and the position as "THE Decider." As Creon's son, Heamon, pleads, "Nobody can be sure they're always right. The ones who are the fullest of themselves that way are empty vessels. There's no shame in taking good advice. It's a sign of wisdom..." I'd love to see a new president, be it Democrat or Republican, take office with an open mind, and the flexibility to change direction when circumstances prove it necessary. Though the story of Antigone is tragic, even Creon perceives his faults by the end. Would that we could experience that in America.

Because our foreign policy and near financial bankruptcy revolves around the 9/11 event, I would suggest:

Debunking 9/11 by David Ray Griffin

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller would be my suggestion for the next President's reading list. It helps demonstrate the sane response to being trapped within an insane system - try to escape.

Debunking 9/11 by David Ray Griffin is a must read. It is one of many books written which exposes the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American public, the masses need to wake up and realize the USA way is on its way out, enough lies. Mr. Griffin would be a beneficial guest on your show, Mr. Moyers.

Debunking 9/11 by David Ray Griffin is a must read. It is one of many books written which exposes the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American public, the masses need to wake up and realize the USA way is on its way out, enough lies. Mr. Griffin would be a beneficial guest on your show, Mr. Moyers.

"The Lorax" by Dr. Suess, because we're almost out of Truffula Trees, UNLESS...

I want the new president to read Howard Karger's 2005 book, "Short Changed: life and debt in the fringe economy." It is a well researched story of how those less well to do must pay more for absolutely everything in our economy. The President should understand the profound impact gouging interest rates and corporate greed are destroying hope for working poor.

I am delighted to learn that Obama selected the book I recommend for our 44th president--whoever that is. As in 1860, the deep divisions of the nation call for a president who can reach out to the ablest persons, from whatever party, and include them in the next administration. The manner in which Abe Lincoln did that in 1860 is elegantly told in the book, "Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

My vote is for "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein -- other favorites include: "The Assault on Reason" by Al Gore, and "Screwed, the Undeclared War on the Middle Class" by Thom Hartmann.

Thanks for all your great work -- I so look forward to your program each week.

--Georgia

I would suggest the president take with him "Cry The Beloved Country" by Alan Paton.

My wife's grandfather called the book, powerful,moving and poignant in 1954 and I very much agree with him. It's about an oppressed generation's struggle to survive in Africa. They knew the answers; they were given to them and all mankind over 2000 years ago.
I would suggest that it be read more than once.

Debunking 9/11 Debunking, written by David Ray Griffin.

It's so amazing how arrogant and detached some of our "representatives" can be. To completely ignore many of the concerns of the people proves they are not our "representatives," but controlling forces who have self-interests at heart.

"The True Believer"- Eric Hoffer

The candidates need to read Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers. We are on the point either of becoming a sustainable society or of losing our civilization. The president needs to know enough to lead us in the right direction.

I would bring MY book COFFEE CUP and as a secondary book, Debunking 911 by David Ray Griffin

How we vote with our money by purchasing foreign goods impacts so many people, we need more information. I recommend the candidates and electorate read Blood Diamonds by Greg Campbell as a start.

Holy Bible: The President has to square to be a good president. Also The Art of Non War by Kim Michaels.

"The Gospel According to Jesus" by Stephen Mitchell.

there was a time when i still had enough hope in the electoral process to think that a candidate who read their zinn and chomsky and gore vidal would have made an awesome president who could effect change. the horrors of the current administration have revealed something deeper about our politics and policies. The Story of B, Daniel Quinn (Ishmael is a good one, too) is one of those core-shaking books that leaves the sentient reader changed upon completion. not the kind of "change" cliton and obama are selling, but a real shift in understanding of our culture as a blip on the radar of human history and an acknowledgment of the dignity of other cultures-- indigenous cultures from africa to amazon rain forest--and of the way we have exploited them and the earth.

i would also be down with a president who reads and understands the Tao Te Ching because i think someone who believes in the unity of all things, the oneness of the universe, would be far less inclined to wage war and run around the globe declaring enemies.

"Change" is the opreational word for this election; however, current rhetoric is not clarifying our direction and needed preparations. The book: "The Top Trends That Will Shape The World In The Next Twenty Years" is a 300 pg. paperback by James Canton, Ph.D.
This book clarifies both the direction and preparations to successfully lead in globalization. America is and will continue to be intimately involved in these trends or global challenges and thus this book is a must read for the next president. America must achieve a leading role both nationally and internationally the alternative is unacceptable.

A fantastic list is being generated and I hope to read many of them. I feel that the following two reads go a long way towards combining foreign and domestic themes.

Jihad v.s. McWorld by Benjamin R. Barber
Power, Faith, and Fantasy by Michael B. Oren

The one book I would like the next president to read is "Secrets of the Temple: How th Federal Reserve Runs the Country" by William Greider. While it is an older book, nothing has changed much since it was written.

"Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin.

The Shell Game, by Steve Alten

Many very fine books have already been suggested. One I haven't seen on the list: A Time for Choices: Deep Dialogues for Deep Democracy, ed. Michael Toms. This includes numerous thought provoking essays for our time.

A close runner up, although on a more narrow subject: Something New Under the Sun: An Environmental History of the Twentieth Century World by J. R. McNeill. Many lessons to be learned there if we take the time.

McTeague

by Frank Norris

This book tells the truth of America.

The Real Wealth of Nations - Creating a Caring Economics by Riane Eisler, a compelling conversation for why we must bring back a human and nature centric perspective to economics, in order to change the world.

The one book that would justly open the eyes of each President is: :The Play of God-visions of the life of Krishna" By Vanamali. It covers the Mahabarata War which historically represents governing humanity in full knowledge and potential. Otherwise, if the president is on the lighter side of intelligence; then "Animal Farm" wouldn't hurt.

The New Pearl Harbor by David Ray Griffin

"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn would be my choice. A brief glance seems to reveal allot of books relating to individual pet issues rather than general ethics and true national identity. I would hope that our next President will recognize that nearly all of the major change that has taken place over the course of this nations history in affecting the enforcement of the meaning of the Constitution has taken place at the hands of The People dragging (generally not altogether peacefully) an unwilling moneyed power base along behind it. The term "representative government" has never been one open to very much debate as to it's meaning, unless the discussion is taking place among those to whom it is a hinderance, and this book lays out the precedent for the need for either good government, or civil rebellion in order to control the inherent lust for increased wealth and power by those at the very top of the economic scale. In essence, a book that recognizes the history of a nation truly by The People.

I recommend the Art of Non-War as it shows the a view point of the world in which war is no longer necessary.

I would bring debunking 9/11 debunking by David Ray Griffin.

I believe that the one book I would recommend is "Winners Never Cheat" by Huntsman ... and a companion book, that I don't remember the exact title but it is something like "I learned Everything I Needed to Know in Kindergarten"

Economics for Dummies. (I'm serious.)

The book I would like the new President to take to the White House is 'The Emperor Wears No Clothes' by Jack Herer. The President sooner or later has to face the failure of the War on Drugs and the waste of the billions of dollars per year on this 'War'.

Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin

Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins

I would bring two. "Debunking 9/11 Debunking" -David Ray Griffin. The 2nd book is "Rule By Secrecy" by Jim Marrs.

I dearly hope the Next President, as well as all Americans, read "Free Lunch". I cannot remember the author's name (SCANDAL!) but I saw him on your show week before last and was appalled to learn Walmart and others get to keep the sales tax they collect AND! Dumbass(Donald)Trump gets 85 MILLION!! a year to runhis Atlantic City casino's and taxpayers foot the bill. I do believe this country is going to see a revolt of the have nots gainst the "HAVES AND HAVE MORES)to quote Duh! Bush that will make the French Revolution look like a "Sunday Social". I am bucking to read this book!
Mr.Tracy N.Hamblen

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. When I saw the show and Bill Moyers asked for suggestions it came to mind immediately. I want the person in the White House to keep the working poor in mind when making decisions. I want that person to think about the day to day impact they make on those of us who are struggling. I thought Nickel and Dimed did a really good job of illustrating what they go through. Day after day, year after year.

THE AGE OF REASON by Thomas Paine. The religious right often says that America was founded as a Christian country and that our constitution is based on the Ten Commandments and the Judeo-Christian religions. When they refer to the Founding Fathers they mean Puritans such as Cotton Mather and not Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, and other men of the enlightenment.

Reading Thomas Paine, they will come away with a completely different view of our Founding Fathers and the Judeo-Christian tradition. Written in sharp, lucid, almost conversational prose, articulating truths, which I had always felt but had never dared to say, to me, it was a revelation.

Thomas Paine, writing at the end of the eighteenth century, said the Old Testament was more consistent with the word of a demon than the word of God. ‘A history of wickedness,’ he concluded, ‘that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.’

Of the New Testament he wrote this. “When I am told that a woman called the Virgin Mary said that she was with child without co-habitation with a man, and that an angel told Joseph this to be so, I have a right to believe them or not. Such a circumstance requires a much stronger evidence than their bare word for it; but we have not even this – for neither Joseph or Mary wrote any such matters themselves; it is only reported by others that they said so – it is hearsay upon hearsay, and I do not choose to rest my belief upon such evidence”.

Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Ray Griffin is a must read. It is one of many books written by highly credentialed professionals that exposes the greatest hoax perpetrated on the American public. Please have Mr. Griffin as a guest on your show, Mr. Moyers.

I say:
Debunking 9/11 Debunking

And by the way -- I saw someone suggesting that the DRG recommendation is spam -- it's not spam. We are unique, real people who have read the book and are recommending it. Maybe we discuss it elsewhere as well, but that only proves that it is a very compelling book and, for many Americans, the appropriate answer to this question of which should go to the White House.

David Ray Griffins Debunking 911 Debunking
For anyone who has not questioned the official story of 911, you are in for a real eye opening and life changing read. This is the biggest story of our lifetimes and yet to hit the mainstream media.

"Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin. Easily one of the best summaries of the most important historical event of our time.

"Debunking 9/11 Debunking"

"Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin

In an era of economic uncertainty and lack of understanding of monetary policy by our political leaders,I recommend that The next leader of the free world reads , Thieves in the Temple by Andre Eggelletion; An indictment against the Fedral Reserve System and its history of corruption and greed. The real reason behind the debacle of banking and credit in America,and ultimately the globe.

My choice for the next president's reading is, "The Sorrows of Empire, Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic" by Chalmers Johnson.

The classic works cited by the candidates are great, but I'd like to make sure the next president has a clear picture of the stranglehold that moneyed interests have on our government; therefore, I'd recommend David Sirota's Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government--And How We Take It Back or David Cay Johnston's Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill).

The book I recommend is:The Israel Lobby by Mearsheimer and Walt.
We cannot expect a constructive US foreign policy unless and until our politicians wean from the goodies of the hardline right-wing lobby for Israel in pursuit of inhuman and destructive aim of territorial expansion in the Middle East.

The book tells us why this policy is against both US and Israeli interests and is opposed by many if not most Jews here and Israel.

The move to sever ties to AIPAC should start from the White House. This book should be a must for the next president.

"The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom", by Don Miguel Ruiz.
A pithy, simple, but very powerful book. Here they are:
- Be impeccable with your word
- Don't take anything personally
- Don't make assumptions
- Always do your best

I fervently hope the next president will read George Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant." Without the POTUS having the information in this book, our country is in danger because our president must know how to process information--how to deconstruct the distortions of politcal hacks, special interests, and the think-tank lingo that had developed over the last 40 years, and which dominates our public discourse. George Orwell's essay "Politics and the English Language" shows why clarity in language is fundamental to informed decision making. Lakoff's book brings the argument to the 21st century. With 24-hour cable, talking heads inanely repeating what comes out of the mouths of talk show hosts and campaign managers, currently the control of language and ideas rests with the spinmeisters. A MUST READ for everyone. Please get Lakoff on your program. And thank you for all your incredibly insightful and intelligent programs. M. Crawford Jones

Dear Mr. Moyers,

The book, just one? Ok, then.
Those mentioned, that I have heard, are fine and probably critical to the infant nation when it was a democracy. Now, however these books seem to be, to have an aura of nostalgia--wishing the country were like it used to be. Not likely, or desirable when one considers the limitations of the voting register, the slaves, ad infinitum.
The book I would like to see enter the White House, and then be read by the President to be, would have to do with the character of thought--and stimulate the president to think even larger than imagined possible.
Maybe the book should be THE DREAM OF SCIPIO by Iian Pears; maybe MOSQUITO COAST by Paul Theroux; maybe more pointedly J.M. Coetzee's recent novel DIARY OF A BAD YEAR these are all and each thought provoking commentaries on the power of politics and the fear of both change and freedom. However, the one book that has struck me over the past three years is, and this would be the one I put in the President's coat pocket (or handbag), Rebecca Goldstein's BETRAYING SPINOZA.

We as a nation, as a community of people, need more than national history, more than political theory, more than clever analysis; we, all of us, need a refresher course on the ethics and morality of being human above all else, and only after having recovered that slippery condition can we think what form of government might be appropriate now.

Thank you for your efforts toward the ends of which I speak.

Sincerely,

Robert Reedy

Thank you, Mr. Moyers for your extraordinary work.

I must add my recommendation for the next president's reading Naomi Klein's THE SHOCK DOCTRINE. Ms. Klein's exhaustive research makes clear that we will never achieve our own security nor improve the world condition until we can effect change in the vicious cruelty of the unfettered fundamentalist capitalism which is the "Friedman Economic Model".

I am outraged at what has been perpetrated around the world in our name,with the collusion of many in our government and in concert with the IMF and the World Bank. How can we have made so many human souls suffer so that a few individuals and so many multinational corporations could enrich themselves. No wonder we are reviled in other cultures.

"Silence is the voice of complicity."

I recommend Isaiah Berlin The Proper Study of Mankind-An Anthology of Essays by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

There are actually two books that come to mind immediately. The first one is a recently (January 22, 2008) book called THE SHELL GAME by Steve Alten http://www.theshellgame.net/

This is based on research of the events of September 11, 2001 and a cautionary tale about another "false flag" action, like the deception of the Gulf of Tonkin, to attack Iran due to the oil energy power elite corruption wars.

The other book I would like all candidates to read is an older book by Leonard Peltier, PRISON WRITINGS: MY LIFE IS MY SUNDANCE.
This is about the corruption of our justice system, and abuse by COINTELpro and human rights violations of a Native American in prison unjustly for more than 3 decades. His book includes forgiveness, and a call for reconciliation and truth to end the corruption and harm to the indigenous people for more than 500 years.
More on these books and more is at my website www.FlybyNews.com

COLLAPSE by Jared Diamond is a must read,for the U.S. President, the cabinet and Congress members. It is a carefully researched and well-written account of a number of societies who failed to heed the signs of the danger of destroying their natural resources, resulting in their eventual self-destruction.

The Art of Non-War by Kim Michaels.

Just imagine in the future, no war. Read the book, it is going to be a best seller.

Even though I would hope that our next president has read The Wealth of Nations and the works of John Adams, I would want Hillary Clinton or the next president to read and discuss (with his/her advisors and appointees) in the manner of a Great Book’s Seminar conducted by Mortimer J. Adler his book, We Hold These Truths, Understanding the Ideas and Ideals of the Constitution. In the first part of the book, Dr. Adler discusses the relationship of the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution; in the second part he explores the ideas of the Declaration; in the third part, he examines the ideals of the Constitution’s Preamble concluding with a discussion of the defects of the eighteenth-century charter; in fourth part, Dr. Adler turns to questions about what is to be done in the future to realize the ideals of the Constitution more fully; and in the fifth part he includes the complete texts of the three great documents that he calls “The American Testament”: The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Even though Barak Obama admires Abraham Lincoln’s confidence in being a dissident voice, I would hope that our next president would understand, discuss and act upon the ideals that President Lincoln eloquently expressed in his Gettysburg Address.

I recommend Isaiah Berlin The Proper Study of Mankind-An Anthology of Essays by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Hard Facts--Dangerous Half-truths and Total Nonsense by Pfeffer and Sutton--2 Stanford U professors who look at the necessity of changing systems within an organization if you truly want change.

I would like the next President to fully read, Peoples History of the United States, 14892 to the Present by Howard Zinn

Thank you

I can't decide whether I recommend everyone to read, "End of America" by Naomi Wolf, or "The Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein, so read both.

About last weekend's show:

"REP. HENRY WAXMAN: Well, we were set to do it, but we heard from Mr. Krongard at the-- inspector general of the state department, offering to quit rather than have that hearing. And in my view, it was better to have him leave that job than to go through a hearing that would've been embarrassing. But at least we got the result that seems is the best interest of the American people."

Bush or Rove, et al, knew arrests and television reports would do more to supress votes than doing "what seems to be in the best interest of the American people. Waxman should have arrested Krongard, even if it meant locking him in a closet . Allowing creeps and crooks to scoff at the Constitution and the rule of law it protects, jeopardizes the future of our country. If you are not making enough noise on your "band"wagon to drown out Fox News, we, the people, won't be able to jump on.

Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.

I recommend "Power Down" by Richard Heinberg. Our present civilization is entirely based on cheap fuel and we need leadership to avert economic and social collapse that will follow the end of oil.

I wish the next President would read "For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy
toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future",

written by an economist (Herman E. Daly) and a United Methodist theologian (John B. Cobb, Jr.).

Together they point out the "externalities" in our economies that come at the expense of other parts of the world, and make the case for a whole new economic model.

Without hesitation, I recommend that the next President first read and keep a copy for bedtime reference, Howard Zinn's book,"A People's History fo the United States, 1492-Present". As he or she ponders great and long lasting decisions, it will help the President realize that the true story of our nation is written by America's women, Hispanics, Afro-Americans, factory workers (such as my grandfather and father), Native Americans, the poor, the working poor, the soldiers. It will remind him that his or her decisions will affect these folks and how history will judge how successful he or she was as President.

The book I would recommend is The Great Frontier by Walter Prescott Webb. At the beginning of the Age of Discovery(Feudal Times) there were 32 people per square mile. After the opening up of the entire world we did not return to 32 people per square until 1932. In that four hundred year boom period there was sufficient wealth that the human race was able to develop the institutions of the individual -Protestantism in the spiritual realm, Capitalism in the economic realm, and Democracy in the political realm. Noww that we are well beyond 32 people per square mile and no longer have available that per capita wealth those institutions are in danger of passing and we are facing the prosspect of a return to a feudal type of society. This time the feudal landlords will the the giant corporations.

My wife and I look forward all week to NOW and Bill Moyers Journal. If you will send us names and addresses of your sponsors we would be more than happy to send them hardcopy letters thanking them for support of your programs and telling them how important those programs are to us.

Thank you

George Coder and Nancy Lineburgh

I hope the next president has already read "In Our Best Interest" by Dr. Williams F. Schulz. Dr. Schulz makes a very compelling case for a foreign policy rooted in human rights.

How about The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. That would bring the presidency to at least the nineteenth century. From there it would be a relatively short hop to the twenty first.

I would recommend two books: Gunther Pauli's "Upsizing: The Road to Zero Emissions, More Jobs, More Income and No Pollution" and John Nolt et al's "A Land Imperiled: The Declining Health of the Southern Appalachian Bioregion".

"The Real Wealth of Nations, Creating a Caring Economics" by Riane Eisler is a must read for the President, Congress and nation. Eisler goes beyond the market focus of Adam Smith to include the full spectrum of economic activities, caring and care giving, household economy, and the natural world. She offers proposals which help build economic systems that meet both our material and spiritual needs.

"On The Road." It is a flawed masterpiece... in some ways, a poetry for the common man / woman. A visceral reminder that life is short, our priorities are out of whack, and going out on a limb is a great way to cause transformation (let's call it "change") and inspire others.

The next president doesn't need a history book, or a tome about economics. All the remaining candidates have a handle on that stuff. They need something simultaneously grounding in the "real-world" (outside of politics) and a metaphorical kick in the pants. Mr. Kerouac could be just what the doctor ordered.

For these times, "Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin is sorely needed. We live in times when truth and the belief in it are marginalized if not demonized. We must at long last assume the mantle of responsible citizenship.

For a rather short, but healthy and handy reference book on attitudes and values to bring to the Oval Office, I'd recommend William Sloane Coffin's book "Credo."

To our next president I would recommend "American Creation" by Joseph Ellis.

If our next president had a fell for the humanity Ellis gives our founding fathers, he or she may see that this country was founded by and run since by mere mortals. Presidents breathe the same air and make mistakes like all mortals do.

Every now and then it would nice to see a president who doesn't believe he or she is infallible, we can leave claims like that to the Vatican because first and foremost we are a nation of laws and a free people who give our power to the government to do in concert what we cannot do individually--it's not the other way around.

1. The Working Poor by David K Shipler
2. Shelter of Each Other by Mary Pipher
3. Grace eventually by Anne Lamott

My suggestion to my presidential candidate...
The Greatest Salesman in the World by Og Madino.
True leadership goes hand-in-hand with compassion.

The book our next president should take to the White House is The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman.
If she/he needs some inspiration then I'd recommend Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

Bill Moyers is finding out what it's like to be Oprah. Now we need another show on PBS each week (or more than one hour) just to discuss these books. Or I wonder if Oprah could discuss these books (9/11 Truth, Shock Doctrine, The Art of Non-War,Legacy of Ashes, etc.) without undermining her corporate appeal (and income) ? C-span might could help, or maybe a whole new book channel ("Handling the Truth") on cable, rated R for real- X for exactly!

SCREWED: THE UNDECLARED WAR AGAINST THE MIDDLE CLASS -- AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT by Thom Hartmann should be top on the President's reading list.

The Attorney General (hopefully John Edwards) should read, UNEQUAL PROTECTION: THE RISE OF CORPORATE DOMINANCE AND THE THEFT OF HUMAN RIGHTS by Thom Hartmann.

You can pin most, if not all, of our problems at the feet of corporate control of our government, which both of these books address. We need publicly funded elections to put the control of our government back in the hands of "We the People", the 4th and most important branch of government. "We the People" need to stand up and do our part to keep our government in check.

The two books that should be taken into the white house and read often are Common Sense, by Thomas Paine and 1984 by George Orwell.

I suggest 2 readings for the next president:
1- The Corrected Historical Essays by Gore Vidal
2- All Saints by Robert Ellsberg

I know you're supposed to bring a book, but i suggest the awesome documentary by Aaron Russo entitled

"America: Freedom to Fascism"

It would be a great guide for any president or concerned citizen. Check out the wesite truther.org to watch the movie for free

This country has launched itself on a messianic mission, "The Global War on Terror" and has invaded two countries and subverted our basic national principals because of it. All of this based on the Myth of the 19 assassins led by a scary brown man in a cave.

But the myth is a lie.

The book to read is David Ray Griffin's "Debunking 9/11 Debunking."

The myth must die for our nation to survive.

I would suggest that the new president read Howard Zinn's "A Peoples History of the United States"...Thanks, Steve~

I would recommend "The New American Story" by Bill Bradley.

"When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor" by William Julius Wilson. Even though it's a decade old, this book ought to be read so someone in Washington cares for the poor rather than the privileged.

You asked a question which should, and obviously does, have many varied answers. I pose that you ask what book should we TAKE OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE. And there is only one answer to that question... The Bible

It is time for rational reasoned thinking when dealing with the realities of this time and this world.

The book that I would like to suggest to the next president is “Knowing-Doing Gap, The: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I Sutton (Author). Pfeffer and Sutton demonstrate that it is not enough for corporations (government) to know about, discuss, or collect information on a problem. They must act. Our next president must know how to turn knowledge into action. This classic book on knowledge management would serve them well.

I would further suggest that the following recommendations should be offered to the president.

1. What films would we recommend to the president?
2. Who are the most thoughtful American people the president should ask for advice?
3. Who are the most thoughtful world figures the president should ask for advice?
4. Where in America should the president visit while in office?
5. Where in the world should the president visit while in office?

It would be hard for a president to go wrong with "America the Principled" by Rosabeth Moss Kanter.

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. It's a comprehensive look at the cold calculated actions of our nation's leaders of Friedman's disciples that have sought to destroy democracy around the world and in our nation. If the candidate sees what has been done then maybe they can start restoring our nation and democracy.

There are so many things wrong with this country today because of this administration and the fascist that put them in power that trying to name just ONE book to encompass it all would be a pretty tall order.

The fact of the matter is this, the USA is no longer a Democratic Republic.
We have a president that was never elected because it is quite clear that all elections since 2000 have been fraudulent.
For this disgrace the next president should read "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: Greg palast"

We have so many people in this country that are incapable of rational thinking, they probably think "reasoning" is something you put on a steak. What I see as the main culprit of this travesty is Religion.
Religion destroys the thinking and reasoning mind, approx 50+% of this country refuses to accept the FACT of Evolution based solely on religious "beliefs".
These people place faith above fact, once someone has deluded themselves to this extent then "believing" the bald faced lies that Bush tells continuously is easy.

For this disgrace I would recommend he/she reads "The God Delusion Richard Dawkins"

Then of course we have about 50% of the country that still refuses to accept that 9/11 was without any question an inside job perpetrated by what you Mr. Moyers called the "Shadow Government".

This is THE most important issue of our times because every atrocity this administration has committed in our name the past 7 years has all been predicated on this LIE and the mainstream media is covering it up.
9/11 Truth can be the key to save this country.

For this disgrace I would suggest any book written by David Ray Griffin and as mentioned here probably over 200+ times now "Debunking 9/11 Debunking" would be as good as any.
But the key is to THINK FOR YOURSELF.

The Tao te Ching by Lao Tzu

particularly verse 17:

When the Master governs, the people
are hardly aware that he exists.
Next best is a leader who is loved.
Next, one who is feared.
The worst is one who is despised.

If you don't trust the people,
you make them untrustworthy.

The Master doesn't talk, he acts.
When his work is done,
the people say, "Amazing:
we did it, all by ourselves!"

The new President should read David Cay Johnston's best seller "Free Lunch," so he or she clearly understands how it came to be that our government came began conspiring with corporations to take money from the masses and give it to corporate executives, thus reversing the practice of Robinhood and turning it into the practice that has destroyed our economy and the middle class -- Robbing the hood.

A key book to be read would have to be "Common Sense and Other Writings" by Thomas Paine. Self explanitory.

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

My suggestion for the one book would be the LEFT HAND OF GOD by Michael Lerner, as it describes the history, the present mess, and a generous, courageous solution.

The President enters the Oval Office with book in hand. What could he carrying that would inspire him to lead this nation to remember its natural roots of caring for itself and its neighbors? The Real Wealth of Nations by Riane Eisler will help him convey to our nation that we are only truly wealthy when we do what is necessary to care for the members of our society. The measure of the success of the United States will not be how much money we have in our bank account, but that all our members are fed, housed, clothed and have medical care as needed. Creating an economic system with that goal should be our President's point of inspiration. We will create untold number of jobs to support that value, vs. creating jobs to make things no one wants or needs just for the sake of making money. New President, New Economic system....it's time to start now.

The book i want our next president to read and bring to the White House is "Death Sentences: How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language," by Don Watson.

This book exposes the way in which discourse and actual truth telling suffer in our society because of the abuses of language all around us. The obfuscation we must endure from many of our political leaders, regardless of party affiliation, damages our society.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman - I learned a lot and so would our next President. Bill Moyers you are the Best - THANK YOU!

"Antigone" by Sophocles

(and as a study guide "reverence" by Paul Woodruff)

I reread the play after seeing your interview with Mr Woodruff in the months preceding the war in Iraq. A major theme is the tragedy that arises when a leader ignores the voices of those around (and "beneath") him and stubbornly pursues a policy against the natural order. This message could have helped to avoid the currant war and maybe would aid in preventing a similar disaster in the future.

"Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin

It is so important that our new president embrace a new form of thinking. A form of thinking with peace at its very core. To that end the book I most highly recommend is "The Art of Non-war" By Kim Michaels. Publisher: Shangra-la Mission.

Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Ray Griffin

"The Social Contract" by Jean Jacques Rousseau... but reading it alone won't do- it must be acted upon with genuine intent.

Citizenship Papers by Wendell Berry is my recommendation. This collection of essays is Mr. Berry's most powerful in revealing the consequences of the industrial paradigm, of which he so poignantly describes in previous writings. For clarification, Mr. Berry is describing the mindset that promotes the maximum yield at whatever human or ecological cost – all for personal gain in the short-term for a limited few. The industrial paradigm, when allowed to run its course, ultimately leads to the impoverishment of human individuals, communities, and societies through environmental destruction, war, economic collapse, etc. In contrast, Mr. Berry argues that we can change this paradigm, which currently rules the world, to one which advances self-reliance, quality not quantity, love of place, and empathy for others – all for the wealth of many. Good message for someone following in Bush’s footsteps.

Besides "The Art of Non-war" by Kim Michaels I also would like to recommend "Save your Planet" by the same author.

First one, A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, and also Armed Madness by Greg Palast. Our history has been rewritten by the winners, the owners of businesses, but all of our progress has been forced by progressive ideas and regular people demanding justice. If this is a nation that claims to honor Christian values, then we would help each other and not fight so many wars. We would honor the earth and give back to her, stop poisoning our home. Let us have some foresight and think into the future! We have enough if we share.

Per the recommendation of President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, I'd like the President of the USA to read "Hegemony or Survival" by Noam Chomsky. Or anything, really, as long as it's not "My Pet Goat" read upside down!

David Korten's three books: When Corporations Rule the World, The Post-Corporate World: Life After Capitalism, and The Great Turning. The first and second books provide a much needed reality check on where we've come. The second and third books supply a much needed vision for where we might go from this disastrous corporate plutocracy we've gotten ourselves into - or rather, our 'representatives' have.

"Touch the Ocean: The Power of Our Collective Emotions." Treats collective health, then leaps beyond the ordinary to introduce the consequences of impulsive but wide ranging actions on our weather, not to mention catastrophic weather. All with a very light touch.

"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn. A mind-blowing account of our nation's history, unlike anything found in watered down textbooks across America.

I wish the candidates would read David Halberstam's "The Best And The Brightest."
It is a primer on the inner workings of several administrations, and how they led us into and expanded and unnecessary war.
It shows the consequences to our people and to the world of not understanding history and other cultures, of not challenging assumptions, of not seeking information from the people on the lines, of not recognizing that might doesn't make right, of not being able to acknowledge a mistake.

"Collapse" by Jared Diamond is both fair in assessing the unprecedented and deteriorating condition of global ecosystems, and immensely sobering in detailing the history of ten collapsed civilizations on earth.

The Art of Non-war by Kim Michaels

David Cay Johnston's books Free Lunch and Perfectly Legal.

Our government is being bought by the ultra-wealthy. Please stop it!

the most important book i've ever read:
the shock doctrine
by naomi cambell

I recommend "The Art of Non-War" by Kim Michaels

My suggestion would be "The Covenant" by James Michner and/or when I find a copy "Caravans." Any James Michner reader would be light years ahead of the Bush Administration and to think Michner spent his final and some of his best years in Austin, Texas.

I would suggest "Asking the Right Questions, A Guide to Critical Thinking" by M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley. Why? A President can't know everything but (s)he has to have an approach to getting insight from those who are experts in an area who may have bias. Everyone has an agenda or a bias. How do you process and use such information? This book will help.

Sen. Obama made an excellent choice: TEAM OF RIVALS: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. Many books come to mind, but I can think of nothing better, so that's my suggestion. I hope many more books come to the mind of the winning candidate.

I would like for the president to read "The Art of Non-War" by Kim Michaels.

How great it would be if
HOLOCAUST MOSAIC would be in the White House after 17 years of research. H.M. tells the sory of the Holocaust through the stories of 6 people; a 3 year old when the war beagn who was liberated at Buchenwald, Anne Frank who died at Bergenbelsen, Kaethe Collwitz,a well known artist, Peter, half Jew half German who left German and Etty, a young woman at the crossroads of adulthood who died at Auschwitz.The book includes the story of the author as well during those years. Hitler's war against the Jews, at a time when many are trying to deny that it happened must never be forgotten.
Helen Weber, Author

Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau to remind the candidates what it means to stand up for what's ethically right and not politically expedient. A reminder about an unjust war in which the U.S. was the aggressor couldn't hurt either.

I'll second the recommendation of

The Unconscious Civilization, by John Ralson Saul, New York: The Free Press, 1997.

This book cuts right through the massive and ongoing campaign by the establishment to keep the people distracted from the ransacking of America by corporate interests.

Real Wealth of Nations...creating a caring economics by Riane Eisler.

This book enables us to see the dominator value system vs. the caring value system that underlies our economic systems and results in the outcomes we see happening before us today. After reading this--you can see there is another way--and it works for all of us.

Wonderful book suggestions have been made. I'd add "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. It gives a number of examples of societies failure to face reality and their resulting failure.

My recommended book for the next President:"The Arrogance of Power" by J. William Fulbright.

The next President's bedsaide manual should be
The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer

Cyrus Leo Solzberger, who passed away in 1993, of the times family was a correspondent from 1938. His book A long Row of Candles, gives great historical insight into the history and politics of the worls, especially the region of the Ottoman Empire, Germany's rule, meetings with world leaders until 1954. The reader will learn what the modern politician has fogotten about Asia, Europe, Africa and the US involvement.

I'd like the candidates to read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, or alternatively, The End of Faith, by Sam Harris. Either would help them realize how little God is going to help us and get them to focus on some solutions that don't require faith to operate.

There are some great titles here, and they seriously address the philosophic and ethical challenges integral to holding the position of President of the United States. But when you asked the question, "What book, besides the Bible, would you like the next President to take to the White House?", the writings of P.G. Wodehouse sprang to my mind. Reading a little Wodehouse every week keeps the spirit light, and also teaches an aspect of the acceptance of fate. For the President, I would recommend "The Golf Omnibus" by P.G. Wodehouse.

"DAY of RECKONING" by Patrick Buchanan. This author's shibboleth of national sovereignty continues here, and he makes a pretty compelling case for it. He aptly characterizes the principles of globalization as a CULT, a substitute for our lost moral compass - one which is jealously guarded like an inviolable religion from "apostates" who would criticize its methods and outcomes. International capital, freed of loyalty to nationhood, is encouraged to shred all social contracts, for short-term gain. We are currently seeing how international markets panic, once American consumers no longer earn enough to continue buying at their customary, furious pace. Our clever leaders now grant us a "payday loan" on the nation's maxed-out credit card, to fuel a last gasp of spending - hoping the feces won't hit the fan before election day!

Broken Government by John W. Dean

"The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein.

Read it and you will understand why.

I recommend "The March of Folly" Barbara Tuchman.It is a good description about how false premises and institutional inertia can produce devastating reuslts.

The book I would like the new President to take to the White House (and read!) is Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen. It is the story of a disparate group of men who managed to come together in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and create the Constitution of the United States. The task completed by our founding fathers was remarkable, not only because the Constitution has lasted, but because these people did not agree about everything, yet were able to compromise for the common good. The new President could learn a great deal from their example.

I’d like to recommend Paul Stamets’s “Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World” (Ten Speed Press).

It may seem like an odd choice, but this book will fundamentally change the President’s (and anyone else’s) view of nature and our interconnection with it. What if we started seeing ourselves – we humans – as part of nature, rather than as something separate from it? What if we began to honor and nurture the earth and then the earth was more able to nourish us? How would our decision-making process be changed?

Mr. Stamets believes mycelia have not just the ability to protect the environment, but the intelligence to do so on purpose. Fungi transmit information across their huge networks using the same neurotransmitters that our brains do. They are the earth’s “natural internet”. Fungi nourish and repair ecosystems. They are the great disassemblers of nature, breaking down petroleum-based pesticides and other toxic compounds, chemical warfare components and nuclear waste. They also have been shown to produce anti-smallpox compounds. These are some of the many wonders going on just below our feet and in the few old growth forests left.

Shall we continue this, the planet’s sixth great extinction (the first one brought about by humans?) or can we, as a community, work together to flourish instead?

(There is an excellent interview with Mr. Stamets in The Sun’s February 2008 issue.)

You asked what book I would suggest that the next president of the United States should take to the White House. I would like to suggest the new book, "The Art of Non-war" by Kim Michaels. I think this would be inquisite. Thank you.

One book for our country’s Employee-in-Chief? Consider the one-and-only practical manual that would clearly show the next President how to avoid the road to hell that is paved with the best of intentions—a book that would give the President laser-like insight into the hearts and minds of his or her employer (“We the people of the United States”). I refer to professor of linguistics and cognitive science George Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of an Elephant.” Mark my words: Without full understanding of the principles of this book, a President risks dangerous sabotage of their hopes and plans for our country—and will wield power blindly, ineffectively, even counterproductively and chaotically. (Sidebar: It’d also be really good for EVERYONE in the country to read the book, too, so we’d all have a higher comprehension of what truly makes us tick.) -- MADISON GRAY

All one has to read to relate to man's sense of compassion, justice, and generosity as a basis for any one in power is "To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Each character represents all levels of society in today's world. "Scout"-the innocent and those trying to understand why the injustice and hatred in the world; "Jem"-the youth who understand what the world is like but are frustrated that they do not know what they can do to make a change; "Tom Robinson"- represents the injustice prejudice and hatred in the world; "Bob Ewell"-the violence and prejudice due to ingnorance and poverty; "Boo Radley"-the handicapped and mentally ill that are misunderstood and are in need of society's protection; and then "Atticus Finch"-the protector and defender of those less fortunate and are unable to speak or defend for themselves. He represents those in government to whom we less fortunate look to for guidance and leadership. As Atticus reflects in the book, you never really know someone until you stand in their shoes. . .we need a goverment to be this compassionate and fair to its people who look to them for leadership.

People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn

The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. The next president needs to have a grasp on what is the best food for us to eat and how we should grow it and acquire it. Then we will be in position to make great strides toward energy independence and bring power back to the people and away from ridiculous mega-retailers.

Animal Farm. It is important to remember how sooon the newly powerful can become the same as the old powerful. Two legs, bad can easily become imperial presidency good using the same techniques and thought processes used in this book.

I have two suggestions to offer, because I can't make up my mind...

The first is "Hitler: A Study in Tyranny". Among other things, it describes how the Nazi Party and Hitler came to power in Germany by maneuvering around and misusing the structural weaknesses of the Weimar Republic's constitution. Most don't know that Hitler was never elected. He was appointed chancellor by President Hindenburg(and the weak variant at that--Hindenburg had a choice). As much as I look forward to Bush's departure from the Oval Office, I can't say I'm particularly enamored with another four years of one-party rule in Washington D.C.

My second choice is Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here". I would hope the reasons for this selection should require no explanation.

Thanks for another great show this week Mr. Moyers!

Chris in Denver

4. BIG COAL by JEFF GOODELL
(Instead of using the co-op WE)I ask for specific people who have brains for energy in the next Presidency.

Jeff Goodell's book suggests we need more brains to configure future energy use without destroying parts of the planet belonging to others who breathe.
How will this next President do energy?

Will the co-op WE THE PEOPLE--the U.S. President steal life from generations future to gratify US TODAY--U.S. interests? Is energy independence only about us the U.S.? Or do others outside us (the U.S.) die too from the rape of resources plundered for corporate new deco/furniture needs?

A Language Older Than Words by Derrick Jensen
... this thought provoking work challenges us to consider the impact of our life style and to reflect upon why that impact is so rarely considered.

Team of Rivals:The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I suggest that every presidential candidate should read Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. They might learn that the people should lead and the best presidents simply get out of the way.

I recommend that the president, if not the whole country should read “Calming the Fearful Mind: A Zen Response to Terrorism.” It is one of the most recent editions from transformative Engaged Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh. I would hope that if Change is a central issue this election season, then changing the way we as a people respond to the countless issues of the world should be high on the agenda.

The complete works of William Shakespeare. Everything you'll ever need to know about human behavior.
Period.

"A Problem from Hell: American in the Age of Genocide" by Samantha Power. (So the next president doesn't sit idly by and wring his or her hands as genocide racks the world.

My Nomination is:
Long Road Home by Martha Raddatz.
Why, because it brings home the "Real" Cost of going to War.

Plan B 3.0 Mobilizing to Save Civilization, Lester R. Brown

"Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, ... America (or at least the Republican Party" by Rod Dreher. I had a hard time verbalizing why the Republican Party was annoying me constantly in the last 15 years, and why I didn't want to leave. The closest I could get to explaining it was "Who are these crazy people and why are they running my party?" This book is proof positive that I'm not the only Republican in this country that resists being classified as the type of Republican that gets all the media attention now. Rod Dreher gets it! This book is a manifesto for all moderate Republicans that came AFTER the baby boom. Another good one for the new Pres to read is "It's my party, too", by Christine Todd Whitman.

The book I would recommend is Dr Carroll Quigley's "Tragedy and Hope."

My choice would also be The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. More importantly, don't just read it-do something about it!
Starting first with ending the corruption and the disaster that the Bushies have created in Iraq.

THE UNSETTLING OF AMERICA:
Culture & Agriculture by
WENDELL BERRY

I recommend Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. No leader, ancient or modern, has come the closest to Plato's ideal of the philosopher King. In Meditations this Roman emperor constantly struggles to exercise the just use of power and wrestles with the need to balance its use with his own humanity. He constantly works for the common good. He balances thoughtfulness, humility, and intelligence with decision, action and strength--a great model for any leader. This great work should accompany every president to the White House.

I cast my vote also for Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky. Bill, I hope you take note of the number of times that many of us have suggested his work. There is a tendency for many liberals to take his POV for granted, but that makes it no less insightful and relevant. As the NYTs said, he is "arguably the greatest intellectual alive."

All the previous posts mention excellent books but I would add: The Plot to Seize the White House by Jules Archer, SKYHORSEPUBLISHING.COM (ISBNE806.A663 2007 322.4'20973--DC22)
This is the true story of Major General Smedley Butler and the American Fascist Conspiracy to over throw FDR, authored and paid by the economic elites of the 20's & 30's and the 1934 congresional hearings.

This should be include in Jr High AND highschool US history and Civics classes! The relevance to today and the plutocracy behind the corporate vail is startling!.

Also read Ted Nace's "Gangs of America" the rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy (ISBN 9781576753194)
(or 1576753190)

I would want him to read a book I first heard about on your show, The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism by John C. Bogle.

Not only does the author point out where we went wrong but offers a number of good and doable solutions.

I wish she would take along Shakespeare's "Henry V" A reluctant king that inherits a war, ends it and finds true love in his life... Also maybe Shakespeare's Sonnets...

__ Cookie

The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith and Politics in a Post-Religious Right America by Jim Wallis

AS A MAN THINKETH by James Allen.

I would suggest Broken Government by John Dean since hopefully the next president will have to fix all the problems caused by Dubya.

As outlined in Richard Louv's book, offering children a sense of place translates into healthier and more responsible citizens tomorrow.

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

Algonquin Books
ISBN 1565123913

http://www.thefuturesedge.com/

When you have to watch a campaign for this long, I would like to make every one of them read "All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten".

Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Reflecting on the quality of all the Democratic candidates, while watching the debates this Fall, the book, Team of Rivals, came immediately to mind. It could be an important inspiration.

The next president needs to stop the rush to environmental destruction. Since it's so easy to "greenwash" the guilty military-industrial-complex if the issue is not presented in very concrete terms, I would recommend "Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin as a way to start to get a handle on the exact methods in current use. Although Griffin's book is not connected to his theological work, he has mentioned in interviews and other works that the destruction of the earth being caused by the greed of the wealthy can well be considered the "satanic" force of our time, much in the way early Christians thought the Roman Empire was in their day.

I would suggest...

1984 By Orwell

But for the president to use it to dismantle the current corrupt system.

Not as a guide for a goal to achieve.

People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, because sometimes the personal stories are too easily ignored by the makers of history.

I recommend that the new President, and the current one, read The Real Wealth of Nations by Riane Eisler; Eisler's economic theory states that we must take into account the importance of caring and care-giving as a requisite for an optimally productive economy. The old dominator economy depletes both human and natural capital. We need change.

As former professors of U.S. history and literature, my husband, Jerry Rodesch, and I think that our colleague Harvey Kaye's THOMAS PAINE AND THE PROMISE OF AMERICA would offer the new president our founding fathers' most profound vision for us. It's a historical gift we should not squander--and we're delighted that Bill Moyers also considers the book of utmost valuable.

The Demon Haunted World, by Carl Sagan. I wish I could find the quote in my copy of the book, but Sagan says that science has had more of an effect on people's everyday lives in the past century than any two politicians a person could mention. Sagan says elsewhere that the margin for error has become too slim for our leaders *not* to know more about science and critical thinking.

The book "The Art of Non-War" by Kim Michaels presents a revolutionary vision for promoting peace on our planet. I recommend this book to not only government leaders and officials but to all people for contained therein is a wisdom that could transform all of our lives for the better.

"Lincoln's Virtues- An Ethical Biography" by William Lee Miller

The one book I would like the new president to read is "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq" by Stephen Kinzer. A president should be familiar with how this nation (or the CIA) has interfered in the affairs of many countries around the world for the past 100 years. This is why so many people hate us. The new president should pledge that this will never happen again.

Two more book suggestions:

Ishmael and The Story of B

both by Daniel Quinn

And a website -- don't read that "fair tax" book others are suggesting without also visiting this site!:

http://www.apttax.com/
The APT Tax
The Automated Payment Transaction Tax

Two more book suggestions:

Ishmael and The Story of B

both by Daniel Quinn

And don't read the "fair tax" book without also visiting this website!:

http://www.apttax.com/
The APT Tax
The Automated Payment Transaction Tax

Many months ago "The Houston Chronicle" had an article asking the same book question of the canidates. At the time Hillary Clinton said "A Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I was pleased to see Obama pick it also. It is massive but well written. I think it should be required reading for everyone on both sides of the aisle.

Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Reflecting on the quality of all the Democratic candidates, while watching the debates this Fall, the book, Team of Rivals, came immediately to mind. It could be an important inspiration.

There are two books.
1) "Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Globel Dominance and Why They Fall" by Amy Chua

2) "Good Capitalism, Bad Capitalism" by William J.
Baumol

The next president should bring "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers" by Daniel Ellsberg to remind them what a real American is capable of.

Two book recommendation for the next President:

Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed: A Judicial Indictment of War on Drugs by James Gray

Ain’t Nobody’s Business if You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society by Peter McWilliams

I'd further suggest that (s)he look into the biographies of these two authors.

Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Reflecting on the quality of all the Democratic candidates, while watching the debates this Fall, the book, Team of Rivals, came immediately to mind. It could be an important inspiration.

" Debunking 9/11 Debunking" by David Ray Griffin.

I would recommend, "Tolerance," by Hendrik Van Loon. It's a history of intolerance going back to the Greeks, and makes the case that what is so often disguised as ideology or religion is nothing more than than a manifestation of fear, ignorance, and self-interest. It was published in the 1920s.

Mr. Gore's "The Assault on Reason" -- a good place to start.
I, too, second President Eisenhower's Farewell Address as extremely appropriate, and laden with foresight (watch "Why We Fight" if you haven't already).

Two recommendations, both by the American theologian and social activist, Reinhold Niebuhr: "The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness" and "The Irony of American History."

I would also recommend Fareed Zakaria's "The Future of Freedom" and, along with many others here, "A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn.

I would like for the next president to take to the White House, read, and think about the implications of the Noam Chomsky book "WHAT WE SAY GOES: CONVERSATIONS ON U.S. POWER IN A CHANGING WORLD"

We must change the prevailing foreign policy paradigm if we are to save the soul of America, as well as its very existence.

You asked viewers to name a book that the next president should take with him to the Whitehouse and read. I recommend "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes. The reason: it shows us that our nation, when we really put our minds to something, can accomplish great projects. We need to do that to solve the major problems that face our nation; e.g. less reliance on oil and oil imports. The book shows us that we can do it. The book is very well researched (nearly 100 pages of notes) and won a Pulitzer Prize. Moreover, it is an extremely engrossing read.

PLAN B 3.0, Mobilizing to Save Civilization by Lester R. Brown

Probably the most important book I have read. His thorough documentation has made a believer of me. It's not just about global warming. Rampant overpopulation,combined with shrinking species, croplands, forests, fisheries, water supplies, and oil supplies could lead to more and more failed states. As the US struggles to regain freedom after 8 years of setbacks, we must also be aware that time is running out for the world.

That website url didn't come through:

911blogger.com/node/13676

"The Art of Non-War" by Kim Michaels

If anyone wants to decide for themselves if the 9/11 debunking 9/11 recommendations are spam, check out this website, where they discuss strategies on how to make their spam posts look authentic.

This is such a shame, because in reality, David Ray Griffin is a serious and honest person who I suspect would never condone this kind of action. 9/11 is an important issue that unfortunately attracts many people who put the real questions about that tragic event in doubt.

Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Ray Griffin

I think you definitely can tell something about a person by what they are reading - I always seem to scan people's bookshelves when I'm in their home, perhaps partly for that reason - but I'm far more interested in what people think of the books they have read than what they have read.

The responses by the candidates are not that shocking. The constitution and the federalist papers are probably in some book titled "Answers for Presidents - What do say when someone asks you a question..." Obama's choice rings true with his interest in Leadership and unifying people. Whether he can actually do that, is another matter, but at least he's reading about it - I'm sure we'll need it. McCain probably does need some help with the economic questions - he seemed a little lost when asked about the Plunge Protection Team.

I'll risk seeming silly and suggest a book that I'd like to see the President take, and someone else has suggested it as well - J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord Of The Rings" because when it comes to questions of morality, humanity, and politics I can't think of a book which produces so many rich answers in its applicability to the challenges faced today. Hippies used to say "Gandalf for President," and I can see why. One might see the US massive military industrial complex as the Ring. (After all, it could be argued that it was born in the fiery pits of corporate greed.) Then one might see Terrorism as Sauron, the Enemy. Well, one does not attack Sauron with the Ring, it must be dismantled.

1) "The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century" by Ross E. Dunn, December 2004. An amazing, explained, travelogue through the entire 14th century Islamic world plus Constantinople and China, and highly illustrative of different types of government contrasted with the peril of ungoverned, insurgent places.

2) "The Road to Wigan Pier" by George Orwell, for insight into how the working poor live. This book galvanized public opinion and shamed the British Conservative government into finally, once and for all, repudiating one hundred years of 19th century British Liberalism's failed laissez-faire unregulated free market free trade ideology.

3)"Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country" by William Greider, January 1989. originally in "The New Yorker", reads like a novel bestselling economic history of the United States.

4) "The Pathans", by Olaf Caroe, 1957 anthropological history of the Pashtuns, which will help understand Afghanistan, and maybe help someone find bin Laden and Zawahiri in the Mohmand Agency near the Swat Valley. Accompanied by "Constable's Hand Atlas of India, 1893", for the excellent maps needed to find all of today's insurgent tribes from the Hindu Kush to Burma.

One Book: Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein (not "Wolf" as someone mistakenly attributed above)

Others of singular import: Declarations of Independence and A People's History of the U.S. both by Howard Zinn and, the vitally 21st century series,
The American Empire Project trilogy (Blowback, Sorrows of Empire, Nemesis) by Chalmers Johnson

That the candidates couldn't posit a salient reference, is deeply disturbing. We're headed for the cliff, people.

The one book I want the next president of the United States to read is "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston. It explains why the economy has gone to hell: The government has for the past 30 years been in cahoots with corporations to steal from the middle class and poor and give to the rich. It has suspended rules; it has abdicated its responsibility to protect the majority; it has taxed the poor while giving breaks to the rich. After reading this book, the new president, if he or she has any moral fiber, will feel obligated to put an end to the evil pattern and return this country to a pattern that supported a vast working and middle class.

I recommend "Collapse" by Jared Diamond.

Eric Henderson

The one book I want the next president of the United States to read is "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston. It explains why the economy has gone sour: The government has for the past 30 years been in cahoots with corporations to steal from the middle class and poor and give to the rich. It has suspended rules; it has abdicated its responsibility to protect the majority; it has taxed the poor while giving breaks to the rich. After reading this book, the new president, if he or she has any moral fiber, will feel obligated to put an end to the evil pattern and return this country to a pattern that supported a vast working and middle class.

The one book I want the next president of the United States to read is "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston. It explains why the economy has gone to hell: The government has for the past 30 years been in cahoots with corporations to steal from the middle class and poor and give to the rich. It has suspended rules; it has abdicated its responsibility to protect the majority; it has taxed the poor while giving breaks to the rich. After reading this book, the new president, if he or she has any moral fiber, will feel obligated to put an end to the evil pattern and return this country to a pattern that supported a vast working and middle class.

BLOWBACK by Chalmers Johnson. This book precedes the 9/11 attack, but vividly describes US covert actions against other nations that can prompt such attacks. This book should be required reading for our nation's decision makers.

I was going to go with, "A People's History of the United States", but since that will likely make it to the president's bedside table, I'd like to slip in one more. How about Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen.
Hopefully we can vet the upcoming editions for accuracy, as they cover the past 8 years!

DG

I recommend that everyone in a position of power read Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad. Lack of accountability by public office holders and private corporations is allowing the most avaricious and acrimonious to take charge of our government, our economy and our culture.

I was going to go with, "A People's History of the United States", but since that will likely make it to the president's bedside table, I'd like to slip in one more. How about, "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong" by James Loewen.
Hopefully we can vet the upcoming editions for accuracy, as the cover the past 8 years!

DG

I'd recommend The World is Flat; A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman for a cogent understanding of the direction the global world is going in.

A Vision of the Future
by Mortimer J. Adler.

Mac Millan Publishers

The one book that I think should be mandatory reading for all presidential candidates, members of Congress, state and local officials, and most particularly journalists is "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam" by Robert Spencer.

Our enemies have clearly stated their intention to destroy us. While they are building terrorist cells in our cities, we are sleepwalking through the self-delusion that "If we could only win their hearts and minds..." Isn't this what happened in Europe in 1938?

400 years before the First Crusade, Muslim armies came storming out of the Arabian Peninsula - murdering, raping, looting - all for the sake of spreading their religion of peace. We are their next targets.

Get it? Wake up.

I would suggest any book written by Vine Deloria, jr. for the next president to read. Indian Affairs has been long neglected by previous administrations for far to long.

I would suggest any book written by Vine Deloria, jr. for the next president to read. Indian Affairs has been long neglected by previous administrations for far to long.

A book that I recommend that the next president of the United States should take to the White House is "The Art of Non-war" by Kim Michaels.

The next president should read "The Fair Tax" and find a way to achieve the savings the authors seek, and to relieve most tax-payers of the challange of the tax code.

Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage

Review:
"Deffeyes has reached a conclusion with far-reaching consequences for the entire industrialized world. . . . The conclusion is this: in somewhere between two and six years from now, worldwide oil production will peak. After that, chronic shortages will become a way of life. The 100-year reign of King Oil will be over." Fred Guterl, Newsweek

The present outlandish system used to collect federal taxes costs citizens many millions of hours each year and requires great effort from the government as well. The book isn't perfect, but "The Fair Tax" should be read by everyone in the executive AND legislative branches. The savings sought by the authors should be the objective and would be of immense value to the country.

"The Glory and the Dream: The History of American from 1932 to 1973", by William Manchester. I sincerely hope these presidential candidates have already read it, or they are in for quite a shock.

I would recommend two books to the next president, both of which have helped frame my view of the history of the government of this country: "Why Americans Hate Politics" by E.J. Dionne and "A People's History Of The United States" by Howard Zinn. Thanks for asking, Bill!

The present outlandish system used to collect federal taxes costs citizens many millions of hours each year and requires great effort from the government as well. The book isn't perfect, but "The Fair Tax" should be read by everyone in the executive AND legislative branches. The savings sought by the authors should be the objective and would be of immense value to the country.

I highly recommend "The Art of Non-war" by Kim Michaels.

The Art of Non-war by Kim Micheals

I higly recommend "The Art of Non-War" by Kim Michaels.

For humility, I would suggest TWO books, of which one could be chosen. "The Hunting of the Snark" An Agony in Eight Fits, by Lewis Carroll and "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In "Snark" Lewis Carroll is stingingly, hilariously poignant in his depiction of an eccentric captain and his iconic if ecclectic ship of foolery. The captain had "only one notion for crossing the ocean, and that was to tinkle his bell." How many political decisions have been and/or are being made based on this dynamic? Bush invaded Iraq for many obviously suspect and/or flat out imperialistic reasons but ultimately, in bare bones essentials -- it was to tinkle his bell. Le Petit Prince is full of wonderful and humbling encounters with self-important nobodies all who believe they are performing Very Important duties on their chosen planets. But ultimately it is the intimacy established between the Little Prince and the Fox he has come to love that is the bigger message in what is called a children's book but is in fact another brilliant Allegory. If the President gets to take a short story then let's go with 18th century Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" which was, by many accounts, taken to have been a serious and credible proposal to alleviate poverty and hunger by consuming unwanted children. Let's hope the next President has the intelligence and the good humor to posit as much credibility and guidance in these "humorous" texts as he/she would in any left-brained tome.

The one book I want the next president of the United States to read is "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston. It explains why the economy has gone to hell: The government has for the past 30 years been in cahoots with corporations to steal from the middle class and poor and give to the rich. It has suspended rules; it has abdicated its responsibility to protect the majority; it has taxed the poor while giving breaks to the rich. After reading this book, the new president, if he or she has any moral fiber, will feel obligated to put an end to the evil pattern and return this country to a pattern that supported a vast working and middle class.

For humility, I would suggest TWO books, of which one could be chosen. "The Hunting of the Snark" An Agony in Eight Fits, by Lewis Carroll and "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In "Snark" Lewis Carroll is stingingly, hilariously poignant in his depiction of an eccentric captain and his iconic if ecclectic ship of foolery. The captain had "only one notion for crossing the ocean, and that was to tinkle his bell." How many political decisions have been and/or are being made based on this dynamic? Bush invaded Iraq for many obviously suspect and/or flat out imperialistic reasons but ultimately, in bare bones essentials -- it was to tinkle his bell. Le Petit Prince is full of wonderful and humbling encounters with self-important nobodies all who believe they are performing Very Important duties on their chosen planets. But ultimately it is the intimacy established between the Little Prince and the Fox he has come to love that is the bigger message in what is called a children's book but is in fact another brilliant Allegory. If the President gets to take a short story then let's go with 18th century Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" which was, by many accounts, taken to have been a serious and credible proposal to alleviate poverty and hunger by consuming unwanted children. Let's hope the next President has the intelligence and the good humor to posit as much credibility and guidance in these "humorous" texts as he/she would in any left-brained tome.

The End of Faith by Sam Harris

The one book I want the next president of the United States to read is "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston. It explains why the economy has gone to hell: The government has for the past 30 years been in cahoots with corporations to steal from the middle class and poor and give to the rich. It has suspended rules; it has abdicated its responsibility to protect the majority; it has taxed the poor while giving breaks to the rich. After reading this book, the new president, if he or she has any moral fiber, will feel obligated to put an end to the evil pattern and return this country to a pattern that supported a vast working and middle class.

For humility, I would suggest TWO books, of which one could be chosen. "The Hunting of the Snark" An Agony in Eight Fits, by Lewis Carroll and "Le Petit Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In "Snark" Lewis Carroll is stingingly, hilariously poignant in his depiction of an eccentric captain and his iconic if ecclectic ship of foolery. The captain had "only one notion for crossing the ocean, and that was to tinkle his bell." How many political decisions have been and/or are being made based on this dynamic? Bush invaded Iraq for many obviously suspect and/or flat out imperialistic reasons but ultimately, in bare bones essentials -- it was to tinkle his bell. Le Petit Prince is full of wonderful and humbling encounters with self-important nobodies all who believe they are performing Very Important duties on their chosen planets. But ultimately it is the intimacy established between the Little Prince and the Fox he has come to love that is the bigger message in what is called a children's book but is in fact another brilliant Allegory. If the President gets to take a short story then let's go with 18th century Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" which was, by many accounts, taken to have been a serious and credible proposal to alleviate poverty and hunger by consuming unwanted children. Let's hope the next President has the intelligence and the good humor to posit as much credibility and guidance in these "humorous" texts as he/she would in any left-brained tome.

The book I would like the next President to take with him/her to the White House is by Thomas Paine, Rights of Man.
In fact it wouldn't be a bad idea if this wasn't required reading by all elected officials before they lay their hand on a Bible and take an oath of office.

Book recommendation:

I'd love to think that our next president had read and considered Maximum Wage by Sam Pizzigati. The idea that there could be a reversal of the polarization of rich and poor in the US is SO darned appealing - all we'd need is a real way to cut the corporate ties to politicians. (Sigh) That's asking a lot, I guess.

I would recommend that the future President reads "This Land is Their Land: How Corporate Farms Threaten the World" by Evaggelos Vallianatos (Common Courage Press). The author grew up on a family farm in Greece and traces true democracy back to its roots on family farms. A 27 year career with the US Government (EPA)has only strengthened his belief that democracy can only exist where millions of small farms, not a few mega farms, are its base.

I would recommend On Liberty by Jon Stuart Mill or the Federalist Papers.

The Majesty of the Law by Sandra Day O' Connor gracefully examines the most pivotal desisions in US history and looks to the future of a globalized world and how our next leaders should face the inevidible challenges.

First, I am surprised that Katie Couric mentioned "besides the bible" as to assume that this book should be brought into the White House and that all the candidates would choose this book. That actually scares me because the bible has many,many horrible things in it. Such as stoning women and slavery being a good thing. But besides my little side comment I would say that everyone should re-read "Animal Farm" by Orwell. A book about propaganda and a book that was the center of this administrations behavior.

I would like to suggest that our new President reads, "The True Story of The Bilderberg Group by Daniel Estulin. Maybe this book will open his or her eyes to who is running the our government.

Our new president should read "Free Lunch" by David Cay Johnston because it looks at all the loopholes created by Congress that allow corporations to make money off the government at the expense of taxpayers. While Johnston examines why deregulation of electricity failed, we are yet again in another economic meltdown -- this one in the housing and the subprime mortgage market -- where the lending industry went unregulated and many of the companies in that market were owned by big donors to the Republican party.

Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Ray Griffin

Debunking 9/11 Debunking (or alternatively A New Pearl Harbor) by David Ray Griffin

The American public is ready for the truth.

Please let me emphasize, I was NOT prompted by some posting on the net to suggest this book. I finished viewing Bill Moyers program on Miro, took note of his request, and came to the site for the first time to make the above suggestion. I came on my own initiative and was surprised to find so many others nominating the same work.

I anticipated that I would be one of a few who wanted to recommend Debunking 9/11 Debunking by David Ray Griffin. Much to my surprise I found DOZENS of others begging for the same book to be featured. (Another good candidate by the same author would be A New Pearl Harbor, and there are more good books soon to come by other authors.)

I would even suggest that Bill Moyers bring David Ray Griffin on the show as a guest. Let him soar or sink on the merits of his case. I assure you he will soar.

Garry Smith
Houston, TX

America Hijacked by Israel. How come? Shame on us all!

"The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy" by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt

"God and Gold" by Walter Russell Mead

Alice in Wonderland and the 911 disaster.
It gives you a better understanding about how come,that even the biggest enemies of the U.S. like Iran or Venezuela, do not even mention, that the hole in the pentagon was to little for a Boeing. as only one of many examples.

"God and Gold" by Walter Russell Mead

WHAT KIND OF WORLD DO YOU WANT? by Jim Lord and Pam McAllister.

http://www.whatkindofworld.com/

The good delusion. by Richard Dawkins.

This country was founded by people fleeing intolerance fueled by religion.
Religion should be cleraly a personal practice not a standard to set or justify policy.

Leaders need to understand how the lowest class of their people live. I would recommend Barbara Ehrenreich's book include "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

I would like to recommend Madelein Albright's newest book "memo to the President-Elect". WHat better to read than she who has been there, done that, and done it well!

Any book by Thomas Payne would provide a thoughtful person an enduring framework for presidential decisions.

While it is an old book, I believe that Small Is Beautiful by E.F. Schumaker is as important now as it ever was.

I recommend The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State by Isaac Kramnick and R.Laurence Moore. It is a wonderfully articulate historical and legal explication of the importance of the separation of church and state with a final chapter delineating the Bush administration's violations of that vital constitutional principle.

'The Art of Non War'

THE ONE BOOK:

THREE DAY ROAD, a novel
JOSEPH BOYDEN (Olmas wants to film it)
VIKING, PENGUIN 2005 2006

Canadian Indian fighters against Germany's army in 1st World War.
Idea: Fighting War should be as taboo as Cannibalism is for humankind.

"A Theory Of Justice" by John Rawls
"Justice is the first virtue of social institution, as truth is of systems of thought,"

I would recommend “The Open Society and Its Enemies” by Karl Popper, a profound work as relevant today as when it was written.

I would have them take a copy of "No Ordinary Time" by Doris Kearns Goodwin, to the White House. The title speaks for itself. I can't think of a more urgent need for our next President to respect our history so they can lead us into the future.

Others have mentioned THE ART OF NON-WAR by Kim Michaels an