On Monday evening, Feb. 27, UFPPC's Digging Deeper XIV will begin a study circle of five recent books addressing the question: How can Americans best defend their endangered core values....
WHAT: Study circle on 5 books relating to America's endangered core values
WHO: Facilitated by members of United for Peace of Pierce County
WHEN: February 27 & March 6, 13, & 27, 2006, 7:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m.
WHERE: Mandolin Café, 3923 South 12th St., Tacoma, WA
[Series flyer for printing (.pdf format).]
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DIGGING DEEPER XIV: AMERICA'S CORE VALUES AT RISK
United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
February 27 & March 6, 13, & 27, 2006
Since July 2004 United for Peace of Pierce County has been conducting Digging Deeper, a Monday-night book discussion group, often in the form of a study circle. Topics have included peak oil, climate change, the corporation, and the history of the Middle East, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, politics, and social change. Continuing in this tradition, on February 27, 2006, Digging Deeper XIV will begin a study circle running through the end of March that examines five books addressing the question: How can Americans best defend their endangered core values?
· Jimmy Carter, Our Endangered Values: Americas Moral Crisis (Simon & Schuster, 2006). A national bestseller. From the dust jacket: In Our Endangered Values, Carter offers a personal consideration of moral values as they relate to the important issues of the day. He puts forward a passionate defense of separation of church and state, and a strong warning of where the country is heading as the lines between politics and rigid religious fundamentalism are blurred. . . . he describes his own involvement and reactions to some disturbing societal trends that have taken place during the last few years.
· Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (Owl Books, 2005 paperback; original hardcover edition, Metropolitan Books, 2004). Chalmers Johnson is a legendary scholar. --William Greider. Publishers Weekly: In his prescient 2000 bestseller, Blowback, East Asia scholar Johnson predicted dire consequences for a U.S. foreign policy that had run roughshod over Asia. Now he joins a chorus of Bush critics in this provocative, detailed tour of what he sees as America's entrenched culture of militarism, its private army of special forces and its worldwide archipelago of military colonies. . . . Fans of Blowback will be pleased despite Johnson's lack of remedies other than a revolution in which the people could retake control of Congress . . . and cut off the supply of money to the Pentagon.
· Anatol Lieven, America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism (Oxford University Press paperback, 2005; orig. ed. 2004). Remarkably thought-provoking. --Brian Urquhart. From the back cover: In this controversial analysis of the American tradition, Anatol Lieven contends that U.S. foreign policy has been shaped by the special character of our nationalism. This is a split between an optimistic, even messianic civic nationalism based on American Creed, and a resentful chauvinism derived from old traditions of racial, religious, and class anxiety within America. . . . It has never been more vital that Americans understand our complex national character.
· Cornel West, Democracy Matters (Penguin paperback, 2005; orig. ed. 2004). West is the preeminent African-American intellectual of our generation --Henry Louis Gates Jr. From the dust jacket: Democracy Matters is Cornel Wests bold and hard-hitting critique of the troubling deterioration of democracy in America in this threatening post-9/11 age -- and a powerful and inspiring call for the revitalization of the deep democratic tradition of this country, which has waged war on the forces of imperialist corruption throughout our history. Americans must take back our democracy, and in this brilliant and moving call to arms, Cornel West shows the way. Praised by the New York Times for his ferocious moral vision, West, in this sequel to his major bestseller and contemporary classic Race Matters, returns to the analysis of what he calls the arrested development of democracy with a masterful diagnosis.
· Thomas Frank, Whats the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (Owl Books paperback, 2005; original hardcover edition, Metropolitan Books 2004). The best political book of the year. --Nicholas Kristof, New York Times (November 3, 2004). Amazon.com review by John Moe: According to Frank, the conservative establishment has tricked Kansans, playing up the emotional touchstones of conservatism and perpetuating a sense of a vast liberal empire out to crush traditional values while barely ever discussing the Republicans actual economic policies and what they mean to the working class. . . . Frank, a native Kansan, separates reality from myth in What's the Matter with Kansas and tells the state's socio-political history from its early days as a hotbed of leftist activism to a state so entrenched in conservatism that the only political division remaining is between the moderate and more-extreme right wings of the same party. Frank, the founding editor of The Baffler and a contributor to Harper's and The Nation, knows the state and its people. He even includes his own history as a young conservative idealist turned disenchanted college Republican, and his first-hand experience, combined with a sharp wit and thorough reasoning, makes his book more credible than the elites of either the left and right who claim to understand Kansas.
MEETING SCHEDULE -- Mondays from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on February 27 & March 6, 13, & 27, 2006, at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.
Books are available for borrowing or purchase; there is no charge for participation (but a purchase from the Mandolin Café is graciously expected). Contact Mark Jensen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 253-756-7519.
United for Peace of Pierce County meets at 7:00 p.m. on 1st and 3rd Thursdays at First United Methodist Church, 423 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma, WA
Digging Deeper, UFPPCs book discussion series, has been meeting weekly since July 2004. We have considered these books bearing on matters related to UFPPCs mission statement: "We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy": Kevin Phillips, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush (Viking, 2004); Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties (Scribner, 2004); Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (Simon and Schuster, 2004); Evan Wright, Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America, and the New Face of American War (Putnam, 2004); Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies (Free Press, 2004); David Ray Griffin, The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11 (Interlink, 2004); James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet (Viking, 2004); Dana Priest, The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military (Norton, 2003); Chalmers Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (Metropolitan Books, 2004); Joel Bakan, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (Free Press, 2004); Catherine Lutz, Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century (Beacon, 2001); Robert McChesney, The Problem of the Media: US Communication Politics in the Twenty-First Century (Monthly Review Press, 2004); Peter Dale Scott, Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Columbia, and Indochina (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003); Rahul Mahajan, Full Spectrum Dominance: US Power in Iraq and Beyond (Seven Stories Press, 2003); Anonymous [Michael Scheuer], Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror (Brassey's, 2004); Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power (Simon & Schuster, 1991); Michael T. Klare, Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum (Metropolitan Books, 2004); Ross Gelbspan, Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis -- and What We Can Do to Avert Disaster (Basic Books, 2004); Thom Hartmann, The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: Waking Up to Personal and Global Transformation (Three Rivers Press, 1999); Richard Heinberg, The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies (New Society, 2003); Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Hubberts Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage (Princeton UP, 2001); Amory Lovins et al., Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profit, Jobs, and Security (Rocky Mountain Institute, 2005); Mark Lynas, High Tide: The Truth about Our Climate Crisis (Picador, 2004); Brian M. Fagan, The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization (Basic Books, 2004); Patrick J. Michaels, Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by Scientists, Politicians, and the Media (Cato Institute, 2004); Richard B. Alley, The Two-Mile Time Machine: Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change, and Our Future (Princeton University Press, 2002); T.E. Graedel and Paul J. Crutzen, Atmospheric Change: An Earth System Perspective (W.H. Freeman, 1992); Spencer R. Weart, The Discovery of Global Warming (Harvard University Press, 2003); Douglas V. Hoyt & Kenneth H. Schatten, The Role of the Sun in Climate Change (Oxford University Press, 1997); Jim Wallis, God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005); Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Viking, 2004); Ted Nace, Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy (Berret-Koehler, 2001); P.W. Singer, Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry (Cornell University Press, 2003); Roland Marchand, Creating the Corporate Soul: The Rise of Public Relations and Corporate Imagery in American Big Business (University of California Press, 1998); Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (Back Bay Books, 2000); Elizabeth A. Fones-Wolf, The Selling of Free Enterprise: The Business Assault on Labor and Liberalism, 1945-1960 (University of Illinois Press, 1994); David C. Korten, When Corporations Rule the World, 2nd ed., (Berret-Koehler, 2001); Elliott D. Sclar and Richard C. Leone, You Dont Always Get What You Pay For: The Economics of Privatization (Cornell University Press, 2001); Ezra N. Suleiman, Dismantling Democratic States (Princeton University Press, 2003); Naomi Klein, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies (Picador, 2002; orig. ed. 1999); John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Berrett-Koehler, 2004); Kevin Phillips, Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich (Broadway Books, 2002); Paul Roberts, The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World (Houghton Mifflin, 2004); Arundhati Roy, An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire (South End Press, 2004); Lester R. Brown, Outgrowing the Earth: The Food Security Challenge in an Age of Falling Water Tables and Rising Temperatures (W.W. Norton, 2005); Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 2005); Ron Hira & Anil Hira, Outsourcing America: What's Behind Our National Crisis And How We Can Reclaim American Jobs (AMOCOM, 2005); Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 (University of Chicago Press, 2003); Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America in the Age of Genocide (Basic Books, 2002; paperback edition by Perennial, 2005); Geraldine Brooks, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (Anchor, 1995); Kalle Lasn, Culture Jam: How to Reverse Americas Suicidal Consumer Binge -- And Why We Must (Perennial, 2000); Derrick Jensen, The Culture of Make Believe (Chelsea Green, 2004; orig. ed. 2002); Emma Larkin, Finding George Orwell in Burma (Penguin, 2005); Robert Pape, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Random House, 2005); Matthew R. Simmons, Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy (Wiley, 2005); Andrew Gumbel, Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America; George Lakoff, Dont Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate The Essential Guide for Progressives (Chelsea Green, 2004; orig. ed. 2002); V.S. Ramachandran, A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers (Pi Press, 2004); William Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, revised ed. (Pluto Press, 2004); Chris Hedges, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (Anchor, 2002); Chris Hedges, Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America (Free Press, 2005); Richard Bulliet, The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization (Columbia University Press, 2004); Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong: The Clash between Islam and Modernity in the Middle East (Harper Perennial, orig. ed. 2001); George Packer, The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005); Edward Said, Orientalism (Vintage, 1979); Robert Fisk, The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East (Knopf, 2005).