APRIL 2011 READING SCHEDULE
DIGGING DEEPER meets every Monday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Mandolin Café, 3923 S. 12th St., Tacoma, WA.[1] ...
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April 4 & 11, 2011: DIGGING DEEPER CLV: Recent trends in American society
Rich Benjamin, Searching for Whitopia (Hyperion, 2009). — "As immigrant populations—largely people of color—increase in cities and suburbs, more and more whites are moving to small towns and exurban areas that are predominantly, even extremely white. . . . Rich Benjamin's journey to unlock the mysteries of Whitopias took him from a three-day white separatist retreat with links to Aryan Nations in North Idaho to the inner sanctum of Georg W. Bush's White House—and many points in between, and he lived in three of them (in Georgia, Idaho, and Utah) for several months apiece." —Book description.
Theodore Roszak, The Making of an Elder Culture: Reflections on the Future of America's Most Audacious Generation (New Society Publishers, 2009). — "In 1969, Theodore Roszak took his first look at the Boomer Generation with his award-winning social commentary, The Making of a Counter Culture. Forty years later, he has written a call to arms for the same genaration: The Making of an Elder Cluture. He reminds boomers that they will spend more time being old than they ever spent being young—and suggests ways in which they can uniquely transform society, picking up on the ideals they formed in the 60s. . . . Part demographic study, part history; part critique and part appeal, Roszak's take on the imminent transformation of our world is as wise as it is inspired." —Book description.
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April 18, 2011: DIGGING DEEPER CLVI: The fundamentalist threat to American democracy
Jeff Sharlet, C Street: The Fundamentalist Threat to American Democracy (PublicAffairs, 2011). — "C Street includes everything a riveting tale about a controversial national movement should—scandal, affairs, conspiracies, death, and, of course, secrecy. Sharlet's story of American fundamentalism begins in a historical mansion on Washington DC's C Street, diverts to Argentina, takes root in Uganda, and ends at a street protest in Manhattan. The second in an unofficial series (after The Family) about a religious cabal of politicians from both major parties, Sharlet brings a wealth of research to reveal the startling mindset of a movement few even know exists." —Publishers Weekly.
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April 25, 2011: DIGGING DEEPER CLVII: Cyber war
Richard A. Clarke and Robert Knake, Cyber War: The Next Threat to National Security and What to Do About It (Ecco, 2010). — "Cyber war refers to hostile attempts by one nation to penetrate another’s computers or networks. . . . Cyber warriors often use programs to crash Web sites and computers to cover other, more aggressive actions in the real world. In this chilling and eye-opening book, Clarke and Knake provide a highly detailed yet accessible look at how cyber warfare is being waged and the need to rethink our national security to face this new threat." —Vanessa Bush, Booklist.
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Since July 2004, United for Peace of Pierce County’s “Digging Deeper,” a Monday-evening book discussion group, has examined more than 335 books. (Summaries of most of them have been posted online on the website Scribd.) Topics discussed have included the Iraq war, Peak Oil, climate change, torture, the corporation, Islam, Iran, U.S.-Iran relations, Barack Obama and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., the writings of Robert Baer, parallels between the U.S. and ancient Rome, Israel/Palestine, sustainability, war and human nature, the nature of money, September 11, energy geopolitics, the debt crisis, American immigration policy, the 2000, 2004, and 2008 presidential elections, financial crisis, the politics of assassination, and Saul Alinsky’s life and writings, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, and social change. Occasionally the group has spent several weeks reading longer works, like Daniel Yergin’s The Prize or Robert Fisk’s The Great War for Civilisation — Participation is free and open; anyone interested is welcome. Try King’s Books (218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma) or other local bookstores for copies of books. More information: contact Mark Jensen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or see www.ufppc.org.