1.
SEPTEMBER 2009 READING SCHEDULE
United for Peace of Pierce County (WA)
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.
Since July 2004, United for Peace of Pierce County has been conducting “Digging Deeper,” a Monday-evening book discussion group, often in the form of a study circle. Topics have included peak oil, climate change, the corporation, torture, Iran, U.S.-Iran relations, the writings of Robert Baer, Islam, American immigration policy, Barack Obama and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., Saul Alinsky’s life and writings, war and human nature, parallels between the U.S. and ancient Rome, the sustainability revolution, 9/11, energy geopolitics, the debt crisis, the 2000 and 2004 U.S. presidential elections, and the financial crisis, as well as abiding themes of war, peace, politics, 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; anyone interested is welcome. Try King's Books (218 St. Helens Ave., Tacoma) or other local bookstores for copies. More information: contact Mark Jensen (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) or see www.ufppc.org.
***
September 7, 2009: DIGGING DEEPER XCIV — Chris Hedges’s Empire of Illusion
—Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (Nation Books, 2009). “Hedges exposes the mechanisms used to divert us from confronting the economic, political, and moral collapse around us. He attacks the absurd idea that we can always draw on inner resources and strengths to have everything we desire. . . . The cultural embrace of illusion . . . [has] accompanied a casino capitalism . . . Corporations, behind the smoke screen, have ruthlessly dismantled and destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class. The free market became our god and government was taken hostage by corporations, the same corporations that entice us daily with illusions through the mass media, the entertainment industry, and popular culture.” —Book description. .
***
September 14, 2009: DIGGING DEEPER XCV – The global criminal underground
—Misha Glenny, McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underground (Knopf, 2008; paperback 2009). "Former BBC World correspondent Glenny (The Balkans, 1804–1999) presents a riveting and chilling journey through the myriad criminal syndicates flourishing in our increasingly globalized world, which make up as much as 20% of global GNP. . . . expertly combines interviews with key players, economic studies and sociological analysis." —Publishers Weekly.
***
September 21, 2009: DIGGING DEEPER XCVI – Jeff Sharlet’s The Family
—Jeff Sharlet, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power (HarperCollins 2008; paperback 2009). “Sharlet’s discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the cold war, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not ‘What do fundamentalists want?’ but ‘What have they already done?’ Part history, part investigative journalism.” —Book description.
***
September 28, 2009: DIGGING DEEPER XCVII – A history of Obama’s presidential campaign
—Richard Wolffe, Renegade: The Making of a President (Crown, 2009). “This book is the previously untold and epic story of how a political newcomer with no money and an alien name grew into the world’s most powerful leader. But it is also a uniquely intimate portrait of the person behind the iconic posters and the Secret Service Code name Renegade. Drawing on a dozen unplugged interviews with the candidate and president, as well as twenty-one months covering his campaign as it traveled coast to coast, Richard Wolffe answers the simple yet enduring question about Barack Obama: Who is he?” —Book description.