Cato Loves Bill

The Cato Institute recently named Bill Richardson the best Democratic governor and he is tied for 6th overall in the fiscal policy report card. This is an excellent reason why Richardson cannot be the Democratic candidate in 2008. He is worse on taxes, social spending, and other key progressive issues than 16 Republican governors. This includes Jeb Bush. In other words, we would be getting a more progressive politician when it comes to these issues in Jeb Freaking Bush than in Bill Richardson. All you ever hear out of Richardson is tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. All we need to say in 2008 is someone else, someone else, someone else.

Trip to Mexico--Day 1, Santa Fe to Tucson

With great excitement me, my wife, and three friends left for Mexico early in the morning. There's not a great deal to say about the beginning of such a driving trip. I-25 through New Mexico does not hold secrets of great interest. There are certainly more boring drives than I-25 through the northern part of the state but south of Albuquerque is a fairly grim drive. Nonetheless, the thrill of the upcoming 10 days got us through this portion of the trip with flying colors. I imagine the road would be far less tolerable if, say, God hated your soul so much to force you into a regular Socorro-Truth or Consequences commute.

It's funny how a trip can change your outlook on life. I am a very political person as any reader of this blog knows. But as soon as I hit the road, my interest in such subjects abates quickly. It's not as if I become actively disinterested in the rest of the world. But the sights, sounds, and smells that you experience simply overwhelm average worldly concerns. Even when traveling amongst the poorest of the poor, which did not happen in Mexico, I feel a great sympathy for their plight and a need to help them improve their lot, but it's not depressing because one realizes that even among those who do not have great economic fortune, there is a great deal of life and a great deal to learn from them. Even baseball fades from my desire. Driving through Tucson that afternoon I saw some baseball fields and felt a certain longing to go to Spring Training. But it faded real fast.

As I mentioned the drive through southern New Mexico is pretty boring. One odd thing though. We took a shortcut from Hatch to Deming in southern NM. That road was nearly choked with cars with Midwestern license plates. Were they snowbirds returning to Iowa and South Dakota early? Was there a mass migration to Deming? God knows they could not have come to visit that area of New Mexico as there is approximately nothing to see on that highway.

Part of the reason for the relative disinterest in the drive is the monotony of the Chihuahuan Desert, which starts just south of Albuquerque and continues for several hundred miles into Mexico. It's just not a particularly biological diverse place. Even the cactus there is pretty uninteresting. This continues all the way into eastern Arizona. But wow! when you hit the Sonoran Desert you know it. The most striking sign is the beautiful Saguaro cactus. But prickly pear fields dominate the ground in a way that they don't in the Chihuahuan Desert. There seem to be more kinds of grass and other plants as well. It's simply beautiful and unique. The place is alive with interesting plant life. Why there is such a significant difference in the two deserts I do not know. They have fairly similar human histories, at least since whites came to the area. Both have been changed a great deal by intensive cattle grazing. If anything, Arizona's deserts have suffered greater damage from humans because of the enormous population growth in the area. And both the Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts in Mexico have also been subjected to cattle. I guess the Sonoran Desert is just one of the Earth's unique ecosystems. It's certainly the most stunning desert I have ever visited. Maybe it is the most beautiful on Earth.

That stunning beauty is preserved nicely in Saguaro National Park, just outside of Tucson. I won't go into the park in great detail--more Saguaro, more of the other beautiful flowers and cactus that dominate southern Arizona. But the park is in some peril due to its proximity to expanding Tucson. On the road we took the park, new and expensive houses dominated the landscape more than the Saguaros. The Saguaros are thick enough that there is no way that several do not get taken out for each trophy home that goes up. I don't know what's more damaging to this unique species, the homes or the rednecks who use them for target practice. Either way, it is not a species on a road to long-term health in the United States. No question that it will remain in large numbers within the park but to create isolated populations is certainly not a positive development.

That evening we went to a Mexican restaurant in Tucson. There were some kids playing around with walkie-talkies just outside of the restaurant. As it happened, we traveled in two trucks and brought some 2-way radios to communicate between the autos. One of our companions brought his radio in and began to mess with the kids a little bit. This greatly amused their parents who told them things that would scare the kids. This was all highly entertaining as the kids were a little freaked out. Then it got a little weird. My friend began talking to them in Spanish some. This completely confused the kids. The oldest, who was probably 7 or 8, came up to him and said (probably a slight paraphrase), "This is America. We speak English here." This in a Mexican restaurant in southern Arizona. As you can imagine that caught us a bit offguard. At that age, you only learn those kind of things from parents. It was a little depressing and sad. But then again, I guess this gave us a little insight into the kind of people who actually vote for Jon Kyl.

The New Republic and Creative Music

Rare is the day that I complement The New Republic for their political coverage. After all, they employ Gregg Easterbrook. But their arts coverage is probably second to none among the major literary and political magazines. Stanley Kauffmann is my favorite living film critic and I have read him faithfully for over 10 years. Now they are the first major magazine in a long time where I have seen an article on the creative music/avant-garde jazz scene. By this I mean articles far far away from the ass-kissing the New York Times does for Wynton Marsalis and others who wish to turn jazz into classical music. Rather, musicians in this scene, or really overlapping but distinct scenes, are taking the lessons of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, and others and are creating new and interesting music that virtually no one listens to. These artists are as diverse as William Parker, Bill Frisell, Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Charles Gayle, Guy Klucesvek, and Medeski, Martin, and Wood (of course people do listen to them and this is somewhat amazing).

If any of this interests you, read the New Republic's article on the Ellery Eskelin trio. I saw this group play back in 1997 or 1998. They use the somewhat less than classic trio of sax, drums, and accordion/electronics. I don't know that they are my favorite group necessarily but they are quite good and by God, it's great that any of these creative artists receive any kind of national coverage.

Selma Anniversary

Today is the 40 year anniversary of the march over the bridge in Selma that was violently suppressed by Alabama cops and which played no small role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act.

This occasion has a bit of bittersweet for me though. Obviously the gains made by the Civil Rights movement were titanic and it's unquestionably the greatest social movement in American history. But with the old leaders of the movement passed on or aging and the slow rollback of the real gains of the movement, I wonder what will happen over the next 20 years. Last I heard, the Bush administration did not support the renewal of the Voting Rights Act which expires this year, claiming perversely, though normally for these "people", that it is racist against blacks.

I am reminded of a preacher I once knew who had been a leader in the movement in Macon, Georgia. Macon wasn't a hotbed of the movement but in some ways is more typical of the small local movements that fed the larger movement. I knew him about 6 years ago. He was probably close to 75 at that time. He was concerned about the future of the movement. He told me that if the need to protest began again, he was just too tired and old to lead again. So who will lead when that time is necessary?

Back from Mexico

Back from my Mexico trip and blogging hiatus. I'll be sending out a post each day for the 10 days I was gone. I was going to start today but I want to include a few pictures and they haven't been uploaded yet. Please notice the passive voice which I use because I don't know how to do that so I have to wait until my wife has time to do it for me. I use it to save myself from embarassment that I obviously don't care about.

Anyway, suffice to say for now that Mexico was great. I guess I've never travelled somewhere and not had a good time. And I don't know if Mexico was better than the other places I've been. But that's because they've all been wonderful and Mexico is certainly no exception. Interesting experience driving down there too.

In any case, pictures or no I'll start my Mexico posts tomorrow.

Ward Churchill

Ward Churchill may have said something incredibly stupid. He may be a blowhard. He may not even be an Indian. But nonetheless, it is of the utmost importance that academics and the rest of the progressive community defend his right of free speech protected, not under the Constitution, but under tenure. The right has taken over nearly every center of power in this country--the courts, the federal and state governments, school boards, churches, public schools, private schools, the media, etc. The university is one of the last bastions of liberal thought left. So far, academics have proven less than strident at defending this last piece of turf. A few years ago, when the research of historian Michael Bellsiles, who wrote a book challenging the Right's cherished view of the origin of the Second Amendment, came under question, the American Historical Association gave him up to the Right like a sacrificial lamb. In the same vein, they have not attacked conservative student campaigns to "expose the liberal bias" of faculty. This simply cannot continue to happen. We must fight for the right to say what we want to, when we want to, in the university setting. It's pretty much the only arena left in American life where we can effect change. To allow a cloud of McCarthyism to descend upon the university would be disastrous.

Mexico

I'm leaving for Mexico tomorrow for 10 days. Going to the Gulf of California, Copper Canyon, and Ciudad Chihuahua, which has the Museum of the Mexican Revolution including the car Villa was killed in. I imagine blogging will be limited if not nonexistent during this trip, though I may try to check my e-mail a time or two and I'll try to throw something together real quick.

Viva Nuevo Mexico (VI)

A story courtesy of my friend and sometime commenter to this blog, Elmer Alcon. In Ojo Caliente recently (about an hour north of Santa Fe), a 28 year old man who worked for the school district (perhaps a bus driver) and a 16 year old girl were found out having a relationship. While in most communities this is seen as statutory rape and just a disturbing act, not so in Ojo Caliente. The relationship, publicly known throughout the community, split the town as a large percentage of the residents found it perfectly appropriate for a 16 year old girl to have consensual relations with a 28 year old man.

Viva Nuevo Mexico (V)

A few weeks ago a strange creature was found on Albuquerque's West Mesa. It was truly strange and no one was sure at first what it was. I believe it turned out to be some sort of sea creature that someone had brought back to New Mexico. Anyway, it was taken to the New Mexico Wildlife Department offices in Albuquerque. A TV crew was called in and people who wandered into the office for various reasons were interviewed about it.

The common prediction as to what it was: Chupacabra. When the reporter asked if Chupacabras were real, one response was, "Yeah. I've seen it eat my chickens and goats."

Britain and Ohio

Perhaps you remember the British campaign before the election to influence Ohio voters. The Guardian, one of Britain's leading newspapers spearheaded a campaign to have British citizens send letters to Ohio voters to convince them to vote for Kerry. At the time, the media reported on this campaign quite negatively. The spin was that Americans don't like other countries interfering in our business and that this would probably effect the Democrats negatively. I guess I maybe believed that too. As it turns out though, Clark County, Ohio, where the British targeted voters, was the only county in Ohio that voted for Bush in 2000 to vote for Kerry in 2004. This according to the February issue of Harper's.

So I guess it worked. The lesson for me isn't so much that in 2008 citizens of the world should flood the US with letters convincing us to vote Democrat, not that I would oppose that. Rather, it's to be doubly aware of falling for right-wing claptrap through the media. We are bombarded with that so often, even the most vigilant can fall for it every now and then.

New England Patriots and Israel

A quote from Patriots owner Robert Kraft:

"You get three out of four Super Bowls by subjugating the ego for the good of the whole. In Israel, this is in the fabric of the country, to create a democracy that thrives against the odds."

So if the Patriots are Israel, does that make the Colts Palestinians?

And to take this metaphor farther than good taste recommends, does that then make the Broncos suicide bomb victims?

Summers' Supporters

By now, I'm sure all of my readers have heard about the idiotic comments made by Harvard president and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers about the possibility that it is genetics that keep women from succeeding in science. Absolutely stupid. Lots of bloggers have commented at length on this. What is amazing me is how many people have defended the plausibility of Summers' comments. Lots of people evidentially believe that genetics play a big role in the success of people at various tasks in life.

Would these people be defending Summers if he said blacks may not have the genetic makeup to succeed at math and science. Because there's not a lot of blacks in science in this country. I ask this both to point out the obvious lack of mental integrity of Summers and his supporters as well as to say that these kinds of comments are on par with eugenics and scientific racism. Amazing that these observations are always made by white males who do succeed in their chosen professions. It must be because of our superior genetic makeup/racial background/catch phrase of the era.

Where the Rubber Meets the Road

We progressives talk all the time about the problems of the world. As I've pointed out before, we don't spend enough time talking about how to solve them. The old socialist paradigm isn't really functional anymore. The fall of the Soviet Union, flawed as it so obviously was, at least gave us some kind of alternative to capitalism. That's gone and dead now and probably that's a good thing. But we need something else. And we need to start thinking about it now.

Here's a good example. Read this New York Times article on the struggles Latin American nations are having. In the 80s and 90s, many of these countries embraced privatization as the future. But privatization did not fit societies that were struggling with poverty and who believed that things like water should be human rights and not something to make a profit on. So over the last few years, many of these nations, particularly Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina, but also Bolivia, Uruguay, and to a lesser extent Chile have rejected privatization. But now that they've done it, they are really struggling economically. Investment has fallen at a rapid rate and economic problems rack the region.

They've rejected privatization but there's no real alternative for them to turn to. We as progressives around the world, need to start thinking beyond Marxism-Leninism and way beyond postmodernism about what these nations are supposed to do. What is the alternative to global capitalism? What is Bolivia supposed to do? What role should governments play in economic systems? Should the left-leaning South American nations form a European style federation to pool their limited economic resources?

I don't know what the answers are. But this my friends is where the rubber meets the road. We can bitch about how bad capitalism, Bush, the war, globalization, etc. is all we want to. But we need to come up with legitimate alternatives if we really want to change the world. And now's the time to start.

Viva Nuevo Mexico (IV)

New Mexico has a problem with car insurance. The problem is that like 1/3 of the drivers don't own any. How do they get away with this? Being New Mexico, we don't have a tracking system with a computer that would allow a cop to check this. So what people do is go to shady dealers to get a new temporary plate every month or so. It's easy to do because this is just a piece of paper that anyone could copy who has a decent scanner and it's cheaper than actually buying car insurance. What this ends up meaning is that the state has some of the nation's highest car insurance rates because so many drivers don't have it. You can always tell who they are because how many 1977 El Caminos really need temp tags?

So I'm thinking it was an insurance evader I saw today when the car in front of me in Santa Fe was about 20 years old and had temporary tags that expired on February 29, 2005.

Stick It, Froggie

In what passes for an intelligent op-ed piece in the New York Times these days, journalist Jessica Seigel tells Frenchie where to stick it. Rebuking the book French Women Don't Get Fat, she points out that this may be true, but they do smoke!!! You bastards!!! First you fall on your knees in front on the Nazis and now you dare say that we Americans shouldn't eat a pound of Cheetos a day. How dare you!!!

I'd like some freedom fries with my double quarter-pounder please.

Michael Fucking McDonald

I have no idea why Michael McDonald has made such a big comeback. What the fuck is the interest in this guy? I don't really care I guess, or at least I didn't until I turned the TV to Austin City Limits last night and he was on there. Yes, that's right Austin City Limits had the cheeseball singer from the fucking Doobie Brothers on. That's how far that show has fallen. Michael Fucking McDonald. I didn't keep it on long enough to see if we would be so fucking privileged to hear China Grove.

Could ACL fall any farther? I think I've said before on this blog that I'm saddened a bit that it's chosen to play a lot of rock acts at the expense of the Texas musicians that they did so much to promote from the 70s through the 90s. But at least The Shins and The Flaming Lips are acts with integrity. I don't mind seeing them on the show. But Michael fucking McDonald? Why the fuck would you schedule this guy for Austin City Limits? It's an insult to Townes Van Zandt, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Taylor, Guy Clark, Fats Domino, Tom Waits, Alejandro Escovedo, Richard Thompson, Del McCoury, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Joe Ely, Roger Miller, Marty Robbins, Larry Sparks, Flaco Jimenez, Willie Nelson, Leonard Cohen, Steve Forbert, Emmylou Harris, Kevin Welch, Danny Gatton, Texas Tornadoes, Kelly Willis, Carl Perkins, Waylon Jennings, Buck Owens, Rodney Crowell, Loudon Wainwright III, The Whites, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Stephen Fromholz, Neil Young, Tammy Wynette, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eliza Gilkyson, Roy Orbison, John Prine, Kris Kristofferson, David Olney, Bill Monroe, Charley Pride, Gatemouth Brown, Jerry Jeff Walker, Elizabeth Cotten, Lightning Hopkins, Doc Watson, John Hartford, Earl Scruggs, Willis Alan Ramsey, Dave Alvin, Gillian Welch, Ralph Stanley, Ernest Tubb, Lyle Lovett, Hank Thompson, Los Lobos, Butch Hancock, and the hundreds of other artists who have graced that stage.

If there's any justice in this world, Austin City Limits will personally apologize to these artists for placing Michael fucking McDonald where they once stood. And if the artists have passed on, they'll apologize to their next of kin.

Bacon

In less than a week I am going to Mexico for about 9 days. It's not easy to remain a vegetarian when traveling outside of the US. People don't understand why you don't eat meat and options are limited. It's rude to turn down meat when a poor family offers it to you since it's a honor to eat it. In any case, options are limited. So I've been preparing myself to eat meat, something which happens very rarely.

Last night my wife and I were shopping and we were hungry and didn't want to cook so we stopped at the Denny's on the way home. I chose this because I can get a veggie burger there that's not too bad. My wife likes breakfast food so it's all good. But she makes the mistake of trying to order a meat-filled dish without the meat. The waiter spoke less than perfect English and so didn't really understand what she was trying to say, which in New Mexico is always an issue when dealing with any aspect of service industries. So what ends up happening is that the ham in the dish is replaced with bacon and sausage.

Knowing that we will certainly have to eat meat to some extent in Mexico--and on the Sea of Cortez I can't justify not eating a fish taco or two--we decide to eat a bit of it that was in the dish. I tried a piece of sausage, which I found fairly disgusting. I then tried a bit of bacon.

I don't get it. I know a lot of people who find bacon a sublime food. I didn't remember thinking all that much of it when I ate meat. I thought that might have been because good food was unknown in my household growing up and so I hadn't been exposed to good bacon. Now I'm not saying that Denny's bacon is great, but I can't imagine that the greatest bacon would be that good. I just don't get it. It's this crunchy thing that kind of falls apart in your mouth and leaves something of an aftertaste.

So what's the deal with bacon? Can anyone explain to me why people like it so much? Because I am at a complete loss.

Korea and Reunification

I follow stories about Korea fairly closely, mostly because I lived there for a year in the 1990s. Of course Korea's been in the news a lot lately because of North Korea admitting they have a nuclear program. I won't discuss that right now. But what I will talk about is the issue of South Korea and reunification. Over the last few months, the Asia Times has published several stories about this issue. If you don't read Asia Times, I suggest it highly. They often have very interesting stories that are not always related to Asia.

South Korea has some interesting issues to work out concerning the eventuality of reunification with the North. For one thing, they have some constraints that they don't always like. For instance, Korean culture considers all people with the same last name related. As there are literally millions of people with the last name of "Kim", you have very large families on both sides of the border. Even without the last name issues, like any civil war the Korean War split many families apart. Second, the Korean constitution guarantees citizenship to any North Korean who gets to the South because the South claims they are the rulers of all Korea. For a long time this wasn't much a problem because so few North Koreans got to the South. But as the North sinks deeper and deeper into desperation, more North Koreans are trying to get to the South, via China.

The problem stems from the fact that the South Koreans don't actually want North Koreans in their country. These are not people who are real big on social welfare and they have to do a lot to help North Koreans adjust to the South, a task that is extremely difficult. Recently, they cut the subsidies to defectors but considering what North Koreans are used to, poverty in the South is probably still going to look pretty good to them. South Koreans considered their northern brethren second class citizens and do not treat them well when they meet. Honestly, I am having some trouble wrapping my head around this one. I'm not sure if this status is based on poverty or perhaps the fact that they think the northerners should be working to overthrow that government. I suspect that North Koreans remind South Koreans of the poverty that they so recently (20 years at the most for most people) escaped. They don't want to be reminded of their peasant past. So they resent the North for this. Strictly a theory, but one that may have some truth in it.

When I was there, the big concern South Koreans had about reunification was the effect it would have on their economy. They watched what happened to the German economy after the West and East reunified and they did not want that to happen to them. This is probably pretty smart because they were quite aware that their economy could not match Germany and thus in becoming responsible for an indigent North, the whole peninsula could collapse. But it also seems awfully coldhearted.

Meanwhile the one silver lining to the 52 years since the war continues--that of the DMZ being a nature preserve that is protecting the last habitat on the peninsula for several species, including some large cranes. Both Koreas are among the worst nations in the world in environmental policy. Once the DMZ goes, who knows what will happen to these species. There are South Korean developers who want to turn it into a series of golf courses, presumably once all the mines are cleaned out. Or maybe not since it would certainly make for some interesting playing. South Koreans love hiking and nature, even as they destroy it (once of the paradoxes of Buddhist nations I have found) so there might be significant sentiment for turning a lot of it into national parks. What I fear though is that whenever the North collapses, thousands upon thousands of starving and desperate North Korean refugees will flood the DMZ in search of food and shelter and wipe out the remaining animals.

God Bless California

You have to love California. Here's a story from Mendocino County about an effort to get the county's marijuana users certified organic. May favorite quote from the story:

``We regulate wine grape growers and pear growers and everybody else, so why shouldn't we also regulate pot growers?'' said Tony Linegar, assistant agricultural commissioner for Mendocino County. ``It's really an agricultural crop. In our estimate, it should be subject to a lot of the same laws and regulations as commercial agriculture.''

The Left and Historical Knowledge

One of my frustrations for a very long time is the lack of historical knowledge on the left. Those who have gone on for advanced degrees have avoided this problem generally, but for the most part the majority of progressives I have known have a scary lack of historical knowledge. The reason this is scary is that we try so often to couch our arguments in historical terms, even if they are as vague as "blacks have always been oppressed in this country" or "I don't want to go back to the days of coathanger abortions." At best, many progressives have only read Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States. That's a fine book in it's own way. Just one problem--it's not very good history at this point. It's extremely dated for one thing. Even though it's updated, almost all of the scholarship Zinn based his history on is well over 30 years old and the updates are really just discussions of his thoughts on recent administrations and major events. In addition, it's a very simplistic book that offers simplistic explanations for the inequalities of the American past.

What is particularly frustrating is the argument you always hear from people who have read the book who say, "This is history they don't teach in school." That is just patently untrue. Maybe into the 1970s you didn't hear a lot about gender, race, and class in the classroom but that's just not true today. If I had to guess, I would say that 80% of professors under the age of 50 are teaching history from a left of center perspective with a great deal of emphasis on traditionally oppressed peoples, power structures in America, etc. And probably 60% of professors over the age of 50 are doing the same thing. A lot of high school teachers are too.

So yes, this history is being taught. Problem is, most people are probably too hung over from going out the night before or too busy textmessaging in class to pay attention.

The reason I am so concerned about this lack of knowledge is that we need to use history to bolster our arguments. The right uses a form of history for their arguments that has little or no basis in scholarship and a lot of basis in falsehood and mythology invented for their points. But it seems effective. We need to know more about environmental destruction, the ways capitalism works, what the framers of the Constitution wanted to do and how and why the Constitution has changed over time, and the ways that women and racial minorities have been oppressed in America and how they have fought back in order for us to fight back today against forces that aim to oppress us.

Zinn's a fine start I guess for people on the left interested in American history but it's only a start and people need to follow up with a lot of additional readings. To some extent this is me as a historian talking, but I think it's also an important point outside of that. Progressives simply must get a better grasp on history in order to bolster their points. In this spirit, let me suggest 12 books that I find particularly excellent and that I would suggest for anyone looking to expand their historical knowledge of America.

1. Walter LaFeber, Inevitable Revolutions: The United States in Central America. I think we all know that America has screwed over Latin America. People might read some kind of biography of Che to get their knowledge about this. No doubt there is knowledge to be gained there. But if you want to know the shit, this is where you find it.

2. Gordon Wood, American Slavery, American Freedom: The Ordeal of Colonial Virginia. Something of a classic work in American history. Did you ever wonder why slavery started? This book gives a provocative opinion as to that process and it doesn't have a whole lot to do with racism. Read it to find out why not. You may also find it interesting to know about forced labor of whites in early America.

3. George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940. I can't say enough for how cool this book is. Among the things you'll find out is how the meanings of gay sex and being homosexual have changed over time and a little about what it was like to be gay 100 years ago.

4. Donald Worster, Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West. Worster thinks hard about water use in the arid West and places it in a global perspective. People have tried to disagree with his analysis, but it's damned hard to come up with a convincing counterargument. A key book for understanding America's overuse of resources and destruction of ecosystems in order to have cheap lettuce in February.

5. Jefferson Cowie, Capital Moves: RCA's Seventy-Year Quest for Cheap Labor. If you think the phenomenon of companies moving around the world and screwing people over for joining unions is a new thing, guess again. A devastating critique of one powerful company's frequent moves to cut labor costs. Very important for understanding the background of globalization.

6. Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815. What relevant thing can you learn from a book about a time so long ago? A hell of a lot. See how not all whites treated Native Americans the way the United States did. See how Indians worked not only in wartime, but in peace, to further their interests and how they did so successfully for over 100 years. A long book but a wonderful one.

7. Sara Evans, Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Liberation in the Civil Rights Movement and the New Left. Really borderline history as it came out in 1980 and was talking about the 60s and 70s. Nonetheless, it shows both how men in the social movements of the 60s were shockingly sexist but also how women constructed the feminist movement in the face of direct hostility from male activists.

8. Rickie Solinger, Wake Up Little Susie: Single Pregnancy and Race before Roe v. Wade. A really interesting book about how single pregnant women received very different treatment depending on their race. It also shows how this society has valued certain bodies more than others and how those values affect social policy.

9. Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit. An amazing work of history. A depressing story too as Sugrue explores how cities fell apart after WWII because of the racism of white residents of these cities and government indifference to racial harmony and keeping cities alive.

10. William Cronon, Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West. This is perhaps the best book of environmental history written as of this date. Cronon explores how the burgeoning capitalist system of America transformed how Americans viewed the products they consumed and how in order to keep up with these rates of consumption, radical intensive uses of the environment became necessary. This is only a very brief and perfunctory description of a complex and wonderful book that is a necessary read for understanding the history of capitalism and our historical use of the environment. Absolutely my favorite American history book.

11. William Leach, Land of Desire: Merchants, Power, and Rise of a New American Culture. A very provocative look at the rise of consumer capitalism in post-Civil War America as well as how advertising began to play an important role in American culture. Some criticize Leach for not giving people enough agency in resisting the bells and whistles of capitalist culture but it's hard for me to accept this as, well, how many people are truly immune to advertising?

12. Eric Foner, Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War. Many in the Republican party today claim that they are the true civil rights party because they freed the slaves. If you plan on countering this argument, an understanding of the ideology behind the early Republican party is a must and this is where you are going to get it.

This is only a short list. I notice I have almost nothing on slavery or civil rights and very little on pre-Civil War America. I may from time to time suggest a few books to fill this list out. In any case, reading a few of these books will take your mind to a level beyond a reading of Zinn will. It will also prepare you to argue against Republican ideas in a much more convincing and effective fashion.

I should finish my saying that I certainly have nothing against Howard Zinn. He is a good historian and has done more for the human race than most people ever will. He was a hero of the Civil Rights movement and People's History has taught a lot of people a lot of things that they didn't know before about America. The book is just very dated is all and I think we need to move on to newer books to teach us about American history. Incidentally, I had an interaction with Zinn once and he was very kind. I sent him an e-mail out of the blue inviting him to a labor conference I was helping to organize. He couldn't come but he sent a very nice e-mail back to me suggesting some other people to invite to speak, some of which did come. To say I was happy that he would even respond to me is a huge understatement.