Quote:
Originally Posted by PepsiFree
Figure this is as good a place to ask as any: I’m looking for recommendations of great (or at least, interesting) books covering social and political issues (and ideally, those that intertwine the two).
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I can recommend the
Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt. It's tailored to American politics, and Haidt has an overly tidy notion of liberals vs conservatives. But he's onto something when he identifies how sacred values govern so much of our social and political behaviour.
Top of my 'to read' list is
The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics by David Goodhart. I've only read the free Kindle chapter, but it looks good so far. It's mainly from a UK perspective, but it's observations about the growing gap between people who feel themselves citizens of the world and those deeply rooted to a place and a close community seem to apply to North American politics as well.
And I highly recommend
Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Rick Perlstein. It's a history of how Nixon changed American politics and set the table for the divisions we see today. It's also a fascinating portrait of American in the late 60s, the last time the country was so inflamed with social unrest and anger.