Greetings all. Long time reader, first time diarist. My politics have shifted around a bit over the years, from extremely liberal as a teenager in theocratic Utah to more moderate during my college years at a liberal Ivy (a bit of a contrarian, I guess), back to the left in the era of Bush. But the first political donation of my life went to Barack Obama on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, and I maxed out to him on the night of Sarah Palin's convention speech.
Now that I am engaged politically, I want to make sure I am also engaged intellectually. I can feel in my gut, in my heart, that Barack Obama will take this country in a better direction, and that John McCain will not. But I want to be able to discuss the issues that matter intelligently, not rely solely on instincts.
By my nature, I learn best through books. As much information as can be gained from blogs like this, I think the long form of a book retains a unique capacity to inform. I recently read Al Gore's The Assault on Reason, and am hoping to tap the collected wisdom of the Daily Kos community to point in the direction of more.
As an Army officer, I have been primed by the Army Chief of Staff to think in terms of "reading lists." I thought perhaps we could put together a sort of "liberal reading list."
Just reading DKos, I've seen dozens of people recommend Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine; David Sirota's The Uprising seems to be on a lot of people's bookshelves as well. And of course our host's recent Taking on the System.
What books would you recommend for someone trying to become intelligent about liberalism?