Guide To The First 10 Years

A NOTE ABOUT THE MIBYs:

            The MIBY listings are a vital reference for those aspiring to erudition.  It is the only listing of its kind on the internet.  Extensive research went into compiling the listings.  I personally learned a tremendous amount from the experience, and pray that others will benefit as I have.  The selections are the (provisional) result of a meticulous, on-going process of judicious assessment. 

The collection represents the most valuable publications for the general audience—each year.  The idea is that, by referring to the MIBYs, people will become better aware of what their time is best spent reading…whenever they decide they want to read something edifying.  Instead of doing the time-consuming legwork, much of the evaluation process has been done for them.  Not all of us have well-read friends, and therefore have no convenient way to ascertain what’s really good and what’s not.

            Our society currently exhibits many of its dysfunctions as a direct result of a horribly misinformed general populace.  Most people in this country know very little about important issues.  Many Americans have an abysmal understanding of the most crucial matters of our day.  This sad state of affairs is largely attributable to the fact that, instead of devoting time to reading important works, most of us occupy our leisure time with less productive activities.  (Instead of reading a MIBY, we’re too busy watching morning talk shows, daytime talk shows, Reality TV, and MSM…or we’re on Facebook.)

Of course, we all need a little fluff now and then.  The problem arises when fluff is ALL we ever read.  And that is precisely all that most people ever read.  Take a look around: When Americans DO opt to read “non-fiction”, we typically gravitate toward enticing propaganda, our favorite political pundit, our friend’s blog, alluring self-help pulp, vacuous commentary, scandal rags, tabloid papers, or provocative gossip magazines.  The more vacuous, the more scandalous, the more vapid, the better.  So long as it’s mindless and amusing, we’ll eat it up.  Why bother exerting cognitive effort when there are all these other convenient alternatives?

Plus: Who’s to say what, exactly, the really great books are, anyway?  I’ll stick with my friends’ recommendations, thank you very much.  All this suits a mentally lethargic, intellectually sclerotic audience splendidly.  We consume our media like we consume our food: tasty junk.  We’ve become a nation of thoroughly entertained idiots.  We need a jolt—and the MIBYs is just what the doctor ordered.  The MIBY listings are a desperately needed public service that few institutions have the motivation to provide.

            The need for the MIBYs arises from the simple fact that MSM has not—and most likely never will—provide such an important public service.  Commercial media, being in the business of maximizing profit, has no incentive to offer such a resource.  It has nothing to gain from doing so.  (After all, a mindless target audience is the easiest to cater to.  So why tamper with it?)  Maximizing edification is not the ideal way to maximize readership / traffic.

              People don’t want to be informed, they want to be amused.  In this culture, edification doesn’t sell.  So we spend our time with short-term gratifications while remaining stupendously ignorant—unconcerned with the things that matter most.  But things don’t have to stay that way.  Some of us only need a nudge—something that might point us in the right direction.

            MSM is corporate in nature, and thus has only one concern: generating as much revenue as possible.  MSM (including TV and radio programming, periodicals, and imprints) is hyper-commercialized in order to accommodate the hyper-consumerist culture in which we currently live.  Consequently, it will simply cater to the LCD—and thereby re-enforce it.  A vicious cycle ensues.

The implication here is straight-forward: MSM will do ANYTHING for ratings / book sales…and will therefore prostitute itself to ANYTHING that caters to the LCD—regardless of the material’s merit.  Social responsibility is not taken into account.  A media company benefits nothing from a better-informed citizenry.  Groupthink works so much better when a company is only concerned with peddling a product to as many people as possible.  Quantity over quality means more money.

And so it goes: Mass-market appeal, not merit, is the name of the game.  As a result of this logic, the popular fair is reduced to the most inane, irrelevant and insipid material the world has seen since the inauguration of the printing press.  Trash pulp sells like hotcakes—even as some of the greatest works of the decade pass unknown, collecting dust on a shelf in back of the store.

Meanwhile, there is a vested interest in keeping the hoi polloi ill-informed.  (After all, an un-informed rabble is an easily manipulated rabble.)  Preventing the hoi polloi from becoming too well-informed keeps them ripe for exploitation.

Let’s say you want to keep too many people from acquiring too much knowledge.  Let’s say you don’t want the rabble reading too many good books.  Of course, keeping information from them can’t be done overtly.  (Books can’t be banned, lest one draw attention to them.)  So what’s the alternative in a democracy—where at least the illusion of free speech must be maintained?  If you can’t ban the good books outright, you can simply engulf them in a mountain of trash pulp.  (In order to prevent people from becoming privy to key information, you can either censor key data…or you can drown the key data in an ocean of junk data.)  Welcome to the world of publication: One need only survey the local bookstore on the best-seller lists on Amazon to behold this vast ocean of junk.  Good luck finding the gems.

Moreover, one can introduce enticing diversions into the mix (so as to keep most people preoccupied with ”other” things).  A thoroughly distracted rabble is just as dupable as a rabble that is prevented from seeing things.  If fact, the ruse is all the more potent because it preserves the illusion of being fully informed.  An ocean of alluring distractions makes it very unlikely that any heed will be paid to the few gems.

The MIBYs are a resource that can counteract this debilitating effect.

The thoroughly-distracted rabble, we find, is none the wiser—blissfully ignorant—oblivious to their obliviousness…unless a light it shone on the gems…unless the key sources of knowledge are brought to their attention.  That is the aim of the MIBYs.

Meanwhile, what does MSM offer us?  Whatever SELLS.  It is no surprise, then, that celebrity charlatans rule the roost—whether in the form of mystical self-help balderdash or right-wing propaganda-mongers.  (If we took away all the charlatanry from the local bookstore, half the bookshelves would be bare…and the best-seller lists would go almost blank.)  Bookstores push what publishing houses PAY them to push.  Promotion is based exclusively on commercial viability.

            The goal of the MIBYs is to counteract this degenerate trend.  If enough people pay attention to the MIBYs, perhaps this sad state of affairs will change.  The MIBYs are a guide to the publications (each year) that are most worth our time and attention—books that are “must reads” for anyone seeking to become well informed.  The intent is to provide an important resource for those seeking an profound understanding of our world. 

This is a resource our society sorely needs—but heretofore hasn’t had. 

The hope is that doing this will remedy the egregious dysfunctions that currently afflict our culture.  Making people aware of what’s IMPORTANT to read is a start.  Getting people interested in reading worthwhile publications is the first step in altering the present state of our society.  People WANT to be “in the know”—they are often just woefully mislead.  It is possible to facilitate mass-edification.  There is no better way to do this than to point people in the right direction…and let them do the rest.

A GUIDE TO THE MIBYs:

This may serve as a syllabus for the autodidact who is aspiring to be well informed in a particular area.  The guide is organized—roughly—by topic. 

(This listing pertains only to books published during the first decade of the 21^st Century: 2001-2010.)

The 100 “Top 10” selections are listed first, in bold—in order of publication.

The 140 “Honorable Mentions” are in regular script—in order of publication.

Non-MIBYs (from 2000-2010) are listed last, in italics—in order of publication.  For the respective topics, these are important books as well.

If these had been the new books that people were talking about around the water cooler during the past decade, we’d now be living in a better-educated country.

General Political Commentary, Domestic Policy (25):

The Future of Freedom – Fareed Zakaria

The Truth About The Drug Companies –Angell Marcia

Generation Rx –Greg Crister

What’s the Matter With Kansas? –Thomas Frank

Active Liberty –Stephen Breyer

The Invisible Constitution –Laurence Tribe

How Judges Think –Richard Posner

Come Home, America –William Greider

The Healing of America –T.R. Reid

Unequal Protection (revised & expanded edition)

–Thom Hartmann

Ill Fares The Land –Tony Judt

Arguing Comparative Politics –Alfred Stepan

Secrets –Daniel Ellsberg

Saying What The Law Is –Charles Fried

Reason & Value: Themes From the Moral Philosophy of

Joseph Raz

American Dynasty –Kevin Phillips

Is Democracy Possible Here? –Ronald Dworkin

Modern Liberty –Charles Fried

Deadly Spin –Wendell Potter

Winner-Take-All Politics –Paul Pierson / Hacker

Making Our Democracy Work –Stephen Breyer

The Living Constitution –David Strauss

The Science of Liberty –Timothy Ferris

Griftopia –Matt Taibbi

The Empire Has New Clothes –Paul Street

Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, I.R., Global Issues (45):

The Trial of Henry Kissinger –Christopher Hitchens

Israel / Palestine –Tanya Reinhart

Understanding Power –Noam Chomsky

Perpetual War For Perpetual Peace –Gore Vidal

Hegemony or Survival –Noam Chomsky

Killing Hope (2003 ed.) –William Blum

The New Imperialism –David Harvey

Middle East Illusions –Noam Chomsky

The Sorrows of Empire –Chalmers Johnson

Beyond Chutzpah –Norman Finkelstein

House of War –James Carroll

The Israel Lobby –Mearshimer / Walt

Failed States –Noam Chomsky

The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine –Ilan Pappe

Fiasco –Thomas E. Ricks

The One Percent Doctrine –Ron Suskind

The Looming Tower –Lawrence Right

Legacy of Ashes –Tim Weiner

Blackwater –Jeremy Scahill

The Way of the World –Ron Suskind

The Limits of Power –Andrew Bacevich

The Forever War –Dexter Filkins

Cultures of War –John Dower

Why The West Rules—For Now –Ian Morris

The Tragedy of Great Power Politics – John Mearsheimer

A New Generation Draws the Line (02 ed.) –Noam Chomsky

Humanity: A Moral History of the 20^th Century

–Jonathan Glover

Ghost Wars –Steve Coll

American Empire –Andrew Bacevich

The Assassins’ Gate –George Packer

Universal Human Rights: In Theory & Practice

–Jack Donnelly

Strategies of Containment (2005 ed.) –John Lewis Gaddis

The New American Militarism –Andrew Bacevich

Imperial Life In The Emerald City –Rajiv Changrasekaran

Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid –Jimmy Carter

Nemesis –Chalmers Johnson

Palestine Inside Out –Saree Makdisi

The Post-American World –Fareed Zakaria

The Dark Side –Jane Mayer

International Human Rights –Michael Haas

The Forty Years War: The Rise & Fall of the Neocons

–Colodny / Shachtman

The Dark Side of Zionism –Baylis Thomas

Dismantling the Empire –Chalmers Johnson

Washington Rules –Andrew Bacevich

The Icarus Syndrome –Peter Beinart

Economics, Economic Policy (40):

Wealth & Democracy –Kevin Phillips

The Mind & The Market – Jerry Z. Muller

Marx’s Revenge –Meghnad Desai

The Soul of Capitalism –William Greider

A Brief History of Neoliberalism –David Harvey

The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth

–Benjamin Friedman

The Shock Doctrine –Naomi Klein

Bad Money –Kevin Phillips

The Spirit Level –Wilkinson / Pickett

The Myth of the Rational Market –Justin Fox

Freefall –Joseph Stiglitz

Mis-measuring Our Lives –Joseph Stiglitz, et. al.

The Enigma of Capital –David Harvey

Capitalism & Its Economics: A Critical History

–Douglas Dowd

Globalization & Its Discontents –Joseph Stiglitz

The Future of Success –Robert Reich

One World: The Ethics of Globalization –Peter Singer

Understanding Capitalism –Douglas Dowd

The Great Unraveling –Paul Krugman

The Conscience of a Liberal –Paul Krugman

Perfectly Legal –David Cay Johnston

The Corporation –Joel Bakan

The Impact of Inequality –Richard Wilkinson

Inequality & Prosperity –Jonas Pontusson

The Limits To Growth –Donella H. Meadows

The End of Poverty –Jeffrey Sachs

Free Lunch –David Cay Johnston

Supercapitalism –Robert Reich

Common Wealth –Jeffrey Sachs

Bad Samaritans –Ha-Joon Chang

Unjust Deserts –Gar Alperovitz / Lew Daly

Superclass –David Rothkopf

Keynes: Return of the Master –Robert Skidelsky

How Markets Fail –John Cassidy

The Great Financial Crisis –John Bellamy Foster

Shadow Elite –Jenine R. Wedel

Economic Sentiments –Emma Rothschild

Zombie Capitalism –Chris Harman

Prosperity Without Growth –Tim Jackson

The Betrayal of American Prosperity –Clyde Prestowitz

General History (35):

The Closing of the Western Mind –Charles Freeman

The Metaphysical Club –Louis Menand

Freethinkers –Susan Jacoby

The Rise of American Democracy –Sean Wilentz

Restless Giant: The U.S. from Watergate To Bush v. Gore

–James T. Paterson

The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789

–Robert Middlekauff

What Hath God Wrought: The Trans. of America, 1815-1845

–Daniel Walker Howe

The Age of Reagan –Sean Wilentz

From Colony To Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since

1776 –George C. Herring

The Lords of Finance –Liaquat Ahamed

Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815

–Gordon Wood

The Great Cold War: A Journey Througp;p;h the Hall of Mirrors

–Gordon Barass

The Dead Hand –David. E. Hoffman

American Colossus –H.W. Brands

Radical Enlightenment –Jonathan Israel

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee –Dee Brown

Paris: 1919 –Margaret MacMillan

The Peloponnesian War –Donald Kagan

All The Shah’s Men –Stephen Kinzer

The Great Influenza –John M. Barry

Cataclysm: The First World War As Political Tragedy

–David Stevenson

Postwar –Tony Judt

Team of Rivals –Doris Kearns Goodwin

The Great War For Civilization –Robert Fisk

A World Undone: The Story of the Great War –G.J. Meyer

War In Human Civilization –Azar Gat

The History of the Ancient World –Susan Wise Bauer

Conflict After The Cold War: 3^rd Edition –Richard Betts

American Creation –Joseph Ellis

Enlightenment Contested –Jonathan Israel

Nixonland –Rick Perlstein

How Rome Fell –Adrian Keith Goldsworthy

Lost To The West –Lars Brownworth

A Revolution of the Mind –Jonathan Israel

America’s Cold War –Campbell Craig

Biographies (14):

Theodore Rex –Edmund Morris

Isaac Newton –James Gleick

Eisenhower: Soldier & President –Stephen E. Ambrose

FDR: Traitor To His Class –H.W. Brands

John Adams –David McCullough

LBJ: Master of the Senate –Robert A. Caro

Benjamin Franklin –Walter Isaacson

Alexander Hamilton –Ron Chernow

His Excellency: George Washington –Joseph Ellis

John Kenneth Galbraith –Richard Parker

Thomas Paine & The Promise of America –Harvey J Kaye

Thomas Paine –Craig Nelson

Einstein –Walter Isaacson

American Lion: Andrew Jackson –Jon Meacham

Science of Mind (14):

The Blank Slate – Steven Pinker

Synaptic Self –Joseph LeDoux

The Problem of the Soul –Owen Flanagan

Moral Minds –Marc Hauser

A Universe of Consciousness –Edelman / Tononi

Looking For Spinoza –Antonio DaMasio

The Tangled Wing –Melvin Konner

Freedom Evolves –Daniel Dennett

The Ethical Brain –Michael Gazzaniga

Conversations On Consciousness –Susan Blackmore

The Evolution of Morality –Richard Joyce

Primates & Philosophers –Frans de Waal

I Am A Strange Loop –Douglas Hofstadter

The Stuff of Thought –Steven Pinker

General Science (12):

Sync –Steven Strogatz

The Ancestor’s Tail –Richard Dawkins

The Fabric of the Cosmos –Brian Greene

The Greatest Show On Earth –Richard Dawkins

The Golden Ratio –Mario Livio

A New Kind of Science –Stephen Wolfram

Darwin’s Cathedral –David Sloan Wilson

A Devil’s Chaplain –Richard Dawkins

The Varieties of Scientific Experience –Carl Sagan

In the Wake of 9/11: The Psychology of Terror –Greenberg, Solomon, Pyszczynski

An Inconvenient Truth –Al Gore

The Emperor of All Maladies –Siddhartha Mukherjee

Religion (15):

Religion Explained –Pascal Boyer

In Gods We Trust – Scott Atran

Lost Christianities – Bart Ehrman

Beyond Belief –Elain Pagels

The End of Faith –Sam Harris

Misquoting Jesus –Bart Ehrman

Breaking The Spell –Daniel Dennett

The God Delusion –Richard Dawkins

God Is Not Great –Christopher Hitchens

God: The Failed Hypothesis –Victor Stenger

Godless –Dan Barker

Constantine’s Sword –James Carroll

Abraham –Bruce Feiler

Under the Banner of Heaven –Jon Krakauer

American Fascists –Chris Hedges

Sociology / Social Commentary (36):

Nickel & Dimed –Barbara Ehrenreich

Fast Food Nation – Eric Schlosser

Writings On An Ethical Life –Peter Singer

Justice As Fairness: A Restatement –John Rawls

War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning –Chris Hedges

Fascists –Michael Mann

The Science of Good & Evil –Michael Shermer

Will In The World –Stephen Greenblatt

The Ethics of Identity –Anthony Appiah

The World Without Us –Alan Weisman

The Impartial Spectator: Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy

–D.D. Raphael

The Black Swan –Nassem Taleb

Thinking In Systems –Donella H. Meadows

The Idea of Justice –Amartya Sen

The Moral Landscape –Sam Harris

What Went Wrong? –Bernard Lewis

On Nature & Language –Noam Chomsky

The Future of Ideas –Lawrence Lessig

On Democracy & Education –Noam Chomsky

A Problem From Hell –Samantha Power

The Crisis of Islam –Bernard Lewis

Nature Via Nurture –Matt Ridley

Objectivity & Liberal Scholarship –Noam Chomsky

The Wisdom of Crowds –James Surowiecki

Free Culture –Lawrence Lessig

The Chomsky Effect –Robert Barsky

The Problem Of The Media –Robert McChesney

Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten 20^th Century

–Tony Judt

A Man Without A Country –Kurt Vonnegut

Infidel –Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Cosmopolitanism –Anthony Appiah

Experiments in Ethics –Anthony Appiah

The Age of American Unreason –Susan Jacoby

Here Comes Everybody –Clay Shirky

On Rumors –Cass Sunstein

Half The Sky –Kristof / WuDunn

OTHER WORTHWHILE BOOKS (2000-2010):

General Politics (23):

Shrub –Molly Ivans

Rise of the Vulcans –James Mann

Why Orwell Matters –Christopher Hitchens

American Law in the 20^th Century / Law In America

–Lawrence M. Friedman

The 9-11 Commission Report

The President of Good & Evil –Peter Singer

The Politics of Truth –Joe Wilson

The Great Derangement –Matt Taibbi

This Land Is Their Land –Barbara Ehrenreich

The Wrecking Crew –Thomas Frank

Big Lies –Joe Conason

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy –Greg Palast

America Right Or Wrong –Anatol Lieven

Field Notes On Democracy –Arundhati Roy

Breaking The Sound Barrier –Amy Goodman

American Theocracy –Kevin Phillips

The Squandering of America –Robert Kuttner

Republican Gomorrah –Max Blumenthal

Hopes & Prospects –Noam Chomsky

The Death of the Liberal Class –Chris Hedges

In Defense of Lost Causes –Slavoj Zizek

Manipulating Democracy: Democratic Theory, Political Psych. & Mass Media

Zombie Politics & Culture in the Age of Casino Capitalism –Henry Giroux

Foreign Policy (26):

Rogue States –Noam Chomsky

Blowback –Chalmers Johnson

The Imperial Tense –ed. Bacevich

Pirates & Emperors, Old & New (02 ed.) –Noam Chomsky

Power & Terror –Noam Chomsky

Perilous Power –Noam Chomsky

Imperial Ambitions –Noam Chomsky

Taming American Power –Stephan Walt

A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples –Ilan Pappe

The Modern Middle East –Ilan Pappe

Taliban –Ahmed Rashid

The Long War –Andrew Bacevich

Imperial America –Gore Vidal

Interventions –Noam Chomsky

Descent Into Chaos –Ahmed Rashid

Al Qaeda –Jason Burke

The Search for Al Qaeda –Bruce Riedel

The Holocaust Is Over; We Must Rise From Its Ashes –Avraham Burg

The Invention of the Jewish People –Shlomo Sand

Judaism Does Not Equal Israel –Marc H. Ellis

Power Rules –Leslie Gelb

Magic & Mayhem –Derek Leebaert

War –Sebastian Junger

The Good Soldiers –David Finkel

The Irony of Manifest Destiny –William Pfaff

The American Way of War –Tom Engelhardt

Economic Policy (28):

When Genius Failed –Roger Lowenstein

One Market Under God –Thomas Frank

When Smoke Ran Like Water –Devra Davis

The Divine Right of Capital –Marjorie Kelly

The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism & The Death of Democracy

            –Noreena Hertz

Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power & the Disabling of Democracy

            –Ted Nace

Confessions From An Economic Hit Man –John Perkins

Pathologies of Power –Paul Farmer

The Bottom Billion –Paul Collier

Why Social Justice Matters –Brian Barry

The New Golden Age –Ravi Batra

The Return of Depression Economics –Paul Krugman

The Predator State –James Galbraith

Democracy Incorporated –Sheldon S. Wolin

Inequality & The Global Economic Crisis –Douglas Dowd

The Limits To Growth: A 30 Year Update –Donella H. Meadows

After-Shock –Robert Reich

All the Devils Are Here –McLean / Nocera

The Great American Stickup –Robert Scheer

Crisis Economics –Nouriel Roubini

Fault Lines –Raghuram Rajan

The World According To Monsanto –Marie-Monique Robin

The Big Short –Michael Lewis

Keynes: The Rise, Fall, and Return of the 20^th Century’s Most influential Economist –Peter Clarke

The End of the Free Market –Ian Bremmer

A Companion To Marx’s Capital –David Harvey

The Long Divergence –Timur Kuran

Zombie Economics –John Quiggin

History / Bio (24):

Founding Brothers –Joseph Ellis

Wittgenstein’s Poker –Edmonds / Eidenow

Gulag: A History –Anne Applebaum

A Brief History of Nearly Everything –Bill Bryson

Collapse –Jared Diamond

James Madison –Garry Wills

Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius –Leo Damrosch

1967: Israel, The War,p;p; & The Year that Transformed the Middle East

–Tom Segev

Journals: 1952-2000 –Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Sailing From Byzantium –Colin Wells

Angler –Barton Gellman

The History of the Medieval World –Susan Wise Bauer

Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life –Nicholas Phillipson

1776 –David McCullough

Ratification –Pauline Maier

The Balfour Declaration –Jonathan Schneer

A History of The Modern Middle East (4^th Edition) –William Cleveland

The Arabs –Eugene Rogan

Cleopatra –Stacy Schiff

The Warmth of Other Suns –Isabel Wilkerson

Washington: A Life –Ron Chernow

The Fiery Trial –Eric Foner

Colonel Roosevelt –Edmund Morris

Woodrow Wilson –John Milton Cooper

Revolutionaries –Jack Rakove

Bloodlands –Timothy Snyder

Mind (7):

A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness –V.S. Ramachandran

Noam Chomsky: The Generative Enterprise Revisited (03 ed.) –ed. Gruyter

Inner Presence: Consciousness as a Biological Phenomenon

–Antti Revonsuo

The Brain That Changes Itself –Norman Doidge

Self Comes To Mind –Antonio Damasio

The Ego Tunnel –Thomas Metzinger

How We Decide –Jonah Lehrer

General Science (21):

The Elegant Universe –Brian Greene

Time, Love, Memory –Jonathan Weiner

The Universe In A Nutshell –Stephan Hawking

The Scientists –John Gribbon

Nexus –Mark Buchanan

Seeing In The Dark –Timothy Ferris

The Future of Life –E.O. Wilson

Linked –Albert-Laszlo Barabasi

Why Darwin Matters –Michael Shermer

Parallel Worlds –Michio Kaku

The Creation –E.O. Wilson

A World Without Time –Palle Yourgrali

Einstein’s Cosmos –Michio Kaku

Deep Simplicity –John Gribbin

The Revenge of Gaia –James Lovelock

Age of Wonder –Richard Holmes

Quantum –Manjit Kumar

From Eternity To Here –Sean Carroll

The Grand Design –Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow

Human –Michael Gazzaniga

Internet / Technology (12):

Copyrights & Copywrongs –Siva Vaidhayanathan

Code & Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0 –Lawrence Lessig

Who Controls The Internet? –Goldsmith / Wu

The Future of the Internet—And How To Stop It –Jonathan Zittrain

The Nature of Technology –W. Brian Arthur

What Technology Wants –Kevin Kelly

Convergence Culture –Henry Jenkins

The Wealth of Networks –Yochai Benkler

The Master Switch –Tim Wu

You Are Not A Gadget –Jaron Lanier

Cognitive Surplus –Clay Shirky

The Shallows –Nicholas Carr

Social Commentary (22):

Ethics –Spinoza, The Wordsworth edition

The Death & Life of American Journalism –McChesney / Nichols

Sovereign Virtue –Ronald Dworkin

Propaganda & The Public Mind –Noam Chomsky

Objectivity & Liberal Scholarship (03 ed.) –Noam Chomsky

Chomsky & His Critics

The Wisdom of Crowds –James Surowiecki

Taking Ourselves Seriously & Getting It Right –Harry Frankfurt

The Essential Chomsky

The World Is Flat –Thomas Friedman

Outliers –Malcolm Gladwell

Overtreated –Shannon Brownlee

The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind –William Kamkwamba

Strength In What Remains –Tracy Kidder

Bright-Sided –Barbara Ehrenreich

Empire of Illusion –Chris Hedges

Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? –Michael J. Sandel

The Last Utopia: Human Rights In History –Samuel Moyn

Where Good Ideas Come From –Steven Johnson

How To Live: Or A Life of Montaigne –Sarah Bakewell

Science Is Culture –ed. Adam Bly

The Marketplace of Ideas –Louis Menand