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PerseusWizardry  10mo ago (text post)   796 thread views

What are the best textbooks for understanding American politics/contemporary public issues?

I am embarking on a self-study of American politics in the hopes of becoming generally fluent and comfortable understanding the issues of our day. That said, I don't want to study at such a narrow level (i.e. the news cycle) that what I learn will stop being relevant in two weeks. I have a sense of which general areas I should study, but not which textbooks are ideal. I am open to suggestions! (My background: I just have a BA in philosophy and a BA in psych.)

I assume I should probably read a textbook on:

  1. Economics

  2. The American Public Policy Process

  3. American History

  4. World History, esp Modern Europe and the Americas since 1800

  5. Comparative Politics/History of Major Political Ideas?/Explanation of major ideologies?

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Are you an American? Have you had standard American schoolbook history and civics?

The problem with this question is that to "be generally fluent and comfortable understanding the issues of our day" you need several things:

  1. An understanding of the historical and political narratives that our current leadership grew up with, that is, what was being taught from 1970 to around 2005.

  2. An understanding of the historical and political narratives that are now in vogue (eg. 1619 project)

  3. Revisionist accounts that will explain all the myth-making in 1) and 2). Of course, many revisionist histories are themselves quite false ... so you have to find the right ones. I can tell you what I think are the right ones, but how will you know to trust my judgement?

If you just know 3), the "true history" you will have trouble debating, or even interacting with the mainstream. You might get yourself in a lot of hot water. If you just know 1) or 2), you will basically be an NPC, and a victim of fashion, and a victim of forces larger than yourself and that do not have your interest at heart.

I'll plug my own site that I created many moons ago, which just lists a bunch of book and article pairings that set a left/mainstream/center-left account against a non-left/revisionist account. Maybe you will find it useful: https://countersearch.net/

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