or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
July 07, 2008
The Uprising
I highly recommend David Sirota's new book The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington. Many progressive political books, and just about all conservative political books, are crap and not worth the paper they're printed on. That's because politics is as simple as tic tac toe, and there's never anything new to say about it. As Thomas Jefferson wrote to John Adams in 1813,
To me then it appears that there have been differences of opinion, and party differences, from the establishment of governments to the present day, and on the same question which now divides our country, that these will continue through all future times...everyone takes his side in favor of the many, or of the few…nothing new can be added by you or me to what has been said by others, and will be said in every age.
But what can be done is serious, high quality reporting on what exactly is happening in the times we're living in. Almost no one ever tries this because it's hard work. But Sirota does in The Uprising—it's full of useful and encouraging information about what regular people are doing all over the country to deal with the extremely serious problems we face.
This week Sirota is at TPM Cafe to talk about it. Check it out.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at July 7, 2008 01:01 PMWhat's particularly disturbing about this book is that it not just portrays populist ground-up movements, but it is also a portrayal of a society wildly spinning out of control and losing its way. The summary reads like a front row seat to an unraveling, rather than a silver lining to a dark cloud.
Posted by: En Ming Hee at July 8, 2008 04:05 AM
