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Five good books on contemporary politics




To continue on the reviewer-ish roll from yesterday. I understand the word "contemporary" in the headline to exclude any books that are primarily concerned with any events prior to the contested presidential election of 2000. 

And I will keep the chief focus here on U.S. politics, though I hasten to add that the concern is not insularity. At least three of them are focused on the contentious relationship of the United States to the rest of the globe. 

Without further ado:

1) Woodword, STATE OF DENIAL (2006). Woodward writes a fair amount of dross, but this is one of his better efforts IMHO, looking at how the Bush administration managed to persuade itself that the cause of peace required a U.S. occupation of Iraq. 

2) Isikoff & Corn, HUBRIS (2006). Much the same focus as the first book. But where Woodward is concerned with showing Bush's self-delusion, this book focuses on the efforts of the group around Bush to delude the rest of us.

3) Woolen, DONALD TRUMP (2009). Note the publication date. Earlier than that of most books you might have in mind with that title. Woolen's book is the story of how a largely unsuccessful hotel/casino schemer, who got his seat at that table by inheritance, became a star on "reality television" where he was allowed to portray himself as a world-straddling tycoon. Woolen could not possibly have known what an important story he was telling. 

4) Ferguson & Zakaria, IS THIS THE END OF THE LIBERAL INTERNATIONAL ORDER? (2017). The authors end up making the case, without really intending to, that what they call the liberal order might be something worth defending, or something worth mourning should the answer to the title question be "yes." 

5) Trent, LIZ CHENEY (2022). About one of the least likely political heroines of the last couple of years. Especially unlikely when one considers that her father comes off not at all well in each of the first two books on our list. So this gives us a nice generational full circle. And a reason for using the above photo.   

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