Best Progressive Books of 2007

By Don Hazen, AlterNet. Posted January 31, 2008.

2007 was a banner year for progressive books, but two stand out as true groundbreakers: Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine and Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater, published by Nation Books. They are co-winners in AlterNet's 10 Best Books of 2007 contest.

Both Klein and Scahill's books are breathtaking in their scope and impressive in their depth, and strikingly stake out new ground in helping us understand the interlocking forces of privatization, militarism and global dominance represented by the Bush post-9/11 period.

What is particularly interesting is how Klein and Scahill's books fit hand in glove. Klein's groundbreaking reporting and analysis brings us "disaster capitalism," a phenomenon with its dark roots in Milton Friedman's fundamentalist free-market economics theory, where people across the globe -- all suffering from fresh catastrophes -- are clobbered with economic shock treatment of various sorts. As a result, these people lose their land, their homes -- ultimately, their rights -- to mobilized corporate and military forces, whether abroad in Iraq or at home in New Orleans. Then Scahill applies theory to practice in Blackwater as he documents the evolution and the application of the private storm troopers necessary to enforce shock treatment across the globe. It is mind-boggling to discover Blackwater personnel stalking the water-logged streets of New Orleans.

AlterNet book coverage

AlterNet's primarily independent book coverage is wide and deep, and very popular with readers, frequently providing excerpts or a review along with interviews with the author. When 2007 ended, we had covered over 60 books. It seemed appropriate to look back and see which books had made their mark -- with AlterNet's audience, our staff and a gaggle of progressive book experts who we polled for their opinions. Some of these trustworthy people nominated books, while most of them weighed in on their favorites. *(See list of participants at the end of the article.) Many of the authors in AlterNet's Top 10 will be familiar to our readers, including the man who wrote the third book on the list, independent journalist Dahr Jamail, who risked so much to bring us a remarkable, unadorned account of life in occupied Iraq.

Grass-roots politics and activism

The promise of grass-roots politics in America and the failure of the Democratic Party to take advantage of its potential is the theme of Laura Flanders' Blue Grit, ranked No. 4 and just out in paperback. At No. 5 is the personal saga of Camilo Mejía, who challenged the entire military system as a conscientious objector.

Like Scahill and Klein, another writer with huge scope and vision is Chalmers Johnson. The third of his so-called "Blowback" trilogy, Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, was a big hit with AlterNet readers and came in at No. 6. Much of Johnson's writing has been brought to us via Tom Engelhardt's TomDispatch. Nemesis was published as part of Metropolitan Book's (an imprint of Henry Holt) influential series on American empire, as was Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine.

The book that got the most attention from AlterNet readers -- more than 150,000 read my interview with the author -- was Naomi Wolf's The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, published by Chelsea Green. Wolf's research into historical patterns of fascism gives us a blueprint for how it all can come to the U.S. of A. and what warning signs we should be looking for.

Perhaps most disturbing in a collection of unnerving books was the No. 8 book, The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman, which is about what would happen if the human species were suddenly extinguished. It's a "sort of pop-science ghost story, in which the whole earth is the haunted house."

At No. 9 is Tim Weiner's Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA, the prodigiously researched, all on-the-record, tragically disturbing account of the U.S. spy agency. And at No. 10 was another AlterNet reader favorite: Army of None: Strategies to Counter Military Recruitment, End War, and Build a Better World, by Aimee Allison and David Solnit, which blew away many of the illusions of how the military was going to take care of the innocent young men and women it recruited to risk their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Below are short summaries of the top 10 books and a list of "honorable mention" titles, with links to all. Happy reading.

Books nominated and votes for the best progressive books for 2007 came from AlterNet staff and a distinguished group of book experts. They include: Anthony Arnove, Haymarket Books; Michelle Garcia, writer; Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch; Robert Greenwald, Brave New Films; Anne Sullivan, The New Press; Ina Howard, Represent; Colin Greer, New World Foundation; Hamilton Fish, The Nation Institute; Margo Baldwin, Chelsea Green; Rachel Neuman, Parallax Press. (Those participating were not allowed to vote for books with which they were directly affiliated.) The ranking of books was influenced by their popularity with AlterNet readers.

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Don Hazen is the executive editor of AlterNet.

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