I want to expand my mind, you know not be a slave to conventional thinking, so i wonder what are some interesting books to read. I'm open to all and any political view whether right or left. I'm currently reading a book on the relations between Latin America and the United States, it interesting with a good insight, but it little Right wing for me. I've also read Sun-Tzu Art of War (great book). Can any suggest me any book, as long as it about politics or philosphy.

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In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is the king
- Nas

I personally like the utopia or dystopia stories and other fantasies of societies. The most famous and best is of course the 1984 from Orwell. Animal farm is another famous Orwell's production. Another classic is the Brave New World, which tells of the hedemonistic utopia, where the liberty, individuality and ability to think is sacrificed for one kind of articial happiness and social stability. A shorter novel is H.G.Wells' time machine, which speculates about what the humanity would look like after 10:s milleniums of biological evolution in (some) modern society.

Because these books are so well known, there is a good risk you have read some of those or all.

A less known, but a very good and humourous book is the Island of Penguins. I don't remember who wrote it, but he was some french nobel winner. I think it was written before world wars, and it is a satire of national histories.

- BtD

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"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
[George Orwell, 1984]

There are so many great books out there.

If your into philosophy, I suggest reading 'Introducing Philosophy' it (very) breifly skims through the development of philosphical thought from aristotle to current post-modernism. From this book I discovered Sartre's existentialism, and am trying to get my hands on a number of his works. If you want to skip that part, I suggest 'The Wall' by Jean-Paul Sartre. It summarises the philosophy of existentialism in the form of several short stories. I haven't read it myself yet but soon plan to.

Machiavelli; The Prince is a good read that is also highly influential

If you want to combine politics and philosophy, the following political philosophers should be of interest to you;
Plato
Aristotle
Machiavelli
Hobbes
Rousseau
Hegel
Marx
Gramsci
Marcuse
Foucalt

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"I see no reason why...there should not arise a United States of Europe" Winston Churchill, 1946

The entire DUNE series. While it is fiction, it will educate you a great deal on the weaknesses of both left and right wing ideologies. It is very deep and very complex.

The Art of War is a good book, but is geared more towards warfare than politics or ideology (though it could be applied to both).

It could not hurt to read the Communist Manifesto, the Satanic Bible, and Mein Kampf (and maybe nietzsche). These represent extremes of the political specturm, and are distilled from the older philosophies listed above. Even if you dont agree with them, it is always good to have direct knowledge of their respective ideologies

The important thing is to just read. History, philosophy, anything. You want a great mind opener? Read a history book written by the losing side. The saying that "history is written by the victors" is more true than you think. Read a history book written by the losing side. Talk about eye opening. And FYI: They have their facts right, too. It's just that the winning side ignores things. I read a British view of the American revolution. Excellent. Best phrase: "Treason never survives. Because if it does it's not called treason." Stew on that one.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.

I have loved: The Spirit catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. Ostensibly it is about a Hmong refugee family in the U.S. Really, it covers the aspects of the Vietnam War, the clash of cultures, western medicine, family tradition and complex questions about duty and morality.

English Passengers by Matthew Kneale This book is historical fiction. Very entertaining and based on the realities of 19th century British Empire - the struggle reconciling Darwin with Biblical thinking, rascism... actually my description does not do it justice.

'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy'

Some shocking stuff about the state of American Democracy in there.

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What's this i hear bed? Word has it you and Pam are sleeping together.

"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. Probably the best book I have ever read. It's long, but well worth it.

The Road To Serfdom, by FA Hayek
Guns, Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond
The Federalist Papers
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
Economics In One Easy lesson, by Henry Hazlitt

Stekim's advice about reading the history from the losing side is great. I'd never thought about that before.

I am reading "A History of the American People" by Paul Johnson. He is an English author, not American, so he has a different perspective.

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Never moon a werewolf.

Because they show what the FF's were really thinking. It goes a long way toward explaining the Bill of Rights.

Get this: Circa 1941 the Japanese thought Pearl Harbor was our fault. They viewed the attack as defensive in the same way we viewed Iraq as defensive. Funny how things never really change. Read the history of Vietnam from THEIR point of view. Quite a bit different, although the facts of what happened remain the same.

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I wasn't born with enough middle fingers.