The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street (2010) - Robert Scheer

Scheer, co-star of NPR's "Left, Right and Center", covers what he believes to be main causes of the 2008 crash, the deregulation of the financial sector from the Reagan years and onward. He saves special criticism for the Democrats, especially those of the Clinton administration, as being eager to bow to Wall Street's whims and ignoring the party's traditional base in exchange for a new source of campaign donations.

Scheer goes further back in history than most coverage of the crash I've read and I believe it really helps fill the picture of the current down-turn. I think it shows rather well how this was a bipartisan train wreak with the Democrats failing to act as a brake on the actions demands of Wall Street and even helping to dismantle an over half-century old regulatory structure. I would recommend this book as the best on the political roots of the current downturn.

Rating: B - Good

The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret (2008) - Seth Shulman

While doing research for book, author Seth Shulman came across startling evidence of plagiarism in Alexander Graham Bell’s patent for the telephone. The Telephone Gambit is the dual story of his investigation into his theories as well as that of Bell and his life as he works on his inventions.

I know there’s usually some disagreement about the actual inventors of many world-changing innovations, but the telephone seems to be different in that there's good evidence showing outright fraud in the patent process.I find Shuman's case very convincing and will certainly look at Bell in a different light from now on. I do wish the author had inserted a bit more background on some of the figures in his book, especially the wronged party of Elisha Gray. Overall, though, I found this a darn good volume.

Rating: B - Good

What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (2004) - Thomas Frank

Progressive writer Thomas Frank revisits his childhood home of Kansas to understand how the state went from the being the hotbed of populism in the late-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries to bastion of right-wing conservatism it is today.

I found this volume to be very illuminating. Frank covers how wedge issues were used to get people to vote against their own interests and how the right constructs a narrative that keeps them in power despite not delivering on those very issues. Kansas is very educational about politics today.

Rating: B - Good

Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks (2010) - Ben Goldacre

Bad Science is about just that. Specifically, it covers not only the baseless claims of the new age medicine, but the shifty practices of the drug industry and the overblown claims of the news media. He also gives explanations about how real medical science works and the reasons it gets shouted out by popular culture.

While I found Bad Science very informative, at times I found it a bit of a slog as it seems to be written for people with a bit more science education than I have. I think if Mr. Goldacre wrote for a slightly larger audience he would have gotten more listeners for his message.

Rating: C - Average