I went to a college fair the other day and signed up to get some brochures from colleges in PA or pretty close. I'd appreciate it if anyone would post any good colleges that have majors for political science and minors in history. I would also like to start checking out some political books if anyone could list some for me. Thanks. -Pat

Colleges- Try some on the West Coast but be careful for liberal-bias if you want a fair class.

Political books? Read:

No Spin Zone- Bill O'Reilly
Who's Looking Out or You- Bill O'Reilly
Let Freedom Ring- Sean Hannity
Reagan: A Life in Letters
Deliver Us From Evil- Sean Hannity
Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man
anything by William F. Buckley Jr.

And read Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. Masterpiece of political structure's rise and fall.

I will never buy anything by Hannity or anything that insults Moore in its' title. I will look at the O'Reilly ones. I bought Dude, Where's my Country? and Red, White, and Liberal: How the Left is Right and the Right is Wrong, today.

UCLA is known for its excellence in Poli Sci majors, and as I go there, majoring in exactly that, I can tell you firsthand that it really IS very, very good. Yeah, being on the West Coast, it is pretty liberal, but it's not quite AS biased as I expected it would be. I even had a really conservative professor last quarter. (Granted, it was in Philosophy, but still, he was there!) I'd totally recommend UCLA... it's tough, but awesome. Especially if you can work fast enough and hard enough to get to upper-div classes quickly. There are some fascinating classes, really. A friend of mine who went there like 7 years ago took a whole class just on the L.A. Riots.

UC Berkeley is really good, too, but SUPER liberal. I mean, even though you are liberal, don't you think a balanced education is better? Especially if you're going to major in politics, where that's so important. You want to be well-rounded.

If you want to stay on that side of the country, George Washington Univ. is supposed to be really good, too, as are Georgetown and Colombia... I don't know how your grades are, Pat, but if they're good, don't settle for less than what you've worked for. You're really passionate about stuff, and that will motivate you to want to learn more. You totally have potential, so I hope you don't end up at some crappy college that won't challenge you, and instead just bore you.

About Penn State, there was a quote, I think it was by Rodney Dangerfield... "I went to Penn State-- oh no, that was state pen."

You wanna talk about not being bias??? Look at all the books you just listed. Hmm, I wonder if theyre going to be more conservative??? Thats just a hunch I have.

Zia--Do they have you reading any specific books?

I'm reading one now that was recommended to me by my Foreign Policy prof, but just as extracurricular, not as text. It's called "Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice" by Thomas W. Robinson and David Shambaugh. I don't know if you're interested in world politics, but that one is really interesting. One we're reading along with the text in that class is "Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History" by Joseph S. Nye. It's alright. Another one about foreign policy is "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance" by Noam Chomsky. I'm almost sure you'll like that one.


As far as U.S., we had to read one last quarter called "Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004" by Hendrik Hertzberg. I also got one called "The Almanac of American Politics, 2004" by Michael Barone and Richard E. Cohen, which is very informative. You might also like "One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy" by Thomas Frank. It's really blunt and to-the-point. "The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic" by Chalmers Johnson is also really interesting.

If you tell me what kind of books you want to read, my recommendations could be a lot better... just saying "political" books doesn't cut it. There are so many different ones out there. There are the Sean Hannity-esque analyses (from both sides), there are opinion-based books, there are historical books, etc. And there are so many subjects, too... are you more interested in U.S. politics, or abstract political thought, or the ideas, or what's actually going on, or the history of it, or foreign politics, or U.S. foreign policy... The list goes on.

Just make sure, above everything, that when you read these books, you take them with a grain of salt. Don't believe everything you read, even if the source is good. If you read about a conspiracy theory of some sort, don't just believe it's true; let it lead you to more books about that issue before you form an opinion. A lot of political books are out there just to convince you of something.

I want to read a book on FDR, a book on the economy, and a beginner's book on foreign policy. I'd also like to read books on WW I, II, abd Vietnam. Anything come to mind?

Patrick, why not look for the "Idiot's guide to "whatever" " one of those books. It will break things down to its simplest parts and give you a great background on everything. Then when you go to your "intro courses" you won't be caught by surprise by terms.

Patrick, for WWII, read Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It's a masterpiece. Also, read Patton's memoirs.

And why do you like Michael Moore? You won't read anything that insults him...? You know he's a liar and is full of crap, right? You know Fahrenheit 9/11 was false propaganda, right?

That's your opinion and you're entitled to it. :p

Pat, for a good book on economics (and its relevance in todays political debates), read "Applied Economics" by Thomas Sowell. Anything else written by him is a great buy also.

Two sentences into the summary of the book:

I don't want a biased book on economics, but this book seems to be the only one anyone knows for starters in economics.

Well Pat, if you're reading a book about economics it has to be by a conservative doesn't it ?

No.

Oh, I didn't realize there were liberal economists .


Just kidding Pat. However I really don't know any books by liberal economists, unless you actually want to read the filth written by Paul Krugman.

Isn't there a book that explains how the economy was started, Social Secutiry, and all of that? I want something that just outlines the economy.

Well if you want something about capitalism and the basis of modern economics in general you could read The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, which I actually began reading recently (although right now it seems like a rather daunting project to finish it).

Read anything on supply side economics.

Yes, "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith, written in the late 1770's, is basically the model of economics considered the standard today.

Smith is considered the "father of modern economics."

As Baggin's said however, it is a bit daunting because of the language used, but you can plug through it I'm sure.

If you have time, you really should go to the library for a few hours and just browse the history and politics sections. Flip through the books that look interesting to you, and see if they look worth the read. The only thing with this idea is that it takes a lot of time, and the time goes by so quickly you don't even notice it. So if you have something else to do, you might miss it. Ahhhh libraries. Gotta love 'em. You might try a Border's, too. They have a politics section, and a history section, too. The thing with that is, you don't get most of the old or rare books.

The book I recommended by Joseph S. Nye is a pretty basic look at foreign policy, and it's pretty short.

Here are some books I have on my Christmas list now:

Hegemony or Survival: America’s Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky

The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic by Chalmers Johnson

The Death of the West by Patrick Buchanan

Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History by Joseph S. Nye

If I knew you personally, I'd give you one of those for Christmas. Unfortunately, it's not always the thought that counts... the thought doesn't get you the book you want. I think it's so cool that you want to read about this stuff and educate yourself. Especially at your age (but even in way older people), that's so pathetically rare. I hope you find poli sci more and more fascinating the more you learn about it, and that you'll want to stick with it.

Hey, one last thing... even though you don't like the right wing, you should probably still read some work by conservative writers and analysts. Especially with the argumentative mind that you have, it's important to know the opposition. There are a lot of misconceptions all over the political spectrum about the other sides. The more you know about everyone else's position too, the better you can make intelligent arguments against them.

Zia--I was actually thinking about getting this one, which seems anti-liberal.
The Real American Dilemma: Race, Immigration, and the Future of America

I just noticed this part right now... I had seen that you were interested in poli sci majors, but I hadn't seen the part about minoring in history. That's what I'm doing!! I'm double-majoring in poli sci and business administration, and minoring in history. All I can say is, I hope you have a good memory, if you're going to take that many history classes. It's a lot of fun, though.

I've heard good things about that-- from both liberals and conservatives. I haven't read it, though. I should check it out.

I'm also interested in majoring in Political Science.

You are welcome to Lund, Sweden, where I study political science!

Political Books:
The clash of civilizations, I don't fucking remember the name of the author right now
Al Franken - Liars (which is very interesting in its FOX chapters)

Oh, and please don't read Let Freedom Ring.

You recommend Al Franken but say no to Hannity.......


You really can't get more biased than that.


If all you do is read leftwing/rightwing books and not the other side, you are at a HUGE disadvantage

Pat - I went to Syracuse, where they have a great school for political science called the Maxwell School. You can also get a minor in history (I did to go with my major in finance). You can probably get a minor in history at any school.

It's kind of pricey to go there these days, but it is a good school and a lot of fun.