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Another boring weekend in the COVID era is upon us. I haven’t gotten too much material out recently and I’m still pondering some fresh ideas on where to go with this project. I’m always open to advice on what I can do better and what readers want to see. If you like what you see though and wish to look at my last book recommendation post, you can access it here
1.) Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of American Consensus by Rick Perlstein (2001)
This book by historian Rick Perlstein chronicles the rise of the modern day conservative movement during the liberal period of the 1960s. Perlstein focuses on this period because America was coming out of the “liberal consensus” and postwar economy into a dangerous and turbulent time. Barry Goldwater emerged as a conservative folk hero and helps the conservative movement gain steam through new tactics and a fear mongering over nuclear annihilation. As Perlstein writes further, the reader begins to understand how the roots of modern conservatism were laid and how the Reagan era 20 years later would be the icing on the cake. Perlstein has also wrote other excellent historical texts such as Nixonland and his up and coming release, Reaganland. I would recommend Perlstein’s books to anyone including high school-aged kids interested in some basic American political history.
2.) The Jakarta Method: Washington’s Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World by Vincent Bevins (2020)
This book by freelance writer and LA Times Asian correspondent, Vincent Bevins, delves into events in Indonesia in the early 1960s. The right-wing in Indonesia, aided by Washington, orchestrated a mass murder program that eliminated the Communist Party of Indonesia. This would set the pretext for future coups and paramilitary murder programs all throughout South America, Latin America and other parts of the world. The CIA and the US State Department were dead set on using the “Jakarta Method” to replicate the results they wanted in other countries’ political processes. Bevins does an excellent job of intertwining the horrible and underreported events in Indonesia with other coups and interference caused in Chile, Laos, El Salvador, Iran etc. It doesn’t play loose with history and covers some topics often not discussed in history classrooms. By doing this, Bevins allows the reader to see how the Washington Consensus often involves mass murder and coups when mass propaganda campaigns don’t work to install US-friendly regimes. I would recommend this book to any young socialist and even those who are just starting to learn about foreign affairs.