[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 37 KB, 328x499, 51n8Bi-W+OL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8609210 No.8609210 [Reply] [Original]

ITT: Books that actually changed/had a significant effect on your life

>> No.8609214

>>8609210
You'll trigger the frogposters and neo nazis

>> No.8609228

>>8609214
>Implying right-wing children have the attention span to read

>> No.8609237

>>8609214
To be fair, it is an incredibly biased pop history book.

>> No.8609247

>>8609237
It's extremely biased, but it's definitely not 'pop history', it's actually very very accurate.

Zinn clearly states his bias at the start of the book, in fact it's even in the fucking name

>> No.8609250
File: 17 KB, 225x225, image.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8609250

>>8609237
>a biased history book

Why, I never..

>> No.8609257

>>8609237
>>8609250
Yeah the whole point is to counter the narrative Americans are fed in school that they're the greatest country on earth, built by 'great men' etc etc

>> No.8609303
File: 63 KB, 585x750, JoyceUlysses2.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8609303

no joke

>> No.8609325
File: 7 KB, 152x224, images.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8609325

>> No.8609332

>>8609257
Well, at this point the narrative of A People's History of the United States IS the narrative taught in schools, or at least a lot of them. We read it in my junior year.

>> No.8609342

>>8609247
You should head over to /his, there is, at this very moment, a raging debate concerning this very book. Some people clearly do not like the neo-liberal perspectives and exploration of the ramifications of the various so-called "Great American Achievements." This book completely changed the way I look at history and current events. It was THE textbook for my senior history class in High School, reading this, along with many PDF's from J-STOR, actually put the whole American Mythos into perspective. My school was private albeit extremely left wing I am glad to have received an education that enabled me to have a somewhat objective view towards current events. I even bought a copy recently, although it's been sitting unopened on my bookshelf, I do intend to read it again, but this time along with other, less biased, texts.

>> No.8609349
File: 222 KB, 728x409, good will.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8609349

>>8609210

Did it fucken blow your mind? Here's another one:

Vickers. Work in Essex County.

>> No.8609353

>>8609342
Where?

>> No.8609549

>>8609353
Where was the school?

>> No.8609611

>>8609342
>>8609353
>>8609549
not OP but I went to a liberal private school in Santa Monica, California which fits the description that teaches this book junior year in conjunction with the AP US History book and some other texts.

>> No.8609623

>>8609210

War is a Racket
Communist Manifesto (I am not a communist though)
Age of Reason
Science and the Near Death Experience
Some of Schopenhauers Essays
1984 when I was younger

>> No.8609659
File: 60 KB, 300x463, pentti_linkola-can_life_prevail.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8609659

>> No.8609674
File: 45 KB, 475x475, image.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8609674

>> No.8609716

>>8609611
Oh i see, I was just in Santa Monica for a few months. I went to a small Liberal Private school in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

>> No.8609718
File: 24 KB, 324x500, 41idWGKyMlL.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8609718

>>8609210
To be quite honest.

>> No.8609724

>>8609611
Crossroads school ?

>> No.8609745

>>8609247
Declaring your bias doesn't negate the numerous issues with the book. I agree with Zinn on numerous topics and am a card-carrying member of a tiny nobody socialist organization, but what he wrote is, evaluated as a work of history, not very good.

>> No.8609778
File: 138 KB, 325x500, IMG_0136.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8609778

I recomend that everyone reread this book on a regular basis. When I read it in high school, it did nothing for me. When I read it in college it changed the way I think about my life. Every time I pick up this book I get something new from it.

>> No.8609779

>>8609303
Same for me. I remember reading this as a 13 year old, and despite not understanding most of it, it made me want to become a writer.

>> No.8609870

>>8609745
It's not meant to be objective, it's meant to tell the story of working class people

>> No.8609875

Are you fucking serious.
Literal bullshit by a butthurt gommie. Hey Zinn, Americans never wanted the system to be destroyed. They just wanted it to be fairer, which progressives massively fixed.

History major here. Read it last year for school, alongside Paul Johnson's American history. Great exercise from Prof.

>> No.8609916

>>8609210
anything that says "peoples" is cancer for the actual peoples

>> No.8609919
File: 10 KB, 127x165, th (3).jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8609919

>>8609210
Made a fuck ton of money after reading this and getting my license. my community has been in a housing boom since the 90s and didn't slow during 2008.

>> No.8609922

>>8609916
Lol not like you benefited from any of their struggles

>> No.8609978

>>8609916
name a struggle that ran under a banner of "peoples" that has benefited me in some way.

the only instance i recall is the peoples or populist party which failed miserably otherwise agrarian based economics would've taken a foothold not to long in front of the Great Depression.

>> No.8609981

>>8609922
>>8609978
woops, mis attached my reply

>> No.8609983

>>8609919

Course you can make money doing real estate, most people just don't have the charisma, guts, drive, or even the know how of doing so.

You don't even need a degree you're like a car salesman that people actually respect and come to for every need involving their housing situations.

>> No.8609986

>>8609978
The labour rights movement?...

>> No.8611495

>>8609332
hs history teacher chiming in. what anon says is pretty true. however the majority of the states do not adhere to this and are still holding on to american exceptionalism. coincidentally, that occurs mostly in the southern and central states. shocking i know.

>> No.8611502
File: 31 KB, 251x396, Debord_SocietyofSpectacle[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8611502

>> No.8611557

>>8609349
Did you buy it in a set of books or did you read all of them?

>> No.8611585

>>8609870
So? That doesn't redeem its quality as a history book.

>> No.8611602

>>8611495
Have you ever read this by John Dolan? It's pretty amusing because he's an extremely bitter guy.
http://www.alternet.org/story/148443/i_was_a_professor_at_the_horribly_corrupt_american_university_of_iraq..._until_the_neocons_fired_me

The essay is his experience teaching in Iraq and the history class they teach to the Kurdish students is American exceptionalism on steroids.

>> No.8611615
File: 176 KB, 1027x1280, 538686868.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8611615

>>8611502
How did it change your life anon?

>> No.8611625
File: 46 KB, 344x500, 51HvFa-Ih-L.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8611625

I really recommend you this one. It changed my life

>> No.8611634

Thus spoke Zarathustra
Utopia

>> No.8611683
File: 9 KB, 176x276, download (2).jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8611683

not even kidding

>> No.8611687

>>8609718
ugh

>> No.8611693
File: 95 KB, 300x458, storm_of_steel.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8611693

>tfw you will never be a stormtrooper wild man jumping over trenches armed with a dozen grenades and a spade

>> No.8611696

>>8609718
Which one is the second?

>> No.8611711

>>8611683
why would anyone think you were

>> No.8611714

>>8609257
Teachers just put on John meme videos now.

>> No.8611739

>>8609623
what in age of reason changed your life

>> No.8611764

>>8611615
>>8611502

Have not read this yet but it's in my stack. I also want to know how this changed your life.

>> No.8611838
File: 28 KB, 225x337, IMG_0152.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8611838

Book was kinda shitty but it really made me think.

>> No.8611872
File: 623 KB, 1591x2560, 91CJb4TkbML[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8611872

It helped me better understand why leftists are so attracted to posturing and sanctimony, and why logic frightens them so much.

It also helped me understand why they're mentally incapable of reasoning, making debate useless--all we can do for these poor souls is contain them and try to keep their hateful ideology from spreading to more edgy college dropouts.

>> No.8612015

>>8609778
Did it make you want to move into an isolated cabin? I know I do.

>> No.8612038

The /pol/ sticky
Books are for fags

>> No.8612255

>>8609724
Yep. (currently a senior t b h)

>> No.8612307
File: 323 KB, 1236x2045, 451.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8612307

>> No.8612369
File: 285 KB, 491x491, shillpost.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8612369

>>8609210
Yes good goy! Be ashamed of your history! Hand over your land and your women!

>> No.8612719

Not my favorites by now, but Dorian Grey is the book that got me into reading classic literature instead of just sci-fi or whatever I read as a kid.

Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces is what stopped me from being an edgy atheist and gave me a reason to want to dive into old myths and stories and religions instead of mocking them.

I don't remember the name but I read some history of western philosophy book and it really blew my mind, as someone who had previously known nothing.

Man, The State, and War changed my political beliefs.

Eichmann in Jerusalem and The Human Condition are really eating at me right now, probably the most up to date recommendation I can give. I don't agree with it all but it's really engaging and challenging.

>> No.8612802
File: 8 KB, 218x231, images.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8612802

>>8609228
>reading baby tier communist books makes you an intellectual

>> No.8612831

>>8611585
It's not just a 'history book' though

>> No.8612833

>>8611872
>>8612369
>>8612802
Cringe

>> No.8612870

>>8612719
what did man the state and war change for you?

>> No.8612907

>>8611764
Not him but it changed my life, that's sure.
Once you get where he's coming from, his influences and the movements he does to write the book, it clicks, and you realize that he pretty much predicted how and where late capitalism would fail and reform itself, whilte the process was only beginning.

TSotS is probably the greatest manifestation of "pharmakon", the poison/medicine, because while it sure points to some very interesting ways of interrupting the Spectacle, Debord wrote it knowing he'd get "recuperated" the moment the book was read by someone outside his direct sphere of influence, so it would eventually become a part of the Spectacle (as it did, people read his books on fucking MARKETING SCHOOL).

Putting it in very memetic terms: Guy Debord was probably the most unspooked man since Sankt Max walked the earth (also, a cool factoid: the situationists are pretty much the people responsible for the resurfacing interest in Stirner. They were both translated to portuguese by the same guy actually, João Barrento).

>> No.8612920

>>8609237
>covering history from the perspective of the people that go unreported is biased
Well yes that's the point

>> No.8612927

>>8612802
>if you critically analyse our professions of noble intentions and compare them to the less than stellar results, you are a communist

>> No.8612928

>>8612927
Stop replying, you got redpilled to DEATH

>> No.8612962
File: 40 KB, 694x364, Ghostbusters_e42987_5978664.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8612962

>>8612927
>>8612928
>Biographer Martin Duberman noted that when he was asked directly if he was a Marxist, Zinn replied, "Yes, I'm something of a Marxist.

>> No.8612996
File: 319 KB, 803x688, cV9JSHG.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8612996

>>8612962
>when babby tier SJWs think their spooks are special

>> No.8613133
File: 118 KB, 1050x1500, Hagakure.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613133

>> No.8613308
File: 14 KB, 220x305, InvisibleCities.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613308

I re-read it maybe twice a year.

Still no closer to actually figuring it out, but I enjoy the ride every time.

>> No.8613315

>>8609342
>going to an 'extremely left wing' school
>getting an objective view on current events

You are delusional my friend

>> No.8613321
File: 206 KB, 778x1193, 3-596-27404-4.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613321

Not memeing.

>> No.8613326
File: 119 KB, 341x500, Austerlitz_novel_cover.png [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613326

No one EVER talks about Sebald here. Greatest contemporary writer.

>> No.8613327
File: 316 KB, 754x1200, pid_2003.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613327

Completely turned upside down the way I look at contemporary western politics.

>> No.8613332
File: 6 KB, 201x300, Specters_of_Marx,_French_edition.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613332

Made me believe in ghosts, almost literally.

>> No.8613340

>>8611872
Can't refute the Scrute.

>> No.8613369

>>8611711
It's a meme here.

>> No.8613382
File: 250 KB, 1200x1800, The Road to Serfdom.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613382

Based Hayek.

>> No.8613386

>>8611872
wow what an original view.
also, thinking nu-leftist = leftist.
kys

>> No.8613413
File: 158 KB, 299x475, 71FPGZD17DL.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613413

>>8609210

>> No.8613472

>>8609342
>private school
>extremely left wing
How are these two things reconciled?

Wouldn't "extremely left wing" people be in favour of socialized education (ie. public school)?

>> No.8613475

>>8613382
The last time I mentioned him to a friend on his fb status some leftist gave me a wall of text rant on how Hitler and co were in no way ever leftist and the reation to Hayek was "LOL"

I'll have to read more of him, Road to Serfdom was excellent.

>> No.8613488

>>8613475
Read The Constitution of Liberty if you haven't already.

>> No.8613494

>>8613472
Left wing and right wing are meaningless in the contemporary context. There is no reason why a school would at the same time not be ran on a capitalist model and promote progressive social views such as abortion and gay marriage.

>> No.8613515

>>8613488
I've been thinking of Law, Legislation and Liberty as his magnum opus.

>> No.8613718

Sartre's Nausea. Such a liberating book. If that frog eyed bastard was still around I'd hug him.

>> No.8613725
File: 242 KB, 1298x1881, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613725

>>8609210
This.

>> No.8613762
File: 93 KB, 480x724, 9780670024926_large_The_Deluge.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613762

Can't pick one but this is the last one that made an impression on me.

This is proper history. Makes you reconsider so many assumptions and forces you to think about aspects of the war you could have never possibly imagined.

>> No.8613799
File: 241 KB, 1695x2560, Economic Facts and Fallacies.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8613799

>>8609210
Thomas Sowell books are almost always very thought provoking.

>> No.8613817

Power of One by Bryce Courtenay (not a ridiculous self-help book)
Slaughterhouse Five redefined my way of looking at the world.

>> No.8613988

>>8613326
can't be contemporary if dead yo

>> No.8614135
File: 179 KB, 1050x1572, 1445808741888.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
8614135

>> No.8614532

>>8609210
I lost all respect for Zinn after I read the first chapter and saw that he only spent a paragraph mentioning that the Aztecs would rip out the hearts of their own citizens. He's the definition of pushing an agenda. He doesn't write because he wants to support the disadvantaged, he writes because he hates the upper class.