Want to know what books Greg Sargent recommends on their reading list? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Greg Sargent's favorite book recommendations of all time.
1
From one of our preeminent philosophers--winner of the Berggruen Prize--a work that engages critically with important examples of the cosmopolitan ideal from ancient Greece and Rome to the present.
The cosmopolitan political tradition in Western thought begins with the Greek Cynic Diogenes, who, when asked where he came from, responded that he was a citizen of the world. Rather than declaring his lineage, city, social class, or gender, he defined himself as a human being, implicitly asserting the equal worth of all human beings.
Nussbaum pursues this "noble but... more From one of our preeminent philosophers--winner of the Berggruen Prize--a work that engages critically with important examples of the cosmopolitan ideal from ancient Greece and Rome to the present.
The cosmopolitan political tradition in Western thought begins with the Greek Cynic Diogenes, who, when asked where he came from, responded that he was a citizen of the world. Rather than declaring his lineage, city, social class, or gender, he defined himself as a human being, implicitly asserting the equal worth of all human beings.
Nussbaum pursues this "noble but flawed" vision of world citizenship as it finds expression in figures of Greco-Roman antiquity, Hugo Grotius in the seventeenth century, Adam Smith during the eighteenth century, and various contemporary thinkers. She confronts its inherent tensions: the ideal suggests that moral personality is complete, and completely beautiful, without any external aids, while reality insists that basic material needs be met if people are to realize fully their inherent dignity. Given the global prevalence of material want, the lesser social opportunities of people with physical and cognitive disabilities, the conflicting beliefs of a pluralistic society, and the challenge of mass migration and asylum seekers, what political principles should we endorse? Nussbaum brings her version of the Capabilities Approach to these problems, and she goes farther: she takes on the challenge of recognizing the moral claims of nonhuman animals and the natural world.
The insight that politics ought to treat human beings both as equal to each other and as having a worth beyond price is responsible for much that is fine in the modern Western political imagination. The Cosmopolitan Tradition extends Nussbaum's work, urging us to focus on the humanity we share rather than all that divides us. less 
Greg Sargent@LaurenBrns @AdamSerwer @michaelbd Before doing this, check out Nussbaum's great new book (yes, I know I'm exposing myself to withering Stephen Miller-type ridicule here): https://t.co/p1LZ967h7k (Source)
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2
A leading progressive intellectual offers an "illuminating" agenda for how real democracy can triumph in America and beyond (Ari Berman, New York Times).
Since the New Deal in the 1930s, there have been two eras in our political history: the liberal era, stretching up to the 1970s, followed by the neoliberal era of privatization and austerity ever since. In each period, the dominant ideology was so strong that it united even partisan opponents. But the neoliberal era is collapsing, and the central question of our time is what comes next.
As acclaimed legal scholar and... more A leading progressive intellectual offers an "illuminating" agenda for how real democracy can triumph in America and beyond (Ari Berman, New York Times).
Since the New Deal in the 1930s, there have been two eras in our political history: the liberal era, stretching up to the 1970s, followed by the neoliberal era of privatization and austerity ever since. In each period, the dominant ideology was so strong that it united even partisan opponents. But the neoliberal era is collapsing, and the central question of our time is what comes next.
As acclaimed legal scholar and policy expert Ganesh Sitaraman argues, two political visions now contend for the future. One is nationalist oligarchy, which rigs the system for the rich and powerful while using nationalism to mobilize support. The other is the great democracy, which fights corruption and extends both political and economic power to all people. At this decisive moment in history, The Great Democracy offers a bold, transformative agenda for achieving real democracy. less Greg Sargent@yeselson Yep. And on top of that, @GaneshSitaraman's new book makes a powerful case that Trump's species of corruption/authoritarianism is actually a kind of malignant outgrowth of neoliberalism itself, which resolves the (nonexistent) tension that some on the left perceive. (Source)
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3
The Economists' Hour is the biography of a revolution: The story of how economists who believed in the power and the glory of free markets transformed the business of government, the conduct of business and, as a result, the patterns of everyday life. In the four decades between 1969 and 2008, these economists played a leading role in reshaping taxation and public spending and clearing the way for globalization. They reshaped the government's approach to regulation, assigning a value to human life to determine which rules are worthwhile. Economists even convinced President Nixon to end... more The Economists' Hour is the biography of a revolution: The story of how economists who believed in the power and the glory of free markets transformed the business of government, the conduct of business and, as a result, the patterns of everyday life. In the four decades between 1969 and 2008, these economists played a leading role in reshaping taxation and public spending and clearing the way for globalization. They reshaped the government's approach to regulation, assigning a value to human life to determine which rules are worthwhile. Economists even convinced President Nixon to end military conscription.
The United States was the epicenter of the intellectual ferment, but the embrace of markets was a global phenomenon, seizing the imagination of politicians in countries including the United Kingdom, Chile and New Zealand.
This book is also a reckoning. The revolution failed to deliver on its central promise of increased prosperity. In the United States, growth has slowed in every successive decade since the 1960s. And the cost of the failure was steep. Policymakers traded well-paid jobs for low-cost electronics; the loss of work weakened the fabric of society and of democracy. Soaring inequality extends far beyond incomes: Life expectancy for less affluent Americans has declined in recent years. And the focus on efficiency has come at the expense of the future: Lower taxes instead of education and infrastructure; limited environmental regulation as oceans rise and California burns.
less Greg Sargent.@BCAppelbaum has written a great new book -- a scathing indictment of the economics profession and its dogmatic faith in markets, and their role in creating our current disastrous mess.
I spoke to Appelbaum about his book. A fascinating conversation:
https://t.co/xbrTbBESPW (Source)
Matthew YglesiasI podcasted with @BCAppelbaum about his great new book about how economists ruined everything.
https://t.co/4cD0bX7Byl (Source)
John HarwoodBinyamin’s book provides the intellectual backstory for how we got to where we are today. (Source)
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4
"Unmaking the Presidency, devastating in its understatedness, may prove to be the most important book about the Trump presidency." --Tabatha Southey, Maclean's
The definitive account of how Donald Trump has wielded the powers of the American presidency
The extraordinary authority of the U.S. presidency has no parallel in the democratic world. Today that authority resides in the hands of one man, Donald J. Trump. But rarely if ever has the nature of a president clashed more profoundly with the nature of the office.... more "Unmaking the Presidency, devastating in its understatedness, may prove to be the most important book about the Trump presidency." --Tabatha Southey, Maclean's
The definitive account of how Donald Trump has wielded the powers of the American presidency
The extraordinary authority of the U.S. presidency has no parallel in the democratic world. Today that authority resides in the hands of one man, Donald J. Trump. But rarely if ever has the nature of a president clashed more profoundly with the nature of the office. Unmaking the Presidency tells the story of the confrontation between a person and the institution he almost wholly embodies.
From the moment of his inauguration, Trump has challenged our deepest expectations of the presidency. But what are those expectations, where did they come from, and how great is the damage? As editors of the "invaluable" (The New York Times) Lawfare website, Susan Hennessey and Benjamin Wittes have attracted a large audience to their hard-hitting and highly informed commentary on the controversies surrounding the Trump administration. In this book, they situate Trump-era scandals and outrages in the deeper context of the presidency itself. How should we understand the oath of office when it is taken by a man who may not know what it means to preserve, protect, and defend something other than himself? What aspects of Trump are radically different from past presidents and what aspects have historical antecedents? When has he simply built on his predecessors' misdeeds, and when has he invented categories of misrule entirely his own?
By setting Trump in the light of history, Hennessey and Wittes provide a crucial and durable account of a presidency like no other. less 
Preet BhararaCan’t wait, @benjaminwittes & @Susan_Hennessey. Great and important book👇 https://t.co/xEon8szEOW (Source)
George ConwayLucky me—I just got my advance copy of @Susan_Hennessey and @benjaminwittes’s soon-to-be-released book, “Unmaking the Presidency.” As I said on the book jacket, it’s brilliant—and in many ways, it will be a definitive piece of work.
https://t.co/EM1X93E6I4 https://t.co/ssz909TwZp (Source)
Greg Sargent@baseballcrank @bonchieredstate ...that said, a better and more relevant discussion of this abuse can probably be found in the new book by @Susan_Hennessey and @benjaminwittes https://t.co/8VQt0vqPv2 (Source)
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