The World's Best Book Summaries
Who’s Richard Fink? What’s his relationship with the Koch brothers? How did he help them wield their political influence? According to journalist Jane Mayer, Charles and David Koch used their fortunes to propagate far-right ideology in American politics between the 1970s and 2016. Richard Fink is the advisor who devised their strategy. Continue reading to learn about Richard Fink’s plan to influence American politics.
What’s the connection between the Koch brothers and the Tea Party? Was the Tea Party truly a grassroots movement? The Koch brothers had hoped to block the election of Barack Obama in 2008. He succeeded, they failed, and a new season began. Journalist Jane Mayer discusses this period of American politics in her book Dark Money. Continue reading to learn Mayer’s take on the Koch brothers, the Tea Party, and the efforts to obstruct Obama’s first-term agenda.
What was the Citizens United ruling? What was Project REDMAP? What impact did these have on American politics? In Dark Money, Jane Mayer discusses the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling and Project REDMAP in the context of the Koch brothers. She explains how the ruling and the project led to a shift rightward in American politics, particularly in the states. Read more to learn about the Citizens United ruling and Project REDMAP—and to see how money and politics converge.
Why did the Republicans lose the 2012 presidential election? How did the loss shape the conservative approach to elections? Republicans received a shock in 2012 when Obama won reelection. In Dark Money, Jane Mayer discusses the aftermath of the 2012 presidential election in the context of the Koch brothers and their influence. Read more to learn how the 2012 presidential election loss led to a shift in the way conservatives operate.
What does UAP mean? Why has there been a recent uptick in sightings? In early February, the U.S. military shot down four Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) in U.S. airspace. Rather than using the term UFO, the U.S. government now uses the term UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), meaning anything in space, in the air, on land, and in or under the sea that can’t be identified. Read on to learn more about what UAP means and why there have been more UAP sightings recently.
What is the FairTax Act? How does it work? Will the FairTax Act be passed? A House Republican has introduced the FairTax Act of 2023, a bill that would replace the income tax and other taxes with a national sales tax. If the bill became law, Americans would no longer file tax returns—instead, they’d pay a 30% tax on their purchases. Read on to learn about what the FairTax Act is, the main critiques of the Act, and the likelihood of it being passed.
When it comes to Afghanistan, where did U.S. policy go wrong? How did it become such a failure? According to General McMaster, Afghanistan was an opportunity for the U.S. to make peace in the region. Instead, the U.S. allowed it to return to a place of conflict that once again poses a serious threat to the world. Continue reading to learn McMaster’s take on Afghanistan and the lessons to be learned.
What on earth is the Kochtopus? How has it shaped politics and economics in America? The Kochtopus is an informal term used to describe the network of nonprofits that Charles Koch and David Koch funded to spread their free market ideals. In her book Dark Money, Jane Mayer discusses this network, arguing that it does more harm than good. Keep reading for Mayer’s history of the Kochtopus.
What does John Rawls mean by distributive justice? What’s the most just way to distribute social goods in a society? Distributive justice is the second principle of justice in John Rawls’s theory of justice as fairness. The principle of distributive justice states that everyone in society should have basic equal rights, liberties, and duties. Keep reading to learn about John Rawls’s distributive justice principle.
What caused the Islamist movement and sectarian conflict in the Middle East? How has U.S. policy failed in the region? In his book Battlegrounds, General H. R. McMaster explains the Middle East’s tangled history and the motivations of Iran, in particular, to disrupt its Arab neighbors. He provides his analysis of the U.S.’s bungled approach to diplomacy and military action in the region. Keep reading for McMaster’s take on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.