What We Are Reading Today: The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America

What We Are Reading Today: The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America
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Updated 15 February 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America

What We Are Reading Today: The Power to Destroy: How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America

Author: Michael J. Graetz

The postwar US enjoyed large, widely distributed economic rewards—and most Americans accepted that taxes were a reasonable price to pay for living in a society of shared prosperity. Then in 1978 California enacted Proposition 13, a property tax cap that Ronald Reagan hailed as a “second American Revolution,” setting off an antitax, antigovernment wave that has transformed American politics and economic policy.

In The Power to Destroy, Michael Graetz tells the story of the antitax movement and how it holds America hostage—undermining the nation’s ability to meet basic needs and fix critical problems.

In 1819, Chief Justice John Marshall declared that the power to tax entails “the power to destroy.” 


What We Are Reading Today: Art in a State of Siege

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What We Are Reading Today: Art in a State of Siege

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Author: Joseph Leo Koerner

What do artworks look like in extreme cases of collective experience?

What signals do artists send when enemies are at the city walls and the rule of law breaks down, or when a tyrant suspends the law to attack from inside? Art in a State of Siege tells the story of three compelling images created in dangerous moments and the people who experienced them—from Philip II of Spain to Carl Schmitt—whose panicked gaze turned artworks into omens.

 


What We Are Reading Today: The Second Emancipation by Howard W. French

What We Are Reading Today: The Second Emancipation by Howard W. French
Updated 06 February 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: The Second Emancipation by Howard W. French

What We Are Reading Today: The Second Emancipation by Howard W. French

“The Second Emancipation,” a work of Odyssean dimension, recasts the liberation of post–World War II colonial Africa and the American civil rights struggle through the lens of Ghana’s revolutionary visionary Kwame Nkrumah (1909–1972), who emerges as the most significant African leader of the twentieth century. 

In its dramatic depiction of a continent that once exuded the promise of a newly won freedom, this book offers a generational work that positions not only Africa but also the American civil rights movement at the forefront of modern-day history.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘California Amphibians and Reptiles’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘California Amphibians and Reptiles’
Updated 05 February 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘California Amphibians and Reptiles’

What We Are Reading Today: ‘California Amphibians and Reptiles’

Authors: Robert Hansen and Jackson D. Shedd

California is home to more than 200 species of reptiles and amphibians that can be found in an extraordinary array of habitats, from coastal temperate rainforests with giant redwoods to southeastern deserts offering dazzling wildflower displays each spring. 

“California Amphibians and Reptiles” covers every species and subspecies in this biodiverse region of the United States, with outstanding color photography and in-depth species accounts that draw on the latest findings on taxonomy and distribution.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Make Your Bed’

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Updated 04 February 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Make Your Bed’

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  • The author argues that discipline, resilience and hard work are essential for personal improvement and growth

Author: William H. McRaven

Published in 2017, “Make Your Bed: Small Things That Can Change Your Life … And Maybe The World” by retired US navy four-star admiral, William H. McRaven, is an exploration of discipline and self-control.

According to McRaven, attending diligently to simple daily tasks, such as making one’s bed in the morning, create a sense of discipline and accomplishment.

In addition, having a sense of order and purpose in life can help motivate one to push beyond initial goals.

The author argues that discipline, resilience and hard work are essential for personal improvement and growth.

In the book’s 10 chapters, McRaven outlines specific lessons which include the value of teamwork, perseverance, and the importance of facing adversity.

His style of writing is engaging and he emphasizes some of his own struggles and wins, while elaborating on how the principles he learned can be applied.

The book provides valuable insights that could inspire people to go and “make their bed” if they want to change their own lives, and maybe even the world.

 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Power of Cute’

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Updated 04 February 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Power of Cute’

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Author: SIMON MAY

Cuteness has taken the planet by storm. Global sensations Hello Kitty and Pokémon, the works of artists Takashi Murakami and Jeff Koons, Heidi the cross-eyed opossum and E.T.—all reflect its gathering power.

But what does “cute” mean, as a sensibility and style? Why is it so pervasive? Is it all infantile fluff, or is there something more uncanny and even menacing going on—in a lighthearted way? In “The Power of Cute,” Simon May provides nuanced and surprising answers.