Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
by Lester R. Brown

“Plan B 3.0 is a comprehensive plan for reversing the trends that are fast undermining our future. Its four overriding goals are to stabilize climate, stabilize population, eradicate poverty, and restore the earth’s damaged ecosystems,� says Brown. “Failure to reach any one of these goals will likely mean failure to reach the others as well.�

I recommend that the new president read William James's The Will to Believe and George Santayana's Character and Opinion in the United States. Both books serve a useful purpose to anyone trying to understand America in an overarching sense.

Um, is there any reason to believe Obama has trouble understanding America, in an overarching sense or otherwise?

Brinkley and Barzon: Oh, give us a break. This guy has just been elected President, frevvins sake. It is way too late for him to be mucking with the undergraduate honors curriculum. Why, no, I missed the 1200 point drop in the Dow, I was up late reading Santayana...

As the President is a constitutional lawyer and ex-Senator, I'm willing to bet he's done all the heavy-lifting, reading-wise, that he needs to do. I recommend something lighter - maybe a good mystery (Walter Mosley? Naomi Hirahara? Elizabeth George?) or some nice sci-fi (Octavia Butler, Ursula LeGuin?)

Whatever he does, he should avoid the bleak stuff (Cormac McCarthy, William Faulkner) at all cost. He'll have plenty of bleak stuff to think about without burdening himself further.

he should avoid the bleak stuff (...William Faulkner)

You've obviously never read As I Lay Dying. If you have, then you didn't get it. It's a wonderful black comedy, and one of my favorite books.

Jacques Barzun is still alive? Why not pick some younger humanities profs to ask (like, say, me)?

Back to the comics in the can with his cigarette.
He will need a little distraction and houmor.
Just what makes these posters assume he hasn't read these tomes.

My Pet Goat - I'll never forget it.

A book that didn't show up on the list that I would recommend is THE GUNS OF AUGUST by Barbara Tuchman. Besides being a "what not to do" manual on governmental foolishness and folly, it is also a cracking good read. :)

He's seemed very dour in recent months, but that doesn't mean he is always like that in private.

I'd suggest he go against his natural tendency. If he's dour and placid, then try reading a Far Side or Ziggy funny every day. If he's more humorous, then reading a few biographies or commentaries on historical events might keep him balanced.

If he's lighthearted, then reading government reports would definitely do the trick to bring him down. Gaaa.