Coffee Party Book Club

The current Coffee Party Book Club selection is:

One Way Forward by Lawrence Lessig

CLICK HERE to read an excerpt. 

CLICK HERE to read a review by Coffee Party Book Club chairperson Linda Cook.

CLICK HERE to read a review by Coffee Party Board of Directors president Eric Byler.

Larry Lessig, an esteemed professor of Harvard, is a great citizen activist, educator,  presenter, writer and truth teller of our time. He speaks to the root of our paralyzed government, to crony capitalism, and the fight to break its control  over our government.  In One Way Forward ($1.99, Byliner) he speaks of the new tools at our disposal, of the “read/write” ability we have regained with the Internet.

One Way Forward, is a continuation or update to our last featured selection, Republic: Lost.  This tiny book speaks to the political movement in which we, the Coffee Party USA, is working.  Professor Lessig asserts that we currently have the “insiders” or the funders and those inside the D.C. beltway. Then there are the “outsiders” or the rest of us.  The insiders (them) believe that the outsiders (us) are powerless and need not be consulted.  Professor Lessig asserts that the Internet is the tool that will change this perception. In fact, he says, it already is.  Recently we stopped  SOPA and the “legal” congressional insider-trading that had been going on for years.  We can use the new read/write technologies to correct the crony capitalism that we are today stuck with.  — Linda Cook, Coffee Party Book Club chairperson

See Lessig's speech at the Occupy DC camp at McPherson Square, 10-18-11.

Previous Book Club Event:
Robert Reich's "AFTERSHOCK: The Next  Economy and America's Future" - Listen to a discussion with the author on Tuesday Sept. 20. 

See our discussion of the book on Facebook.

Updated for paperback publication, Aftershock is a brilliant reading of the causes of our current economic crisis, with a plan for dealing with its challenging aftermath.
 
When the nation’s economy foundered in 2008, blame was directed almost universally at Wall Street bankers. But Robert B. Reich, one of our most experienced and trusted voices on public policy, suggests another reason for the meltdown.

Our real problem, he argues, lies in the increasing concentration of wealth in the hands of the richest Americans, while stagnant wages and rising costs have forced the middle class to go deep into debt. Reich’s thoughtful and detailed account of where we are headed over the next decades—and how we can fix our economic system—is a practical, humane, and much-needed blueprint for restoring America’s economy and rebuilding our society.