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Back to the 90s: A decade that feels way too familiar

A deeply-researched account of a nebulous right-wing political coalition that emerged from the leftovers of Reagan era. Ganz focuses on a few of the biggest names of the era: Ross Perot, Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, and Rudy Giuliani and he uses these men to illustrate the counter-revolutionary fervor against the Civil Rights era of the…

Why we should break up Big Tech

The Age of Extraction (Tim Wu) A short but fiery polemic written by a tech policy insider. Wu offers a lesson in the economic history of tech companies while making a strong anti-monopoly argument against the current tech giants. At the same time, his matter-of-fact prose hides a deep nostalgia for the 1990s and early…

The Battle for Pure Food: Then and Now

The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum Our obsession with the health effects of what we eat may feel uniquely modern, but this excellent book chronicles the war against food adulteration in the late 1800s, which rhymes so perfectly with the current fights around saturated fats, microplastics, and ultra-processed foods. The author includes memorable renditions of…

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