Michael Moore's Reading List

"The thing about the book that everyone knows—even if they haven’t read it—is the reference to Big Brother. It just became part of the lexicon. But the part that isn’t discussed much is about the leader who convinced the people that they were in dire threat of being killed by an enemy who was essentially invisible. The leader made a pact with his people that if they gave up freedom and civil liberties, he would protect them. To see Americans so willing to give up their rights to privacy and fr..."

"Trumbo’s novel about a wounded soldier is a very powerful antiwar statement. Ironically, it’s set in the war to end all wars, World War I, and I read it while the United States was in Vietnam. When I was a boy, war was romanticized: Nobody really important got hurt, and the good guys always won. The movies and the books were all John Wayne! Gung ho! Let’s go to war! At first you don’t realize the situation the soldier is in—that he’s lying in a hospital bed. The book was an eye-opener, and I’..."

"This book had more of an impact on me than maybe any I’ve read in my life. I was stunned to realize the planning that went into the genocide of an entire race of people. It’s only been 113 years since Wounded Knee, which is considered by many historians the last ‘Indian battle.’ But it wasn’t a battle—it was a slaughter of old men, women and children on December 29, 1890. The end of the book is so chilling. As they brought the corpses into the church, a banner hanging from the rafters read: p..."

"The title is a bit of a misnomer. It’s actually a handbook for the average citizen to become politically involved. I remember thinking, ‘Now that’s a good idea!’ or ‘Oh, I could do that, and I’m just sitting here in Flint, Michigan!’ The beauty of the book—and I live by this to this day—is that we will never accomplish anything as long as we, those of us who are politically active, separate ourselves from the mass of people. I see the Left doing this constantly. Whenever I speak to a group of..."