Mile High History Book Club

Details
For this meeting, we’ll be discussing Clay Risen’s Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America. A gripping look at how the U.S. turned on itself during the Cold War—and how the echoes of McCarthyism still reverberate today.

The book is 471 pages long. The audiobook version is 15 hours and 16 minutes.

If you don’t think you’ll have time to read the book, but still want to join the discussion, you can watch this interview with the author where he talks about the book.

Book Description
A revealing new portrait of McCarthyism—showing how the paranoia and cruelty of the Red Scare extended far beyond its namesake senator, and why it’s more relevant than ever.

The Red Scare is infamous for its victims—Hollywood screenwriters, leftist academics, suspected spies. But it was far more than the antics of Joe McCarthy. In Red Scare, Clay Risen shows how the rise of American global power during the Cold War spurred a nationwide panic that stretched from union halls to university campuses, from the FBI to the Oval Office.

Drawing on dozens of newly declassified sources, Risen tells a sweeping story through a vivid cast of characters—politicians, bureaucrats, whistleblowers, and everyday Americans. He explores how institutions from the State Department to the post office were reshaped by loyalty tests, blacklists, and purges—and how many of the forces at play then are re-emerging today.

Details
For this meeting, we’ll be discussing Paul Blustein’s King Dollar: The Past and Future of the World’s Dominant Currency. A deeply reported and surprisingly readable history of how the U.S. dollar became the world’s most powerful financial weapon—and whether its dominance is sustainable.

The book is 320 pages long. The audiobook version is 12 hours and 42 minutes.

If you don’t think you’ll have time to read the book, but still want to join the discussion, you can watch this interview with the author.

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Book Description
King Dollar chronicles the extraordinary rise of the U.S. dollar to its current status as the world’s preeminent currency—and the mounting challenges it faces in the 21st century. Veteran journalist Paul Blustein traces how the dollar came to dominate global finance after World War II, weathering crises from Nixon’s gold shock to the Great Recession. Along the way, he introduces the economists, policymakers, and power players who shaped monetary policy and enforced dollar hegemony.

Blustein also examines the growing backlash—from China’s ambitions to dedollarize trade to the potential threat of digital currencies. With sharp insight and crisp storytelling, King Dollar raises provocative questions about the future of global finance—and America’s place in it.

For this meeting, we'll be discussing Nicholas Mulder’s The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War. How economic sanctions went from a utopian idea after WWI to a central weapon of modern geopolitics.

Length: 434 pages | ~14 hrs audiobook

Book Description

In the wreckage of World War I, policymakers believed that cutting off an enemy’s access to trade and finance could prevent future wars. Historian Nicholas Mulder traces how this vision of “peaceful pressure” evolved into one of the most powerful and controversial tools of statecraft. He explores the League of Nations’ early experiments, the devastating humanitarian toll in places like Greece and Spain, and how sanctions shaped the path to World War II. The book shows how a tool designed to avoid war became one of the defining instruments of modern conflict.

Book talk by author: Princeton University on Wed, Apr 6, 2022