What I'm Reading for Washington, D.C.

Part of the Archer Fellows Program I’ll be doing in DC (starting next Tuesday the 5th!) is the classes that we take over the course of the semester. I’ll still be considered a full time student at UT and work a full-time internship with IJM. The Archer Fellows Program consists of 4 classes, one of which is technically my internship. We’ll have class two nights a week from professors that have worked in DC for many years, and then Dr. John Daly will fly in from UT-Austin three weekends over the course of the semester to teach our final class. I’ve had to do some pre-reading for my classes, and have given myself a “personal” reading list to supplement those as well. Here’s what I’ve been reading the last few weeks to prepare:

For my internship at International Justice Mission:
-“Good News About Injustice” by Gary Haugen, IJM founder

Advocacy in Applied Settings – Dr. John Daly
-“The Prince” by Machiavelli
-“Life’s a Campaign” by Chris Matthews

Beyond Congress and the White House – Dr. Joel Swerdlow
-“Being There” by Jerzy Kosinski
- watch “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”

Policy Making Process – Dr. Julie Donnelly
-Two articles: “Four Amendments & a Funeral” by Matt Taibbi and “What I Wish Political Scientists Would Teach about Congress” by Lee Hamilton

My “personal” reading list for DC:
- “The Reason for God” by Tim Keller
- “The Abolition of Man” by C.S. Lewis
-“Counterfit Gods” by Tim Keller
-“Bobos in Paradise” by David Books
- Most of the articles David Brooks cited in his “Sydney” awards

The books I had to read for class are all pretty interesting. I disagree with just about every premise from “The Prince,” as it is essentially the antithesis of Tim Keller’s “Counterfeit Gods.” I finally finished “Reason for God,” and really enjoyed it. If you can’t tell, I’m a big Keller fan, and going into an intense intellectual environment for the next few years (DC and then TFA), it was refreshing to hear such a strong academic engagement about faith. I haven’t finished “The Abolition of Man,” but chose it because it’s meant to argue for the importance and relevance of universal values in contemporary society. My time in Quincy has been a perfect break to be able to accomplish all of this, as Middle America doesn’t provide many physical “distractions” to waste my time on. I’m really looking forward to pulling in some of my personal readings into our class discussions over the required readings, I think they compliment (probably more like counteract) popular thought well. The nerd in me is giddy to start discussing these issues with my peers, who also happen to be my housemates for the next five months.

If you have any suggestions for readings that might compliment these, feel free to shoot them my way!