Book with Joe's best essays now on Amazon

For those who prefer a real book rather than reading on a computer screen, a book with 25 of Joe Bageant's best essays is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball: The Best of Joe Bageant will be available for distribution in the USA April 1. This book was first published last November in Australia by Scribe.

Before he died one year ago, Joe and I had talked about such a book, even though he initially had doubts that people would pay for something that's available for free on the web. But, many emails from his readers convinced Joe that enough people wanted the essays in book form to make the project worthwhile. After Joe died, Henry Rosenbloom, Joe's friend and Australian publisher, asked me to select and edit essays for the book.

I've managed Joe's website since its launch nine years ago. Way back then, Joe had started sending his essays to various online opinion sites, such as Counterpunch, SmirkingChimp, AlterNet, and many others. I convinced him that he needed his own website, if nothing else to serve as an archive for his work.

Joe spent the last two years of his life living in a small studio apartment in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico -- just a few blocks from my apartment. While in Ajijic, Joe wrote his second book, Rainbow Pie: A Redneck Memoir, banging away on a god-awful small netbook with his two-finger typing.

I am anticipating questions from readers: "How could you possibly have left out my favorite essay?" Well, I had to cut 50 essays to get under the 80,000 word limit. Two of my favorites by Joe didn't make it. If the book sells well enough, maybe there will be another volume.

Joe's first book was Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War, published by Random House/Crown.

Any proceeds from sales of Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball will go to Joe's favorite charities.

In addition to my introduction and brief biography of Joe, here are the essays included in the book:

Howling in the Belly of the Confederacy

Sleepwalking to Fallujah

The Covert Kingdom

Staring Down the Jackals

Drink, Pray, Fight, Fuck

It Ain't Easy Being White

What the 'Left Behind' Series Really Means

Revenge of the Mutt People

Madmen and Sedatives

Somewhere a Banker Smiles

Escape from America

In the Reign of the One-nutted King

A Feral Dog Howls in Harvard Yard

Lost in the Hologram

Nine Billion Little Feet

The Audacity of Depression

Old Dogs and Hard Time

Meet the Leftnecks

Escape from the Zombie Food Court

A Redneck View of the Obamarama

The Devil and Mr. Obama

Live from Planet Norte

Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball

Algorithms and Red Wine

AMERICA: Y UR PEEPS B SO DUM?

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Ken Smith
[email protected]