Our favorite books of 2007: by Matthew Rothschild.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew

This one is easy: The biggest book of the year is Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army . Long before the mainstream media and Congress were paying attention, Scahill exposed the workings of this lawless private army. It's an amazingly researched and well-told story of the nexus between far right fundamentalists, the Bush-Cheney war machine, privatization, and profiteering. "The new civilian leadership at the Pentagon," Scahill writes, "came into power with two major goals: regime change in strategic nations and the enactment of the most sweeping privatization and outsourcing operation in U.S. military history--a revolution in military affairs." We've seen that revolution fail in the most profound sense, and Scahill shows us why. Give the man a Pulitzer Prize.

Like John Nichols, I found The Seventeen Traditions surprisingly affecting. Ralph Nader's illuminating and poignant ode to his parents gives you plenty of insights into how he became the principled, if somewhat peculiar, person...