"The Century of Self" is probably his seminal work. Remember that Adam Curtis is .. well.. Adam Curtis. His story is going to have a spin (as anyone's will - but it's important to be cognizant of that; when one reads Zinn's Peoples History of the US, I tell them to read "The Origin of Politics" just to get another take from an equally well-educated, articulate writer). I try really hard to get both sides of the story from internally consistent sources.

It's easy for me to immediately dismiss most modern neo-con sources, since their (amazingly effective) strategy is mostly based on emotional scaremongering with internally inconsistent arguments. I'm not their target demographic and they know it.

They're not idiots (in fact, re: education - Fox News has a surprisingly large percentage of hosts with degrees from well-revered instituions; which makes it all the more ironic when one points out that nice blonde lady denigrating the "liberal East coast elites" trying to emotionally connect with the midwestern housewife, herself is Harvard educated) but there definitely is another side to the story and it's important to at least hear their argument before you dismiss it.

I recently watched "The Century of Self" -- it was excellent and I can thoroughly second iheartmemcache's recommendation.

As for getting the balance of hearing all arguments, I have a habit of doing the same. I regularly read The Economist for its free-market bias (and excellent writing, btw), for example.

I have a habit of growing my amazon wish list from hacker news comments. I own Zinn's People's History of the US, I can't seem to find The Origin of Politics on amazon. There are many similarly named books, but all slightly different, do you know the author for that?

This is such a great comment! Could I ask you for further reading recommendations, please?

"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace", an amazing 3-part documentary about computers, society, the shortcomings of systems-thinking. Also by Adam Curtis.

Pretty much everything by Adam Curtis is excellent. There's also The Mayfair Set, The Trap, Pandora's Box, and The Power of Nightmares. The Power of Nightmares is about Islamic extremists and the Neocons.

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

In addition to century of the self - watch "human resources documentary"