Read Chomsky’s classic book "Year 501"

The unabridged text of Noam Chomsky’s classic, indispensible text on US foreign policy (ie: colonization and empire-building) called Year 501: The Conquest Continues is available online for free. While the whole book is certainly informative and will challenge your current perception of US history, I particularly recommend reading all of Chapter 8, “The Tragedy of Haiti” to learn more about the historic role America played in creating much of that “Third World” nation’s tragic present-day circumstances, only miles from our southern coastline. (Alternatively, you can save some time by reading this excerpt)

For an incredibly detailed, comprehensive book review of “Year 501″, see here (from the Monthly Review shortly after the book was published)

Update: If you’re interested, this free web portal provides the complete texts from a number of authors’ masterworks, with writers including Tolstoy, Twain, Gandhi, Emerson and Thoreau as well as Chomsky.